AC Milan’s trend of conceding killer blows in the second half of games continued during Saturday night’s 2-2 draw at home against Bologna.
Milan threw away a winning position late in the game and were forced to settle for a point at home against Bologna on Saturday night, with Inter pulling further clear.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s brace – the second goal being inside the final 10 minutes – looked to have earned a win, but Filippo Terracciano’s shirt pull on Kristiansen in added time gave Bologna a spot kick which Riccardo Orsolini converted.
As Calciomercato.com report, with the two goals conceded in the game against the Rossoblu, Milan have now let in 25 goals in Serie A, in 22 games overall.
If the count is extended to the six Champions League matches and the two Coppa Italia matches, it rises to 36 goals conceded in 30 matches played in the season.
In practice, Milan concedes more than one goal per game. As a result, the effect is that the Rossoneri start almost every match as if they were trailing by a goal.
It is worth noting the imbalance between the goals conceded in the first half and those conceded in the second half too, resulting in a two-faced side.
In fact, of the 25 goals conceded in the league, only 8 came in the first half while 17 were conceded in the second half.
I’ve been trying to assess for the better part of 3 months what’s been happening at halftime to cause this. Is it Pioli getting out maneuvered. Is it lack of focus and intensity. Is it laziness? Is it our bench and the quality? Is it the bench and lack of integration?
Maybe it’s all of that but I can’t put my finger on it.
This isn’t new. Defensive inattention has plagued this team post Scudetto. Lack of defensive mids heavily contributes to this as well. Having starting CB’s definitely doesn’t help but this has been constant under Pioli’s tenure and he hasn’t been able to iron this out…
This is why we haven’t been in the Scudetto race since we won it last. Exactly why we won’t challenge this season either.
And if we get far in EL, we probably won’t win it against a good team because of this defensive problem.
Because the manager sucks.