Alessandro Costacurta was not entirely convinced by AC Milan’s performance despite their 3-0 victory against Hellas Verona on Sunday.
After a rather cagey opening 45 minutes, Christian Pulisic opened the scoring in added time at the end of the first half, burying a flick-on from a corner. Then an unlikely hero stepped forward: Christopher Nkunku earned and scored a penalty, scoring a second goal minutes later for his first Serie A goals.
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The rather comfortable 3-0 victory meant that Milan had the possibility of ending the year in top spot, but Inter’s victory away from home against Atalanta means that they take the crown of being the league leaders going into 2026.
Costacurta unimpressed
Costacurta was a guest on Sky Calcio Club last night and he was asked for his thoughts on how Milan played and the performance from Nkunku, with Calciomercato.com transcribing what he had to say.
“In my opinion, this is Nkunku: he’s a good player. I don’t know his personality well, but I like him: he’s very technical. He’s not a centre-forward. In the first half, it was impossible for him to play, but in the second half, he and the whole team unlocked themselves,” he said.
“In the first five minutes and twenty seconds of the match, Milan made 27 passes between the central defenders. Once upon a time, in the dressing room, we’d start by saying, ‘Instil fear, apply pressure, let’s just throw it up there’.
“27 passes in 5 minutes and 20 seconds. I’ve been following football for 47 years, but I’m having trouble understanding why the three defenders have to pass the ball 27 times instead of playing it vertically.”
Im not sure if Allegri ever rewatches the games but this needs to be addressed. Even Hellas Verona had more courage to play the ball forward than Milan at home in the first 30 minutes. It’s great the points we have but i also believe that once the LEAO is fit the coach should switch to a 4-3-3 or 3-4-3 against smaller teams because the link between the midfield and attack is terrible. First shot on target minut 44 at home
“Even Hellas Verona had more courage to play the ball forward than Milan at home in the first 30 minutes.”
This! They were keeping the ball and looked like the better team for the first 30 minutes or so.
“Courage” is a good word. Watching the game there seemed to be a number of chances to play the ball forward. Heck, Mike is more willing to make a pass between two defenders more than ACM’s back line is.
It is indeed frustrating how much the ball is passed in between our defenders but its not like its limited to that specific match as we often does it. I can it if utilized to drag the opposition forward and thereby open open new spaces to attack but it often seems more like a lack of urgency and direction.
Our defenders aren’t great at buildup from behind. Pavlović and Tomori are more the type to roam forward with the ball while Gabbia (or De Winter in this case) stays behind and plays it safe.
I think they were overly cautious yesterday and were afraid to make a mistake that will allow Verona to score. Once it was effectively game over, everyone become more open.
Well I get that players have their forces and limitations and I do agree that Pavlovic and Tomori has their forces in roaming more but the players can still pass sideways so they should be able to do it in a more direct way as well. Either way players might not be in possession of worldclass tecnique or vision but passing a ball is nevertheless basics of the sport learned at a young age. Either way I do like the players in question and especially Pavlovic and Gabbia. You are probably right in your assessment of them being overly cautious due to nerves after the previous matches but even a team like Barca in their prime could be frustrating watching passing the ball round and round even if they also played some supreme football.
When that is said I can understand the approach better if it is to drag out time towards the end of a match where a result has to be defended.
There are several problems being discussed here.
1. Too many passes between CBs
2. Slow build up
Let’s talk slow build up first. This has been a problem since Pioli’s last season. That season I generally attributed slow build up to all the inversion madness going on and players not knowing where to be or what to do when they got there. Heck, I bet Chukwueze still thinks he is in Italy the guy was so lost.
Then came Fonseca saying more forward pressure and faster movement. It didn’t take. Leao didn’t press, Theo didn’t track back. Our midfield was sliced open much the CBs were constantly hedging towards a ball coming at them. The ball moved slow because, I thought, there was no belief in Fonseca’s system.
Sarge shows up. Slow ball movement gets us down a goal or two. Urgency and individual brilliance of Pulisic, Leao, Reinjders bails us out. I attribute this to the miasma the dressing room has become.
Allegri arrives. The ball still moves slow. While my attributions above may have been partially correct, it is clear that the players on the field are not being coached to move fast and precise. Gasperini teams do this going forward as an example of what I want to see.
This is different from defensive solidity. Without the ball we should be organized and compact. Indeed this discipline should lead to lightning fast counter moves because all players know where to be and where to find the others.
We do see this sometimes I well worked goals. So I think our players simply have not been coached on patterns of play that demand one touch movement _with intent_.
Heck, just watch the pace of the passes in question in this article. Ludicrously slow moving and begging for interception.
I cannot explain how/why a coach of Allegri pedigree with the talent and athleticism on the squad is playing this way.
Now about the CBs.
If our CBs are allowed to pass the ball around freely, then it means the opposition cannot be attacking or scoring. This, to me is a tactical choice that makes for admittedly boating football.
That said, when space opens we simply move too slow to capitalize. I want to see this change. Players like Magnion, Saelemakers, Bartesaghi, Modric, Rabiot, Pulisic are made for quick, intelligent passes and motion off the ball to facilitate more two or more moves ahead.
But we often see the ball stop on someone’s feet, then slowly go backwards.
I don’t care so much about the tactic of running the clock. It’s the lack of quick effective motion I want to see addressed.
A combo of Leao return and a true hold up 9 may see this improve. Leao stretches the field with pace, power and skill. Fullkrug holding and linking will provide a second point of advance to Modric lying deep. This means more space for Pulisic, Saelemakers and Rabiot to cause problems for the opposition.
/Rant
Luigi is this you ?
You definetly gave me a lot to process here, and I think you did hit the nail in some places.
I’ll adress this
“I cannot explain how/why a coach of Allegri pedigree with the talent and athleticism on the squad is playing this way.”
Bear in mind that:
A- Allegri isn’t exactly renown for playing fast, good buildup,… I think he is content of winning one game at a time and not taking more risks that he should. I don’t read minds but I assume for him that the problem during the last 3 games and the games against small teams in general is that we conceded too many goals. Cremonese aside, we always scored 2 goals or more against lower tier teams and Juve aside (where we missed a penalty) we scored in every game in serie A. So I think Allegri saw that the defense is a bigger problem here than the offense. Or at least that’s what I think.
B- He inherited a squad that has been revamped to a large degree (although 8 of 11 starters were present last season and Saelemakers is pretty familiar with the squad). This process, fast playing, moving in a way to create space for yourself and others and players that understand that quickly, takes time. “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, or in this case Milan.
C- Modrić and Rabiot aside, our players aren’t exactly “la crème de la crème” in terms of vision, passing or anything. Pulišić is a good passer but when the defenders themselves struggle to pass vertically, he ain’t gonna solve this issue. And our current striker isn’t exactly good at stretching defenders, drawing markers, demanding the ball in good positions,… Giménez, while lacking in goalscoring and first touch, was much better in this regard.
Milan 3 Verona 0.
Thank you!
Do people never stop complaining!
You are right. People do complain always but you have to admit that as long as there is scope for improvement, complains will keep coming and there is always scope for improvement.
We do play slow even when we have fast players. Modric isn’t fast now but Rabiot is, Salad is, Bart is, Jashari is. I feel a lot of unnecessary passes are there which pointa to calculations always before impulse. That is good but then it doesn’t bring fear for other teams. There is always a cautious approach for big or even smaller teams. That makes us predictable for other teams that Oh, it’s Milan is it? Milan will always be slow. Let them pass around as much as they want, we will be compact and eventually they will cross or lob inside and from there we will counter. Don’t press, let them pass around till eternity.
Now this approach is bringing points, good, but I doubt if this same approach will work against even mid or lower mid table EPL teams where the game is faster. Maybe complains would have not been there if Allegri showed that Milan is versatile enough to be fast and slow as per need but no, it is not showing that. It is showing that Milan is always slow build up unless in transition. This is working in Serie A but I have extreme doubts if it will work in Inter-League tournaments.
However there is a side of me which says that Allegri is a seasoned experienced Pundit level coach. Maybe he thought that right now flashy punchy fasty is not required because Milan is in Seria A (or other tournaments where only Italy teams play). Right now dooming the objective of reaching top four or win scudetto should not jeopardized just for SHOWING capabilities. Let’s do bare minimum what is required to reach the objective and not burden the team with Type A, Type B, Type C, Type D etc etc. Let’s just stick to the basic 1-2 plans which will be enough to get us through and then once we are in CL or EL, in preseason I will teach them variations that would be required to get past those objectives.
It’s like, my class is capable of studying the courses of class 11-12 but they are class 9-10 (reality). So why teach them class 11-12 books even if they are capable. They won’t need them in the class 9-10 exam. When my class is promoted to class 11-12 then I will teach them those books.
Maybe, I mean this is all my thinking. Allegri isn’t a bum afterall. Maybe a bum compared to Klopp or Guardiola but then we have the best we could afford in Italy. Even we have to think that why doesn’t Ancelloti come back to Milan? If Napoli could afford him, why can’t we? Why doesn’t the club think of forming maybe an Advisory Committee including past great coaches like Capello and Sacchi in the technical or advisory committee. There has to be egoless operation. That, no matter who we were Allegri, whatever had been our past glories, you are the coach, you will take decisions, we will not intervene, we are old anyways, we just have wisdom to share so if we have any suggestions or advice we will give you and have discussions privately. Come Allegri, Come Sacchi, Come Capello, let’s have three brains instead of 1 and all for the purpose of one thing. Betterment of Milan.
That’s a beautiful and thoughtful analysis. Bravo 👏
💯