Zvonimir Boban pulled no punches in his assessment of AC Milan’s performance against Bayer Leverkusen last night, disagreeing with Paulo Fonseca’s take on the game.
Milan fell to their second consecutive defeat in the Champions League as they were beaten 1-0 by the German champions at the BayArena. It was a game of two halves, or to be more specific the home side were well on top until Victor Boniface’s 51st-minute opener, then the Rossoneri fought hard for an equaliser.
Referee Sandro Scharer is the subject of criticism from a lot of Milan fans and the players too after the decisions he made to not award a penalty for a stamp on Ruben Loftus-Cheek late in the game, while there were still positives to take from the game even if the result was not one.
Boban is just settling into his new role as a pundit for Sky but he is already making a name for himself in terms of being outspoken with his comments, and he spoke after Fonseca gave his take on last night’s game. His comments were relayed by Calciomercato.com.
“I do not agree with the analysis made by the coach. Bayer Leverkusen dominated the match for an hour, then after the goal it was Milan who imposed themselves.” he said.
“I think it was a strange match, difficult to explain, but I certainly would not call it phenomenal like Fonseca did. Also because in the end Milan lost. After the goal, Milan freed themselves up a bit mentally, took courage and created something in the attacking phase.
“But in the first hour they were literally dominated, playing almost only in defence. So the defeat was not bad luck, Bayer Leverkusen deserved it for the first hour of play.”
Boban is just salty at this time, cause he’s getting no money from us… this game was a positive for the players growth! Keep up, boys!
Boban is right. Still being at a stage where a loss is « positive » hurts.
It’s called evolution with clear evidence of it. Unlike from the guy whom Boban did hire when he was here. Remember that cat?
Says the guy who thinks Fofana is a regista…
Boban is 100% right. Milan had no chance last night
I disagree. Milan imposed themselves plenty in teh second half against a good side who was pinned back at home holding onto a 1 goal lead. The problem is, Milan started imposing themselves too late.
Only because xabi pulled back. We didn’t impose 💩
“Us”? Furlani is that you? Lol 😂 U mean they fired him arguably without just cause and he’s demanding what him and the club agreed on for compensating him for work through a contract. That’s the salt? Workers rights? lol ok bro
Or is that he said something u didnt agree with so u call him salty instead
Milan was dominated prior to Bayer’s goal. They even showed a stat like we had maybe 2 shots at that point to their 10
And yet, look at the stats at the end of the game…
Completely agree with Boban.
I think milan shown too much respect for Leverkusen, They play the waiting game and Leverkusen took advantage of that. you cant just sit back and hope on counter against an attacking team.
Milan should have took the fight to Leverkusen at the first kickoff like every other big European teams play.
But this Milan mentality did not see themselves as a top team in Europe. That need to change.
A team like milan should have the mindset of creating and scoring goals within first 10-15mins against any team. not to sit back and allow them take it to you before you react like they did in the last 25mins.. If Milan had attacked from the first mins they might have scored 2 goals upward.
Boban was not being salty. He is a Milanista and a Legend. He have every right to speak just like very other die hard Milan fans when the team play poorly and the coach chose the wrong approach to the game.
Fonsesca mentioned in his conference that he need to defend , definitely he went with the mindset and instructed the team to sit back and defend until they concede a goal.
He’s 100% right as usual but snowflakes dislike him cause he’s not sugarcoating or filtering.
Ted, snowflake is a term incels use towards those who disagree with them. You’ve just confirmed my suspicions you’re absolutely an incel. That must be sad for you…
Well I cant speak for odds on the match in Italy or elsewhere as I didn’t check beforehand but around here in Denmark the odds for AC Milan winning was like 4.5 times back and a draw would have gotten people around 3.50 times back so clearly we wasn’t favorites by any means.
I do think the first hour wasn’t anything to write home about but after roughly the 60th minute we pretty much ran the show until the end of the match. I think there is several things to consider though. A clear foul on Theo when he had an arm smacked into his head right in front of the ref who clearly saw it and afterwards reprimanded the Leverkusen player but no card given. He clearly should have been given a yellow card if not a borderline red card. Then the situation where we probably should have been given a penalty kick. These situations could have massively changed the match. Had I been at the match yesterday and succeeded in bringing me a can of beer with me to the stadium I might actually have used it as a baseball and thrown it in the face of the ref as that is what he deserved himself.
Nothing flashy but not as bad a match as some of the people in the threads since yesterday has professed it to be. These two matches and the one against Real Madrid coming later has always had defeats written all over them but I’m not too worried if we will qualify or not at this point of time.
Bayer dominated the first half – we dominated the second half….. So… what? I don’t remember Bayer getting penalties overturned by the ref either. Bit of a pointless comment from Boban imo who usually talks more sense.
The guy he hired worked wonders.
Nonsense. A 1-0 loss away to a team that literally only lost one game last season? While we have new coach and 3 new starters? Stop it. We played well.
I agree with Boban. I don’t understand Fonseca. If Morata was fit to make the team why didn’t he play 442 which has brought us success?
It would have been better to start the game with Morata and Abraham and sub off Morata in 2nd half around the 75th minute if he wasn’t 100% fit vs putting him on in the 2nd half to chase the game.
This milan team cannot play 4231. I don’t understand why Fonseca is still trying to play this formation when it hasn’t given us any positive results. It’s either 442 or 433 if morata or Abraham is not fit enough to play.
Atalanta easily beat Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen and outplayed both of these teams but yet Milan look like a Serie B playing Liverpool and Leverkusen. Unbelievable
This Milan team is poorly built and it just shows why it’s important for teams to have an experienced sporting director who knows how to build a competitive team.
Morata wasn’t fit to play the entire match and there had been doubts if he even would play the match so clearly had he been fully fit he would have started the match. Getting subbed on in the 61rst minute is a lot different than starting the match when all players are rested compared to later on when they are not so starting him on the bench actually does make sense even when we all would have liked to see him start.
Atalanta has a great sporting director and a coach who’s been there for quite some time having instilled his principles into the team. Same team, by the way, that while beating the lIkes of Liverpool and Bayer has been inconsistent apart from that.
Context.
Boban is right but at this point in our growth relative to the young season, it’s an improvement. They held their shape under extreme pressure, that shows growth as a team. If they play this way in March then we’d have a problem but for now, I’ll take it.
What did Bobon do again? Hire scampolo, lost over 100M of club assets. Not to mention he’s left every job he’s had on bad terms. Yeah the dude can kick a ball but that doesn’t make him a quality coach, pundit or executive.
Here we go again…
Let’s back to the poll who will be our next coach
Wooo… How i really love the atmosphere here these days..
I have always loved this man. He spoke both as a pundit, and a Milan fan. However, Leverkusen are far better at what they do – passing the ball. On the positive side, our team responded well, much better than they did against Liverpool. So much expectations from the fans, but, good performance. Even the match stats says a lot about Milan’s performance.