AC Milan were forced to fight hard after a red card in the second half, and they did, securing a 2-1 win against Napoli.
In recent seasons, yesterday’s game could have gone much differently, but Massimiliano Allegri’s coaching has brought a new lease of life to the Milan team. To be honest, it has also probably brought back hope and optimism.
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Things started perfectly at San Siro, as Alexis Saelemaekers gave the Rossoneri the lead inside the opening few minutes. Then, Christian Pulisic doubled the lead before the half-time break, thanks to some excellent work from Strahinja Palvovic.
Napoli got one back after Pervis Estupinan gave away a penalty, getting a red card in the process. However, the Neapolitan outfit could not level the scoring or more, and travelled back South with nothing to show for their performance.
Here are five things we learned from this clash at the top:
1. Captain America can’t stop scoring
Pulisic has six goals and two assists in seven games since the start of the season. This is all whilst forgetting that he started on the bench for half of them, if the stats alone weren’t impressive enough.
Against Napoli, he made a fantastic run for the opener. He started in his own half, escaped from an opponent with a lovely first touch and turn, then beat his man and provided a perfect cross for Saelemaekers, who slotted it in.
Then, the American managed to get his goal too, after a tidy first-touch finish.
He should’ve gotten another assist in between, after a lovely through ball for Youssouf Fofana, but the Frenchman couldn’t hit the target.
Fortunately, that didn’t ruin the day, but it was another brilliant moment by Pulisic, who, unfortunately, was subbed off following the red card, but he did enough prior to that to earn the Man of the Match in our post-game ratings.
2. Estupinan taking a step back
The former Brighton man started off the season poorly, and just started to pick up the pace in the last couple of games. Last night, he was decent before the sending off, but given the sloppiness for the red card, which was also a penalty, we have to say he was the flop of the game by a mile.
Unfortunately, the whole situation was caused by his lack of focus as he stopped playing instead of getting in front of his man and shielding the ball following Maignan’s saves. Rather, he was behind his opponent, who was going to have little to no trouble getting a goal back for his side. So, the red card seems justified.
A first error was the lack of concentration, and the second was poor decision-making, as he should’ve let it go since 2-1 up with 11 players was going to be a completely different story. The Ecuadorian will take a week off, and he’ll need to do better as he is still unable to fully convince us with his performances.
3. Modric and Rabiot were immense
You can see why Massimiliano Allegri wanted the management to bring in Adrien Rabiot. The Frechman is a very well-rounded player; he looks exhausting to play against.
An aerial threat when going forward, he can dribble and pass the ball really well, and then on top of that, he did so much work in defence. In fact, it was the defensive display that was the impressive part against Napoli. He pressed very intelligently and was a nuisance for the opposition throughout the whole game.
What can we say about Luka Modric? The Croatian was pretty much perfect in possession as he kept the ball well and dictated the game, even when the ball wasn’t at his feet, communicating with his teammates constantly and guiding them.
We saw some impressive passing from the former Real Madrid man, but similar to Rabiot, the most impressive part of his game on the night was the work rate in defence.
Modric made so many interceptions, blocks and clearances, to the point where it was hard to count. Furthermore, he ran until the final whistle, covering so much area and closing down the spaces intelligently but also quickly.
Impressive enough as we discuss it, but when we factor in his age – 40 years old – it’s an even more ridiculous feat. Astonishing performances by the duo.
4. All substitutions played their part
It was an odd game after the red card, as Milan had a very difficult task to contain this Napoli side. It probably wouldn’t have been possible if all five players who came off the bench weren’t at the needed level.
Davide Bartesaghi and Zachary Athekame did very well on either flank; they were focused and closed the gaps quickly. On the odd occasions where they were beaten, a Rossoneri player was there to cover for them, which showcased great organisation.
Koni De Winter also did very well in the middle of defence, whilst Ruben Loftus-Cheek added some more physicality to the middle. Something which helped a lot in the final minutes, as he did well to not lose the ball and recover it on a few occasions.
It was also nice to see Rafael Leao; it was interesting because he wasn’t as crazy about tracking back, even though Milan were down to 10 men. However, it seemed like that was exactly what Allegri wanted.
Napoli always kept an eye on him and didn’t allow themselves to fully commit to the attack, knowing that the Portuguese might strike a deadly blow if given the space.
Overall, it was a great effort from everybody involved to hold off an inspired Partenopei side following the red card.
5. A job well done by Allegri
We can praise the players as much as we like, but the gaffer needs some love too.
There were a lot of doubts from the fan base regarding whether he was the right man for the job, as he was linked in the summer of 2024 when the management opted for Paulo Fonseca instead. However, after a dreadful season, most fans were more than happy that the team had a proper world-class coach again.
The worries then were whether the squad was good enough or big enough…
Whilst the depth is an issue, given the lack of Europe, it seemed manageable. However, the Rossoneri have managed so far, even with injuries to Ardon Jashari and Rafael Leao.
So now, seven games in, the doubts have almost completely gone. Allegri has turned this Milan side into something every club in Serie A should fear.
The experience of Modric and Rabiot in the middle has also helped a ton, but we also see every player improving under Allegri. Notably, the backline has changed the most drastically, with Allegri’s team playing really well defensively.
Then there is Pulisic, who is off to his best start of a season with Milan and keeps on impressing, whilst Fofana and Loftus-Cheek are also looking sharper.
The next step of the puzzle is to integrate a fully fit Leao in this starting lineup, but Allegri has done enough already for us to trust that he’ll find the solution. Maybe he’ll even manage to help the Portuguese find that much-needed consistency so that he can get to the next level of his game.
We will see, but there is faith in Allegri, there is faith in the squad. Ultimately, there is faith in Milan once again.
My concern is with Leão’s defense. You see the front line players closing down players quickly when there is a loss of possession. This includes Gimenez. This allows the defense 2-3 seconds to set their shape. I’m concern that if Leão isn’t willing to do that a quick pass can expose the defense.
Yep, which is why I commented during the match that I thought the subbing in of Leao for Gimenez was not the right choice in that situation. When you play with Leao, you automatically go a man down in defense. That’s OK when you have all 11 men on the pitch and if he’s playing as the lone striker, as you can justify his pace on the counter, but otherwise it’s a real burden on the rest of the squad. It’s always been like this. I think RLC should have been the one to come in for Gimenez, and later Ricci should have come in for whomever went off when RLC did come into the game. As we saw, Leao’s speed was basically useless against a Napoli that had us completely pinned back with a man down.
I’m also concerned by our fullback situation. Defense is this squad’s overall weak point, with CBs that aren’t exactly world class individually, and our fullbacks are even more suspect. I really like what Saelemaekers brings to the table, but he isn’t a natural defenders so there is always some risk, and Athekame is really raw at this level. Meanwhile, Estupinan is nothing to write home about. He is about the same as Theo was defensively, but doesn’t have the same impact/ability going forward, so he’s basically a downgrade even though Theo would have continued to be a liability defensively and off the pitch. What we need is at least one starting fullback who is an absolute monster defensively, and then you can more easily digest an Estupinan or a Saelemaekers on the other side. Whow knows, maybe Bartesaghi will surpass Estupinan if given more minutes.
Yeah, genius. Our “suspect” defense has conceded the smallest number of goals in the league and has posted 5 clean sheets in seven games (and only conceded one goal from the PK mark against the league’s best offense). With ten men after the PK and the expulsion, the best offense in Italy couldn’t score against us. A prolific threat in other Napoli games, Hojlund was so thoroughly cancelled by our full backs, that he was subbed out with his tail between his legs,
That’s SO weak, isn’t it? That’s why we are in the relegation zone, right? Oh wait. Never mind. Actually we are first!!!
Estupinan had a bad game. It happens. The previous two games he was immense.
Calm down. Our defense is just fine. Oh wait, not just “fine.” It’s actually performing as the best defense in the league, with only 3 goals conceded in 7 matches, two of these being before everyone joined and before even the players who had joined had the time to gel and to understand the head coach’s system, and the third one being from the mark.
Other than the first game which was played before we had everyone up to speed, we conceded ONE goal in six matches.
Still, people complain. I shake my head…
PS: read my other post about what Allegri wanted from Leao. And no, once Leao came on, the overall defensive work didn’t get worse. It got better, with Napoli less able to commit all their players to their offensive effort. Did you see Leao dragging 7 Napoli players around him?
You don’t have to insult me. What I said isn’t untrue. Sure, if you defend with 9 men (with 11 on the pitch), it’s likely you will have these kinds of results. We could certainly win the league like this. Leao dragging seven players is great, but this is also defensive indiscipline by Napoli and also there was no one else to cover, as there were no other Milan players nearby. Also, the best offense in Italy is Inter and it has been like that for two seasons running. Napoli only scored 59 goals last season. But hey, lesson for me I guess. Park the bus wins championships in Serie A. Hojlund the multiple time 20+ goal bomber shut out…
Maybe I’m just stuck on style, and maybe I should accept a win is a win even if we park the bus. Mourinho won a ton of silverware over a decade playing like this, no? Maybe I need to make an adjustment? I can prefer a more attractive attacking style if I want to. Almost nobody outside of Italy plays 3-5-2 park the bus. Even Xabi Alonsi changed his tried and true formation for Madrid. Because Madrid does not play 3-5-2 park the bus. But like I said, maybe I just need some time to make an adjustment to accept that this is how we will be playing now.
We only parked the bus once we lost our starting left wingback to a red card and had to defend the score advantage, with ten men. Before it happened, our offense was strong and devastating.
I’m saying the best offense, in this 2025-26 season, not last season. But in this you are right. Actually Inter scored more goals than Napoli, this season. But they also conceded more, so in terms of goal differential, Napoli are ahead of Inter, which got me confused, my memory failed me.
OK, so be it. Let’s say, one of the very best offenses in the league.
Look, we’re playing 3-5-2 but this is not necessarily parking the bus, given that our wingbacks do come upfront to the offense quite often. Alexis certainly does, and so does Estupinan, who was actually dangerous in previous games.
You are right that I shouldn’t have offended you. I apologize. It’s just that I get really frustrated with all the people who call Rafa lazy and think that the fact that he doesn’t track back is a big stain in his performances. These people fail to understand that Rafa was actually the most prolific goal participant when you look at the last 5 seasons, with the biggest number of goals + assists over five years. Not ALL players need to defend, especially when they are not good for it, and especially when they are very dangerous forwards who upset and disorganized the opponent’s defense.
Pulisic since he joined, he posted a number of scores and assists equal to in one season, and higher than Rafa the next season, but not by much.
Fans need to stop complaining of Rafa and need to understand that we are lucky to have them.
The opponents are terrified of Rafa. It’s only our fans (or a segment of the fan base) who don’t seem to like him or respect him, when instead, he is clearly one of our best players and a very prolific goal contributor.
Some complain about Modric and Rabiot running harder than Leao.
What you are missing is that we say how we will play when Leao starts.
In defense we are a 541. Leao’s job is to be the outlet for the counter. To be that, he has to find the space and be ready to sprint. If he is pressing like Santi then he is not ready to do his job.
There were several times he did press for short durations. Rabiot or RLC we “hovering” then. I am not 100% certain but I think this has to do with rest. Leao makes a huge run then presses while one of the others hovers. It’s clever because it can be easy to forget Rabiot as an offense threat when Leao is in full motion and attempting a slide tackle on the touch line.
For just ones
Bartesaghi was much better against Politano than Estupian, sort of. He did stop every single one of Politano’s crosses, but a lot of them got blocked over the end line for a corner.
Then Neres subbed in and twice when Neres stopped running, Bartesaghi backed off and this allowed Neres to fire a couple of really powerful shots on goal that came real close. So that part wasn’t so good.
Yes, Bartesaghi did perform better than Estupinan after the latter got expelled, and up to the Neres substitution.
Still, overall I still think that Estupinan is the more experienced player and is a good player; he just had an off day yesterday.
Estupinan 3 seasons back was voted as the best left back in the English Premier League.
He had some adaptation issues after he joined us, and was a bit irregular, with good games and bad games, but I think he’ll be fine and will continue to improve, after yesterday’s hiccup. At least I hope so.
Bartesaghi is a worthy sub to give Estupinan some rest or in the case of Estupinan being expelled and suspended (like in the current situation and evidently for the Juve game when Estupinan is suspended). But I do believe that currently, Estupinan should be the starter, and obviously Allegri feels the same way, given that he favors Estupinan over Bartesaghi; the latter comes from the bench when needed, and generally does well but he is still young and inexperienced.
Players cutting inside and shooting are nearly impossible to stop without having a second player to block them.
Bartesaghi did have a better game than Estupinan. But how long did Bart play against Politano? 10 mins? Politano was gassed. And Neres did whatever he wanted to do with Bartesaghi anyway, and was unlucky he didn’t score.
Pervis is 2 years and 2 injuries removed from his prime , but he’s a very good player and will come good.
Agreed. And who was it that gassed Politano? Estupiñán. Too many Theo Orphans around here looking for a mistake from Pervis just to say “we shouldn’t have sold Theo”.
Theo is gone, get over it. Allegri decided to keep Mike and let Theo leave because he doesn’t think he’s good enough for our new defensive setup. Pervis is also new to the league. It took Pavlovic a whole season of mistakes just to get good.
Y’all are just unreasonable.
From your comment i think you are indonesian, your english is good but not your analysis
You can’t make such a statement, the season is still very young. We’ve only conceded 3 goals in the league so far, which is one of our best starts in a long time, and Estupiñán has been a big part of that success. We shouldn’t be so critical of him. Our backline has improved significantly, and he contributes to that improvement.
Leao’s task is not to defend. Furthermore, he is not good at it anyway even when he tries. Did you see Allegri extensively talking to him on the sideline and pointing to the attacking side of the field when he was preparing to send him on? Allegri wanted Leao to stay up there and drag to him, many concerned Napoli players who were afraid that if left alone; he’d burst ahead and score a third goal. Did you see that he dragged not one, not two, but SEVEN Napoli players in one of his vertical runs?
Up to the substitution that brought Leao on, Napoli were attacking with 10 players and pinning us down low, and we couldn’t get out of their pressure, so that they were attempting to score and relentlessly would get the ball again below our midfield, when we cleared the ball from our box. If Allegri had allowed that situation to persist, Napoli would eventually score.
Allegri who is a brilliant tactician and can read perfectly what goes on, brought Leao on to distract Napoli’s defense and prevent them from coming down to our defensive side of the field to help their offense, and to recover cleared balls. Well, it worked. Napoli’s pressure decreased because they had to watch Leao, and we were able to prevent them from scoring, thus winning the game.
Leao was coming back after 45 inactive days. He wasn’t 100% so he did run forward and did attract defenders around him, but couldn’t finish the runs and score. Still, he fulfilled what Allegri wanted, that is, being a forward that Napoli’s defense fears, so that the defenders were not as free to help their offense.
Look, have some faith in Allegri. He brought a discredited club that couldn’t get any better than 8th in the league and conceded a tone of goals while being disjointed and not truly being a team, to being 1st in the league and rarely conceding, now with the league’s best goal differential, and playing organized, compact, and efficient football like a true team, with the players obviously having fun and loving the head coach.
Can Allegri find the best way to utilize Leao’s strengths? Absolutely. We Milan fans shouldn’t be the ones concerned about Leao. The opponents are the ones that should be concerned, because this team is showing that it can beat anybody, and Leao will do his part with goals and assists once he is 100% fit.
Before, we couldn’t solve the low block bottom-feeders, and other than against Inter last season, we couldn’t handle the top teams either. Now we can do both, and we are doing it while playing beautiful and entertaining football.
Before, when someone got expelled like Theo and Musah in the Champions League, we’d crumble. Well, not with Allegri. We were down to ten men and we engaged in heroic defending. The best offense in the league could not breach our defense, except from the PK mark.
Sure, it’s too early. It’s just the fifth round. But it is undeniable that Milan is back to where it should be, that is, among the top teams in the league, and feared by opponents.
LOL, Leao converged upon by 7 Napoli players in blue looked like Neo vs. Agent Smith clones
It reminded me of the closing scene from most episodes of The Benny Hill Show. LMAO!
Lol. Somebody needs to set it to music
It’s definitely one way to look at it, but that one run that dragged seven Napoli players with Leao was just that one run. Otherwise, they were still camped out outside our box. Leao will work a lot better when we have 11 men on the pitch for the reasons you stated, but in this instance, I’d have put on RLC and Jashari, not RLC and Leao, as Leao had no impact beyond that one run. In fact, I think if that game had gone on for another 5 minutes, Napoli would have equalized. It was a coin toss and it worked out for us. People also completely overlook the fact that Napoli was missing 3/4 starting defenders. Can you imagine going into the Napoli game without Estupinan, Gabbia and Tomori, for example (or pick any three of our five defenders)? We’d have gotten slaughtered. Napoli had 62% possession at half time.
Correction: RLC and Ricci (not Jashari). Apologies.
No , that’s just not true. Not talking about Leao waiting up top as the lone outlet threat, talking about when he was actually back “playing defense” if you can call it that. Leao was jogging slowly when he was playing defense not closing down the opponent at all or trying to block passing lanes or crosses, while others Rabiot, Modric who were on the entire match were running, chasing down every ball, blocking crosses like their lives depended on it. Leao looked like he was playing a Sunday game in the park . He is not willing to suffer when others are and that’s just not good enough anymore. And I don’t buy the injury excuse. If you can’t come in and give a hard 20 minutes then you should not come in at all, especially when 10 v 11. That’s the one mistake Allegri made in this match and it nearly costed us 3 points. Nkunku surely could have done a better job at that.
That guy, for 2 days is trying to convince people that Leao wasn’t lazy.
Milan is down a man, trying to defend a result, but Leao’s rask wasn’t to defend. Make it make sense.
Milan couldn’t get out of their own half, but Leao’s taks wasn’t to defend.
What was his task? To walk around the pitch while everyone else were running sideline to sideline?
For some of these fans if Leao just put the shoes on the right foot, they’d say he was great.
Hopefully, he doesn’t mess up the synergy the team created without him.
Oh come on! Leão was coming out of 45 days of inactivity with a muscle injury! You really expected him to run like crazy? In pre-season and in the Bari game before he got injured, he actually WAS running a lot and trying his best to help the defense (although he isn’t good at it). Everybody commented that Leão seemed very energized under Allegri.
ANY other player coming back from 45 days with a muscle injury, wouldn’t be running like the others. Sure, Rabiot and Modric were running strongly, but they weren’t injured. OK, Modric is 40, but everybody comments on how he takes good care of himself and is actually way more athletic than your average 40-year-old; also helped by playing once a week for us instead of twice a week for Real.
“Oh come on! Leão was coming out of 45 days of inactivity with a muscle injury! You really expected him to run like crazy?”
Simple. If he’s not fit enough to run, he should stay on the bench. No “get out of jail free” cards for anyone.
He didn’t mess up the synergy during Pre-season and against Bari, he was the most prolific, Allegri is obviously seeing things you guys can’t see and he still believe his weapon is Leao and no one else
@Luigi, I know you love the player , but come on with the excuses. If he was not fit to run for 20 minutes then he has no business coming into the game at all much less when you are trying to defend a man down. I don’t even blame Leao that much, it’s just who he is and has always been. He’s a very dynamic offensive player but he does not have it in him to suffer for the team and I just don’t think he takes the game that seriously which is why he will never reach his full potential.
I blame Allegri more than anyone. Leao is the last person that should ever be coming on when trying to defend a lead down a man. It was just really frustrating to watch others giving so much and him with fresh legs strolling lazily around the pitch.
“@Luigi, I know you love the player , but come on with the excuses. If he was not fit to run for 20 minutes then he has no business coming into the game at all much less when you are trying to defend a man down. ”
100%.
Give Leao a brake, he just came back from been injured, you “online coaches” just hate this guy, Rabiot and Modric were more or less defensive mild fielders so yes, they will defend better, when Leao came on, Napoli were careful when attacking, why? half fit Leao is still a serious threat. Moreso Allegri probably ask him not to go beyond certain area during Napoli’s offence
So, first his task wasn’t to defend and now you are telling us that he is coming off an injury.
He was on the pitch, which means he is fit and ready. Being out 42 days might mean that he isn’t ready to play 90 minutes, not that he can’t run for 30 minutes. He walked. He always walks. Doesn’t matter if he is coming off an injury or if he is 100% healthy.
As I said, Milan has a good thing going without Leao, hopefully he doesn’t mess it up with his laziness.
No need to bring Leao here, except maybe for the silly foul at the edge of the box.
P.S. His body language might look like Pogba, but then again, Alegri played a CL final with Pogba.
You’re embarassing yourself. Leao is a proven matchwinner. He is the difference between second place and the scudetto, as he has shown before. He doesn’t need to run himself into the ground. He’s just come back from injury and you expect him to run around like a headless chicken? Good job you’re not a coach – Allegri was happy with Leao, that’s all that matters.
He is also a proven lazy player and a defensive liability.
Watch Pulisic play and then watch Leao play and tell me who is embarrassing himself.
Hopefully your proven match winner doesn’t ruin everything that was built while he was on the sidelines.
“He is the difference between second place and the scudetto, as he has shown before. He doesn’t need to run himself into the ground.”
LOL. Nope. Milan wouldn’t have won the scudetto without Zlatan, Kjaer, Giroud, Theo, Tonali etc. There was no single man who won us the scudetto. They all had their part.
“He’s just come back from injury and you expect him to run around like a headless chicken?”
No one asked him to run around like headless chicken. You think there’s only 2 options: 1) walk around or 2) run around like a headless chicken? LOL. Some people… 😀 😀 😀
1. Happy Puli is finding incredible form. Hope he stays with us 🤞 esp if we can win something
2. Estupinan will need time, new league, new environment.. There’s a good player in there. He was quite decent at Brighton. For now, he’ll have to take the deserved criticism and use it to improve and gain some confidence.
3. I thought Modric and Rabiot would have had duplicating roles on the pitch as they tend to make the same sort of movements but they seem to work well. Rabiot, like I’ve said before I wished he came to us from PSG, is proving to be a critical component in midfield. Modric just elevates the class in the team. Great experience and winning mentality.
4. The subs were good for the most part. While I’d like Ricci to come on for someone else, it eventually worked out well. Credit to Allegri for that. And for making them early enough.
5. Difference between having an actual coach vs a coach (last year) that was not even up to the level of the players we have. What a wasted year!
Anyways, lets hope to keep the momentum. Was going over some stats and noticed we don’t put in challenges/tackles very often (one of the lowest in the league) but we have one of the lowest xG against. It sort of confirms what I can see on the eye test, that it’s our structure and positioning on the field that is giving rise to our defensive solidity! Credit again to the coach.
Let’s go boys!!
As to your point on 4, I think Allegri was somewhat lucky. Napoli did not take advantage of some decent chances, and I think if the game had gone on for another 10 minutes, they would have found the equalizer. I think it was a mistake to bring in out of form Leao for Gimenez. Leao already creates a defensive liability when we have 11 men on the pitch, but down to 10 men it’s downright suicidal. RLC should have come on for Gimenez and then, to your point, Ricci should have come on in the 80th for Fofana instead. Leao should have remained on the bench for this one. I get the whole sharp counter thing, but with 10 men Napoli was always going to be camped out outside our area given how they already had 62% possession (hello!) when we had 11 men.
Possession doesn’t win games. Scoring wins games. I couldn’t care less if Napoli had more possession. The truth is that we scored twice and they scored once, thus the victory. Defending is also an art and is also part of a team. We defended very well, one man down and against a very dangerous offense.
Downright suicidal? We won the game!
Sure, maybe Allegri could have spared Rafa for the Juve game, and could have brought Nkunku on, instead. But I think Rafa is the more certified threat in Serie A; even though OUR fans seem to always complain of him, obviously the opponents don’t share the low opinion of Leão that a segment of our fan base often expresses, because he is almost ALWAYS double-marked, or triple-marked. That creates space for other forwards and prevents the defense from helping with high-pressing. People misunderstand how Rafa is useful to this team.
Allegri wanted to scare Napoli’s defense by bringing Leão on, and it worked.
Did you know that Rafa is one of only 4 players in the ENTIRE history of AC Milan since 1899, to simultaneously have more than 50 goals and more than 40 assists? The others are Gianni Rivera, Seedorf and Kaká. Nice company, huh?
And the player who posts one of the highest goal participation productions of all time for AC Milan over the last 127 years, is the one our “fans” can’t stop complaining about. It’s mind-boggling.
Look, we are lucky to have him. He is not the most complete player because he lacks defensive skills. But one thing that people fail to realize is that AC Milan is now a medium income club. We cannot afford the very top players in the world. If Rafael Leão, on top of his extraordinary offensive production, also had outstanding defensive skills, he wouldn’t be playing for us. He’d be playing for Liverpool, Manchester City, or Real Madrid.
Leão has weaknesses. But that’s precisely why we can afford to have him, and he also does have immense strengths and has been a top contributor to AC Milan, season after season.
People forget so easily… they are so ungrateful… they seem to forget or ignore on purpose, that Leão was voted by the league as MVP of the Scudetto season. We wouldn’t have won that Scudetto without him.
Sure, he wasn’t as good last season under the two Portuguese coaches, but then, who was? Almost the entire squad performed poorly. Only Pulisic and Reijnders out of our bloated squad of 33 players, did better than Rafa under the two mediocre Portuguese coaches. Rafa’s production fell a little because of the stupidity of those incompetent coaches who picked fights with him and kept benching him.
And now Rafa was out injured for 45 days. But just wait and see. As soon as he is back to 100% fitness, the goals and assists will keep coming, like he did in all seasons we were lucky to have him.
I love Leão and get all your points over the last several years but not playing defense goes against everything Allegri stands for. Leão can defend if he wanted to because he is a proper footballer but yes he saves his energy for those blistering runs but it has contributed to goals conceded in the past and perhaps dressing room issues. He hasn’t played much this season and we are on top of the table with everyone giving their all in both phases of the game.
You need to stop pretending he’s Mbappe or Vinny Jr in terms of being lazy, he isn’t.
You clearly don’t know what Allegri stand for, HE WANTED LEAO AS THE ARROW HEAD OF HIS TEAM, what is it you guys don’t understand? there is something Allegri sees that you section of the fans don’t see.
why do you think Allegri deploy Modric and Rabiot in front of the defense? It’s for Leao to thrive and he is the only player with that capability to hit you on the counter
Nobody is questioning Leao’s offensive capabilities. It’s his effort and willingness to suffer for the team that people have a problem with and why he is the last player Allegri should have brought on yesterday.
I’m happy to have him on the team but the effort he has been giving is just not going to be acceptable anymore. Not when you have Pulisic putting up better offensive numbers and still leading the team in distance covered almost every match. Not when you have players like Modric and Rabiot giving everything they have every match. Even Giminez, while not scoring is doing as much work as he possibly can for the team. This team is in first now without Leao’s offense because of heart and determination and effort.
Those other coaches benched Leao for those precise reasons and you better believe Allegri will do the same if he keeps putting out an effort like he did yesterday.
Leão put an enormous effort in pre-season and in the 15 minutes he played against Bari. Then he got injured and was out for 45 days. Of course yesterday he wasn’t running as much, because he is recovering from a muscle injury and a long period of inactivity. ANY other player, people would be saying “fine, he is coming back from injury.” Because it’s Leão, people instead will scream LAAAAAAZY!!!!
I’m sick and tired of it.
Oh, and guess what, Allegri has ALWAYS said that Leão is central to his project. Allegri knows what he is doing and saying.
I’d rather take the words of Milan’s experienced and competent head coach, a true and proven professional, than the words of Internet keyboard warriors.
I can’t remember if it was Nesta or Maldini, but they said something like “yea those sliding or crunching tackles make for good highlight reels, but for us it means that we did something wrong and are making up for that mistake, so the less time on the ground I spend the better my positioning is.” Or something like that lol. Basically, if you have good positioning, you don’t need to slide tackle. This team has shown that so far, they’re keeping everything in front of them.
Everyone is talking about Leao being a poor defender and that he was the wrong sub.
He is a poor defender, but that’s not why he was a poor sub. The issue is that he did a poor job of what he was tasked with doing.
He wasn’t sent on to defend but rather to be an outlet for the defense to pass to, to relieve pressure, and to provide a credible threat to keep the Napoli defense honest.
The problem is, he didn’t do that well. He didn’t hold the ball well and he only managed to go on 2 runs with the ball over his 27 min. He rarely provided a good outlet when we recovered the ball on defense, staying too close to the other defenders. He even tried to defend, but then gave up a dangerous free kick just outside of the box. He should have stayed higher, even when Napoli had the ball, closer to the midfield circle rather our box.
The fact that he appeared casual, as he usually does, and not too fiercely committed to winning, is less of a concern to me than the fact that he didn’t help the team more than really twice over 27 minutes.
👍
Everyone was excited about Modric (rightly so) but b/c Rabiot came in last second b/c of the Jashari injury, I think we all were too caught up with everything else to really appreciate Rabiot it and appreciate that management actually listened to Allegri on that. It turns out it may be the biggest addition of the off season (tied with Modric). He put us over the top, with his world class ability and leadership, he’s caused our midfield to reach peak stability which gives all the defenders so much more confidence and allows Modric to simply play his game. Now, Estupinan…cannot defend. I saw this from the first match, he doesn’t have the characteristics to succeed in Serie A. He’ll keep doing this against any attackers that are aggressive and crafty. Bartesaghi needs to grow up a lot faster than expected and HAS to take that spot from him. We won’t be getting any LB’s in winter most likely and we’ll need to sell Pervis before spending another 30 mil plus on a replacement. He doesn’t have it and can’t be trusted. I haven’t seen any growth, he’s been lucky to play the right teams and our team has been playing so well, teams like Udinese never really gave him difficulty. Yea it’s been 5 matches but I think the writing is already on the wall. If Bartesaghi has a good match against Juve, he should continue as the starter.
“Everyone was excited about Modric” – really? 🤔 at least 50% of the fan base were calling him a washed up grandpa..
Who doesn’t like a washed grandpa?
Washed up grandmas I suppose..
Oh right, I meant “reasonable people” were excited about Modric lol. No, I actually meant after the first couple of games, before Rabiot joined.
Ahh okay got it 👌
Pulisic has been great under Allegri as a 2nd striker with freedom to roam around. Besides the goals and assists, his work rate has been even more impressive. He runs, defends, presses, tracks back. Big reason why Milan is much, much better defensively this season is because everyone runs.
After winning everything there is to win in club football, to see Luka celebrate a win in week 5 of serie A the way he did, you understand why he is great. As Marotta said, there is only 1 true champion in serie A right now and that’s Luka Modric. Let’s hope his career last as long as possible.
I was impressed with Bartesaghi defensively. He shot down Napoli’s right wingers. BTW Neres looked like he was high.
The other kid Athekame also looks good defensively. Offensively he is rushing it and needs to slow down.
Shame Fofana didn’t score that chance because his movement and read of the play was outstanding.
Rabiot has been Godsend. Again, thank you, Jonathan Rowe.
I am not Gimenez’s biggest fan but he does a lot of dirty work. He moves well inside the box, but he needs a lot of work on his touch and ball protection outside of the box.
I agree on Athekame, his brain was ahead of his feet in attack but to come in to a game like that with that atmosphere is a big ask for someone his age. I give him credit though b/c he recognized this and at one point he got the ball for the 3rd or 4th time and could have taken up space but he gave it off to someone near by and just took a breath. That was a huge sign of self awareness which means he can def grow a lot.
“After winning everything there is to win in club football, to see Luka celebrate a win in week 5 of serie A the way he did, you understand why he is great.” Couldn’t have said it better. Such a true Champion. So sad a club like Milan has to wait until someone like that is 18 (before they make it) or 40 to bring them in now.
Milan scored 5 goals in its last two league matches. Puli contributed to all 5. Let that sink in.
While working his a55 off defending and pressing too. 🙂
Guys, we can never sit back and defend for 30-40 minutes straight without having a single option to attack them up front. Gimenez and Pulisic were burned. Nkunku’s defensive qualities have never been tested in Serie A and his fitness level is also not at 100%. While we know Leao can run at opponents for a fact even though his fitness is no better than Nkunku’s, so Leao was picked over Nkunku. You pass the ball to Leao and he just attacks the space behind the pressing opponent. It is not similar to holding the ball down and wrestling the opponent’s defense but it still buys time and prevents the opponent from committing everybody up front. Nkunku is useful but in this specific situation he would not be able to run like Leao does.
You’re exactly right. This is what I’ve been trying to demonstrate to others here. I’m glad that there is someone else who gets it. Well done. Oh, and by the way, Allegri gets it too.
Some elements I personally noticed:
1- We need to do a slightly better job on closing on wingers. Yesterday, Politano had a field day on our left side and had a lot of space and time to cross into our penalty box which could have lead to goals if not for Napoli players missing headers because…
2- Our defenders, while they did have a great game yesterday, didn’t do a great job marking their men inside the box. Anguissa had a lot of free headers and right before Estupiñán’s red card was actually unmarked him and Di Lorenzo who Estupiñán was forced to tackle from behind.
Funnily enough, both 1- and 2- seem to have improved after the red card with our defense becoming a lot more compact and Politano was eventually subbed out.
3- I noticed a lot of posters here and on other social media platforms talking about the scudetto. And while I understand the sentiment, but I think it’s too soon to have that converstation. So far we just won against average teams and Napoli might have been a good stylistic matchup for us. IF we win against Juventus, Inter, Roma, Atalanta, Fiorentina, then we can talk about the scudetto, but for now, getting back to Europe will make this season successfull IMO.
4- Pavlović, who has tendencies to push forward a lot, seem to benefit a lot from the 3 men defense and the low block since he can attack without worrying too much about leaving gaps in behind.
5- Other than that, our best players (Modrić, Pulišić and Rabiot and Saelemakers) seem to continue their good performances while our least good players (Estupiñán and Giménez) seemed to struggle.
6. Fofana’s finding his groove – what a lovely assist for Pulisic – just needs to work some more on looking up occasionally instead of shooting…
7. Allegri’s growing on me – I didn’t think he’d be able to get Gabbia Pavlovic and Tomori so well organized (with a ton of help from the midfield). He’s even got RLC looking good again…
8. Putting together these wins without having integrated Leao Nkuku DeWinter Jashari is pretty impressive..
9. Salad. Nothing else to add..
10. I saw a guy getting blasted in the comments for saying we’re scudetto contenders but I agree. Yes it’s only the start of the season but there’s a camaraderie in the squad we haven’t seen since we last won it – and that’s half the battle ❤️🖤
Yea it’s easy to get carried away on a high after this win but I think Napoli is winning it again and comfortably. I predicted that against Napoli and Juve we walk away with 4 pts. I still think that.
I do think we comfortably make it to Top4 but I dont think we can Scudetto contention after 5 games. Plenty of minutes to be played against good teams still and we’re thin in important areas like wingback and CB. Don’t even know how we line up against Juve.
Look, I understand that it is too early to utter the S word, Scudetto. But see, even if we are thin in important areas like wingback and CB, we only conceded 3 goals in 7 games, and 2 of these came before everybody joined (notably, Rabiot made a huge difference in terms of protecting the defense; not since Kessié we’ve had a midfielder so instrumental as a defender; the only game we lost and conceded 2 goals, happened before Rabiot joined), and while most players were not up to speed yet. Other than the Cremonese game, we played 6 games and conceded once, and that once, against a very good offense and from the PK mark, with 10 men.
If that’s not a great defensive display, I don’t know what else is. Sure, Roma only conceded once, but they also didn’t score a lot. They scored 5 goals. Our goal differential is two units above theirs.
So, sure, talking Scudetto is premature. But also, there is objective reason to be optimistic.
We achieved what we’ve done in these first seven games, while having Rafael Leão for 15 minutes against Bari and 15 minutes against Napoli, and against the latter, still recovering from a muscle injury that lasted for 45 days.
In the past we were Leão-dependent. Now we seem to have multiple threats in offense even without him, and we should get even better when he reaches 100% fitness again.
Also, we lost Jashari immediately. He’ll be back in early November, though.
We only play one meaningful competition, with games only once a week.
I think we ARE a threat for the Scudetto. Will it happen? Well, winning the Scudetto is very hard, and certainly Napoli are seen as the favorites. But we just beat Napoli, so… I’ll allow myself to be prematurely optimistic.
If we don’t make it, and “only” make top 4 to return to the UCL, that’s perfectly fine.
Sure, we need to perform against plenty of other good teams like twice against Inter, Juve, Roma… Napoli once again… but we ARE showing that as much as we need to fear those teams, they need to fear us too.
The Scudetto will be a difficult task, but it will be difficult for the others too.
We are not the favorites, but after these first 7 official games, 5 in Serie A and 2 in Coppa, we certainly belong in the conversation. It really can’t be excluded that we will win the Scudetto. We are certainly contenders. Not the top contenders like Napoli, but hey, we beat them, and this, before Nkunku reached 100%, and before Rafa reached 100%, and with Jashari completely out. Also, before Tare gets a chance of working again on the wingbacks and centerbacks in the winter Mercato.
Certainly we haven’t won anything yet… but there is reason for optimism, for the first time in two years. That’s undeniable.
We got January to (hopefully) bring in that experienced cb Allegri asked for and (hopefully) a striker if Gimenez can’t get his act together.. I don’t know man – I disagree on Napoli – I think Conte’s going to struggle juggling the CL and there’s already tension with him and KDB.. Apart from them there’s Jube inter and Roma and I don’t see why we can’t beat all of them – and the minnows who we normally struggle against we’re handling better too – could be wrong but I think we’re contenders..
Why is it “carried away” to say we have a shot?
I’m not saying we will win.
As Luigi points out in we have won 5 of 6 we should win only conceding 2 goals.
We have won 1 of 1 that is expected to be difficult.
On all but the loss we have looked like a team.
Why is it to early to say we are contending.
Someone give me numbers and analysis, not spleen and feelings.
Last time I was excited like this is towards the end of the season prior to winning scudeto under Pioli, when they were about to sack him but decided otherwise. I have to say I never liked Allegri, even when he won scudeto, but i stand corrected, he has evolved, and O like him a lot.
Guys this is looking good, we have a team, we have the team spirit, Modric looks like 20 years old on the pitch, and the beaty he joined for free, Rabiot whom I never liked (possibly his mother), I am starting to like him. Combined value of Rabiot and Modric is10M, this is what Tare knows how to do best. Do not forget now, we have Jashari, Ricci that will learn from them and January transfer window is around the corner. Tare now has time to prepare…. Even Jomenez is working really hard, goals will come. Allegri, Tare have made the difference. With Tare I was certain he will do well and he did.
Super optimistic, dont forget we only need to qualify for CL, but why not win scudeto, we have what ot takes and no pressure to win, just qualify and build future Milan
Forza Milan!!!
Dejan10……such a fool ! ” needs to work on looking up instead of shooting ” No one is more observant other than M ODRIC. Go Chris ,keep up the great work. My son & I are so proud of you.
Yeh he could’ve passed to Gimenez for an easy goal (although knowing Santi he would’ve missed) instead of blasting it over the bar….what’s your point?
And it wasn’t really blasting it over the bar, like hitting the stands or a Chinese balloon. It was a good shot, that was only slightly high, and could have perfectly been a score with a bit more luck, so it can be said that Fofana’s attempt was a valid one, especially given that the obvious play of passing it to Gimenez, might not be so obvious because Gimenez has been missing a lot, so maybe Fofana just thought, “let me try this one; Gimenez will miss.”
Maybe if the guy running beside him was Pulisic, Fofana would have passed.
Yep I was being harsh – it wasn’t a bad effort but squaring it was the obvious thing to do
He was talking about Fofana, not Modric.
Fantastic performance and win.
Allegri is pure class. It shows just how important having the right coach is.
The difference also proven winners make – Rabiot and Modric have both been there, and done it, and it shows.
And the players around them lift their games too.
The other piece that a team needs is a soul, and Gabbia is providing that. You can see him directing the players around him.
The players are playing at close to their potential and I have good feeling Allegri give Bartesaghi more chances.
It’s all looking very positive. The team could have lost and I’d have said the same thing. The win is a bonus.
Forgot to shout out Pulisic.
He was fantastic. He really is proving to be a talisman for the club.
Great attitude. Great performances. Looks like one of the few who exists at the same level as Rabiot and Modric.
ok lets forget about it and beat Juventus
Depth was never an issue. We have the deepest squad in the league. We have a mix of players who are experienced, in their mid 20s and also youngsters. There is only one game a week. As has already been shown, even with injuries, there is cover now in all areas. You’d think after so many new players, people would STFU complaining.
Wow…Milan defeat probably the best team in Serie A, and people are complianing….Everyone is going nuts over a defender who has been playing very well, getting sent off…Yeah never heard of a defender getting a red card before!!!!…shocking stuff. Arguing why the best attacking threat in the team is not running up and down the pitch like he’s 100% match fit, and complaining that players are taking shots that may go off target…which never happens in any match??? My goodness what a bunch!
@Luigi, just stop, your logic is making way too much sense for this room.
Theo got a red for complaining to the refs last season, after he missed a penalty, conceded another penalty and was generally awful in the loss against Fiorentina.
At least Pervis was carded for trying to defend in the match.
“complaining that players are taking shots that may go off target” – come on, it was one tiny complaint in a list saying we can win the league 😂
They will win the Scudetto. There it is. I said it.
Confidence – I like it 👌
In other news:
OFFICIAL: At 3:46 AM on September 30, the City Council approved the resolution with 24 votes in favor and 20 against: San Siro will be sold to Milan and Inter! The clubs will now have the right to tear it down and build a new stadium in the near future.
It’s happening lads. They beat these corrupt dinosaurs holding the two clubs hostages for decades. Other clubs will follow now, I’m sure of it. Italian league needed this
This is great news. The only drawback is we’ll have to go on cooperating with Inter and splitting revenues with them.
But should allow Milan and the rest of Serie A to modernize.