After the rather disappointing draw against Bologna last week, AC Milan had their eye on all three points as they travelled away to Frosinone.
The game started well for the Rossoneri who opened up the scoring just 17 minutes into the game through a lovely headed goal courtesy of Olivier Giroud after Rafael Leao provided a great cross for the Frenchman.
The lead didn’t last long, however, with Milan conceding a penalty in the 24th minute, calmly converted by the on-loan Juventus forward Soule.
It was Frosinone that struck again to turn the game on its head in the 65th minute, putting Milan in a very awkward position, but Matteo Gabbia equalised with a header as Giroud turned provider.
Then, Luka Jovic grabbed the winner a minute after coming off the bench and continue his excellent recent form. Below are five things we learned from the game.
1. Staking a claim
Giroud is 37 years of age and Milan needs to secure a top striker for the future but that doesn’t mean he can’t have a seat on the bench, and he’s fighting hard to earn another year on his contract.
The striker has had his ups and downs this season in terms of overall performance, but his goal contribution has been consistently there.
With 11 goals and 8 assists in 20 games, Giroud has almost 1 g/a per game showing that he can both score and provide for his team-mates and he did so against Frosinone as well.
He managed a lovely goal to open the scoring and got an assist for the second, while the Frenchman was also quite involved throughout the game and his fitness levels are impressive too.
#Giroud is one of four players in the top five leagues with 8+ goals scored (11 for him) and 8+ assists delivered this season, alongside Salah, Watkins and Sanè.
[via @OptaPaolo] pic.twitter.com/foGWXSiVoh
— MilanData📊 (@acmilandata) February 3, 2024
2. Getting there, but work to do
Leao had one of his best games this season as he beat his marker consistently throughout the game and was the main man for his team.
He picked up an assist for the first goal and really should’ve probably got another goal or assist, which is why he still has some work to do to be on the level we’ve seen him these past two seasons.
However, against Frosinone, we at least saw those unstoppable runs and dribbles that haven’t been always there this season, which was a big bonus.
A really solid game by the former Lille man who was up there with Giroud in terms of impact and hopefully this can be a confidence boost for him.
3. Midfield duo disappoint
Tijjani Reijnders had an underwhelming game as he did little to nothing whilst on the ball and he also picked up a yellow card that will mean he cannot play against Napoli in a week due to suspension.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek will want to forget about his performance as the only positive thing he did was get the pre-assist on the first goal.
For a player who was one of the best in Serie A in January, it was not a performance to be proud of but given his uptrend in recent weeks, we can’t be too harsh on the Englishman as one bad game doesn’t erase all the positives we’ve seen.
4. The stabilisers
Unlike Loftus-Cheek and Reijnders, Bennacer and Musah had a nice impact on the game.It was nice to see the Algerian back on the pitch for Milan again after his absence while participating in the African Cup of Nations.
Bennacer was involved in the third goal and was also good on the ball helping in the build-up. It was a vibrant display off the bench and it’s great that Pioli can rely on him next week with Reijnders suspended.
Musah also came off the bench in the second half and the American was good at holding the ball especially when Milan got the lead again and had to kill off the game.
A solid performance from the American, and he will be getting more playing time with the upcoming Europa League games.
5. Jovic to the rescue, again
The Serbian came in the second half and was at the right place at the right time again for his team as he scored the winner after reacting fast and firing the ball into the back of the net.
The striker has accumulated seven goals and an assist in the last two months or so after barely getting any playtime in the first few months as a Milan player, let alone goals or assists.
Luka Jovic for #ACMilan this season…
✅ 19 appearances
⚽ 7 goals
🎯 1 assist
⏱ A goal every 103 minutes pic.twitter.com/bQQAgs3LyU— MilanData📊 (@acmilandata) February 3, 2024
Jovic has stepped up his game and his positioning has been impressive as of late, but furthermore, he also showed the composure and striker instinct to pull the trigger first time.
Unfortunately for him, Giroud has also no intentions of slowing down as he’s picking up goals and assists too, which is great news for Pioli as the healthy competition has done wonders for Milan.
However, that also means Jovic can’t solidify a starting spot. As said above, with the Europa League around the corner there will be plenty of game time for both and Jovic, like Giroud, seems determined to earn his stay at the club beyond the summer.
Five things we learned:
1. If Maignan wants to be paid 7M per year, he has to earn them, this season he isn’t. Also, he needs to be focused on the game, not on whatever happens at the end of the season.
2. In 4 of the last 5 games, we conceided 2 goals, in the other one we conceided 1 goal.
3. We clearly need a defensive midfielder. We can’t afford to have no player who can’t tackle/defend especially against good teams.
4. Pulisic seems to be declining a bit, at least statistically.
5. Jovic is very good as a sub, coming it with Giroud. We still need to see him as a lone striker from the start.
As I watch Inter v Juve I am struck by the fact the 2 holding players are Locatelli and Hakan. Both are superb.
In the current Madrid Derby – Diaz scored the opener and is running the show.
Not to mention Kessie, Tonali, and many others.
How we have squandered such talent.
It has caused the stagnation of the team and will likely lead to exit of Mike, Theo, Leao who rightly want to win things.
When you build a good young team, keep your best players and add to them bit by bit.
We had a rare moment in the summer of 2022 to finally rejoin the elite, instead we have gone backwards
I agree with you on the general statment, but we were a bit unlucky in some cases. Locatelli wanted to leave (If I remember correctly), we were always gonna lose Diaz (and frankly I think la Liga suits him better than the serie A anyways), Tonali wasn’t gonna play this season and Hakan left before we won the scudetto.
Aside from that, we had a great midfield in 2022 and we recently won a scudetto, we ended up collapsing in some of the worst ways possible.
Locatelli was sold and he was very bitter about it.
Diaz as you say suits spain I agree.
Tonali, nobody knew he would be banned and he will be back. He was sold and money used to buy Musah, RLC and Reijnders.
I think we could have done a lot more to keep Hakan and Kessie.
Hmm…I have it the exact reverse.
There was nothing we could do about Hakan and Kessie because they’re dirty, dirty mercenaries.
There was a lot we could about Locatelli including not signing Biglia.
We sold Tonali for no reason and wasted the money on multiple new signings rather than signing 1 – 2 world class, difference makers (or just not selling him and keeping him).
Brahim was a classic case of develop someone else’s player, and now we’ve loaned CDK to the team directly below us in the table – as you do.
So, in short, it’s the usual mess.
“There was nothing we could do about Hakan and Kessie because they’re dirty, dirty mercenaries.”
We could have sold them sooner if we knew they were gonna leave anyways. They were highly valued at that time and we could have used that money to further boost our summer transfer (especially the 2022 summer).
For Kessie, if my memory doesn’t betray me, we ended up in january 2022 proposing him the same amout of money he initially wanted in summer 2021, but by january he already wanted more. If we could have afforded to meet his demands by july why not have done so ? At least if he has refused we could have cashed on his departure instead of loosing him for free.
“It has caused the stagnation of the team and will likely lead to exit of Mike, Theo, Leao who rightly want to win things.”
Are you saying that Milan isn’t winning trophies solely on the absence of holding midfielder and poor Theo, Maignan and Leao will leave because of that?
How have the aforementioned players performed this season? Are they performing on high level and the only thing that is stopping the team from winning is a holding midfielder.
Let’s look at yesterday’s game. Milan gave up 2 goals and neither one of them was because there isn’t a holding midfielder in the lineup.
The first goal was because of Leao’s lack of awareness where he is at and not tucking his arm, and the 2nd was a gift from Maignan.
Vs Bologna. 1st goal, Theo is nowhere to be found and Maignan lets one in between his legs. 2nd goal Milan had 8 players in the box plus Maignan while Bologna had 4 and Theo again gets smoked while all Milan players including Maignan let the ball pass them all the way to the back post for a penalty. We can go on and on.
Half of Inter starting lineup are rejects. Sommer, De Vrij, Acerbi, Darmian, Hakan, Mikhitaryan, and yet they are solid as a team. Why,? because they have a coach that knows how to make them play as a team.
That same Hakan, who most of our fans were calling trash has only played as a holding midfielder for 12 months, since the middle of last season and he looks like he has played there his whole life. Why? Because of the coach, his strategy, his tactics.
If Theo, Maignan, Leao want to leave they should go and put in their transfer requests, everyone is replaceable, but if Milan has underperformed this season it’s mostly because they have played like crap on the top of the inept coach.
CDK has outperformed Leao, but we are here blaming it on the absence of a holding midfielder.
I watched Inter v Juve, Inter play such quick accurate passing while also being patient in build up. It’s so different from watching Milan. As you say they are well coached.
I agree Mike, Theo and Leao have been very hit and miss. Perhaps some of that is born out of playing in a team that is so disfunctional.
We need a striker and a DM.
To answer your question, yes I believe as Capello does that a High class DM with personality and skill is needed to take control of this team.
I do think such a player would improve defense and offense.
If he can control a game and dictate, the sky is the limit.
I am frustrated seeing so much talent going to waste
Some of the mistakes you outline would not be made if we dominated midfield as we would not be under huge pressure from the likes of lowly Frosinone and others
Also if naming Inter players rejects, just don’t forget they have Bastoni, Pavard, Barella, Martinez, Thuram, Di Marco, Dumfries plus a deep bench.
That’s why i said half of their starting line up.
Speaking of a DM. Milan has the same amount of points today as they had in the scudetto season up to this point of the season.
During the scudetto season Milan had a DM, like Kessie, Bennacer and the “great Tonali”.
Milan is on pace to give up around the same amount of goals as they did last season when they had Tonali and Bennacer.
The midfield was getting outplayed the same way.
The problem is not solvable with a defensive midfielder. The problem is in the way Pioli has Milan playing. He has them chasing the ball around like a cat chasing a light. If you watch inter and Juventus play you’ll notice that all their players are in close proximity to their teammates, while Milan is all spread out, leaving space for the other team to exploit that space.
That’s on the coach, not on the players.
If this is happening 2 years in a row, with 2 different sets of midfielders then its not on the players but on the coach.
If the players have bad habits, make mistakes, or are constantly out of position, they are either taught that or allowed to do that by the coach.
Milan is winning games solely on individual efforts. They don’t play as a team and again that’s on the coach. That is his job, to make 11 individuals play as a team. Milan doesn’t even have a T from Team.
2nd and 3 goals came from broken play or Frosinone mistake. Milan created nothing just like vs Udinese.
I agree with most of what you say.
Kessie was hugely important physical presence in midfield that has not been replaced
Locatetlli wanted to leave because we signed Biglia rather than just giving Locatelli space, and this was after Locatelli had established himself. We could’ve just treated Montolivo with respect and used him to transition to Locatelli but no we have to go out and sign more players.
It’s a common theme. We did the same to Cristante. He had started to get games, he scored, so we signed a Past-His-Best-Essien.
The same will happen to Carmada.
They just can’t stop fiddling.
It was a good win in the sense that once again the team fought and that’s probably the most important thing.
Frosinone were good, as are all sides at this level. Brescianini looked good – more squandered youth.
The concerns about the defence are overstated.
The penalty should never have been a penalty even if the current rules say it was. The rules need changing. VAR should help with deciphering accidental hand balls. The whole idea of the rule against hand balls is that football is a sport where outfield players cannot use their hands, but accidents will occur. Anyway that happens but Leao was in the right position as were the rest of the defence.
Whilst the defence should’ve done better to prevent the shot for the second goal ultimately Maignan should’ve saved it.
Maignan’s off form. It happens. If he continues this poor form maybe we need to think about resting him but many players recover their form and are more likely to do so if they’re supported.
Forget about contract renewables. You’re fans not accountants.
Other than those two incidents the defence did fine and Gabbia was excellent.
The midfield was as usual are weak spot but it’s not like we signed a load of new midfielders (sorry sarcasm).
Attack – well with that front three you’re bound to get one or two of them to make a difference, and two of them did with Jovic also doing well when he came on.
But the fight was there. Shame about Inter winning. All we can hope for is a choke!
(Sorry if I offended any Milan fans by calling the Inter manager a choker)
I would like to see a midfield of Bennacer-Adli and Reijnders. Loftus-Cheek and Pulisic are player worth the money Milan bought them for but aren’t players good enough for this Milan. Inter has been always getting players from Serie a: Hakan, Acerbi, Di Marco, Mktahryan and now Zielinski. So I do believe getting foreign players isn’t the best solution. Or at least getting so many at once!
Acquiring AC Milan, signing foreign players, taking the brand to America, making it an international club, while neglecting its Italian roots, player-wise and fan-wise. Disrespect the local fans by sitting on a meh coach, selling the club’s favourite player and bringing in these mercenaries. They might be better but they are not Italian or at least developed themself in Italy, completely foreigners. Italian and local Milan fans will never look at these players the way they look at an Italian player who might not be as good. Call it whatever you want but this is a fact and it exists with or without your approval. Local fans do not care about your intentions of acquiring the club but you have to show respect. You come here, learn the language, listen to the local fans because well, they know this club 9999 times better than you do. Bring in more players who have established themself in Italy and honestly, foreign mercenaries are the last resort. Not the first option you go too. So no matter how well Moncada is doing he better integrate the factor of Italy in his formula. Do not tell us players in Serie A are not worth the money. Yeah win the league repeatedly first before saying the clubs are below your level. Ignorant, arrogant and disrespectful owner and management.
It’s the midfield. it is both average and lack tactics. Just awful. A downgrade.
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