CM: The three positives to take for Milan despite defeat in Leverkusen

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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.

Tags AC Milan Bayer Leverkusen Milan

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  1. 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.

    1. 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.

  2. 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

    1. 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.

  3. “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

    1. 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?

      1. What are u talking about? On paper we have a better team, on the field they’re much better and it has to do with the coach. Theo is better than Grimaldo even though Grim is decent. Hradecky even though I rate highly, Mike is still better. Puli and Leao, hard to find two wingers that are better and should be better than Lever’s wingers. Come on now. The rest are about par.

        “The coach may or may not be the best. It’s all guesswork of course”. No bro, def disagree there. There’s a reason why there are Peps, Ancelottis, Contes out there and then the rest m, which is even tiered. The former gets paid big because they deliver big.
        Xabi has been coaching only for like just over two years now in top flight and has won in a Munich-dominated league. Bayern’s players are inferior too? No. In the last 10 years Bayern has won the league ….the only exception is Alonso’s men last year. Xabi has been touted to take over Real’s bench not only due to his history there but clearly he’s one of the best new coaches out there. He’s also touted to take over other high profile gigs. Fonseca has been coaching in top flight for 10 years and 5 more years before that. He’s not mentioned in the same way because ppl can spot the quality difference early on. It’s why we have a 2.5m coach and Xabi is one of the highest paid in Germany at 6m if not the highest. Not saying Fonsy isn’t good, he is but there’s levels and it showed in the distinct system of plays they had vs ours.

        PS why are u talking about who’s available in January, I thought u hated the transfer market and talking about transfers during the season??

    2. Even on paper our team isn’t better than theirs.
      Wirtz is a german international who had 18 goals and 20 assists last season and who can play in many positions upfront. He is currently valued at 130 M€ !! No player in our team is this highly valued.
      Xhaha is a bit like what Giroud was for us and what Morata is, although he doesn’t play in the same position.
      Boniface is everything you’d want from a striker, young, strong, big and fast. We don’t have that.
      Frimpong is currently perhaps the best right fullback/wingback/winger.
      From our team, I think only Maignan and Theo can guarantee a starting sport in Leverkusen. Leao and Pulisic will have to work a bit hard to displace Amin and Frimpong and all the others won’t even make it to the bench.
      And finally, not only Alonso is better than Fonseca (or Pioli for that matters) but he had time to implement his ideas and we saw that yesterday.
      Regardless of what one thinks of yesterday (we were unlucky to lose or we were lucky to not have lost by a big margin), but we were beaten by a superior team.

      1. The coach made them a superior team. Individually we should have better players for the most part though I do agree with some of the above like Wirtz who were linked with in the past. The majority of those players (wirtz, who I rate as I said, tapsoba, tah, Adli, etc) were there before Xabi. So what changed?
        Plus Xabi only came in during the season prior, can’t recall exactly when. His first actual preseason with the team was the one on the way to winning the Bundesliga. Great coaches can make a decent team great and that’s what we’re seeing with Leverkusen. They’re punching waaay above their weight

      2. Nonsense. Atalanta EASILY WON against Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen and outplayed them too.

        The problem with Milan is bad coaching and poor tactics. This Milan team cannot play 4231. I don’t even understand why Fonseca is insisting on using this formation when we don’t even have any attacking midfielder in the team.

        It’s either 442 or 433 and until then we will continue to look like garbage playing 4231. The coach is sabotaging the team.

        Milan has a better squad than Atalanta so we should have a better chance of playing against Liverpool and Leverkusen.

        1. You’re not refuting my point here.
          We have an inferior squad to Leverkusen and so does Atalanta who is on paper weaker than both Liverpool and Leverkusen.
          What they managed last season are amazing results and they (Gasperini as well as the players) should take the full credit for it. But the fact that they pulled that doesn’t mean that any team stronger than Atalanta is going to steam roll Liverpool and Bayer every single time.
          Gasperini is a much better coach than Fonseca and made Atalanta punch way above its weight.
          I don’t understand either the persistence of the 4-2-3-1. Maybe because Fofana is barely adapting to being a defensive midfielder in a 4-4-2 and being a lone midfielder in a 4-3-3 is another ballgame alltogether.

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