Thanks to the win against Hellas Verona last night, AC Milan are now just five points behind Lazio in fourth, and that is with a game in hand. As such, Sergio Conceicao now has top four firmly in his sight.
It wasn’t the best of the games, with yet another disappointing first half, but Milan came away with all three points after Santiago Gimenez bagged his second goal for the club. The substitutes were decisive, including Rafael Leao and Alex Jimenez, so the manager has them to thank.
Taking a look at the standings, Milan are now just five points behind Lazio (46 points) in fourth place. The Biancocelesti drew 2-2 against Napoli yesterday and Juventus (43 points in fifth) will be up against Inter this evening.
All of this means that the Rossoneri could ‘fix’ the standings relatively soon, starting with the games against Torino and Bologna. The latter is the one that got postponed last year, so in the event of a win against Il Toro and then the Rossoblu, Milan will be two points from top four or perhaps even better.
Then again, Conceicao’s side really need to pick themselves up as yesterday’s display against Verona was too poor. The Bentegodi side have conceded the most out of any Serie A team this season, comfortably as well, and yet the Rossoneri struggled to create chances.
Given our current form, it’s a bit presumptuous to assume we’ll win our games in hand.
The midweek game against Feyenoord is critical we have to find some balance, if that means only starting 3 of the not so “Fantastic Four” then so be it.
A game in hand is against Bologna, Milan needs to win the 3 point to push harder. The Milan players need to learn how to shoot at goal properly to avoid missing target at goal against any opponent.
Yes, the shots from Musah, Leao and Fofana are bad. Either miles away of the goal or without power.
I think Musah and Fofana should stick to defensive work… everyone can’t be attackers here… goals are cool, but winning is more important and I think Conceicao philosophy might be giving some players too much confidence
Also is it just me or does our team need passing drills?! can’t connect 3 passes together without passing back
I’ve also noticed that we’re making significantly more bad passes again and giving the ball away too easily.
Fofana loses possession a lot I like it when Musa is in the middle he plays like kessie I always like the middle of tijjani/Musa than Fofana
You are touching on something important here. Tell me who, besides Puli and Maignan, has an excellent first touch. Too often our passes bounce off feet like they are bouncing off of a wall. The other aspect with passing is that passes are too often behind a player moving forward, slowing down the movement up the pitch and allowing the opposing defense to get better positioned.
I agree with Michael. The culprits here are Leao and Fofana. They tend to slow down our game in transition and counter. Their passing is very bad and I don’t know why we passing the ball back. We have to play with more aggression and confidence like Jimenez. Another problem I have is Theo. He loses concentration a lot of times and one on one tackles are bad yet the coach likes to field him.
za mjesec dana držat će mo čvrsto četvrto mjesto
We have 3 tough games (Lazio, Napoli, Atalanta), the rest are doable… depends on our consistency
We still don’t know about UCL coeff… If Juve, Milan and Atalanta go through and I think this is inevitable. One of Juve/Milan will face Inter, so there is already a guarantee for a team in semi-finals…
Hope City kicks out Real, will help us a lot…
Under Conceição, in 5 away games (both UCL and serie A) we won 2 games against mediocre teams and lost ALL the others, having a total of 6 points out of 15.
The game “in hand” is in Bologna, against a team who has the same number of points as us with a slightly better attack and recently they won against Atalanta, Dortmund, Fiorentina and drew in San Siro against Inter.
So I’ll say this bluntly, it’s safer to assume that we already lost against Bologna, that we’re not possibly 2 points from 4th place but 5 points from 4th place with 7 teams ahead of us.
UCL don’t matter… we are talking about Serie A
If you have bias against Conceicao just say so, lmao…
Do you I have a bias against Conceição ?
With Motta going to Juventus I thought during the summer that he would be a decent candidate and I still think he could have done a good job if he had a preseason and was able to have some say in the transfer window.
During november/december I called many times for Fonseca to be sacked and proposed Conceição as a replacement. If you don’t believe, feel free to search for my comments during that timeframe.
But right now the team is not only tactically very deficient under him, but also very fragile mentally speaking with players either completely carefree or stressed and tense so I think it’s legitimate to point this out.
I don’t know what you mean by UCL don’t matter… We played those games for a win and ended up losing, so why shouldn’t they count ?
the article is about Serie A… Fonseca wasn’t let go because of UCL, but due to Italy.
he’s been here for a month and a half… not even prime Mourinho could have sorted this mess this fast… he needs time to experiment… he used 3 formations with mixed results, trying to find a sweet spot, that takes time like it or not…
I was saying that Fonseca wasn’t our biggest problem, even though I prefer Conceicao way more… Leao and Theo don’t do defensive work on regular basis, Fofana gone mad, we have only 5 midfielders and only 1 is ball-winner (2 are injured, and RLC isn’t a game-changer anyway).
Emerson Blunder Royal was fixed, with Walker, but midfield and team .
We used to play counter-attack style with Pioli. Team didn’t know how to pass properly nor, control the game. We just defended deep and ran at opposition during counters, Leao and Theo now need to run back-and-forth… none which want to do that… Tiji and Fofana aren’t classical CDMs, Musah is turning into American RLC, RLC welp is RLC and Bondo hasn’t been tried yet…
How is any of this coach’s fault?!
I feel like you didn’t fully get my initial post.
I simply pointed out that the game against Bologna is not a foregone conclusion given our recent results or even our overall results this season. My initial post wasn’t to put all the blame on Conceição.
Is it the coach’s fault ? Maybe or partially or not at all but that’s not my point. We’re still too weak to pretend like we’re already back from Bologna with 3 points.
I don’t think any coach could have sorted our mess out and Conceição is certainly better than Fonseca from a pure results point of view, albeit by not very much but at some point he also has to be questioned. The team currently doesn’t look better than when he first took it and mentally, which is supposed to be his strong suit, the players don’t look motivated at all (although I must admit, if a player doesn’t want it, there is no force in the world that can push him).
Hope Milan proves you wrong
Dude, when Fonseca was fired (December 29), Milan were 5 points behind the fourth-placed Lazio, with a game in hand. Sergio has improved nothing in the regard so far. He is still where Fonseca was.
At the conclusion of the 18th journey, Lazio, 4th had 35 points while Milan had 27 points.
35-27=8
Ah yeah, it seems that another site had made a fake post and I fell for it. lol
Then indeed Sergio has made improvement in regards to the race for the fourth spot. It is quite an interesting race, with four teams fighting for it.
I love AC Milan dearly but this bunch of players will not make top four, maybe top eight, lol.
Leao is a world of great talent but lacks the attitude of a champion.
He is satisfied with being a big fish in a small pond, he should be sold.
Our central defenders and central midfielders should be Italians.
The redbird team is not ambitious enough.
Under Sergio Conceição, we’ve not only begun to secure victories against smaller teams but have also overcome Inter Milan’s dominance. Notably, in January 2025, we triumphed over Inter in the Supercoppa Italiana final, marking our first trophy in three years. This victory was particularly significant, as it
showcased our resilience by coming back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2. Sergio’s immediate impact and tactical acumen have revitalized the team, and with continued support, we can look forward to more successes in the future. Forza Milan. From Abuja, Nigeria
we might face them 4 more times… those stats will help.
Inter if wins vs Lazio, guaranteed 2 games. If we go past Feynoord it’s either Merda again, or Arsenal
Well spoken @Anthony Ifeanyi O, forza Milan, sempre Milan.
So I have Ac Milan fan here ..I’m Kingsley from Nigeria Lagos
Maybe it’s me, but I am not sure that Tiji and Felix are good on the field together. Tiji staying back in the double pivot is not a good use for him, and he and Felix seem to occupy the same spaces. I wonder if ultimately Felix should play on left wing in a 4-3-3. With Laeo as a super sub.
Tiji should be placed back in the AM position. He shone there and make life a living hell for defenders with his long range shots so often times they were forced to press him because of this clear and obvious threat and guess what? That opens up space for a disguised pass to our attackers. Joao hasn’t convinced me much so far and I feel he should occupy the bench rather than be given a starting role for now.
We HAVE to beat Bologna.
There are tough games coming up against Lazio, Roma, Atalanta and Fiorentina.
I don’t know what you guys are seeing, but from the games I’ve seen so far, Milan are playing better.
It’s clear that their game plan is still very poor, but I’m not expecting a transformation like a switch button. We will only start seeing the true impact of the coach next season.
For now, the guy is just trying to scramble result from a not so motivated team.
Istina ! Gledo sam sinoć Intera i Juventusa ! Jako dobra utakmica i mislim da smo miljama daleko od njihove igre !