After a 3-1 win against Dinamo Zagreb in their last Champions League match, the Rossoneri had to travel to London to face Chelsea looking to take a big step towards qualifying.
It was never going to be an easy game for Pioli as he had to deal with several injuries within his squad with Maignan, Theo, Calabria, Alexis and Messias all missing the game, and the absences ultimately showed.
After an even start, Chelsea grew into the game and eventually managed to find the opener after a corner kick was eventually bundled home by Wesley Fofana. Milan could have levelled before the break though as Rafael Leao set up Charles De Ketelaere whose shot was saved by Kepa, and Rade Krunic missed the rebound.
In the second half Milan looked even more discouraged as they started to give too many balls away which eventually led to a second and a third goal for Chelsea scored by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Reece James.
Shortly after that Pioli made all of his substitutions with an eye on the upcoming game against Juventus and the reverse fixture against Chelsea next week, with 3-0 the final score. Here are five things we learned from the game…
1. Missing players, missing attitude
Going into the game Milan had to do without several key players so it was always going to be a difficult game when four or five starters are missing, particularly in defence.
This, however, doesn’t really excuse the overall attitude of the players on the night as they pretty much stopped trying after the first goal bar some brief flashes. Moreover, with all due respect to Chelsea they were far from great and have had a poor start to the season, but the Milan players really helped them out as they gave the ball away so many times in crucial areas.
An unusual display in terms of team spirit by Pioli and his men as they really didn’t look like a unit on the night and it is not something that we have said much, as collective strength was a big positive in previous games.
2. Defensive struggles proved costly
Milan have had a rough start to the season in terms of defending compared to how they ended last season and against Chelsea that only seemed to worsen. With Theo and Calabria absent we did acknowledge that this encounter would’ve been difficult, but the mistakes came from across the whole defence not just their replacements.
On the first goal it was bad marking as there was two or three corners where Thiago Silva was allowed pretty much a free header, and the ensuing ricochet from a knock-down allowed Fofana to make it 1-0.
Later on Sergino Dest gifted away the ball, which then exposed Ballo-Toure and eventually Tomori allowing Chelsea to double their lead.
Then it was Kalulu misplacing a pass in the middle resulting in the third goal for the Blues. It was an overall underwhelming performance from the defence as they committed errors that they shouldn’t be committing at this level.
3. Out of their depth
We mentioned the overall performance of the defence wasn’t great in west London, but we need to drill a bit deeper on the matter and talk about Dest and Ballo-Toure.
The two had the tough job of replacing Calabria and Theo Hernandez respectively and they failed miserably in doing so. Ballo-Toure looked more lively, but he still offered nothing in attack and was poor at the back. Despite not giving the ball away himself, he did struggle to stop the supply from Chelsea’s right and their overload paid off.
On the other flank Dest dropped a disasterclass. There was no chemistry between him, Bennacer and Krunic to begin with, but the Barcelona loanee was just dreadful on and off the ball. Going forward he did not look confident and he offered nothing in that department, whilst at the back he was giving the ball away so much it’s just a miracle that the score was only 3-0 in the end.
Dest will have to work really hard to improve going forward as he will be played because Calabria will be out until the end of the year, so the American will have to improve a lot if Milan were to consider buying him permanently from Barcelona next summer.
4. The two bright spots
In the first half Milan did have a few nice moments in which Leao was involved. The Portuguese winger showed his pace and dribbling skills, but was let down by his team-mates in the end as he had nobody to play off.
Leao was at the core of the best chance Milan had in the first half, but De Ketelaere and Krunic did not manage to put the ball into the net. In the second half, Leao faded as so did the whole team and he was eventually subbed off to rest up in view of the two crucial upcoming games.
The other bright spot was Brahim Diaz as he came off the bench and actually tried to make something happen as he looked like the only player that wanted to get the ball down and play. He showed great technique and dribbling skills, which gives Pioli a headache given De Ketelaere was really poor against Chelsea and is still struggling for form.
5. Tandem too slow
We have become used to Bennacer and Tonali being really dominant in the midfield and especially the former, who usually takes on the playmaker role, but he failed to be as efficient against Chelsea.
He struggled to impose himself in that midfield but he had little to work with in all honesty. The Algerian also picked up a card fairly early on and was not able to be as aggressive as he would’ve liked.
Tonali was also shaky in that midfield two as he failed to make any impact an except a pass or two that were a bit more direct and dangerous. It seemed like the former Brescia man just could not shift out of first gear as everything he did looked lethargic.
Fortunately, the duo will be able to rebound in the reverse fixture and with Theo Hernandez back on that left-hand side they might have a bit more freedom in that central area.
Is it time tp admit Bennacer is not good enough to start? Kessie covered up all his flaws.
Bennacer loses all physical duels and overthinks on the ball..holding it for too long instead of passing.
Pobega covers more distance even if he can’t pass as well as Isma..I want to see what Vrancx and Adli have to offer
You’ve got the wrong midfielder man. It’s Tonali. Ye, Bennacer had probably his worst performance in a Milan shirt this game, but he has been far better than Tonali this season and one of Milan’s best players. Everyone is getting exposed without Kessie there, including the defense.
OMG please! Bennacer has been excellent all season long; he had his worst match of the season v Chelsea…..our entire team, as a team, had our worst match in probably over 3 years.
You obviously haven’t watched our matches all season — Bennacer wins more duels than anyone on our team and he is fantastic dribbling w/ the ball shielding opposing players. Pobega is nowhere near as good as Bennacer. Also Pobega is slow and lumbering and can’t change directions like Isma can.
Please don’t post garbage like this anymore — you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.
Can we stop bashing our players?
Chelsea was better prepared than Milan for this game, Period.
Potter outsmarted Pioli in EVERYTHING. From subs, to tactics, to preparation.. ! Stop blaming players.
We find ourself out of depth against top EPL clubs. Last season Liverpool, this season Chelsea.
In fact, our first squad is better than Chelsea almost in every position, but we didn’t have our first choice LB, RB, RW and goalkeeper.
A good UCL team has two first-team worthy players in the team for every position where we barely have one. Our run ends in knockout stage that’s for sure unless Leao creates a miracle.
when pioli put gabbia in and form a 3 back, it actually improve the stability in defense. i don’t see why the team shouldn’t go for it in the future. milan goal mostly involve 2 or 3 attacker rather than 4 that slotted anyway. so why not slide one slot for defense? it helps stabilize the ‘now’ shaky defense.
343 or 3412 with the pivot focused on recycling the ball, i mean isma and sandro best role is that i think. recycling the ball and provide support from the back. not, carry the ball from the back.
hell, it doesn’t matter what the formation is i just feels that milan need to at least field one more player with defense role. putting too many into attack while it’s not that sharp is frustrating. and defense are leaking too many goal by now….
5 things we learned.
1) Our depth is atrocious, we missed good players on free transfers that could have helped
2) We still don’t have a RW. We chose Messias and Saelemaekers… 2 players who should only be subs at best.
3) Pioli while a good coach overall is pass poor tactically and can’t even change formations to suit the squad he has available.
4) We still don’t have a decent backup GK, really not that hard to find.
5) The environment is not as good this year at Milan due to poor mercato. As such we are struggling on many positins, for example: CDK cannot be relied upon yet, he needs to be integrated slowly and given time and a proper environment to succeed. Kessie took 2-3 years to come good, Leao the same, Tonali took a year, so this is common. But we have less leaders now and less people who have been here for a long time. Ibra barely is present, Kjaer is injured all the time, Kessie we let go for free and Alessio who was a staple we let go also for free and were starting to see the confusion in our ranks when we have to deal with adversity now.
Mirante is better than Tatarusanu. He should play v Juventus.
That game was awful. The boys just didn’t show up mentally — they need to forget about it and put it behind them and look ahead. Tactics or no tactics… we simply didn’t play with the requisite focus and intensity. Best tactics in the world can’t fix that. Our boys need to wake the f*ck up and play Saturday v Juve and protect our home field both Saturday and against Chelsea a few days after Juve.
Well said @Zoro Caloro. Still no reliable RW and CAM not back-up LB. Tata is terrible. No Kessie shows how much he provided cover for the back 4 – now we are exposed. Tonali does not offer the same style of play. This is what happens when you cheap out the Mercato. Time to start playing Adli, Aster and Thiaw and see what they can do. Too many games in too short a time. More injuries to come. Need to know what we have going into Janaury market.
I do agree with @Zoro; but I will add that Pioli needs to be bold, more adventurous and stop playing safe all the time. Yes, we don’t have a lot of options, but put the ones you have to good use…. injury is not an excuse.
Agreed. We at the very least should have been playing a 3 man mid with tonali bennacer and pobega for more balance. Tonali and bennacer were so isolated as chelsea had 4 players on them anytime they touched the ball. It is hard to win with all the injuries but there’s no excuse for poor strategy and poor setup, that is on pioli.
We need a three man defence. Let Bennacer and Tonali be more free to move upwards. You can`t keep quality players like that in the defence. They have to be able to move with the attack. Even the attacking players had to come back to try moving the ball up. I have said it before Tomori-Kjaer/Gabbia-Kalulu in front of Mike would be perfect. We need a tall defender amongst Tomori and Kalulu. I believe simply the loss over Chelsea was Piolis fault
None of these goal came as a result of poor goalkeeping. Our 2&3 were disastrous throughout the game. Midfielders can’t link with the attackers. The whole team played like a division C players.
Never to put Krunic in RW position again.,
Better CDK in that slot., and Adli or Diaz in AM.,
45 +4 first half vs chelsea., Krunic can’t make score.,
Even Modric would struggle with the display of the players around Bennacer and Tonali, every single time one of them had the ball their teammates had grown roots so deep down the ground they weren’t able to meet up a simple pass. I mean damn, Bennacer looked desperate to find someone to pass other than Kalulu or Tomori. The guys where not present at all in this game, something was really off with the entire team.
A friend of mine said that Dest must be the luckiest bastard ever to be even a barca bench player, now i understand why. The guy doesn’t have football in him and speed alone doesn’t cut it.