Following their impressive win against PSG, AC Milan faced a less daunting Lecce on Saturday but the outcome was still somehow worse. Once again, the Rossoneri squandered a two-goal lead in the league and there is indeed a lot to work on.
Despite a strong start to the season, Lecce’s recent form has been rather dire. Milan made quite a few changes to the starting XI and were hoping to bounce back with a win. Samuel Chukwueze, for example, got the chance from start.
And it started well for Milan. Olivier Giroud opened the scoring and that was then followed up by Tijjani Reijnders’ first goal (finally) for the club. However, the Rossoneri conceded a very poor goal in the second half and that led to the collapse. In the end, they were lucky to come away with one point.
Below are five things we learned from the game…
1. Giroud’s mixed fortunes
Olivier Giroud’s performance was a rollercoaster: from scoring a pivotal goal to receiving a potentially consequential red card. His absence in upcoming matches could pose a significant challenge for Milan, especially given Luka Jovic’s current form.
With all of his experience, the Frenchman should have never been sent off for dissent. He needs to be a leader for this team and simply cannot act in such a way, even if the referee made a big mistake. It’s even worse that his absence (likely two games) comes when he’s in such good form too.
2. Midfield mishaps with Krunic and Pobega
The midfield duo of Rade Krunic and Tommaso Pobega massively underperformed. The Milan product showed timidity in possession and the Bosnian failed to make a positive impact in any phase of the game. Especially after the first goal, this proved costly.
Head coach Stefano Pioli perhaps needs to reassess Krunic’s role in the team, considering the stark contrast in the team’s performance with and without him. Yacine Adli hasn’t done any wonders either, but he’s been significantly better passing-wise.
Against PSG, we saw a midfield tandem (4-2-3-1) with Reijnders and Yunus Musah, and that might be worth trying again. Especially since Ruben Loftus-Cheek did so well in the No.10 role, dropping deep when needed but mainly occupying the centre of the midfield.
3. Chukwueze’s missed opportunity
Starting in Christian Pulisic’s absence, Chukwueze had a chance to shine but instead delivered a lacklustre performance. Despite assisting the second goal, his overall contribution was minimal, raising concerns about Milan’s priciest summer acquisition.
He lacks confidence in the 1v1 situations, often losing the ball and putting his teammates on the back foot. That’s not to say he never succeeds, but the percentage has been far too low thus far and he really needs to step up. At the moment, it’s tough to see why the Rossoneri decided to invest €28m including bonuses.
4. Musah’s disappointing display
Yunus Musah, replacing Davide Calabria off the bench, played a crucial role in Milan’s downfall. His performance was notably poor, marked by defensive lapses that contributed directly to Lecce’s comeback.
On the first goal, he completely lost his man on the corner and you could see that in his reaction afterwards. Then, on the second, he should have put the ball out of play instead of dribbling, since Theo Hernandez was down.
Pioli deserves some of the blame for the decision, which we will get to, but the errors made by the American were very avoidable indeed.
5. Pioli’s questionable decisions
Stefano Pioli’s tactical choices and game management were major contributors to Milan’s disappointing result. His decisions regarding player selection, particularly in midfield and defence, backfired.
The decision to play Musah as a right-back has been the most criticised one, and everyone understands why. Alessandro Florenzi was on the bench and with all of his experience, it’s possible he wouldn’t have made the same errors.
Furthermore, the team’s inability to maintain control and discipline after gaining a 2-0 lead raises serious questions about Pioli’s strategic acumen. The same exact thing happened against Napoli and one is right to ask why there wasn’t a solution this time out.
In short, it was a game of lost opportunities and tactical missteps. With the Scudetto dream gradually slipping away, Milan must urgently address these issues to regain their winning form. And they will have to start with the injury struggles, in which Pioli is heavily involved.
Nonsense.
Krunic and Pobega didn’t underperform. They provided the perfect platform for Milan to go 2:0 up.
Then Musah cost us 2 goals, and that has nothing to do with him being put RB since neither goal had anything to do with the position.
This is just a classic media pile on.
Krunic and Pobega are obvious targets because they’re not new signings. Meanwhile Musah’s obvious failings must be excused because he is. This fits with the narrative where the media constantly pushes for more and more transfers.
The media also loves to keep the manager merry-go-round going especially when the transfer market is shut.
The media just loves instability because instability creates stories.
The number lesson from this and most games this season is that the team is lacking leadership especially when Theo is captain.
There’s simply no way he should’ve gone down for that second goal. He should’ve got up and played through the pain barrier because that’s what captains do and that’s the difference between success and failure.
True,
Krunic and Pobega didn’t underperform because this usually how they perfom, I’ll let you decide how well you think they did. They provided the platform for the lead, but they are also a part of why the lead wasn’t maintained, you can’t just compliment them for one half and forget the rest. And Krunic especially was unable to provide good passes when we needed to score in the second half.
You insist on Musah not commiting positional mistakes, but he did make mistakes a defender shouldn’t do. He generally gets away with that crazy dribbling because he is used to be higher up the pitch, but yesterday no one was able to cover him. Calabria or Florenzi would probably have been smarter in the second goal action and not try to dribble. And the fact that Florenzi came in anyways further proves that he should have came in instead of Musah.
The media loves story, and we certainly doing a hell of a job to provide one, we didn’t win a single serie A game in over a month, and we have a loss and a draw against two teams that should be able to beat easily even with the likes of Okafor, Pobega,…
I do agree that Theo is no captain worthy and his mistakes, lack of responsibility did cost us the win (in this game and many others).
What do I think of that?
Krunic performed like this in last season’s Champions League where he started every game and helped us get to the semi-finals. So I’ll take the performance all day long.
Krunic and Pobega had absolutely nothing to do with the goals conceded, and Musah (or anyone) doesn’t need to be a defender to know not to dribble past three players in your own half!
We drop points in games that we often drop points in. I do wonder how many people have actually watched Milan over the years. Dropping points to a Lecce is the most common thing in the world.
We somehow stopped dropping points to Lecce’s for about 2 years and we won the Scudetto.
After a dreadful month we’re still third and there is in fact only 8 points in it. Teams have recovered from that and anyway even if we finish 3rd it’s an improvement on last season and most of the last 10 seasons!
Change the record mate. Getting boring now.
But Pioli and Krunic out is so original.
I dont really have an issue with Krunic he is a good depth player, but when we have better players sometimes it is frustrating to see him always starting and then getting injured because he is over played. I was a big supporter of pioli the last years yes he won the scudetto and everyone said it was luck we performed and other teams didnt and we were lucky but i still maintain that Pioli had some input regardless. This last year i said right Ibra gone, Maldini gone and we have squad depth now so no excuses, time to see the real Pioli and unfortunatly he isnt passing his tests as a useful manager – too many mistakes. We havent won in over 49 days – and drawing a game 2-2 when 2-0 up is inexcusable!
I find myself being a Musah apologist when I think he has a role in both goals.
However the arguments made seem shrill. Pioli took a 20 year old kid (you know, the kind who still thinks he can dribble anyone) and put him out of position.
Watch any 10 min of the second half when we transition to defense. This can be with our after Musah moves to – hell I don’t even know and I tried to sort it 2 more times on shape.
The defense is a shambles. And the midfield is the sieve causing it. There was no leader on the pitch in either of those departments. Where was – insert Scudetto winning player – when they scored at the end of the game? Talk about a shambolic break down.
Please consider not roasting a kid who goes out and covers every blade of grass on 90 minutes without complaint. That is honoring the badge. He can play for my Milan any day so long at the boss has clear purpose for him and his teammates are ready to cover his weaknesses as he will cover theirs.
Sticking that kid in that situation is on Pioli. Laying about after a knock is on Theo. Leadership in tactics disappointed. Leadership on the pitch disappointing. Musah has only a contributing role.
The only reason I call out Musah is because he’s the very obvious source of the goals we conceded not Krunic or Pobega.
I agree that Musah, like any player, can make mistakes.
I don’t think his age is the reason. If Giroud made a mistake nobody would say it’s an age thing. The age thing is used as an excuse to not give young players chances.
Often young players play with greater sharpness and simplicity because they’re not, well, bored of doing the same repetitive thing for 20 years!
Krunic was horrendous, just a meatball running around and did no good at all. It was clearly visible. Pobega however, had a decent game and that might be the reason musah went to RB. However, thats when you take out Krunic and put in Musah there.
If you blame the loss on Musah, then you can’t see the forest for the trees.
How exactly was Krunic ‘horrendous’?
If you can’t see that Musah cost us 2 goals then you can’t see the tree that’s just fallen on you.
Maldinis Heir, Krunic misplayed a lot of crucial passes when the game was already 2-2. Adli should have been subbed in, but Pioli choose not to.
Krunic is somewhat decent when you need to maintain the score, but when the team was tired in the second half and there was a need for someone to build up the play, it was clear that was beyond his qualifications.
I also think the challenges of leadership are underestimated. Its clear that this group is lacking clear leadership, the leadership qualities of the likes of for example Kjaer and Ibrahimovic are missing.
Calabria often shows great grit and determination but I feel like he lacks the kind of respect from the others that Zlatan got for example.
Theo and Leao still lack certain experiences and they have a long way to go before and a lot to prove before they can be seen as true leaders. Giving them leadership at this point is stroking their egos more than anything else in my opinion.
The question is though what can be done about this? Wait for certain players to mature or act now, but how would you act now?
Great question, we do lack leadership.
We need to get a proper DM, its a problem. Preferably someone with leadership qualities. Perhaps an older player. Like what Kjaer and Ibra gave us in the past.
In terms of captaincy, thats a tough one. I think Mike is probably our best option
I think we need to sign a Kjaer and/or Ibra type player in January.
January 2020 is still our most successful transfer campaign in decades since the signing of these two players transformed Milan from midtable to champions over night.
That’s the sort of big impact signings we need whoever is manager.
We don’t have a BIG presence in the locker room. I’d say maybe Mike is the closest thing we have but Pioli isn’t giving him the armband, is he?
Calabria on merit of seniority isn’t the right decision. Theo is no captain either, given his proclivity for falling and waiting for the calls AND his disciplinary issues, for that matter.
But signings are bad 🙁
Bringing Thiago Silva back wouldn’t be a bad idea!
For some reason I cant reply on your comment on how Krunic was horrendous, he was missplacing crucial passes. Not really creative in distribution, the only solution he provided was to give the ball back to the same player he received the ball from. Hiding instead of receiving the ball. There is more but I think you get the idea.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not a Krunic hater. I loved the way he played last season. He is/was our new ‘kuco the tank’ of this era. But creative wise i dont expect much from him. Last season he played alongside Bennacer and Tonali, he acted as sweeper and the tank. He did excellent in that role and I fucking loved him, all credit to him. This years however is another story, you cant expect him to play the same way as a defensive midfielder, he doesn’t have the creativity for that role. That however is not on him, that is on Pioli for being an ass and trying to fit a square peg into a circle. Adli has the creative aspect of that role but he lacks the defensiv part and is not the solution either.
So when I say that a player plays horrendous thats what i mean. Both Krunic and Musah played a horrendous game. But what can you expect when playing them out of position or the player is not tailored for that role.
I haven’t seen a single good game from Krunic in this new role, we can give him time to get the hang of it, but at what cost? Getting out of the titel race and CL?
Now if he plays in a 4231 XI with Reijders/Adli and if he is not in charge of distribution then it will be an entire different story. You will hear everybody singing Krunics name for how well he played due to being a “tank”.
Agree 100%
I agree to an extent here. I really dont see how Krunic (and Pobega) are to blame but it’s symptomatic of this site and the commenters here. Udinese beat us, somehow it’s Krunic fault. PSG beat us 3-0 automatically Krunic fault. We draw vs Lecce, obviously Krunic fault. And in all those 3 games he was never the culprit of any of the goals. If we really keep it a buck, it’s a +/- of 0 right? They were on the pitch like you said when the goals were scored (of course, no credit given for that) but also on the pitch when they conceded 2 (the eyes only look at that part). So it balances out.
My issue is more so why Adli didn’t come on. We made 4 subs, had an extra one. His passing is good and we needed to win 🤷♂️. And that’s independent of whatever one thinks of Pobega and Krunic.
Krunic and Adli are doubled edge swords in different ways. With Krunic at least you get less to no mistakes but you don’t get progressive passing. He’s the “safe” option. With Adli, great passing and distribution but critical lapses in the defensive phase. It’s basically a pick your poison option.
The decisions imo are the cause of the loss here. Like Giga said bringing on Florenzi admits the mistake of putting Musah as RB. Sure the first goal maybe not be related to him at RB (somewhat) but the second goal he didn’t function as an RB and caused the error. If Pioli really had an issue with Banda’s pace, then bring both Florenzi and Musah on..Musah can man mark him and Florenzi mop up. But no,.we keep putting square pegs in round holes
It’s mathematics you solving here it Durant change the fact that krunic and poili are lovers and one needs to go out infact both of them but I will just consider poili till January but krunic need to go asap next window so poili eyes can see clearly and make right selection
I have no clue what you’re trying to say Oluwa
It’s worse than that.
The Krunic-hate represents everything that is so misguided about the approach to modern football and is exactly what went wrong this summer and why we drop points to Lecce.
There is the absolute obsession that players have these computer-game like ratings, and winning in football is about signing enough players who have say an 80+ plus rating in FIFA or whatever.
This permeates through everything in modern football and sets up the sort of ‘surprises’ like we get against Lecce.
It drives the excessive number of transfers because there’s this idea that someone like Saelemaekers is a 75 rated player and someone like Chuk is an 80 rated player because of his YouTube reel.
This assumption also leads to underestimating Lecce players, including someone like Sansone, because they’re 70 rated players, and 80 rated players beat 70 rated players.
It’s all total nonsense. Football is far more complicated than that. Most successful teams had 70 rated players. Juve were winning Scudetti with the likes of Giacherini and Matri (and Bonucci who simply would not have had the career he had without attaching himself to the BBC defence).
This is the thing I keep railing against.
As for Musah, if he genuinely cannot be trusted in that position then he can’t be trusted to be on the pitch full stop. As any kind of midfielder he will find himself in that position.
I agree about Adli. He’s a 75 rated player!
I’ve disagreed with you a few times and will continue with respect to Musah.
That said Saelamakers… I miss that guy. Another dude who’d run his socks off for the badge and gives us good energy off the bench. Indeed he even had remaining upside.
At 30% of the season I am really bummed with Chuk by comparison. Wonder what Salad would look like today training with Puli every day? Sigh …
My comments about Musah are harsh but it’s in response to this specific issue that this was all Pioli’s fault.
I 100% agree that he works his socks off and he could be a good addition to the team.
Unfortunately if we had signed one of him or RLC (and I’d probably take RLC over him) then they’d both be better off as would Milan.
Again the issue with this summer was we signed too many players and too many players in the same positions: 3 x CMs and 3 x RWs and 2 x CFs!
I think you’re going to find a hard time explaining why all these athletes are basically the same at the level they’re at because most people here haven’t played sport to a level that makes them realize this. At the top top top level there are very very small details that make the difference between a Haaland and say a Palmer or Alvarez for instance even though it looks like a gulf in class. Yes there are physical attributes that can make a difference but skill wise all these players (I would say at least top 10-15 teams in Serie A) are virtually the same..they run the drills at the same pace, can pass the same accuracy, scrimmage without loss of quality. People will not understand this and it’s going to be hard to convince people otherwise. The difference between different levels of football is speed of thought. MANY players fall through the cracks for various reasons. It’s not that they aren’t good, it’s just systems and styles of plays might be their downfall. But these guys are all professionals at the highest level.
Yep and of course the speed of thought that comes with having the almost telepathic understanding that comes from playing together for years!
That is one of the main characteristics of the top top European sides from Man City to Bayern to Real. They have players who have played together for years.
The BBC defence played hundreds of games together. Milan have had too many restarts and that’s why we have lost our position as a top top European club.
Interesting theory, but what you call speed of thought is probably most of the time instincts and muscle memory which come with practice (for the best, at the highest level). Just like driving. Maldinis heir’s point is also valid, teams need to gel, but top teams don’t change half their squad every year also because they already have the best players.
The real main reason we’re not number one is entirely physical- it’s the injuries, specifically the muscle injuries. Our squad can manage a serious scudetto fight, especially in this weak league, if we have 2-3 light injuries every two months (and they aren’t Leao or Theo). But no squad can withstand the amount of injuries we had. Not even the top top squads in Europe. It’s almost pointless to discuss football at this point.
@ Baresis Dream It’s not about having the “best players”, that’s the point!
It’s about having the best team.
When Juve were winning they often didn’t have the best players especially at the beginning of their 10 season run.
Ferguson’s Utd sides rarely had the best players.
This constant search for the allusive ‘best players’ is what leads to the sort of instability that prevents clubs from gaining the best team!
@Baresis Dream..oh I’m firmly in the “not overhaul the team” camp. I even said it here while the crazy ppl here were in their feelings about or summer transfer of the decade frenzy. I really was hoping we’d have one more year of Maldini before the overhaul because I’d like to see what one or two more pieces to the puzzle would do (SMS, RLC and Berardi). I’ve seen this sport too long to know better than to overhaul a team and expect success immediately. All of our good eras in football came from stable sides, little tweaks here and there.as time went on. Not from overhauling the entire midfield
The speed of thought is the reaction time, as in can you make the right decisions extremely quickly in a short space of time and with accuracy. I’ve been to an amateur setup and later a semi pro, the difference is vast but the gap decreases the further up you go until the professional level where if you look at training almost everyone can do the drill at an insane pace all the same. After that it’s nuances. Slightly better control, better intelligence on the pass, getting out of situations with skill,.instincts as you said also part and parcel. Many times good players don’t end up getting signed because they don’t fit within a particular coach’s system, not that they aren’t “good”. And time is short for these players careers. It’s why you sometimes see a player peak later in their careers after being overlooked by such and such clubs. It’s not that they weren’t good per se but there are so much talent available it’s hard to pick and choose
” He should’ve got up and played through the pain barrier”
What pain? He was faking it like he always does. He’s turning into a ballerina. It’s a contact sports FFS and you’re not supposed to do Neymars everytime someone touches you and you lose the ball.
The points 1 to 4 can be directly attributed to the point 5.
Poili knows how to quench the fire. After some bad run of games he will win some important ones delicate and crucial ones to convince management his cup never get full, when you expect it to full he will do some magic. On the other hand as veteran has giroud he hardly get injured unlike the others is it that he don’t participate in the training with them or he has a different medical staff.
The deep reason of the result was that we completely lost the control of the game in the second half… It’s not just one player’s fault. When midfielders and forwards can not make three consecutive passes, when they slip up before hitting or receiving the ball, or make a stupid cross or shot into the crowd or hold to the ball trying to dribble 3 opponent players every time while they have 2-3 open team mates nearby, it is a problem of discipline. Mentality, attitude, lack of leadership… These are the main problems. When you have no control over the game and your opponent is increasing pressure, some mistakes will happen from some specific players that will lead to a goal, but goal would have come anyway in one way or another… I was feeling Lecce would score way before they did it.
About the article:
2. How krunic and pobega at fault. The blame when to krunic and pobega is far greater even when they got their performance is not bad. But when adli make mistake like when he cause penalty to opponent there is a few to none insult to him. Can you make your judgement like that to krunic and pobega? I mean at least when they are playing not bad. Blame krunic and pobega for this match is ridiculous and purely hatred.
3. I agree Chukwueze is really not worth that 28m price tag at least for now. I think its about his mentality because many occasion he already dribble past the opponent but backpass again. I think he must have more courage to press forward…i know he has the skill for 1 on 1
4. Musah got big contribution at how we draw. Maybe 80% is his fault, 10% is theos fault if he try to dragging time. Pioli honestly i can say it can be not at fault but for the sake of his hatred okay maybe 10% for him. Because its a logical choice with musah is stronger to duel with banda than florenzi. Its just the result is bad because of musah blunder. But anyway If milan can hold 2-0 in the end i think the credit will go to musah LOL. Im getting sick of this “win goes to player and lose blame pioli” pattern.
5. Its the same explanation at point 4. Pioli doesnt know if simple decision like dont move forward to 3 oppponent player and just fucking mark your opponennt when corner doesnt work for young player. The same as why pelegrino made stupid error vs napoly, or adli made stupid foul that became penalty against udinese etc. if the player make that mistake or error its out of pioli control and you still blame him. Just blame the injury and blame how management dont invest for more experienced player
Bro this site is anti-Krunic, from the writers to the commenters. It’s very few that keep it unbiased. There’s no way one can pin point blame to those two when it’s literally not their fault that we lost. They’re being faulted because the mob is asking for blood and the article complied. If they did bad…what about the other players? Aren’t they playing too? Why specifically those two? I don’t like Pobega for instance as a player for the team, but it doesn’t mean I’ll just bash him for no reason or because he’s playing in the team. Ppl need to separate the two. Call a spade a spade goes both ways. Pobega made two crucial tackles to generate the offense at the start of the game, two Brilliant tackles mind you. If the attackers would only score as a result he’d be praised. Krunic did the same, pressed up high and won the ball. But you won’t see these observations around these parts (and I can give time stamps too)
It’s because they are not good enough. Period. I’m not even going to get in to Pobega because he’s not worth talking about, but Krunic at his best is a net zero player. He won’t make a mistake but he won’t do anything positive to help the team win either. He occupies space on the pitch. That simply is not good enough at this level. ANd honestly, his defensive work is overrated as well. When people say Krunic’s strength is his defense, that’s only compared to his offensive abilities which are nonexistent. All you have to do is look at Milan’s record when he starts vs when he does not. It’s pretty clear to everyone but you and Pioli that the team is better without him. I know you took such a strong stance in his favor that it’s hard to back off now.
“ANd honestly, his defensive work is overrated as well. When people say Krunic’s strength is his defense, that’s only compared to his offensive abilities which are nonexistent. ”
And despite being the “perfect defending midfielder” Krunic was on the pitch while Milan conceded two avoidable goals against Lecce. When was the last time that guy provided ANYTHING to our attacking plays? 2019? Did he even back then give a single pass forwards?
@bb But he wasn’t the reason for the goals. You guys act like because he’s on the pitch he’s the only one the pitch when bad things happen which was my original point. Krunic was also on the field when we scored the two goals no? (As per your where are his attacking plays seeing as he’s on the pitch when we concede right?) It works both ways. We always see the bad, we dont see those first 3 or 4 games which we won for instance when he was also on the pitch. Mums the word. We only think of the Juve deflection and …..well basically that’s it because that was the only “error” he’s had all season. Defending doesn’t always mean tackling, its positioning and being in the right place at the right time. And you guys need to read, I’ve said above you wont get that ball distribution but you’d get some more certainty in defense, that’s different to saying he’s some godlike person on D. And I also said Adli should have came on when we we needed a goal due to his forward passing abilities. I still dont know why he didn’t come on and we had a sub in hand. Matter of fact I wanted Adli and Krunic in the double pivot or Musah.
And yes he passed forwards, according to the stats from that game 3 progressive passes forwards into an attacking area which is better than 9 other players who played the game smh 🤦♂️. He also had higher progressive passing in terms of yardage than any other midfielder for that game (141, vs 84 for Reinjders and 111 for Pobega) smh 🤦♂️. But yea he “didn’t do anything”. That being said and because I know u can be reasonable, I would admit I didn’t like how the game went for him but not for a defacto hate on him but for a genuine impression that he didn’t have his best game EVEN if the goals weren’t his fault. I thought he could have passed out better and position himself better on occasion.
Btw, his +/- for goals conceded vs scored this season when on the field is +2. For Adli it’s +1, but don’t let that get in the way of thinking. It’s +7 for Reinjders, and the best is Puli at +12 to give some perspective. Jovic is the worst at -2.
Theo constant whining gets me a bit sore at him. He goes down quite easily. On the 2nd goal against, he went down and not even his own teammate thought it was serious enough to put the ball out, which is what should have happened. If Theo was a bit more genuine, he wouldn’t get so many yellow cards and mistakes like Musah’s wouldn’t happen on Theo’s account.
How nobody is talking about the huge elephant in the room, INJURIES, I cannot understand.
Forgot the coach, forget the owners, forget the management- A team that can’t last 90 minutes on the field doesn’t deserve to win anything. I don’t know the solution, but these are god damn athletes were talking about. Staying injury free is part of the job.
How can anybody prepare for a match knowing that at halftime, somebody randomly gets injured. How can management prepare a squad with two injuries a game, should we have 60 ready-made players in our squad?
And to top it off Giroud gets a red. For f’s sake.
So true about injuries.
That is the billion euro question that needs answering if we’re to become competitive again.
100%
Yea injuries to me is a big issue. Can’t figure out if it’s the training methods, the pitches at Milanello or the medical staff but something’s gotta give
1-Injuries: A big issue and a big mystery. Pulisic, Calabria, and RLC have a history with injuries so no shock there but at one point we had Jovic, Okafor, Chukwueze, Krunic, Kjaer, Kalulu out. Questions have to be asked of the medical and fitness staff but also of the players habits as well. We have Reijnders, Tomori, and a 37 year old Giroud playing crazy minutes without problems (knock on wood)
2-Pioli: I’ve backed him a lot and he seems to always pull us out of the fire when needed, but something is off. Experimenting and making mistakes is part of coaching but it’s happening too often now.
3-Players: I won’t blame the coach and give the players a pass. Too many unforced errors this season. Against Inter, Juve, Napoli, Udinese, PSG, Lecce. All these errors led to a collapse (with the exception being PSG)
4-Recruitment: Midfield transfers (in and out) were random in my opinion and disrupted the balance of the team. Okafor and/or Jovic will get going at some point but Scamacca is looking like a big miss for us. Transfers are hit and miss though so we can’t dwell on them.
5-Bennacer: Tonali’s gone so I’ll focus on Bennacer. A lot of our midfield play is uncontrolled. It’s either sterile possession or chaotic end to end action. Bennacer’s return will solve a lot
The milan management, pioli, coaches, training staff and medical team must be really dumb not to have noted that in the last 3 or 4 seasons so many milan players went down with muscular injuries. Are they stupid, blind, ignorant or headless chickens?