A lot of the build-up to the game against Feyenoord was dominated by the talk of AC Milan’s four forwards, but it could well be a quick experiment.
As Calciomercato.com report, it was supposed to be the night of Christian Pulisic, Joao Felix, Rafael Leao and Santiago Gimenez – who have been dubbed the ‘Fantastic Four’ – but instead Igor Paixao was the match-winner for Feyenoord.
After the wins against Roma and Empoli to build the excitement following a busy winter window, there was the need to follow it up with a good performance to keep momentum building. Mike Maignan’s error didn’t help, but the performance in the remaining 87 minutes is the real worry.
Leao was most involved out of the front four but squandered big chances and instantly became the villain after demanding a penalty. Joao Felix showed flashes but nothing more, Pulisic suffered from the intensity of Feyenoord and a precarious physical condition and Gimenez didn’t even have a shot on goal.
The feeling after the loss at De Kuip is that Milan were a victim of its usual lapses in confrontation, a ‘fragile’ team that does not yet have the personality and the right mechanisms to sustain an attack with all four of the aforementioned players.
Will Conceiçao persist with this formation? It appears a ‘very difficult’ idea, and what is more likely is a return to the 4-3-3 with Yunus Musah acting as balancer in midfield. One of either Leao and Joao Felix will miss out as a result, with Rafa the main candidate at present.
If this happens, we are back in Fonseca mode. Benching our best player in past 5 years for a Chelsea owned player who has spend a week with the team and has struggled to find a place in any team in the past 5 years.
Leao was Milan best player for maybe one season in 22/23, that was it. What 5 years are you talking about?
He wasn’t Milan bets player in his first 2 seasons at Milan and he hasn’t been the last 2 years.
He should sit on the bench even if a player on loan is preferred over him.
MILAN SHOULD LET LEAO GO, HE DOESN’T COMPETE FOR ANYTHING IN EUROPE.
True talk
Tout à fait, ainsi que Théo Hernandez et on trouvera mieux qu’eux sur le marcher et moins coûteux au niveau salarial.
People have to understand Leao’s problem is a personality problem, not a skills problems, and personality problems cannot be cured this late in life.
He suffers from the same personality traits as Mario Balotelli. He is unable to ignore the fact that he is being watched by thousands and is focused more on making sure he looks “cool” to fans rather than hustling and taking risks. Balotelli and Leao aren’t even comfortable running hard and breathing hard in front of people because it means they are working hard and they would rather appear like it’s easy for them.
Same issue Bakayoko had. His skills went to waste because he was too concerned about how he appears to others.
Leao will never live up to his skills due to his personality. It’s time to move on from him.
Nope, he has no football brain
Conceicao benched our best player for Chukwueze. Stop living in the past. He should play the players who benefit the team most – no matter who owns their contracts.
Rotasi yg perlu di lakukan oleh Conceicao
“Best players” don’t show up every 5 games. We have nothing to lose. Let go of the fantasy.
This is just the media with the ‘storm in a teacup’ play.
Mr. SergioC is not the type of person who buckles under pressure and would panic and rethink everything, he will stick with his ideas and implementation with the players who know the have his backing and ultimately that will benefit AC Milan.
This anti AC Milan sentiment in the press is just so obvious, no one has done more for Italian football then AC Milan, we have carried series A and made it worthy of respect those bottlers of Juve and Inter, who cheat, how can they be so in debt and have such high salaries outgoings and still not fall foul of FFP rules, only we have been sanctioned and missed a season in Europe not them.
Italian press, the biggest losers always looking to put Milan down, nobody at Milan says the fab4, they build up such things so they can come down on it as hard as possible as soon as we lose 1 game, pathetic losers!
If multiple managers bench a player then the problem isn’t the manager, it’s the player.
Leao is only the best player for people who don’t watch Milan matches and just looks at Livescore like you
Theo has been Milan’s best player for most of the time Leao has been at the club
yet we don’t have midfielders…
there are no CDMs… even if Fofana is in CDM he’s more like budget version Pirlo at best. he’s better when he’s not that deep. for Tiji and Fofana to actually manage something, they need a bulldog-like player… similar to how Gatusso was for Pirlo
Exactly, ambrosial and gattuso were the work horses so Pirlo could run his magic.
Feel for the guy OK so he didn’t have to take the job however the cards he’s been delt aren’t his fault it’s the owners Redbird/Elliot who are ultimately to blame for lack of sports ambition.
The facts are the players we have are not fit for purpose as a whole AND YET so called Milan fans still insist oh Rafa is world class blah blah blah he’s one of many who NEED TO GO this summer NOT GIVING THESE CLOWNS NEW CONTRACTS.
Unless major changes happen ASAP with regards the squad and owners this will keep happening OK GREAT FOR CLICK BAIT YOUTUBERS NOT FOR PROPER MIlan FANS who understand the true identity and history of this once GREAT FOOTBALL SUPER POWER BOTH ON AND OFF THE PITCH IN A SPORTING ROLE.
That is the best approach for now. Either leao or felix should be put out. Both of them are not strong players that are aggressive and find it hard to move without the Ball.
Of course that this Milan must have 3 midfielder.
Also club can’t expect that Reijnders and Fofana play all season every game without a rest.
Yunus did upgraded his play but Loftus left out squad together with Florenzi.
Rafa Pulisic and Felix can be rotated every game.
What Milan need to do is play with 2 strikers with an attacking midfielder behind them, with a 3 man midfield…Felix and Pulisic should be the attacking midfielders
I can’t think of a single team today that plays 4-3-1-2. At least not in the top European divisions. Also, how can “Felix and Pulisic should be the attacking midfielders” if you’ve only got one attacking midfielder in the formation?
Doesn’t matter that other teams don’t use this 4312 formation. This is in fact Milan DNA. Once we get rid of lazy players, focus on the ones that consistently show up, we will have a fantastic 4312 or 4321. 433 have been proven very fragile for Milan
Lol, “This is in fact Milan DNA”. Like the mentality and skills of Maldini, Shevchenko, Pirlo, etc., are magically transmuted to other players just because they wear the shirt? Someone who hasn’t played 4-3-1-2 a day in their life arrives at Milan and POOF, they’re masters of that tactic? Weird statement.
I have said this over and over again, we have to stick with 4-3-3.
We start with 4-3-3 formation and change to 4-2-3-1 when attacks with tijjani move forward, and switch to 442 when defends with Leao/felix be double ST with Santi, and tijjani move wider be left middield, fofana and musah in middle and pulisic go down, why loke this? So Leao doesnt have to cover more space, he will be ready for any counter attacks
I don’t think folks really know who Felix is at this point. Either that, or I’m not watching the same guy or maybe have his track record mixed up with someone else. He doesn’t solve problems. He creates them. Now he’s being rushed into a spotlight he may not entirely deserve.
Bingo!
I have also been saying this always: Leao and Theo Hernandez must go. They have no passion and and the aggressiveness required to play for Milan. Leao is lazy and lackadaisical in his approach. He loses focus and interest easily whilst theo destroys the harmony in our defence. His runs forward is much ado about nothing. He walks many times on the pitch and doesn’t know how to tackle. This puts enormous pressure on our defence and exposes spaces for our opponents to score. This is why we concede so easily. Milan should sell Theo and Leao. It’s time for a change. Fofana seems to be loosing it of late. I don’t know what’s wrong. Wrong passes and clumsy tackles. Is it tiredness or what? Felix must be serious and release balls quickly to Gimenez. Without the needed supply Gimenez will become like Morata.
This. Yesterday I saw the exact same Felix I saw two seasons ago at Chelsea. Poor shooting, constantly losing the ball and inevitably failing to play to a teammate in a better position in favor of dribbling or shooting himself.
To be honest, and no offense, but as I seen before, Leao is best (for this season) as a super-sub.
When he played from first half, I don’t know, he always played not good.
So, my opinion, for Verona game and second leg against Feyenord, better Leao start from second half.
And maybe, this summer we can sell him, our big asset, so we can buy new 2 more players.
The formation can work, but it needs time to tweak.
Half of the “Fab 4” just arrived 2 weeks ago. They’re not going to click from minute 1.
Heck our coach only arrived a month and a half ago.
The ones to blame are the management who got us into this mess in the first place.
Exactly!
Twin striker needs more time to gel and form a formidable attack
Yet another change 🤦♂️
He should have switched to a 4-3-3 at halftime. ACM lost the midfield battle as it was 3v2. He also needs to understand there is a left AND RIGHT side to the field. Unfortunately, I think Felix has been promised game time so he and Leão will be regulars. In reality this should have been a 0-0 game. If the manager got his tactics right ACM could have won.
Mike killed the game same as gabbia did against Zagreb
Ever since Diaz left there has been a big hole space
No need for 4-3-3 let’s continue with our 4-2-3-1 the main issues is that Acmilan should sell out leao and tomori and let’s get their replacement. But we can’t play 4-3-3 no is 4-2-3-1 we will go with. And conceicao should not be worried Acmilan will waste feynoord on Tuesday is the fact thanks
Yesterday I watched Not-So-Fantastic Four up front. Then I watched Theo drive forward and Reijnders attempt to push as well.
That left Fofana in front of Pavlo, Thiaw and Walker trying to cover wingers and overlapping fullbacks in transition.
Where’s the balance?
Do we seriously not have a player in the youth ranks who can play DM in a 4-3-3? Even if it’s not world class, it must be better than the current solution.
Fofana is our weak link, he does not stay behind at times… We should never have sold Bennacer