It was a strange night for AC Milan in their 2024-25 season opener against Torino, as an eerie silence turned to a loud roar thanks to a late comeback engineered by two substitutes.
This morning’s edition of Corriere dello Sport (via MilanNews) writes that there was the risk of starting the new season on the wrong foot because Torino deservedly led the game for a good 60 minutes, even going 2-0 up when Duvan Zapata headed in from close range.
However, it was the changes that seemed to spark Milan into life as Theo Hernandez and Alvaro Morata above all took the game by the scruff of the neck, with Noah Okafor’s volley in added time completing a comeback that not many saw coming.
The match against Torino left some food for thought that should not be overlooked, such as the same issues occurring in the defensive phase. The paper comments that if Fonseca’s his idea is to deploy Christian Pulisic as an attacking midfielder and Samuel Chukwueze on the right, Ismael Bennacer and Ruben Loftus-Cheek will not be enough to protect the defence.
It is true that Youssouf Fofana will soon be a starter in the double pivot, while Strahinja Pavlovic and Emerson Royal could soon come in, but the doubt is that the new signings may not be enough, especially if the set-up remains this way and the four up front – once they lose the ball – almost never track back.
The impression is that this Milan has yet to completely detach itself from the past, for better or for worse. On the one hand the old defect of the defence still persists , on the other there is that thing that often last season served to win matches: character.
Despite a performance decidedly below expectations, Fonseca’s Milan showed a big reaction, coming back in a match that until the 85th minute seemed lost. Morata and Okafor netting off the bench brings satisfaction too, and the starting XI for Saturday’s game against Parma could be different.
I thought Ibrahimovic will be the voice that will get the deals over the line and he seems to be the too frugal to even spend on a real target. Seems like Samardzic is having Atalanta medical tomorrow, they offered way more than Milan.
Too frugal? We spent 71 million. Samardzic wouldn’t even start if he came to us. We brought in four other players. It isn’t Ibra. It’s Fonseca who needs to put trust in these four to start.
I mean I don’t know anyone could say we are frugal.
Samarzdic is way better than Musah and RLC, at least he knows how to make accurate shoot, long and short passes, he is also smart and get used to Serie A
He doesn’t provide cover to the defense and that was our main issue. So he actually wouldn’t solve that issue. So no. He wouldn’t actually help.
Neither Musah nor RLC are 10’s to be fair…
If you try to haggle for every price and you try to get the price down every time and give up if it is not reduced you are frugal. Which part of that term is not clear to you? It doesn’t mean cheap…Atalanta outbid us for our allegedly main target for that position for 4-5M, because of what? Because Milan is a frugal club with frugal management that said it publicly. Ibrahimovic said the money is there but they won’t spend more…
Well there is a reason why we signed Pavlovic, Morata, Royal and Fofana. And they all need to start. End of story. Also, Theo needs to get back into it.
These are difference makers. Our defense didn’t have cover. And Thiaw was terrible.
We didn’t sign 71 million of players to warm the bench.
Thiaw, Saelesmaekers and Bennacer need to depart.
Royal was just a bencher in Tottenham
My favourite part is that he had 2 assists in 3 seasons. And that guy is an “attacking” upgrade on Calabria. What? He can’t cross the ball properly. Just find his stats for crossing, key passes, dribbles per 90 minutes etc. What a bad player…
When did Tottenham sell a good player cheap? 😀
This is not a video game man. You can’t just throw them in and expect miracles. These new signings came in late and many didn’t participate in ful preseason due to Euros. Also, they’re all from foreign leagues.
Calm yourself down.
So they would be worse than Thiaw and Bennacer? They can’t possibly be.
Each time the team fails to impress its because of Bennacer and he must go! I think Musah and Reinjders did spark things but don’t get fooled by the fact that the team started putting more pressure on Torino in the last 20 mins or so.. the opponent where leading well and kind of decided to lower the block or of course natural that you would push the opponent back and attack more freely especially after getting fresh legs on. What clear to more is that Bennacer actually works hard covering and did a good job moving the ball around during his time on the pitch. Saw nothing last night to justify that he should be gone after a good preseason contribution.
The comeback is not new to this Milan, they did that many times under Pioli and the defence error of past seasons still continue mostly from the rusted Thiaw that needed to be sold for either Hermoso or Hummes to come him and give solidity calmness and leadership to the backline
We should be starting okafor a lot more he’s so good and very underappreciated, and is always clutching up when we need him