AC Milan were held to a 0-0 draw by Cremonese at the Stadio Giovanni Zini on Tuesday night as the Rossoneri were not at their vibrant best.
It was a game of few clear-cut chances and Stefano Pioli will be concerned with how his forwards failed to hurt one of the weakest sides in Serie A.
The first shot on target for Milan came when the ball broke for Brahim Diaz on the edge of the box after a free kick had been headed away. His low drive was easily caught by Marco Carnesecchi.
Cremonese then had a decent spell of possession as Milan looked sluggish that ended with a promising ball across the box missing all nearby Grigiorossi players.
There was a close eye on Milan’s tactical setup at the start of the game as Malick Thiaw was handed his first-ever start for the club. That led to suggestions that it would be a back three of Thiaw, Fikayo Tomori and Simon Kjaer with Junior Messias and Fode Ballo-Toure as the wingbacks.
As soon as play began, it was clear that aback three was in play when Milan had the ball and t meant Ballo-Toure could show his skills much further up the pitch.
It was becoming a very turgid display from Milan but the first good move of the game came in the 23rd minute and saw Messias get down the right and cut the ball across the near post where Diaz was rushing in. He threw himself at the ball but could not make enough contract.
It was immediately followed by a great cross from Sandro Tonali which gave Ante Rebic a free header. He made a poor connection though and the ball bounced past the post. The chances came thick and fast then as Rebic released Origi who had his shot saved by Carnesecchi.
The pressure on the Cremonese goal was building around the half-hour mark as Tonali got into the box and saw his low pass across to Divock Origi be intercepted just in time.
Thiaw almost marked his debut with a goal as he had a good header from a corner palmed away by the goalkeeper in the first half. Carnesecchi continued to stand firm against powerful shots from Messias and Rebic.
10 minutes into the second half, Milan thought they had the lead when the ball broke kindly for Origi in the box and he was able to poke home. Replays showed he was offside when he received the ball and the goal was chalked off by the Video Assistant Referee.
That proved to be Origi’s final involvement as he was then substituted by Pioli for Rafael Leao. The coach clearly felt that the Diavolo were in need of more firepower to avoid needing another late goal.
With Leao’s introduction yet to make any real impact, Pioli’s next roll of the dice was to bring Charles De Ketelaere into the game with just over 15 minutes to go. The Belgian came on for Diaz.
Other than the occasional foray into the box that eventually led to nothing, Milan were not looking as creative as they had towards the end of the first half. Cremonese were sat very effectively in a low block and had the Rossoneri where they wanted them.
Cremonese were finding space on the break in the last 10 minutes and Tomori had to defend well to block a David Okereke shot which led to a corner that came to nothing.
Marko Lazetic was brought on by Pioli for his first senior action although he managed to get booked before he had even touched the ball for pushing and shoving in the box.
Lazetic had the final half-chance of the game as he turned well in the box but fired his shot over the bar.
Having created fairly little towards the end of the game, Milan couldn’t feel too aggrieved that Cremonese had held on to what is a superb point for them at the bottom of the table.
A draw means that Milan are now eight points behind Napoli but still sat in second place. Cremonese are in 18th.
Embarrassing everyone was unwiped ass!
Wow. What a display. Origi – a true champion, eh? FFS this team needs 10 new players to compete for the scudetto. It’s game over.
And sorry guys for earlier for saying Bennacer is the true MVP (Giroud is). He’s not. Worst on the pitch today. Absolutely useless.
Let’s face it, the scudetto is almost over. The focus is now on securing top 4 (we should not take it for granted) and CL.
Very disappointing overall.
Rebic should had been substituted instead of Divock. Committed too many looses passes, loose touches, running here and there without making a real impact.
And CdK, shouldn’t be played in this kind of game when we need to score a goal. Play him on when we already have a comfortable lead. Putting him on in this kind of game brings nothing but another pile of mental block for him.
Exactly. It’s a lose-lose situation for CDK in this situation. You’re chasing a result and you’re playing sh!t, what is bringing him on with 20 minutes going to do except destroy his confidence even more? Especially when the team is playing so badly.
Rebic was the one who created the best chances. His delivery to Origi was absolutely inch perfect. Origi just can’t f*ng score from anywhere!
Milan is really lacking a good offensive on the right side. In my opinion, they should sell Leao. In order to get a better right-winger and another left-winger. I am sure that the left-winger will not be as good as Leao at the beginning. But, Milan needs the money to improve other areas of the field. Maybe another forward wouldn’t be bad. Milan is too dependable on Giroud and Origi does not impress yet.
Literally, the only player that played somewhat well today was our right winger Messias
Yes, I see your point, but Messias is not a very constant player. I think Milan should get the right-winger from Dortmund, Adeyemi, and Okafor as left-winger. Selling Leao can help Milan to improve other areas. Messias is good, but not good enough for Milan and not young enough either.
At least, it is good to know that Napoli will be the winner of the Scudetto for what it looks like this season. I prefer Napoli to be the winner instead of Juventus or Inter.
Still alot of games to be played man, nothing is decided yet.
” I prefer Napoli to be the winner instead of Juventus or Inter.”
This! That’s basically the only good thing in not winning the scudetto this year.
Way to early to say Napoli will win the Scudetto…they haven’t lost yet and are very impressive but inevitably will pass through bad patches as well like all teams.
A shocking performance again from this team. Rebic and Origi are useless, another tactically clueless showing from Pioli, a dumb formation, no creativity in midfield…I could go on. I wonder where all the Tonali fans are tonight, another signature game from the invisible man. People think he is a combination of Pirlo/Gattuso when he’s really a combo of Honda/Kucka.
Milan fans should boycott the game against Fiorentina because this team is embarrassing. The football is so ugly that it is hard to watch.
I’m wondering where the 3 at the back fans are right now. We played it from the start against pretty much the worse team u can get yet was ineffective. The movements for each formation takes quite some time to get right..this ain’t FIFA
Origi is utter dross as a striker, he’s a good athlete and good forward player but doesn’t really fit any criteria, I knew he would be and some claimed he’d be a 20 a goal season..as I said many times there’s a reason Klopp never promoted him and looked at Jota and Nunez and even Mane as CF over him…
CDK was a bad move too. I’m sure he’ll come good but with a historically land continuous weak right side we should have looked to strengthen there
Terrible and frustrating display. The worst thing in these games is that we fail to convert the few chances we create. Leao can be frustrating at times, CDK is completely useless at this point with 0 confidence at all. Origi can’t pass can’t shoot, he is absolutely selfish. If we don’t win against Florentina we can go on the break out of the top 6. Top isn’t guarantee with these inconsistent performance. I want to blame pioli but between injuries and a poor transfer market and playing every 3 days I am not sure he had much to work with
I wonder were are the guys that wen origi scored 1 goal came out of the woods saying that origi should start every game ahead of Giroud because origi is better then Giroud that same guy that some people say that he is bad contributed directly to five goals in two games!
Possibly the worst game I’ve ever seen. Terrible. I’m not making excuses but why did osimeh get a penalty and messias not. They both got in front of the man and it was momentum from the player behind that took them down. In my opinion neither was but we didn’t even get a var review. Either way we deserve what we got. We’re shocking now
I agree that was my feeling. I thought Osimenh Penalty was very light. But we never get these kind of calls. Ironically the foul was against us.
“I’m not making excuses but why did osimeh get a penalty and messias not. ”
Because the rules aren’t the same for everyone. Not in Serie A. And I do agree. It was never a penalty in the Osimhen contact. And one could have easily given a penalty for pulling Messias’ shoulder.
This is pathetic.. People have been bashing Juventus all season but if they win tomorrow they would only be two points behind milan. Inter have already lost five times and would only be 3 points behind milan. What does that say about our season?
I’m so done with de ketelaere. Sell him in January. He is HORRIBLE. He getd worse the more he plays. He forgot how to dribble.
We need serious investments in attack. It’s either we score at will and concede a lot or keep a clean sheet and don’t score anything after 20 attempts. Where’s the good attack and solid defence that was last year? I’m afraid napoli are running away with this.
Origi even looks mediocre but nobody is bothering me more than CDK he started out decent and has been nothing short of horrendous
What a dumb comment.
“Origi even looks mediocre”
Now that’s generous. Mediocre is an overstatement.
Yeah, but we will see in the weekend because Juventus will be facing Lazio and Inter will be facing Atalanta. Milan is not facing any easy team, Fiorentina, but much easier than those other clubs. So, I do no think that they will get closer to Milan by the end of this year. Smaller teams are playing better this season.
I’m blaming the coach for using this stupid formation until the end, we are playing the weakest side in serie a but we didn’t even create chances..? This is really embarrassing. Why on earth will u try such formation knowing that Napoli are going further away from us..?????
Rebic gave a scoring chance on a silverplate to Origi. Messias and 1-2 great chances. Thiaw almost headed one in the top corner. There were enough chances but we didn’t convert them.
*Messias HAD 1-2 great chances.
Most of these were not great chances. They were half-chances or headers from set-pieces. We didn’t create anything.
Why is Rebic still playing, he is disaster. Pioli leave him in play and sub Origi, and Rebic is oponents 12th player. Reinforcements are needed
We are going nowhere with rely only 36 years old striker to gather our goals. Origi is a fraud. Rebic also useless. Only fulfill our medical clinic.
Pioli’s mind is confused. He got away with Spezia but tonight (and in Torin) he was punished.
You’re at the 60th minute and you’re seeking a goal and you substitute your striker for what? For Rebic to play at the top of the attack??? Ok Origi didn’t have a decent performance, but the guy opened quite a few times Cremonese defence. And he actually did score a goal.Taking him out was a failure that Pioli tried to correct his mistake by putting the young Serbian at the last minutes of the game.
Pioli always underestimates the weaker teams. He did it last year too. The only difference was that last season our opponents dropped points…Now Napoli is not dropping anything.
The ref did his job, didnt give a penalty to Milan like the plan was all along. Handball first, secondly bringing down Messias. Hand on shoulderbis penalty, every milansti knows thats a penalty full well since tomori gave away a penalty that way and ended up being sent of. But hey, atleast the ref made bank today…
While I agree on the penalty thing I do feel that Milan didn’t deserve a penalty tonight. They were absolute shite. The whole team. No exceptions.
Everytime ibra is not in the stands they play shit football pioli one of the worst coaches ever he should have been sack 2 years ego
Rebic is better than origi guys. Get rid of origi and get a real striker that score goals why does pioli underestimate small teams we suppose to win with 5 goals. Trust me we won’t finish in top 4 if he keeps up with this nonsense
What a shame, Pioli and his men need to know that losing points to easy teams is not the way to win the Scudetto in case they didnt know.