AC Milan’s defensive record in Serie A this season is something that will worry the management, and it is likely to lead to an intervention in the summer.
As this morning’s edition of Corriere della Sera (via MilanNews) writes, in the 32 league matches played so far, in fact, the Rossoneri have conceded 37 goals, a figure which puts them in the middle of the pack rather than being one of the better-ranked defences.
As an example, only Napoli in the top eight teams have conceded more than Milan, and this is something that Geoffrey Moncada and his team of collaborators will be well aware of in view of the summer.
Speaking of the mercato, there is a lot of talk about the new centre-forward that will arrive, but a new central defender who can bring some reliability and consistency to the Milan rearguard will also be needed at all costs.
Against Sassuolo yesterday, Simon Kjaer and Malick Thiaw were the centre-back pairing and they really struggled to stifle the home team, with three goals conceded against a side battling relegation.
Moreover, Kjaer pulled his flexor and Thiaw was hobbling around towards the end of the game too. Today the duo will be evaluated by the medical staff and more will be known about their condition.
Yep a complete joke. Our only true Milan level defenders are Theo and Tomori (and even they’re inconsistent)
Kjaer – thank you for your service and good night
Kalulu – I don’t even know if he’s still the same player from the scudetto season as he gets injured pulling his socks up
Calabria – average but does show flashes of brilliance while watching through red and black tinted glasses
Florenzi – often better than Calabria but let’s be honest he’s hardly Mr Reliable
Thiaw – Maldini’s “masterpiece” – how can one guy go from being so good one minute to Cristian Zapata the next? Please evacuate from Milanelo before his value falls even further
My man Gabbia is pretty consistent.
Feels like Thiaw needs a loan to villareal lolz
Was Thiaw ever good? Sure, he did make two great blocks in his debut but since then…? All anyone remembers are the horrible mistakes he has made. When has he played well? And does anyone remember a bad match by Gabbia? Sure, he keeps passing the ball backwards every time he gets the ball but at least the guy can defend well. Unlike Thiaw.
He was good last season, shut down Tottenhams attack of Kane and son
It was Kjaer who picked Kane in his pocket and kept him there for 180 mins.
Yesterday we fielded 2.5 defenders, one midfielder and everyone else was a forward or a winger.
I couldn’t tell if I was watching Pioli or DeZerbi.
A proper DM for crying out loud!
Yesterday I saw a goal scored and the backline severely exposed….by backline I mean the 4 defenders ..there were zero midfielders in sight except if we want to count RLC who didn’t know his foot from his elbow. The two designated DMs were no where to be seen. You can’t blame the backline for these things sometimes. They need protection. They can’t defend 4v4+ all the time and expect to get away with it. Buy a proper DM/DMs
With a more balanced 4-2-3-1 setup, we would need to play two DM’s in front of the back line, instead of Reijnders and Adli/Benny.
With only one AM in there the service to the frontline might suffer. So we would rely on Leao, Puli/Chuk to carry the ball forward. But it would be far more defensively sound.
All I’m asking at this point in time is for at least one of our mids to just simply focus on defending in front of the backline. Just be the first block to the middle and I’m sure it’s going to work wonders. The lack of care and concern about defending is aggravating
But the dm or at least one of them would need to be really, really, really, really times five, good at what they do. And we don’t have that..nor does it look like we will buy that
What Milan really needs is a DM. Then a CB and CF. The AM position is not great either but with a new proper DM you can move Adli in the AM position, so you would have a preaty compleate squad.
If we sell, Mike, Tomori, Thiaw, Kalulu, Calabria and Bennacer…. We could have roughly 250mil.
The team could be as follows….
J.David
Leao. Cheek. Pulisic
Reijnders Ricci
Theo. Buongiorno Scalvini Y.Couto
Di Gregorio
( And/ Or Calafiori & koopmeiners)
Lame af. Stick 2 fifa manager
As far as defense is concerned, we need to say Good Bye to Kjaer, Florenzi and possibly Kalulu.
Harsh on Kalulu but he has been injured the whole season while getting a salary. Considering he was bought for peanuts, his sale would be mainly for financial reasons since he’s pure Capital Gains profit.
Calabria needs to stay as a transition piece and we desperately need an upgrade to him.
We also need an upgrade addition at CB – be it Buongiorno, Scalvini or whoever else…
Thiaw is a tough one. He isn’t showing too much still but also he’s very young. I’m OK with him staying and developing more, or getting an upgrade on him and moving him on.
When is Terraciano out of Pioli’s purgatory?
We should buy Scalvini and Koulierakis! That is a modern and balanced defense for years to come. And we need to go all out for a proper DM. Zubimendi, Redondo etc. There are options there for us to take in the summer.