There were some positives for AC Milan to take from their draw against Juventus in Carson, California, but also some areas of concern.
This morning’s La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) have some reflections on the game, given it finished too late for them to be published in yesterday’s edition of the newspaper.
They start by talking about Tijjani Reijnders, the new signing for the Milan midfield who celebrates his 25th birthday today. He seemed to be the ‘master of the midfield’ already in the match against Juventus.
Physically he did not look at 100%, like all his team-mates due to the preseason work load after an extended break, but he already showed part of the repertoire that he will be able to bring to Milan next season.
Some of his runs through midfield and the way he was able to exploit the gaps was very interesting. He still has to get on the same wavelength as his team-mates, which will come with time, but he seems to be an ideal box-to-box midfielder like he said he is.
The defensive phase on set pieces was not impressive however. Net of the difficulties and pitfalls that the preseason offers every year at a tactical level, it should be underlined how Milan often suffered from set-piece situations last season too.
In the Champions League derby and even earlier in the Supercoppa derby, plus in Roma’s comeback draw at the beginning of January just to name a few examples, the Rossoneri struggled.
Even against Juventus, Pioli’s side conceded two goals from dead ball situations. For the first the rearguard was not reactive enough to clear the ball allowing Juve multiple swipes at it, and their second came from a free-kick.
Against Real Madrid the errors had been individual and concentrated, against Lumezzane the only opportunity for the Lega Pro side came from a corner. There is work to be done.
Master??? Lol ok let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
Don’t know if he’s a master yet, definitely. But having watched him so far, he is so smooth linking up play and driving forward. Stellar passing vision. Excited to see what he can do this season.
His passing is great I must say and smooth. But pace is nothing to write home about which I worry about when tracking back. Long shots and crosses I mentioned in a previous post is his best asset. I think I need to see him one more time to get a better assessment. Dont want to jump the gun
Passing looks great. Agree speed was a bit slower than I though but that could be down to fitness. I was at the game and he looked gassed at the end and took a bit of a knock and struggled after that. So hopefully once he gets to full match fitness he will be ok. As I said before I think he will be a great player for us.