It may not have been the three points that everyone at AC Milan wanted to start the season but there were positives to take from the game, one of which was the introduction of Alvaro Morata in the second half.
As this morning’s edition of Corriere della Sera (via MilanNews) recalls, Morata only needed half an hour to make his mark, scoring his first goal for Milan after having a penalty overturned and a goal disallowed, sparking the comeback and dragging his new team to a draw.
The impact of the former Juventus and Atletico Madrid player was certainly one of the few positive notes of an evening in which unfortunately several things did not work, and they provide Paulo Fonseca with further assurances regarding his squad.
In addition to the performances of some players being well below expectations, some of Fonseca’s initial choices were not convincing at all, such as that of deploying Alexis Saelemaekers as a left-back.
The central midfield pairing also did not do well: Ismael Bennacer is no longer the same as before his injury, while Ruben Loftus-Cheek is definitely more comfortable as an attacking midfielder than in the double pivot.
Finally, Luka Jovic as a starting striker was also not convincing and confirmed once again that – without a centre-forward alongside him to play off of, as he had at Eintracht Frankfurt – he is virtually useless.
Luckily, Morata came on in the second half and Milan’s game changed. First the Spaniard scored the goal that made it 1-2 with an instinctive redirection of Tijjani Reijnders’ shot, and then his comments to the media after the game were those of a leader.
“We need to take a step further mentally. We need to work hard, work, commit more fouls, become a tougher team. Starting tomorrow, we’ll all do it together,” he said.
He showed the exact characteristics we need.!
Despite just coming to Milan I think this guy has all the leadership qualities we need to go forward,you could at least see it in his fighting spirit on that match. Calabria,theo or Rafael leao non are has or match little of the leadership we need in the team. Our main captain should be between morata or mike maignan
Why the constant digs at Calabria?
He was continually fighting and motivating the team. It’s really not healthy for a club to have so many fans who treat the club captain and symbol with contempt.
On this one. I agree with you.
I think we all know that he’s not the best, but in terms of his output over the past couple seasons, he has not been the worst player that many make him out to be.
Nothing wrong in getting an upgrade and hopefully Royal will be that, but sometimes it’s not constructive criticism, but rather attacks.
Let’s not minimize his contribution to just ‘a good game against Napoli’ and make as if he’s responsible for majority of our problems.
1 game in, there’s still plenty of time. New systems, ideas etc. let’s give the boys a chance, just a bit of time.
Forza Milan
Bro don’t you get it,I never said Calabria is bad or world class am just pointing out that he nor theo has that leadership qualities that’s all🙄😒