Even though AC Milan have scored plenty of goals to start the new year, there are also still a lot of chances being missed that could help with the narrow margins between winning and dropping points.
For example, the win on Saturday against Frosinone was far more stressful than it should have been. A 1-0 advantage turned to a 2-1 deficit, and two goals in the final 20 minutes pulled out a rescue act.
However, that went against the grain looking at the numbers. Milan had the edge in the game when it comes to Expected Goals, possession, total shots, shots on target, big chances and corners.
This certainly suggests that they were the more dominant team in the game, even if it did take some late heroics to bail out another questionable defensive effort.
Chances spurned
Our writer Rohit combed the entire game and found Milan created 11 chances in total and only scored three goals. So many of these chances only needed guiding into the net, while some of them were very poor decision making as well.
This is where the players need to step up and make the right decisions and finish the chances. Granted, no team will score 100% of the opportunities they create but if the Rossoneri have aspirations to be at the top then more have to be scored.
Milan did something similar against Udinese as well: the team missed big chances and almost paid the price. For all the desperation about attacking patterns and bland play, this team are generating plenty.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) February 5, 2024
For those who say that Milan don’t have any combination play or that there is no cohesion, there are certainly signs that suggest the contrary.
In the clip below, Frosinone are opened up with a passing triangle and if Ruben Loftus-Cheek would have passed (although Rafael Leão may have been offside) it was heading for something very dangerous.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) February 6, 2024
From what i have seen in Inter-Juve game, Inter strikers miss a lot more than ours, like a lot more. Don’t know if Inter just had a bad day or what but Leao for example looked miles ahead of Inter strikers. However that being said, Inter has a system that just keeps on creating. Even against strong defences like Juve’s. Honestly i havent watched Inter that much but from what i have seen i think that we have better induvidual players, however they have a system that makes everything work better.
I don’t watch inter very often, but aside from their scoring stats, they’re simply a team that doesn’t conceide many goals. They didn’t conceide a single goal in their last 4 games and in their whole compaign, aside from 4 games against Benfica and Bologna (twice) and Sassuolo, no team managed to score more than one goal against them.
Contrast to us, we conceided in our last 5 games and often 2 goals.
True but if you look at the goals we’re conceding there’s not much we can do about them.
The penalty against Frosinone was just unlucky and the second goal was bad goalkeeping from a world class goalkeeper.
Milan generally create more chances than the opposition but also conceded fewer chances, and the matches are still ending with tight margins and the opposition scoring.
We’re unfortunately in this phase where the opposition (who don’t have those world beating, clinical strikers) seem to be scoring most of their chances whilst we’re missing ours, and we’re getting unlucky deflections and decisions against us.
Just how much is luck playing a part here?
“True but if you look at the goals we’re conceding there’s not much we can do about them.”
Depends on your starting point. It’s true that from a goalkeeping point of view, or even a single defender point of view, not a lot could have been done. However our poor positioning, lack of defensive abilities in the midfield, and our tactics allow our adversaries to have chances they otherwise wouldn’t have had if we were tighter and more compact.
Also, having more or less chances doesn’t tell the whole story, what is the “quality” or the likelyhood of scoring of each one of them ? We often dominate, but there were games where we didn’t create great chances.
And finally I don’t think luck has anything to do with our losses, considering the common factors between all the teams that beat us.
Apart from Maignan, Theo, Fik & maybe Rafa (depending on the system), I don’t think our players are individually better than theirs.
Especially I the middle of the park. Adli, Reinjders, Loftus, Pobega, Musah over Barella, Hakan, Mhki, Frattesi, Asllani?!
Eh, I don’t think so.
Apart from Lautaro in attack, I think everybody else kinda evens out.
Well, their system is far superior maybe that’s why I think so.
It’s hard to compare indivualities because of the differences in the system both teams uses.
Inter don’t have wingers so I don’t see Leao, Chuk or Pulisic fitting anywhere. Giroud, Jovic and Okafor ain’t gonna start instead of Martinez and Thuram. On the other hand, they don’t have anyone that can replace Leao.
Defense wise, I see a prime Tomori starting in Inter, all the others are a bit of a toss up. Dumfries is not a world-class right back, but with Calabria and Florenzi we’re not great in that department either. Dimarco is currently more disciplined than Theo, but in absolutes, I think Theo is better.
The midfield is where we are crushed (literally). Aside from a healthy Bennacer, I see none of our players starting over anyone in Inter. Bennacer might be better than Mkhitaryan but that’s it. Although Inter did make use of players that were rejected by other teams. Hakan is doing better with them than he ever did with us.
Overall, this year, if we combine the 2 teams, the best players are Lautaro, Hakan and Barella IMO.
But again, different systems, differents coaches,…
Finishing is hard and why the players who finish more often than not are worth so much. It’s the defensive issues that have killed Milan this season. Individual errors also have cost Milan a lot this season. Pioli’s performance is adequate but he lacks the ability to adjust tactics and will play into clever coaches hands (like against Inter the last 5 times😭). Pioli is still comfortable leaving Gabbia and Kjear alone to win track races which feels like a major tactical flaw. In addition I think he could be doing more to hold certain high earning players accountable, Theo for me has been most disappointing this season and it’s too bad there isn’t a Jaminez or Bart ready to put a little more pressure on him to preform. All and all I agree with the article that many on here don’t recognize or ignore the actual issues with the squad to push their own narratives and prejudices.
Well said. Milan needs to play with more grit and cleverness a lot of actions are slow and lack true mágical touch.