A lot of the attention after last night’s game between AC Milan and Juventus will be directed towards Malick Thiaw and his red card, but a report has claimed he is not the only one to blame.
Calciomercato.com recall that Thiaw did many things well in the first 40 minutes against Juventus and then he once again fell victim to the weak point in his game, as happened in the derby against Inter.
Against fast and powerful opponents like Marcus Thuram and Moise Kean, always trying to get ahead of the ball can become a boomerang-type situation, where it leaves him behind and with too much ground to make up.
In the air and in ground duels he has few rivals in Serie A, but when he faces fast opponents too far up the field he has difficulty. Thiaw has great room for growth and an exceptional predisposition to work hard, and he must exploit that to find a countermeasure to avoid/solve certain solutions.
The ‘sacrosanct sending off’ against Juventus could have been avoided by trying to accompany Kean towards the wing or by stalling while waiting for help from the recovering Fikayo Tomori.
However, what must also be identified is that Stefano Pioli’s insistence on playing a high line with an aggressive defensive game plan certainly doesn’t put Thiaw in the best conditions with an almost obsessive search for high pressing and one-on-ones all over the pitch.
Pioli’s football has been embraced by the management and players, but in certain games it must be questioned Is it always worth the risk?
Finding an alternative solution considering the characteristics of the opponents could become the right path, especially to help individuals.
