The derby is not only a game where the form book can often go out of the window but also one where it can provide a reset and a chance for players to stake a claim for a spot that they couldn’t against other opponents.
As Calciomercato.com write, there were some big positives seen on the field, first of all the collective spirit and cohesion the team showed. This is a factor that then translated into a performance of great personality and to a reaction to the goal conceded by Dimarco with the many chances created in the second half.
The Portuguese coach did his part with some logical but also courageous choices, from the exclusion of Ruben Loftus-Cheek to the inclusion of Tammy Abraham in a pair with Alvaro Morata. The growth of some key players such as Matteo Gabbia, Emerson Royal and Youssouf Fofana also helped.
Milan have a deep squad designed specifically to best face a season where the calendar is too full of commitments. The derby risks redrawing some hierarchies starting with Gabbia, who was in the line-up from minute one and now seems an immovable starter.
The understanding between Fofana and Tijjani Reijnders doesn’t help Loftus-Cheek’s cause, who could also see himself overtaken by Yunus Musah who has characteristics closer to the former Monaco player in transition.
Also interesting is the parable of Abraham who went from a luxury reserve to now being candidate to play a lot, probably even more than Noah Okafor in the two-striker system. Playing with two strikers more regularly might see Luka Jovic and Okafor get more minutes due to rotation, though.
As for Emerson Royal, however, it served as a confirmation that at the moment he has an advantage over Davide Calabria despite the fact he has just arrived and he is battling the club captain for the right-back spot.
RLC should be on the bench and Gabbia should always start. I would bench Tomori though for Pavlovic. He is still young and he will improve as time passes.
I’m re-watching the replay of the Derby as I type this, 32 minutes in. Some observations:
1. The idea that some troll here posted that Leão was 100% responsible for Inter’s goal because Barella’s long pass to Dimarco came from his sector is ridiculous. Just seconds before, Leão was trying an attack but fell to the ground. He had no time to go back to where Barella was, and up to that point he was indeed tactically disciplined and was covering that sector.
2. Inter’s goal is at least 90% on Emerson (Gabbia and Pulisic couldn’t prevent Lautaro’s pass to Dimarco; maybe they share the other 10%, although they tried, and at least Lautaro couldn’t shoot on goal). First, Barella’s long pass found Dimarco with lots of space because Emerson was too far away from him. When Dimarco easily found Lautaro, it was extremely wrong of Emerson to close in centrally to challenge Lautaro when three other Milan players were already there, leaving Dimarco completely unmarked; Lautaro simply passed the ball back to Dimarco who scored. Dimarco even had time to pick and choose where to shoot the ball to beat Mike who wasn’t at fault. It was Emerson’s responsibility to mark his man and he grossly failed there. I had watched the game live with the Italian sound track and now I’m re-watching it with the American sound track and the commentators insisted several time on how wrong Emerson was, and I agree.
3. This blatant mistake by Emerson hurt and could have threatened our victory. On the other hand, paying closer attention to Emerson in other plays, I’ve been too harsh on him: there is no denying that he has improved from previous games. OK, mistakes happen. I’m willing to forgive Emerson on this one. His performance in the Derby was – except for his blunder in Inter’s goal – somewhat better than what Calabria has been showing, and Calabria being just back from injury, I agree that Emerson should start against Lecce; let’s just hope that Emerson will learn from his mistake and will commit more to marking the opponent’s left winger more consistently.
4. There was a lot of quality to enjoy, from Morata who was an efficient trequartista, from Abraham who terrorized Inter’s defense, from Pulisic who was superb (what a golazo!), from Gabbia who anticipated and stopped several attempts at attacking by Inter, from Theo who was energized and dangerous, and from Fofana who also improved a lot from previous performances (he is now reaching match fitness and adaptation to the new team/coach/league).
I’ll keep watching and paying more attention to other developments.
So desperate.
On your first point, I was the “troll”, as you said, that said that inter goal started from their right side because Leao wasn’t where he was supposed to be, giving Barella all the time he needed to send a pass. You just proved that to be true, but of course looked for an excuse as you always do when it comes to Leao. Oh, he fell, oh he had no time, and up to that point he was tactically disciplined? Well him being undisciplined that time led to inter’s goal.
Here is another little fact that will make you search for more excuses.
Leao has the MOST big chances missed in Serie A this season – (5) 😬🇵🇹
📊 via WhoScored
There is also a video of Leao, like a little kid trying to argue with Fonseca for the sub right before Gabbia’s goal and while everyone is running celebrating, Leao is too lazy to put in an effort to celebrate with his teammates.
It wasn’t you. Someone else, some guy called AB or something, said it was 100% Leão’s fault.
You are a RABID anti-Leão poster (but I don’t peg you for a troll; what you say is clearly your real opinion and you don’t say it to provoke people like trolls do) and you are wrong about him in general, but this time, what I’m referring to wasn’t you. For a change. As for your last paragraph, like I said I couldn’t care less. If Leão throws a tantrum and doesn’t celebrate with his teammates but next game he scores and assists, I’m fine with it. Unlike you, I don’t value that much the personality things. I want a forward to score and assist. All the rest is just your hatred of Leão showing.
Nothing desperate about it. I’m more than willing to point to a poor performance by Leão:
Point 5. Leão did absolutely nothing right in first half, passing back a lot, not trying any serious attempt at attacking or helping his companions, and being the worst player of Milan’s starting 11, minus Emerson’s blunder. A pity though that Reijnders pass trying to reach him which could have provided an opportunity suited to what Leão does best, was completely mistaken.
Before I’m misunderstood: nothing right in terms of attacking and assisting. Yes, he was tactically disciplined when trying to cover the left sector. And no, he was on the ground and couldn’t possibly run back in time to prevent Barella’s long pass to Dimarco. Z’s attempt to fault Leão for that long pass is just his hatred showing. Leão would have to be Usain Bolt to be able to reach Barella before the latter sent his long pass in. There was no time left to do that.
Point 6. Again, I was too harsh on Emerson. His cross at 45:48 that Leão headed in well (great save by Sommer) was really nice.
Ha ha ha.
The only hatred shown here is yours towards Emerson.
You are the one blaming him for the goal. I just did my analysis of Inter’s goal and said that several player were at fault for the goal, not just Emerson, including Leao, Gabbia and Tomori, but of course any critique of Leao, no matter how true it is, triggers you into writing an essay filled with nothing but excuses.
You don’t value personality things, you don’t think Leao should defend because he is a forward and not a defender, you don’t care that Leao misses chances, you don’t care that Leao barely puts any effort off the ball, you basically don’t care about anything that any football fan cares.
This is real football, not the NFL. In the NFL players play only on offense or only on defense, In real football you have to play and put an effort on both sides of the ball, or you can sit on the bench.
No, I don’t care for personality things. This is football, not a mental health outpatient clinic.
Yes, I do care for a forward’s defending, like Pulisic does. It’s just that Leão is most definitely not good at this. I regret it, but it is what it is. Leão clearly has this shortcoming. But what I value in Leão is that despite being very poor at defending or tracking back, he is very good at scoring and assisting, as PROVEN by the fact that in the last 3 seasons, he scored and assisted 28 times at least in the worst of the 3 seasons (more in the other two). For me, this compensates for his shortcomings because he produced goals over and over, which resulted in wins or coming-from-behind draws for Milan, so he has helped this team a lot. He’s got so far 3 goals + assists in 5 games, of which in one of them he played just 20 minutes. That is not enormously worse than Puli’s 6 in 6 games, and is still the second best this season, so far.
Don’t put words in my mouth. I never said that Leão shouldn’t defend. I just said that Leão is not good at defending and his PRIMARY role is not defending, it is scoring and assisting, which he does.
Is Pulisic who not only scores and assists, but also defends, currently a better player than Leão? Yes. I love Pulisic and my Milan jersey has his name and number, not Leão’s. Why don’t I talk more often about Puli? No need. He’s not the one being attacked. What irritates me is the absolutely exaggerated criticism of our most prolific or at worst second most prolific forward (depending on the season, over the last 3 seasons and the start of this one), Rafael Leão.
By the way, at 65 minutes Leão had a great dribbling attack from the left and a great pass to Reijnders that would have been an assist if Reijnders hadn’t spoiled it.
Leão had 3 good moves this game. His header saved by Sommer, his pass to Reijnders, and his shot on target also saved by Sommer; that was not enough and he was one of the worst players, but like I said, even though he’s irregular, he scores and assists often enough over the entire season, for me to forgive him for his shortcomings and for his bad games. Nobody is perfect.
It was me! And apparently everyone else. was going off memory. And it sounds like leo was even worse! He fell over? And laid on the ground probably. LOOK IF Leo scored or assisted that game his rating would of been a 8.5 ok, But he didnt so his rating was what, 5.5?
I don’t think you mentioned Tomori playing too far back and keeping DiMarco onside when he did get that ball from Lautaro.
I do place most of the blame on Emerson, a little on Fofana because he was jogging back when he should havebeen in position helping press Lautaro. Then finally on Tomori.
Oh yes, you are right. There is the onside thing. But I think it was a minor error by Tomori and maybe his only, the whole game, and like you said others were way more responsible for the game. I also place most of the blame on Emerson but I know acknowledge that otherwise, minus this blunder, Emerson did fairly well and much better than before; maybe there is hope.
Point 11. Okafor was very poor. He basically wasted all his opportunities with soft shots that had no power. Like I had noticed live, Milan’s worst players were Leão, Okafor, and if we count his blunder, Emerson (if we forgive him for his blunder, he was decent).
After the Derby I remained very worried about our right back position. On re-watching, I’m less worried. Maybe Emerson will surprise us all and be a decent RB. I’m still uncertain in terms of trusting him, but there were some positive signs in the Derby, unlike his disastrous performances in the previous games.
2. The team was set up to concede the wings. Emerson was where he was expected to be per the plan. Tactically disciplined as you say about Leao.
In the second half this is painfully evident as Bastoni provides 4 completely uncontested crosses.
Essentially Milan decide to allow crosses to be almost like corners or free kicks. This was puzzling given exactly those things have been a weakness of ours for years.
The fact that we invited it, were ready, and executed well speaks to fundamental improvement.
I personally though Royal pook d better but moving from a 4.5 v LP a 5.5 v Inter (IMO) is still a 5.5. I’ll continue to hope to see more such improvement on Friday.
as long as RLC sits his ass on the bench we’ll be ok
I think RLC off the bench can be a really useful player – he can add physicality on pitch and set pieces late game when needed and he is an effective presser.
We’re going to need more than Fofana, Reijnders and Morata in midfield to get through the season and three competitions, so RLC, Musah and others definitely all have their parts to play.
Agreed. But RLC is arguably Milan’s most irregular player. He is capable of a few great performances, almost MOTM level, but they are very rare. Then he does well maybe in 25% of the other games and poorly in 75%.
But maybe it’s also an issue of coaching. The attempt to get him to be a CAM are clearly misguided. Yes, he is best at adding physicality to the midfield and to carrying the ball forward in pressure, but he is not good at passing and is not creative.
Point 12. Gabbia, thank you. I had tears of joy at your goal. Great Gabbia. True Milanista. Solid, competent. Bleeds for the team. A real Milan product. Deserves to start anytime he is not injured or extremely tired. He’s been our best defender since he returned from loan mid-season last season. Deserves a call-up to the Azzurri as well.
Point 7. Tomori was very solid. At 58 minutes I haven’t noticed a single mistake by him.
Point 8. I’m less excited for Reijnders than I was when I watched the game live. I think Morata did more for the midfield than Reijnders. But anyway, our midfield did dominate Inter’s midfield which hasn’t been the case for the previous 6 derbies.
Point 9. Fofana did defend well. Like I said, this is a clear improvement for him. I’m hopeful.
Z, you’re now saying that I hate Emerson? I did fault him for Inter’s goal (whoever doesn’t, is blind) but I also praised him several times, this thread. Can’t you read? You on the other hand NEVER acknowledges the good Leão does, as evidenced by his high stats of goals and assists. That’s hatred. Mine against Emerson isn’t; I’m willing to forgive him even for his huge blunder in Inter’s goal, which I mentioned already.
As for my “essays” yes, I’m verbose. So what? Do you have a short attention span? If you find that my posts are too long, don’t read them. I’m not forcing you to read them.
Point 10. Mike did great with a number of important saves and no responsibility in Inter’s goal.
74.39, that on-target shot by Leão on a pass by Tammy was good but Sommer had merit in saving it. Yes, Leão should have buried it but his shot wasn’t bad. That was Leão’s 3rd of his positive actions. Not enough, but like I said before, even when Leão does poorly (and in this Derby he clearly did poorly), he still produces 3 scoring opportunities.
And Z, I watched again Rafa’s header. You said in another thread that he headed at Sommer. He did not. Sommer stretched himself to the full length of his body to save that ball. Just watch it again, man!
Point 10. Tammy so deserved to score! His missed shot was actually decent; wide by a hair; if on target probably Sommer would have saved it as Sommer did seem to cover the trajectory that would have sent it on target. Tammy had a great game and the cherry would have been a score, but it’s coming; he’ll score in subsequent games, I’m sure. Great loan. I hope we will be able to buy him in permanence.
Point 13. Chuk was decent as a late sub, better than in some previous performances. He is a player who puzzles me. He is capable of a few phenomenal performances like in the Champions League last season, and some great dribbles, but then he has long stretches of being too predictable (one-foot player which is not good for a winger; always cutting to the left centrally so that defenders who watch film know how to mark him). I’d love to see chuk be a good deputy for Puli but as of now, Puli is light years ahead of him.
It came up in th podcast that the table is pretty odd right now.
Is it possible that all the big teams are struggling because they goth their players back late f on the Euros while the small teams had very few such player involvements?
For Milan this was exacerbated by the very late arrival of Fofana, Royal and Tammy. Add in Morata getting hurt and essentially n omg unavailable as well.
When I think of how tired Inter is this early, how toothless Juve is in attack, it seems like we should expect another step up from our side on terms of overall quality Friday.
Are we “growing into the season?”
I finished my re-watch. Man, what a game. We showed SO MUCH quality!!! We were SO MUCH better than Inter!
And just stop to think about it: Manchester City at home couldn’t do to Inter what we did. They couldn’t score against Inter, and oh boy, their offense is powerful; still, Inter completely thwarted their offense. We, on the other hand, not only scored twice against Inter, but created at least 3 other near-goal chances; with a bit of luck and a bit of more cynical finishing, we could have humiliated them 5-1!!!
With the exception of Rafa and Okafor (and Emerson’s blunder when Inter scored but otherwise Emerson was decent), everybody showed A LOT of quality (even Emerson did).
I said Reijnders wasn’t that impressive in first half. He was better in second half and also showed a lot of quality.
I’m willing to forgive Rafa and Tammy for their missed “sitters” (and Reijnders for not scoring on Rafa’s quasi-assist). I don’t think they were real sitters; Rafa actually shot well but Sommer saved; Tammy missed by a hair, slightly off-target, but if on target, it did look like Sommer would have saved it). But Okafor’s missed sitter indeed was a sitter with no excuse whatsoever. This game should have ended 3-1 if Okafor had buried that. But that’s not grave. 2-1 is more than enough, and earns us the same 3 points, interrupting Inter’s stretch of 6 Derby wins. I’m thrilled. Forza Milan!
Maybe if we had humiliated Inter with all 3 biggest opportunities becoming scores (and Leão’s header could have been a score too, and also Reijnders’ attempt – haha, in a perfect world if all our good opportunities have been converted we’d win 7-1; of course it is very rare to convert all opportunities by any team in the world; but we did deserve a score a bit more elastic than 2-1) maybe we’d be too complacent in the next games. We need to be humble and to continue to work hard, so 2-1 is good.
And Mister Fonseca did teach Inzaghi a tactical lesson! Go Fonseca! After such a bad start, it seems like you may be a good coach after all (well, we’ll see; if this continues over the next several games, then, yes).
My scores after this rewatch:
Mike – 7
Emerson – 6 (could have been a 6.5 or even, with some generosity, a 7 but a 1-point deduction for Inter’s goal is fair)
Gabbia – 8.5, MOTM – almost perfect game; couldn’t have happened to a better person! Would have been a 9 if he had prevented Lautaro from passing back to Dimarco in Inter’s goal but Gabbia AMPLY compensated for this small mistake.
Tomori – 6.5 – almost error free performance but didn’t do as brilliantly as Gabbia or as good as Theo so he gets a score a bit below Theo’s.
Theo – 7
Fofana – 6.5 – with room to improve but he is indeed improving a lot; a bit shaky at game start but better and better as the game went on
Reijnders – 7; a bit of a deduction for a less brilliant first half
Morata – 7.5 (could have been a 7 but he gets a 0.5 bump for effort; also did nothing wrong and was good at working like an attacking midfielder)
Abraham 7.5 (the opposite; could have been an 8 if he had scored so a small deduction there but still, great effort!)
Pulisic – 8, arguably could have been a MOTM too if not for Gabbia’s spectacular performance; still gets a 0.5 deduction from a possible 8.5 that would have earned him a co-MOTM with Gabbia, because he faded a bit in second half (likely just tired from also helping a lot in defense); still, the best one after Gabbia, and what a golazo!
Leão – 5.5 (a few good actions but clearly not enough)
Okafor – 5 (managed to be even worse than Leão after substituting him; just weak in all his attempts; Leão at least had a good header, a good shot and a good quasi-assist, so Okafor gets 0.5 less than Rafa; but the two of them were clearly the worst players this time)
Chuk – 6
Pavlovic – Not enough minutes for a score, did nothing wrong, though
RLC – About the same as Pavlovic
Mister Fonseca – 8. I mean, you have to be bold to change things so much and completely dominate Inter; we shut down their midfield and their potent offense in great part thanks to the Mister’s formation, and also to his 90-minute talk with the players, his barbecue with them to promote unity, and so forth. Panchina saved!