Former AC Milan head coach Alberto Zaccheroni has accused the current side of being too ‘predictable’ which has led to their struggles in scoring.
Some have drawn comparisons between the current Milan side and the one that won the Scudetto in the 1998-99 season as they were also underdogs heading into the campaign but found a winning formula.
Interviewed by the online edition of il Giornale, Zaccheroni spoke of the title battle that sees the Rossoneri fighting against their city rivals Inter this season, revealing that he has seen some concerning signs in recent weeks.
“I have always said that I like how Milan play but in the last period, which has been going on for a month and a half now, I liked it less and in fact it has achieved fewer results, it has been more difficult to score. It seems to me to be a fact, it is not just my feeling that the goal comes with greater difficulty,” he said (via SempreMilan.it).
Zaccheroni explained what, in his opinion, are the reasons why Milan are struggling to score goals regularly like they were able to do in the first half of the season.
“I have been the coach for many years and I am noticing that Milan are more predictable for the opponents at the moment because it does not respect a principle of fundamental attack phase: the breadth to widen the opponent’s defences,” he added.
“It becomes more difficult to score, Milan always tries to penetrate through the central areas. The crosses from the sides have totally disappeared because they all go in and no one on the flanks. Giroud and Ibra prefer high balls and they do not arrive.
“Speaking of the Scudetto, Milan obviously have the chance of a lifetime, because almost the entire squad has an empty stomach, they have not won anything.
“Now Inter can do only one thing: win all games and hope that the Milan players, especially the younger ones, will experience the fear of winning. Maldini, however, has lived through all the emotions in his career and will be very vigilant in this respect.”
He’s right. Every time I see Calabria and Messias cut inside I wanna pull my hair out. They NEVER take the ball to the touch line and attempt to cross in anymore. Same goes for our left side. Anytime Leao provides an assist it is because he takes the ball to the touch line instead of cutting in to shoot on his right foot. With Giroud and Ibra on the pitch we should be crossing in from wide areas often. This gives those cuts inside more of an element of surprise when they are utilized.
can these so called legends shut up until the season is over?
I really don’t know why he is talking anyhow about us?!! Perhaps, he doesn’t want us to win the title, trying to distract us. Perhaps, he is jealous of Pioli’s records and what he is about to achieve. It bothers me that we are wasting chances when presented, but we just have to win in anyway just to get the results and the TITLE in the end. Forza MILAN!!❤️🖤
He is right but, we are not capable of more or of diversity. Right side is braindead, no trequartista, Giro and Ibra have combined age of 75. We just don’t have the individual talent nor the depth to do anything different.
That being said, we are still on top of the table with half a team actually playing while the other half is drooling all over the pitch, so we should enjoy it while it lasts.
Well actually he is right in a way just like shiva said we are one dimensional…if we play centrally then we should have Ismael in team the moment he came we had this spark because he is more ball playing midfielder..we should have few tricks giro and ibra are more than capable of scoring those header if we cross them up instead of throwing long balls centrally…..well I hope we do cross the line some times playing bad having good luck matters either way I am happy to cross the lines.. we all know we have a squad which is much weaker than inter and juve…..
Whether right or not,,we have a coach who knows what he is doing and it’s the reason we are on top period….at the moment the Pioli way of playing has kept us on top, the 90s way don’t do anymore.
He is very correct,we won’t have been in this tight phase,if it were explored.
Girod hasn’t scored in 6 matches and he is very good with the head.
No crosses at all.
Kalulu does better playing @2,cos he sometimes crosses the ball.
Calabara and messaias should learn going forward if they would keep their places.
Pioli knows his players best, there’s a reason why they don’t make crosses because they aren’t capable constant and accurately.
If you can’t cross a ball you shouldn’t be a professional footballer I mean come on. Not saying every one has to be picture perfect but we need to do it much more often.
This team has scored 61 goals in the league so far, with our left side combination of Leao & Theo contributing to roughly about a third of those goals in assists and goals. How would that constitute a predictable attack when you consider that they are our best attackers? Zac is a good guy but I never considered him to be a great coach. That championship team was no underdogs, we had an underdog coach, that’s all. I still remember players like Helveg, N’Gotty and Zeigler, players that were noot that great but gave their all on the pitch. Milan had many great players at the time though, so I don’t really see that much of a comparison. We play narrow because we use inverted wingers and because our current formation tactically dictates that we do, i.e trequartista.
Our players are terrible crossers, unlike Juventus and Inter who have good crossers like Cuadrado or Barella, Perisic. We have Theo who is somewhat decent and that’s it. Messias can’t even cross with his left foot let alone his weaker right foot.
Other teams also have more able players when it comes to heading the ball, while we only have our center forward, so only one target. It won’t work.