AC Milan may have come away with nothing from Leverkusen in terms of points, but there were some positive aspects from the performance which must be extracted and built upon.
As Calciomercato.com write, it was a first half where Bayer Leverkusen showed all of the intensity and quality that made them almost unbeatable last season, and a second half where Milan responded well and deserved to equalise after Victor Boniface’s goal in the 51st minute.
The Rossoneri created a number of opportunities and they did so because they looked so fluid in attack. Paradoxically, Milan are left with zero points and many regrets from the ‘best performance of the season so far’, in the words of Paulo Fonseca.
It must be remembered that Xabi Alonso has been working for over two years with a group of young, hungry and talented players, while Paulo Fonseca’s style will take time, application and a lot of work to reduce the gap with the best European teams.
The Milan dressing room was very disappointed for not having brought home even one point from the trip to Germany but there is also the awareness that the toughest games are in the front part of the new ‘big league’ phase.
There are at least three aspects to pick out that were positive: an evident growth from a defensive point of view, Mike Maignan back to exceptional levels and a style of play that is improving game after game. It is not such a sad night for Milan, if they can build from these things.
Fofana was a big positive.
We still lack someone to take the ball from he defence and link the attack. Fofana and RLC tried it. I won’t mention the other one.
Morata is the only one that offers a reliable outlet to relieve the pressure.
I don’t think Mike having to prove he’s getting his mojo back should count as a positive for a team that supposedly applied a low-block for almost an hour. Take away the reaction of the team afterwards as the positive and don’t underestimate our downfalls in the other deparments.
1) Should Tomori be always be a starter just so he can form a partnership with Gabbia, or his mistakes are more harmful that the supposed greater good?
2) Should RLC be a starter, or is he the midfielder version of Okafor, capable of holding and carrying the ball against tired opposition, but mostly useless when starting from the first minute.
3) Why can’t our attack display harmony like Leverkusen’s, aren’t our attackers too selfish in the final third, is it a gameplay issue? The lack of collective creativity was appaling and Leao crossing to an imaginary player with Reijnders asking him “wtf” was a good example of that.
4) Only two subs in a game we were losing? The injured players are all from the defensive deparment. Could that be Fonseca, sending a message to the management?
Plenty to think about during the break, now let’s focus on Fiorentina, it’s a must win game, considering their form and the points we already lost at the beginning of the season.
Leao was so awful and useless in his part. He only takes the ball back when he should attack. He has lost his feet and his courage. I think he should be sold if any good offer comes. We need someone like lookman in that position
Everyone who says I am being mean to Reijnders….
I have never once said he should be sold. This guy is being mean to one of the players who was central to Milan’s 3rd Scudetto this century and 19 overall.
“The Rossoneri created a number of opportunities and they did so because they looked so fluid in attack”
we were? When did that happen? For like 20-25 minutes or so? And even then I wouldn’t call it fluid.
And this notion that Xabi is with his team for longer is sorta mute. Our team on paper has the better quality players and our coach supposed to have more experience than Xabi, people are forgetting that. Our experienced coach has us playing disjointed. Xabi has a style and system of play. it’s why he’s paid $6m and ours is paid 2.5m and that difference in coach quality showed last night. Just like in thewafue where Napoli is first. What are we to say there? That Conte only now has them and Inzaghi has Inter for multiple years now? No. The difference is the quality of our acquisition. We know exactly what Conte will bring
I don’t think we have better players.
Even if you stuck Xhaka in our team we’d transform the side.
We need an Xhaka.
The coach may or may not be the best. It’s all guesswork of course. This could be the moment where he discovers greatness. The next Alonso is out there somewhere….
But it’s difficult to see how any coach could do well with a team with no midfield.
The difference in that last 20-25 mins was Morata. He’s our best midfielder (although Fofana is heading in the right direction).
A Xhaka, Fofana, and Morata would work quite well.
What Xhaka’s are available in January?