Muriel’s magical back heel sends Pioli’s Milan into a spiral ahead of Newcastle

Photo: Stefano Nicoli/LaPresse/Shutterstock

“If the match had ended 2-2, there would have been many positives,” Stefano Pioli emphasized on Saturday evening. The only thing missing was a TV chef who reminded us that if his grandmother had had wheels, she would have been a bicycle. Pioli’s Milan did not draw against Atalanta, but instead lost to a magnificently mischievous backheel from Luis Muriel. It was the fifth defeat in the last ten games.

The scores were level in Bergamo heading into stoppage time. Milan captain Davide Calabria was then sent off for a second yellow card. Moments later, the player he fouled, Aleksei Miranchuk, turned two defenders and freed Muriel, whose goal sealed a 3-2 victory for Atalanta.

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There were whistles from the home fans when the two were introduced as substitutes with less than ten minutes to go. Milan had just equalized for the second time and the response from Atalanta’s manager, Gian Piero Gasperini, was to send off a pair of players who had not scored a league goal all season. Ademola Lookman, who gave them the lead twice, came away at the same time.

But this was a day for redemption stories. We had already seen Charles De Ketelaere provide the assist for Atalanta’s second goal, reminding Milan of the talent they had set aside when they brought him here this summer. The Rossoneri responded with a strike from Luka Jovic, for whom Real Madrid paid €60m in 2019 but whose stock has fallen so far that no upfront transfer fee was required to sign him in the most recent period.

The match had started very differently for De Ketelaere, with a chance going over from close range. He dropped to his knees and held his head in his hands for a moment before Lookman ran to hoist him off the floor.

A symbolic moment. De Ketelaere endured a disastrous chapter at Milan, joining in 2022 for a reported €36.5 million and being hailed as one of Europe’s most promising young attacking midfielders. He registered one assist and no goals in 40 games before being loaned to Atalanta in August, who have an option to make the deal permanent.

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He made a perfect start at his new club, scoring the first goal of the season for Sassuolo. Yet he has only scored once since, against Rakow Czestochowa in the Europa League, and has recently been sidelined due to a knee injury. Critics have accused him of lacking the physical and mental toughness to succeed at the highest level.

De Ketelaere’s dejected body language after his miss on Saturday – and he would blow one-on-one later in the half – told a story. But so did Lookman’s insistence on picking him up. There is a deliberateness to the way Atalanta have backed the Belgian as he regains his confidence. Gasperini said afterwards that misses don’t matter when you play as well as De Ketelaere.

“All I asked him to do was play football,” the manager said. “If he loses a ball, I just asked him not to drop his head. Anyone who has played football knows that you make a lot of mistakes. He doesn’t have to think about that, but has to trust the atmosphere around him.”

After Lookman scored the goal that put Atalanta 2-1 ahead, he immediately pointed to De Ketelaere and showed the fans where he thought the honor should go. Perhaps he should also have made a gesture to the Milan defense. The ease with which he found space in a crowded penalty area would have been shocking had it not happened throughout the match.

Milan are in the midst of an injury crisis and are missing Rafael Leão on the left wing and five of their top six centre-backs. Mattia Caldara underwent ankle surgery in September, while Pierre Kalulu, Simon Kjær and Marco Pellegrino have been out since October. Malick Thiaw tore a hamstring during last month’s Champions League defeat to Borussia Dortmund.

In the last two games, Théo Hernandez acted as a central defender alongside Fikayo Tomori. After a good performance against Frosinone, his positional lack of discipline was noticeable, often extending beyond midfield. Even when he was in the right part of the pitch, he struggled to fulfill his role adequately. He lost the point to Lookman on the second goal and was caught looking at the ball on the first: more worrying when you consider the assist was a throw-in.

His instinct to wander had a domino effect; teammates adapted to fill the spaces he had left, but it was difficult to tell where Milan were undermined by players’ individual missteps and how much was the result of unclear tactical instructions. Gasperini admitted that he was not sure whether Milan planned to start with a three or a four in midfield. Perhaps that was because the left back, Alessandro Florenzi, spent half his match in the middle of the field.

An increasingly vocal section of the Milan fanbase is calling for Pioli’s replacement as the team’s results have slumped. After beating Genoa on October 7, they topped the table and are now nine points behind first place. Worse still, first place goes to Inter.

There is an added edge to their rivalry at the moment, which stems from the fact that both Milan clubs have won 19 Serie A titles. The next one to claim a Scudetto will be the first to add a second gold star to his badge.

It is unclear whether Pioli’s position is actually threatened. The first and most vital goal for the club’s owners, RedBird Capital, is for Milan to consistently finish in the Champions League places and thus secure that revenue stream. Even after this latest defeat, they remain third in the table, with a four-point buffer ahead of Roma and Napoli.

But there is certainly frustration with the recent results. Milan were unlucky to be included in the Champions League ‘group of death’, but to be bottom after five games is still a disappointment. Only a win against Newcastle on Wednesday night will keep them in Europe – and even then they would drop to the Europa League unless already-qualified Dortmund also beat Paris Saint-Germain.

Pioli isn’t entirely wrong when he says there were some positives on Saturday. Christian Pulisic was an excellent signing and put in another strong performance, setting up Jovic’s goal. Better yet, the Serbian has now scored in consecutive games. If Jovic could recapture even some of the form that saw him score 17 Bundesliga goals for Eintracht Frankfurt in 2018/19 – and we must emphasize that this is a huge ‘if’ for a player who has not scored double figures in any league match since then has achieved – then that would clearly be a huge blessing.

What Pioli cannot afford, however, is to bury his head in the sand and use the Atalanta winner’s last gasp to convince himself that everything is fine. He repeated the same message before and after the defeat to Atalanta, saying that “finishing in the top four is our main goal, but we want to do something more”. Another setback against Newcastle on Wednesday would leave little opportunity to achieve that goal this season.

Roma 1-1 Fiorentina, Salernitana 1-2 Bologna, Monza 1-0 Genoa, Frosinone 0-0 Torino, Inter 4-0 Udinese, Atalanta 3-2 Milan, Verona 1-1 Lazio, Juventus 1-1 Napoli.

Monday: Empoli vs Lecce, Cagliari vs Sassuolo.