Yet another Serie A season got underway last night and AC Milan had a rather tough fixture as they travelled to face Bologna, who showed they could steal points from the top teams last season under Thiago Motta.
It has also been a summer of revolution at Milan. The sale of Sandro Tonali meant that the midfield was heavily transformed with Tijjani Reijnders and Ruben Loftus-Cheek getting their first Serie A start alongside Rade Krunic.
Stefano Pioli also opted for a 4-3-3 formation with newcomer Christian Pulisic on the right wing alongside Olivier Giroud and Rafael Leao. With this many changes, it was hard to know what to expect from this side and there was pressure to perform.
Fortunately for Pioli, the Rossoneri took just 11 minutes to open the scoring through Giroud who fired in a feed from Reijnders. Ten minutes later Pulisic marked his Serie A debut with a lovely goal from outside the box after a one-two with the French striker.
After getting a two-goal cushion Milan decided to preserve some of their energy in the remaining 60 minutes and didn’t really do much in the second half, but kept an important clean sheet. Here are five things we learned…
1. New season, new signings, new threat
With Tonali sold, Reijnders came to Milan for a third or so of the Italian’s price and it was never going to be easy for him to replace the Italian, but the former AZ Alkmaar player is off to a good start.
He played the whole 90 minutes and looked fresher than his team-mates showing off his excellent athletic shape, which allowed him to play over 50 games last season.
On top of that, he also provided the assist for the opening goal and was constantly involved in his team’s attacking play, also not being shy to play that direct through ball.
Despite being bold with his passing he also racked up a 100% passing accuracy. Reijnders is the first Milan midfielder who has played an entire Serie A match without misplacing a pass since Opta began recording this data (2004-05).
A bit further up the pitch Pulisic also got his first Serie A start on the right wing and he couldn’t have done any better as he got the ‘hockey assist’ on the first goal with a lovely ball toward Reijnders, and then played off Giroud to open up space for himself before firing a rocket to double Milan’s lead.
With the arrival of Chukwueze, it will be interesting to see if the Nigerian is going to be the starting right winger as many expect in time or if Pulisic will put up a fight for the spot.
From what we saw it will most likely be the latter, but in any case healthy competition is something Milan have not have in years on that side of the pitch.
2. Like a fine wine
Giroud had his ups and downs in the second part of last season and it was always going to be the question of how many games will he actually be able to play going into this season considering he will soon turn 37.
Against Bologna, Giroud showed that he is nowhere near done as he scored the opener and then provided the assist for the second goal.
He also looked in good physical condition and his team-mates were able to play off him very well. What the former Arsenal and Chelsea man does provide is work rate off the ball, leading the pressing line.
Hopefully, with the arrival of Noah Okafor and the third striker – be that Lorenzo Colombo or a new arrival – Giroud will have enough time to rest when fatigue kicks in.
.@_OlivierGiroud_'s goal against Bologna is the first goal scored with his right foot of the 33 netted by the French player for #ACMilan in all competitions.
[via @OptaPaolo] pic.twitter.com/bLy9BliaWK
— MilanData📊 (@acmilandata) August 21, 2023
3. Leao-dependency gone?
Rafael Leao didn’t impress in the season opener as he failed with a lot of his dribble attempts and when he did beat his man the end product was not there. There’s no need to panic though – he will bounce back with a world-beating performance soon.
Usually, such down days from Leao result in points dropped for Milan, but this time out the Portuguese winger wasn’t the only threat on the pitch for Milan with Pulisic asking a lot of questions on the right and Reijnders running things from behind.
This highlights the good business the management have done in attack and Pioli also had Chukwueze, Okafor, and Colombo on the bench at his disposal if Pulisic wasn’t enough. The coach now has the depth he needed so badly, and now it’s his turn to integrate all of the new players.
4. Shaken but not broken
Whilst the attack did well it was not the airtight display hoped for at the back as Theo Hernandez, Malick Thiaw, Fikayo Tomori and Davide Calabria seemed tired midway through the game and also lacked focus, resulting in errors that may have been goals against better opposition.
Theoand Calabria weren’t all that efficient going forward and both were beaten defensively too in one-on-one situations or due to their positioning.
In fairness to them, there were tactical changes that need working on as seen throughout the game and Calabria in particular had to play with Loftus-Cheek and Pulisic on the right. Theo had Reijnders ahead who ventured forward and Leao who he didn’t combine with as well as usual.
Thiaw and Tomori weren’t all that good either with the German being the best defender on the night, but he too made a couple of mistakes. Tomori didn’t make an error leading to a goal, but he did look sloppier at times and misplaced passes.
Fortunately, Maignan was focused enough to compensate for his team-mates and manage to keep a clean sheet, but Pioli has work to do to get the balance right in transition as he himself admitted.
🚫 Clean sheet number 1⃣ of __ for @mmseize this season
📸 @MohanadACM pic.twitter.com/AYT7fiiyxS
— SempreMilan (@SempreMilanCom) August 22, 2023
5. The two phases
Milan’s midfield didn’t look bad when the team were attacking with Reijnders being the more attacking presence while Loftus-Cheek and Krunic sat a bit deeper.
The Dutchman got an assist and played very well, Loftus-Cheek also played well although in a more defensive and disruptive role, but showed his physicality on multiple occasions going forward.
However, in the defensive phase, the midfield looked all over the place which is perhaps to be expected because of the fact that the three players have barely played together. We have to mention the elephant in the room: there isn’t a defensive midfielder in the squad.
Despite Krunic being more than happy to play the role – and with all due respect to the Bosnian who has played a lot of games for Milan and has helped the team a lot – he is simply technically limited and not starting quality for this Milan side.
We saw that Loftus-Cheek and Reijnders are box-to-box midfielders who can make things happen in attack, but they need somebody to do the dirty work and do it well in order to free up space for the duo.
“…he is simply technically limited and not starting quality for this Milan side.“ haha he’s Spider Rico
Krunic
RLC
Reijnders.
This was their average position. Looked kind of like a 4-1-4-1.
For now, it books pretty unbalanced.
Well those average positions did not display in the way that I wrote them, but Krunic was deepest then RLC a bit higher on the right, and Reijnders even higher on the left.
“he is simply technically limited and not starting quality for this Milan side” about sums up Krunic nicely.
The truth is out there.
It’s just the media fuelling more transfers to sell more content not satisfied with or concurred about Milan changing nearly 50% of their squad and just 20 Serie A clubs generally moving around hundreds of players in just a few months.
It’d be nice if fans didn’t fall for it but media barons famously don’t buy newspapers to make money.
LOL! Players move on and stuff. Deal with it. If it was up to you we would still be playing El Shaarawy, De Sciglio and Petagna and fighting for 12th place.
It’s not about moving on.
We’ve dismantled a title winning side in less than 2 years.
Rather than catching up with the elite clubs who have played together for years, we’re starting from scratch.
Zlatan quit, Benny is injured, last summer’s purchases were a bust (excl. ONE single player). No wonder we had to do something. We should have bought the right players a year ago but we didn’t. We barely finished 5th. Things HAD TO change or we’d be out from UCL next season.
And you can add Kessie leaving too to the list.
“…he is simply technically limited and not starting quality for this Milan side.“
This is what I’ve been saying, but to some of his defenders on here, Krunic is just great because he “didn’t make any big mistakes.” Talk about low expectations.
Finally someone speaking the truth. There was so much space for Bologna thru the midfield and attacking on the left side(our right side) where Calabria was clueless, out of position and slow 1v1.
A better attacking team would have put up 3 or 4 goals easy on us. Happy with the way the offense flowed but the Defense and Defensive midfield is a problem.
Exactly, Bologna will struggle to score this year, we can’t give that space to teams with attacking quality. Our DM provides no cover for our defense, he’s so bad. Our offense looks good though, imagine once Leao and Chuk get in form
Replacing him with someone like Dominguez (who was worse on Monday imo) won‘t improve things. Big DM transfer doesn‘t seem realistic this summer.
No one said that, you clown. The point was that he was one of the better performers against Bologna. Everyone and their dog knows that he isn’t a proper defensive midfielder and isn’t starting quality of Milan. That’s obvious.
No he was not one of their best performers. Only Calabria was worse. He did the bare minimum which is all he is capable of. There was a ton of open space through the midfield, just be thankful Bologna doesn’t have any real finishers or the outcome would have been very different.
Performance was good; defending can improve with time, as they play more and more together. The attack was impressive. No more depending on one player to do the job. Was disappointed with Leao. He tried to do too much.
Loftus Cheek played poorly. especially in transition to defence. exhausting Pulisic who had to play box to box on the right side.
yeah, not the first game (if you include preseason)…if hes not a defensive presence than i dont get why he wasnt sitting in the box like pre-season…something about his role was off…he was caught in no mans land over and over and did not fight for the recoveries the way his teammates were.
I hear people complain about krunic but he had a way better game than him…hes just the one most like to hate on. We need 3 mids putting in 12+ km per game.
We have so many new players that Krunic might be vital for our brand new midfield. So I think it s a smart move to keep him at least for now. But if we want to improve our midfield even more we need a more talented player in this position. Bennacer, Musah and Adli are three possibilities but Pioli have to evaluate their performance in this deep line position. Let’s hope we can make it work and be competitive in every game.
It seems a player who actually helped us win the title and get it the semi-finals of the champions league is considered worse than players who have never won titles and never been to the semi-finals of the champions league.
Oh but potential – potential is an unknown, what actually happened just a few short months ago is a known.
You’re the guy who wants to sign Petagna. A woefully average player.
Again you seem to struggle with basic comprehension.
I specifically said we should not sign Petagna.
All I was doing was noting he was yet another primavera player who had failed to come through. Out of that generation we have ZERO players playing for us. A success rate of ZERO percent.
Of course it must be something in the DNA.
What a silly statement. If we followed your logic we would’ve been starting Saelemaekers over Pulisic last night. ANd Reijenders after 1 game has already performed better than Krunic has ever in his 4 years that he’s been here. Did it look like he was struggling as a new player? No.
There is a reason Barcelona and a number of other teams were after Reijnders. This is a kind of player that’s a class above all of our current midfielders.
Reijnders seems like an excellent signing.
It’s such a shame we couldn’t have added him to a midfield of Tonali and Bennacer coming into their 4th year together (which would still be about a few years behind the Real Madrid midfield:
– Modric has been there for 11 years
– Kroos has been there for 9 years.
That is what we’re up against.
No, It’s not a shame. That midfield of Tonali and Bennacer did not work last season and was a big reason why we finished 5th in points. The sale of Tonali allowed us to get Reijnders and Pulisic, and Chuku and Musah. Now we have the depth that we desperately missed last season. And now we have a dangerous right side as well and not totally reliant on Leao. The team is stronger because of the sale of Tonali.
And it doesn’t really look like Pulisic and Reijnders were struggling to adjust to Serie A like you seem to think would be such a big deal.
If we had a player of Modric’s caliber I would agree about keeping him. Maybe Reijnder’s can be that guy. But I’m sure as hell Krunic is not.
Amen, K. Amen!
Forget Tonali, the most overrated player to ever put on a Milan jersey, got ran ragged by Kovacic the other night, to the point where Howe had to take him off after about 60mins haha. Our midfield is bigger and better now. I would rather have any of the three new midfield signings in my team over Tonali, it just so happens we have all three, so forget that fraud.
Well it’s a starting point isn’t it?
Surely the starting point is – this is the side that actually won the title so by definition is capable of winning the title.
You then ask – how can we improve that side?
Yes we needed improvement down the right.
It’s evolution not a revolution.
At this rate we will have dismantled a title winning side in 2 years.
And this on the off chance that the new players will get us back to a place that we were already at.
And all the while Real Madrid, Bayern, Juve, and Man City are consolidating their squads and have players who have played together for YEARS.
We are now YEARS behind – again.
The midfield of Tonali and Bennacer are clearly capable of winning a Scudetto and getting us to the semi-finals of the champions league given that’s what actually happened.
We finished 5th last season because we couldn’t beat the likes of Cremonese (twice). We really needed a whole new midfield to beat the likes of Cremonese (once)?
We did the worst possible thing with the Tonali sale – having lost a key player we then went to town replacing nearly half the squad, and are now in a worse financial position even agree his sale!
But the bigger issue is you and so many including and especially the media think it’s normal for teams to change nearly 50% of their playing staff in one transfer window. You think it’s normal that thousands have players have been uprooted and moved around this summer across the top 5 leagues.
No other sport or business does this.
It’s complete madness and is killing the game.
The teams that do well in this environment are the ones that don’t take the bait. Like Newcastle who also finished 4th (with a squad that had never won the title or even qualified for the champions league) and signed 4 players.
If a Saudi backed club in a better league can exercise restraint why can’t Milan?
Tonali sucked, get over it. ”Got to the semi-finals of the Champions League” Yes, and we almost missed out on the Champions League this year because of how bad that midfield was, and Tonali and Diaz were the two main weak links. Thank God they’re gone. We’re a much bigger and better squad now without those two overrated goons. RLC/Musah/Reijnders/ Pulisic >>>>>>>> Tonali & Diaz.
He doesn’t realize how boring it is to read the same stuff over and over “we should never change / we must like every signing we ever made no matter what / we should keep them to play with us forevvverrrrrrrrrr.” This guy’s living in the 1950s or something – it’s best just to give up and ignore.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It’s the internet.
People use it mostly to vent and lament.
You vent about some of our existing players.
I lament about the loss of our former players.
Who exactly has an unhealthier outlook?
You don’t vent? Okay 🤣
I think Pulisic will play in the middle in place of Giroud in a 4-3-3 sometimes so that he and Chukwueze will both start up top (with of course Leao on the left).
Also, if Leao ever needs a rest, Pulisic can start on the left as well.
The best thing to do would be to rotate Pulisic , Leao and Chukwueze across the season like:
– Chelsea used to do with Duff, Cole and Robben
– Arsenal used to do with Wiltord, Ljungberg and Pires
– Milan did with Inzaghi, Shevchenko and Tomasson
– Milan did with Ambrosini who covered for Gattuso, Pirlo and Seedorf from about 2003-2005.
That 3/2 combo can be so effective because it keeps all players sharp.
Okafor can also operate across the front three and that would keep the attacking line up really tight.
We will complete when Bennacer back into action, replace Krunic as Regista.
And for our WBs, i think because we have 2 mezzala in RLC & Reijnders, the WBs become the cover for places that left by both mezzala. I think thats why even Theo didn’t perform like last season. No marauding WBs, and they become more inverted fullbacks to support midfield area.
It’s why I hate 433!
Ah well. Whatever works.
yes, but they did change positions on occasion. that said. city has made it popular to start at least 3 CBs with one inverting to create that 3-2-4-1 shape….there are things they can do to get theo involved further up the pitch though as teams all know this formation and will try to. counter. Goals are on the 8s in the high half spaces…
While Krunic does have his limitations and this is not his natural position, he also had 95% of succesful pass rate. So author can have his opinion but should take into consideration statistics from the match.
Also, take Krunic away now and then what? Who will play that position? Sadly that is the case now. I’ve said before, when they decided to go with 433, a proper DM should be priority cause it’s most critical position in this formation. Now it is what it is and we are stuck with Krunic in the middle.
The author is primarily seeking to further destablise the side and justify more transfers so he can produce more content and so on and so forth.
Once they get of Krunic (or probably before then since he’s not going anywere…) they’ll turn on someone else.
My guess the next victims are:
a) Tomori (probably justified);
b) Calabria; or
c) Leao (as he inevitably struggles to adapt to a system less focused on him).
If Leao doesn’t score in the first 10 games I can see the vultures coming….
He hit the post tho.. he will score in upcoming 3 games in not the slightest worried. In fact he will probably score more now when there is less dependency on him and some attacking comes from other flank too
who needs a dm when you can have 3 mezzalas 4 wingers?
Yeah, I’m probably stuck on that 1950s football or something.