After a good performance against Napoli in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final, the focus for Stefano Pioli and his men shifted back to Serie and the fight for a top four spot.
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Despite the importance of reaching Europe’s top club competition next season, Pioli decided to make 10 changes to his starting XI compared to the players that started the game against Napoli which was a big gamble, who has failed to find any real consistency in the league since the start of the year.
To make matters worse, it only took Bologna 33 seconds to open up the score through Sansone making the manager’s decision look even worse, but the team steadied and deservedly equalised through Tommaso Pobega.
Unfortunately, Milan’s efforts in the second half were not enough to break Bologna and the score stayed 1-1 with more crucial points dropped, despite some of the established starters coming on. Here are five things we learned…
1. Not worth the gamble
While it would be incredible for Milan to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League both financially and from a sporting pride perspective, it feels like Pioli’s gamble to change his whole starting XI excluding Maignan was not all that justified.
In reality, it is true that Milan had a favourable draw in the Champions League as they escaped teams such as Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, thus improving the Rossoneri’s chances of making it to the final.
However, for a team lacking the strength in depth and still adjudged to be building a squad that will eventually rival the big European teams, it is vital for Milan to keep playing in the Champions League consistently.
Pioli’s decision to focus so heavily on Europe cannot be justified and to be frank he has Inter to thank for his team still being in the top four after a worse than mediocre 2023.
#ACMilan's Serie A form in 2023:
✅ 5 wins: Salernitana, Torino, Monza, Atalanta, Napoli
➖ 5 draws: Roma, Lecce, Salernitana, Empoli, Bologna
⛔️ 5 losses: Lazio, Sassuolo, Inter, Fiorentina, Udinese
[via @MilanXtra] pic.twitter.com/xQfrrydlzQ
— MilanData📊 (@acmilandata) April 15, 2023
Going forward Pioli needs to play some of his key players. We must at least give some credit for having the courage to make all these changes especially given the performance wasn’t necessarily the worst against an in-form side.
Nonetheless, such a mass rotation just wasn’t what Milan needed and it seemed like the game could’ve been won with a few starters on the pitch.
2. Belgian disappointment
Perhaps the rotation could have been even better if Origi and De Ketelaere decided to show up at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara. We’ve spoken plenty about the duo, but they just keep disappointing and it doesn’t look like it can get any better, especially for Origi.
Despite all the experience he has and the fact that he should be in his prime years, Origi looks like a player that isn’t even on the level of the strikers playing for the teams in the bottom half of Serie A.
It’s absurd how useless he is for his team as he has not had a single good moment for months now. The fact that he’s getting minutes highlights how poor Milan’s squad depth is, while even Ibrahimovic got a start over him when he was fit.
His compatriot De Keteleare has also been a ghost almost throughout this season, excluding some very promising moments early on after his arrival.
He was given the chance to start against Bologna – the team he has his only goal contribution against – but didn’t produce anything worth mentioning. He made 12/12 attempted passes but that should be a worry: all of his balls were safe and mostly backwards, with zero creativity or confidence.
3. Midfield rollercoaster
The experimental midfield consisting of Pobega and Vranckx didn’t seem as bad as it looked like it might be on paper, though in itself it was a bit up and down.
Pobega looked very good although he had a few misplaced passes, his performance and the goal he scored were enough to win him the Man of the Match award in our post-game ratings.
He had some very good defensive moments and scored a lovely goal from long range. In the second half – with the introduction of Leao and Diaz – Pobega also provided some nice through balls for the Portuguese and overall played a decent game in the middle of the park.
Tommaso Pobega scored his first goal away from home in Serie A for the first time since 12 May 2021 (a brace in Sampdoria 2-2 Spezia).
Each of his 6 league goals prior to the Bologna game (for Torino and #ACMilan) had come at home. pic.twitter.com/nXm2FdaRM7
— MilanData📊 (@acmilandata) April 16, 2023
His partner, Vranckx, had more of a mixed display as seemed really good at times when he was calm and managed to turn and dribble his way out of trouble.
Unfortunately, in trying to do some he did lose the ball on a few occasions, but the bigger issue was that even if he kept possession he just struggled to be creative and his decision-making wasn’t great either.
It was far from a horror show and the positive aspect is that he had the confidence in his qualities to try things, though further steps forward are needed to convince the management to sign him permanently.
4. Too little, too late
In spite of the horrible start Milan managed to get back into the game, score an equaliser and have the upper hand towards the end of the first half.
At that point with the likes of De Keteleare, Origi and Rebic struggling Pioli had to chance to throw on the likes of Leao and Diaz to try to put pressure on Bologna and get ahead.
However, the coach did the opposite as he waited until the hour mark to introduce Messias in place of Saelemaekers, who was actually the best performing out of the four in the attack.
Then in the 70th minute he introduced Diaz and Leao, which finally added some flair to Milan’s attack as the Rossoneri were getting closer and closer to a goal, but unfortunately 20 minutes were not enough for the duo to help Milan win all three points.
Pioli’s experimental starting XI played a good first-half, but needed something extra to get the next goal and he did not manage to react in time.
5. Disappointing by Florenzi
Alessandro Florenzi started on the right side of the defence but failed to make any difference going forward and he was often beaten at the back as he clearly lacks the pace to play on the flank.
When he did get himself in good positions, his execution failed him as he was subbed off after 60 minutes, replaced by Calabria. The former Roma man has been struggling with injuries so it’s normal for him to not be up to speed, but it will be interesting to see if he is kept going into next season.
At present he is clearly very far behind the likes of Calabria or Kalulu and can’t be trusted to start in big games. So if the management is in the hunt for a deputy for Theo Hernandez, they might also want to consider a deputy for the right-hand side as well.
