Fabio Capello has sent a warning to AC Milan and Massimiliano Allegri after the win against Lazio, stating that they clinched all three points with ‘too much difficulty’.
Yesterday’s performance was far from brilliant by Milan, especially in the first half when they struggled to create chances. Similarly to the derby against Inter, however, they needed just one proper chance to turn the game in their favour, taking the lead through Rafael Leao.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
The Rossoneri are now top of the standings, at least until tonight, and there are many positives to take from the situation as a whole. However, in his editorial for Gazzetta dello Sport this morning, the legendary manager Capello sent a warning to the team.
“Maignan saves, Leao scores. Okay, the formula is right and Milan are top of the Serie A standings, awaiting Roma-Napoli. Substance is what counts, and Allegri can certainly be satisfied, even if, looking at the form, I think there are some things to highlight.
“Indeed, Milan beat Lazio with too much difficulty: aside from the final thrills over the possible penalty incident that the referee ultimately denied, I saw a team that was too passive in the first half of the match.
“For 20-25 minutes in the first half, Lazio controlled the match, and without Maignan’s miracle, the evening could have turned out differently. I think Milan should always dominate at San Siro.
“Given their characteristics, I imagined Sarri’s team could cause problems for Milan, with their tight passing and ability to close down all spaces when not in possession, but the Rossoneri’s attitude was far too resigned.
“Probably also because, for once, we witnessed a ‘human’ performance from the phenomenon known as Luka Modric: the Croatian made more mistakes than usual, and it’s no coincidence that his teammates struggled to win the ball back,” he wrote.
Milan and Lazio will take on each other again next week, this time in the Coppa Italia, and it will be interesting to see if Allegri will have any solutions for the struggles. Then, the Rossoneri will be up against Torino in the league.
Lazio had a well-organized defense. They bunkered in and forced Milan to attack from the wings, which they did well on the goal. Milan also successfully pressed in a way that they haven’t all year.
It’s not likely that having Pulisic would have made much difference given that Lazio seemed happy to bunker in even when behind.
Capelli is correct by inferring that Milan doesn’t get up against the weaker teams. Not sure what the cure is.
What’s clear is that Tare should re-sign Magic Mike for the $5+ million a year that he seeks. It’s a bargain compared to the $40m transfer fee they’ll need to spend to get an unproven replacement.
It proves that you don’t need to use 3-5-2 to play good defense. Not sure why Allegri can’t achieve this and then still use a formation that would benefit his attackers more.
Because the current system puts less pressure on Bartesaghi and Salaemaekers to defend and allows Pavlovic to get involved and disrupt. For four at the back, we would have to rely on Tomori as a full back with current personnel.
The style of play is unsustainable. We endure way too much pressure in games and i can’t think of a single game this season that we dominated from start to finish. The team is too lean with one or two injuries showing glaring limitations when it comes to options. I can’t imagine a situation where both Puli and Salad are out for a few games, this wouls seriously limit our creativity…We definitely need a striker and CB. And we need to learn to impose ourselves a bit more on the opponents.
Creativity? Those 2 players are among the least creative in the team?
Well said
A win is a win. It doesn’t matter if Milan dominate the game or not. Napoli, Inter and Roma dominated the game against Milan and still loss the game. What matters is getting the 3 points and this team knows how to score and how to defend.
The only problem I see is the lack of QUALITY subs on the bench. If players like Rabiot, Pulisic, Salaemakers and Leao get injured then we have no quality players on the bench to replace them.
As for not being able to beat smaller teams. That is a mentality issue. The players are not taking these games seriously for the full 90 minutes.
This is why they are dropping points against smaller teams. If they approach these games the same way they approach the big games then we will win them.
I mean did Capello ever see how Allegri won his titles? I am baffled he even said this, it is literally Allegri style, what everyone expected.
Careful Don Fabio, you may be one of the greatest managers of all time but if you are critical of Milan’s poor performance despite winning, there will be hell to pay from the experts on here
How many times have we seen Milan dominate teams, play really good football and NOT win? a ton! Winning is all that matters. If Milan had played champagne and caviar football and lost…everyone would be screaming about the result!
Talk is cheap. 3 points is all the matters.
Inter have been rather average against Pisa today, but are winning 2-0. Results! Results! Results!
Capello spoke as if he had forgotten how his Milan side in 93/94 won the title, scoring only 36 goals, and conceding very few, winning only 1-0 every week, he had truly forgotten how pragmatic the Milan side he coached at that time was haha