AC Milan failed to clinch all three points against Sassuolo in the early Sunday kick-off, thus losing control of first place in the standings. As always, there are some things that we learned from the game.
Knowing their difficulties against newly-promoted sides, a lot of the Milan fans went ‘here we go again’ as Sassuolo opened the scoring early on. However, after a brace by Davide Bartesaghi, the Rossoneri turned the game around.
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Nevertheless, due to a relatively late equaliser, it wasn’t enough for Massimiliano Allegri’s men who dropped points against a newly-promoted side once again. Below are five things we learned from the game and the performance.
1. The future is bright!
We simply have to start with the big positive from the game, namely Bartesaghi. I mentioned in my key battles piece that his overlapping runs would be crucial in Rafael Leao’s absence, but I obviously meant more for crosses. In short, it didn’t see it coming!
While some might look at the first goal and see an open net, it should be noted that Bartesaghi’ s angle wasn’t brilliant, not to mention that he arrived at the ball with full pace. The second goal also showed a lot of composure, finding the gap at the near post.
It’s a huge shame that Milan didn’t come away with all three points because it would have been such a great day for the youngster, who became the youngest defender to score for Milan in the league since Paolo Maldini. If that doesn’t paint the picture, I don’t know what does!
2. Pick up the runs…
The thing that infuriated me about the final result was that Milan, despite the errors of the referee (more on that later), could definitely have avoided the goals. Yes, they were well-worked moves, so kudos to Sassuolo there, but the marking was shocking.
On the first goal, Strahinja Pavlovic failed to pick up the run of Ismael Kone and pushed up at the wrong time, not doing any good in the end. Matteo Gabbia also could have done better even if the Sassuolo man arrived with pace. One of the midfielders probably could have helped with the run too!
More or less the same thing happened on the second goal. That time, Alexis Saelemaekers and Fikayo Tomori switched off completely, which allowed Armand Lauriente loads of space. Such easy mistakes that ended up being super costly. We simply cannot allow it.
3. Depth haunts us again
Besides bringing in Christian Pulisic, Allegri didn’t make any changes to the starting eleven, so the team that played from the first minute was pretty good. However, once again, it was very clear that Milan lack the depth needed to compete for the Scudetto.
It could have been a different story with Rafael Leao and Santiago Gimenez available, but that’s not reality. Just ifs, buts and maybes. The only attacking move that Allegri had on the bench was bringing in Samuele Ricci, while pushing Ruben Loftus-Cheek further up.
It’s insane to think that Sassuolo actually had more attacking depth on their bench, subbing on Lauriente who immediately made a difference. It should be the other way around in games like these, i.e. a big team vs. a newly-promoted side.
4. Questionable officiating
Throughout the game, the inexperienced referee Valerio Crezzini kept making strange decisions, from not giving certain free-kicks (Jay Idzes on Pulisic, for example), to missing handballs and more. Sure enough, his lack of quality cost Milan dearly.
In the 57th minute, Pulisic had a completely legal goal disallowed for a foul by Loftus-Cheek in the build-up. However, all refereeing experts agree that it shouldn’t have been disallowed, meaning the American and Milan were effectively robbed of the goal.
That goal likely would have been the difference between three points and a draw, as Milan would have been able to relax at that stage. Sassuolo, meanwhile, most likely would have lost a lot of momentum in their search for a goal.
5. Glass half empty
Allegri stated after the game that the draw ‘could prove useful’. while he was generally quite positibve aboit the performance. For me, however, it’s certainly a glass-half-empty situation more than anything, as another two points were dropped against a newly-promoted side.
Another very worrying stat is that Milan have conceded six goals against the three newly-promoted sides this season, while all of these games were played at San Siro too. It’s unacceptable and could prove fatal even in the Champions League race.
Having subbed off Pulisic as a ‘tactical move’, which the gaffer explained himself, he has to take some blame too for the disappointing result. Playing a more defensive game for the sake of it, against a team like Sassuolo, perhaps wasn’t the best move.
“Strange Officiating” – a new horror movie from writer/director Gianluca Rocchi (Rated R)…
It’s like Human Centipede where all the people where yellow shirts and goofy shorts.
Ref Cam really levels up the horror.
About the Pulisic disallowed goal.
I think the goal was disallowed because of what happened on the action that led to the corner, not because of what happened during the corner.
Nkunku handled the ball inadvertently, that ended up in Pulisic path who shoots and the ball is deflected in corner.
If you remember after the Lazio Copa game where Lazio scored from a corner that shouldn’t have been a corner, there was a talk that VAR will start to intervene in those situations.
IMO they disallowed the goal as a make up call for the missed call that led to the corner, because there was no foul on the corner whatsoever.
But the ref was bad, and he was bad for both teams. The ref not giving Saelemaekers a yellow card in the first minute for that reckless tackle was just a preview of the bad officiating that followed.
Still, the refereeing is not an excuse for losing points. I have praised Allegri for what he has done this season but his sub decision and having the team sit back deep and defend cost Milan the points. He said that he put Ricci in to strengthen and get the midfield going, but the only midfield he got going was Sassuolo’s. Milan was a mess after that sub.
Napoli losing just makes this game even more regretful.
Refereeing is definitely an excuse for losing points, given that we scored three valid goals and conceded two, so we actually did win this game 3-2.
You’re not supposed to “make up” calls. This was a legal goal. Calling it back was a disgrace.
We did make mistakes but not enough to draw the game. Despite our mistakes we scored 3 goals and conceded 2. That’s a victory and 3 points.
That’s some creative thinking.
So because Lazio got a goal from a corner in the cup. That maybe shouldn’t have been a corner.
Now the officials have to covertly punish Milan in this game. Because there may have been a handball in the build up to this corner.
All presumably done by coded communications between VAR and Ref. Because with Open VAR we hear all of their conversations later from key moments. A coded communication conducted in less than 1 minute to instruction Ref to find a soft offensive foal in the next play. To make up for possible missed call in awarding the corner and not spotting a slight offensive handball in the prior play.
Got it!💡
Right, because make up call for a previous wrong call is not common in sports.
“So because Lazio got a goal from a corner in the cup. That maybe shouldn’t have been a corner.
Now the officials have to covertly punish Milan in this game.”
Milan was the victim in the Lazio game. Its about correcting a wrong call in this game, not about some conspiracy to punish Milan because of what happened in a pior game.
Like there hasn’t been a 100s situation where a team scores a goal, but a foul or a handball happens 50 meters down the pitch that the ref either doesn’t see or judges that it was clean and then that goal is disallowed because VAR calls the ref to the monitor.
Did you hear the communication between the ref and VAR?
How come the ref wasn’t called by VAR to review the so called foul by RLC on the goal? Everyone says that there was no foul.
We actually waited a minute or 2 for VAR to confirm that Rabiot was offside on his disallowed goal even though it was clear as day to everyone that watched the game that he was offside. Rabiot himself knew that.
When it came to Pulisic goal the game resumed immediately with no delay like he missed not actually score.
Coded communication.
Open VAR.
Ha ha 😂.
Like fans actually get to hear what the ref and VAR are communicating. Or like this is not serie A that we are talking about.
Dude all I’m saying is that you are looking for a conspiracy where the far more likely reason is a bad decision by one official in charge of the game.
The Sassuolo defender fakes that the slight contact in his back was severe and cons the referee to rule out a legit goal.
You’re looking for a multi-layered conspiracy. Built on incidents from prior games. Collusion from a team of officials (in less than 60seconds) to make sure there is no goal from a corner that maybe should’t have been awarded.
re “Like fans actually get to hear what the ref and VAR are communicating.”
So was I hallucinating when reading transcripts from Open VAR conversations? Or is that another layer to the conspiracy?
As to why the VAR does not intervene and why they restarted so quickly. That was bizarre and awful. We spend ages waiting for decisions from VAR. Yet here we have the ball in net and a quick rule out and then we restart in seconds and don’t have a review.
Another article that interviewed refereeing experts was suggesting that VAR cannot intervene in this scenario due to some quirk. Makes no sense to me why they cannot intervene. Why let play continue if VAR can’t get involved. Just flag the push straight away if it is a final decision that cannot be reversed.
I find your game analysis comments interesting, stat based and well reasoned. But can’t agree that there was a refereeing fix-up here on this goal being ruled out.
You keep talking about some kind a conspiracy where all im saying is that the ref called off the Pulisic goal as a make up call for the missed handball leading to the corner . He didn’t see the handball but we saw it on the replay which means that VAR saw it too. That goal was called off way too quick for almost non existent push. The handball was way more clear than the RLC push. VAR reviews every goal. They didn’t review that one and every person out there, even referring experts are saying that there was no foul on the goal.
So by inference you are suggesting that VAR sees a handball in the prior play. Radios the Referee before/during the corner and says. “Quick find a reason to disallow a potential goal here. There was an attacking handball in the prior play. You need to subvert the rules to avoid an injustice.”
Not only is that farcical. You would have to describe that as an officiating conspiracy.
Or are you suggesting the on field referee watched a replay on the stadium big screen before the corner was taken and decided. I need to go rogue to avoid an injustice. Like he has time to just watch replays for the fun of it.
Or do you think just maybe a ref got tricked by player simulation and made a bad call. And convoluted VAR protocols meant they felt they could not intervene.
The free-kick was given where RLC allegedly made the foul and not where the alleged handball occurred. End of discussion.
Bro I dead seriously dont now how the FIGC haven’t sacked Rocchi yet. This a shitshow with no comparison this is not the only time he have robbed us. Against Pisa nzolas 2-1 goal in was definitely not a goal and cost Milan thre point luckily just two but he have done this to all teams. To save serie a first sackar his idiot, sure it’s a little bit shame on the refs but rocchi is like 80% of the reason. Who knows those points maybe can cost Milan the scudetto. F*ck Rocchi anf Forza Milan
Of course they won’t fire him as he’s doing exactly what they want him to do: Pee on Milan every chance there is.
-*y
Great game by Bartesaghi but very poor game by Milan.
They should consider themselves lucky that Lauirente didn’t play the whole game because he was doing whatever he wanted to Milan’s defense in the 30 minutes he was on the pitch.
Also lucky that the referee didn’t call a penalty for a clumsy Pavlovic tackle on Sassuolo n9 in the last few moments.
Milan keeps losing points at home to mid or bottom table teams.
If Gabbia is going to miss some time, its time to call Thiago Silva.
Pinamonti is the type of striker Milan needs. Great back to the goal play and lay of to his teammates on both Sassuolo goals. Rumor has it that Fulkrug will be the striker Milan will bring in January.
Thiago Silva would be a good signing.
A striker will confuse things as it will break up Leao and Pulisic (not that they have had a chance to play many games together).
If the plan is to play those two then they need to stick to the plan.
If those two can’t play because of constant injuries that’s a bigger issue but they’ve generally avoided injuries at Milan so people just need to show a bit of patience and wait for them to get fit.
Frustrating game. Again against a promoted/mid-table side/f’ing Sassuolo.
Football makes no sense.
Why has Sassuolo (in all of their iterations) always caused Milan issues (in all of their iterations)?
Why does MIlan (in all of their iterations) struggle against newly promoted teams (in all of their iterations)?
You can point to specific issues and incidents in this game but there’s a general pattern regardless of the coach, the players, the tactics, the referee, the day of the week it is.
It could be psychological. Or it could just be these games are just harder.
A combination of the other team sitting back, of the other team being extra hungry whilst also playing without pressure, Milan’s complacency and playing with pressure, leads to these results – on a consistent basis.
If I was betting person you’d almost be better off betting against Milan in these games.
THAT is what Allegri needs to fix. THAT is why he is paid the big bucks.
The answer is unlikely to be found in the transfer market. Of the thousands of transfers Milan have made they still have this Achilles’ heel.
The three times MIlan have solved this issue this century they’ve won the Scudetto (albeit lost to Spezia and drew with Salernitana in their title run in 21/22).
The answers sure aren’t straightforward or obvious. So unlikely the opinionaters on here will be able to help. Supporting the team is always an option.
I learned that despite all our flaws we are still one point from the top of the table.
I learned that two goals for Bartesaghi is a brace.
I learned that three goals is the minimum necessary to be a mid table or low table team.
I learned that 4 attackers is not enough at this time.
I learned that 5 players need serious time in the Super Coppa: De Winter, Jashari, Ricci, Nkunku and Athekame.
Six geese a-laying
Ha thank you! Exactly what I was going for.
Cheers.
Well… Out of the 4 attackers only one is a proper attacker and others are “just” wingers. And actually I don’t even know wtf Nkunku is or is supposed to be. Useful he isn’t, that’s for sure though.
“However, once again, it was very clear that Milan lack the depth needed to compete for the Scudetto.”
Not according to the one who abuses our captain’s name in his username here.