Christian Pulisic’s goal three minutes into the game gave the very brief impression that AC Milan could be in for a good night against Liverpool, but it all went downhill from there.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes how that goal was a complete illusion, because from the 15th minute of the first half Milan returned to being that listless and disorganised team seen at the end of last season, a group of players without soul or character.
There are many ways to lose games, but it feels like when it happens for the Rossoneri it is always a disaster. Last night Paulo Fonseca’s side were a disjointed, inadequate and one-speed team, with enormous defensive gaps that were easily exploited.
Once again the right flank of Milan was targeted – the weak one, so to speak, which however guilty it may be (two of the three goals last night came from that side), is only a part of a puzzle that is not at all balanced on a tactical level.
There is a lot of absent-mindedness both in terms of giving the ball away in bad areas and just generally letting play bypass certain individuals. Rafael Leao for example was neutralised until the 96th minute when he came close to what would have been a mere consolation.
As expected, Milan were immediately put into their place after the big win on Saturday night against Venezia, and on Sunday there is the derby. Losing in a different way would perhaps have changed the way the fans interpreted the defeat, yet at full-time the team were jeered off.
The situation is worrying, and the Curva Sud sent a message to the team on Saturday before the Venezia match, speaking of a ‘final call’. In that case the team received it, last night they didn’t, confirming that something is still not right. There are no innocent parties in this Milan, and the credit is exhausted, for everyone.
Despite losing vs. Inter and Pioli going to Saudi, I still can’t see Fonseca will be sacked in this near future. This current management won’t make such a big risk and they tend to keep things dwelling until it’s too late.
The fact is that the management simply lacks the balls to admit they made a mistake with the coach selection. Fonseca will be here even after Xmas.
Exactly. Can you picture Ibra admitting he (and his colleagues) made a mistake by hiring Fonseca? Acting god-like might work when you’re a player but not so much when you have to do multifaceted works as a director, or what is it again his role?
These guys are PR animals with huge egos. They won’t say it was a mistake, they’ll wait until the fans are completely mad at Fonseca then Zlatan or any other idiot will arrive as the saviour to deliver the fans from the horrible Fonseca. Then Zlatan will brag in press conference, asking for patience, saying they’re ambitious. We know the trick.
i find that i identify with this…
Wrong. They will, there’s a reason other coaches names have already been mentioned. Failing to secure a UCL place or a place in the KO stages is a risk a club like Milan cannot take. They fired Pioli, a scudetto winning coach, they got rid of a club legend, Maldini, what on Earth makes you think they won’t do the same? Cardinale will keep hiring and firing until he gets the right formula. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the experience of Gazidis so this is going to be how things are for a while.
” what on Earth makes you think they won’t do the same? ”
Simple. Money. Sacking Fonseca and appointing ANY competent coach would mean paying close to 20M€ per year on 3 coaches. RedBird will never do that.
So why didn’t we just get a good one from the get go? Why spend 12m on Pioli and Fonseca when you can get Tuchel or Sarri for that
It’s like 200m on transfers…rather than replace the midfield two seasons running with ‘value 15-20m players’…do it once and get Koopmeiners, Ugarte, Ricci
Everything with Redbird is reactive
We’ll see. Many members here, including me, thought that we also late in dismissing Pioli. If we can see things straight, we’d know that he has no business in keeping his job after that 5th (or 4th) finish. We also waited long enough ’till a couple of last matches to finally and officially announce his dismissal. Another dwelling time that made us lost Motta.
And Maldini, oh yes, that might be the only thing that they did amazingly quick. And we know how that ended up.
Sure, Fonseca will be gone if he keeps repeating this performance. I just can’t see it very soon / right after the derby clash.
Please. This is not a mistake from the management. This is simply a bad managerial decision. The consciously made the decision to higher the worst coach out of a great pick and there decision has cost us the season as early as this. They rightly blamed for the downfall of this club and on top of that there decision to appoint fonseca was money motivated so don’t minimise there decision as a mistake. There was nothing accidental about this appointment.
1. This is not a mistake from the management.
2. This is simply a bad managerial decision.
??
Luckily Gerry still has scapegoates to point fingers at from Fonseca to Ibra and Moncada.
Scapegoats? Those three deserve to go anyway. But it shouldn’t stop there though. But it would be a start.
I totally agree they deserve to go. I really hope they do, at least Moncada. I said scapegoats because Gerry is the shot caller and his calls are completely wrong. He needed only two seasons to dismantle the ongoing project that got us Scudetto.
I think Zlatan is safe. Jerry loves his stars, he never missed a chance to mention that he works with LeBron, The Rock, Ben Affleck, etc. Moncada brings cheap players that PR turn into football Olympian gods so he should be fine. Fonseca is the obvious scapegoat. And the doom and gloom fans look like oracles, again.
Milan played only 15 minutes last night. When Salah hit the crossbar for the first time, water started to enter his ears. After the first goal, everything fell apart. I can’t understand that Liverpool is pressing the whole match, and Milan is standing…? Why do they insist on playing from the goalkeeper when it’s obvious that they can’t get the ball out?? The statistics say as if Milan played against Venezia, only they were Venezia. The defense… is in chaos to put it mildly. I don’t know how Milan can get out of this situation.
next summer this management will start rebuilding the team again. I can’t see Theo extending his contract with us, Mike, if he stays it’s gonna get a huge salary and he is not reliable because of his persistent injuries. In simple words God help us
After yesterday’s reality check Theo will NEVER sign an extension. He saw how far Milan are from the top and he wants to win trophies. MM16 might sign though as he’ll probably realize soon enough that no one will buy such an injury-prone goalie with extremely high salary.
Nobody rational is expecting Milan to win the Derby. And I’ll assume nobody rational in the management is thinking if milan doesn’t win we will fire fonseca.
It’s just irrational and all irrational decisions are poor decisions.
Roma just fied dds after they gave him a chonk contract months ago. Irrational..both decisions
Roma has sacked De Rossi based on poor results. That is decisiveness!!. If we lose the Derby then Fonseca should go.
Roma management is in bigger disarray than us. They are only a half step ahead of us.
I honestly feel the main problem we have is the management, starting with Cardinale, he never really understands how a football club works, right now the management we have is inexperienced when it comes to the sporting aspect, financially they are ok, but what is very evident is we need people who understand the sporting side, sacking Maldini and Massarra was a big mistake, this team has no soul, we have too many Foreign players, who honestly are not completely up to scratch, we lack leaders, the main thing both the management and the Coach needs to do is to appoint Gabbia as Captain, and make him a starter alongside Pavlovic, we could use Emerson as right back, or put Tomori as the right back, Calabria does not deserve to start, or even be in this team, another thing that should be done is place Berthasaghi, Zeroli and Vos permanently into the first, they could still play matches for the Futuro side schedule permitting, it was a mistake not putting Jovic on the UCL list, and again not constructing this team with enough homegrown and Italian players on the roster, we have unserious foreign and average players, I just don’t see the logic of releasing Daniel Maldini and the other young players, and then paying these average players, honestly the best thing we can do is sell Maignan and bring back Devis Vasquez, Mike is too injury prone, players like Chukweze, Calabria and Florenzi should be moved by January, we still have good players, and the Coach right now needs to be supported by the management, let’s see how the season ends.
The firing of Maldini and Massara and the subsequent Tonali sale will haunt the team until they win a Scudetto or until new owners come in. I feel for some of the players because the plan and structure that they excelled in and made Milan relevant again was demolished imprudently. We can blame individuals on the pitch (First it was Krunic, now Calabria, Theo, and Leao) but the fact remains, the management didn’t have a plan when they signed players last season and this season and it will take time to figure out the right formula for this group.
time we obviously dont have…
If the goal is to qualify for the CL, then we still have time. If the goal is to challenge for the Scudetto, then we have to beat Inter this weekend. Regardless, there needs to be a clear plan or we will end up in another banter era;
1. Does the coach have the ambition and ability to lead this team? Will he be supported by the management in terms of investment?
2. How many of these players do we see here in 2-3 years winning titles?
3. Will we sacrifice Leao, Theo, and Mike?
Real and Liverpool were always going to be losses. And if we beat the rest of the teams and even tie Leverkusen, we get through. We won’t go very far in this competition regardless, because we aren’t that good.
BUT, the worrying sign is how mentally and psychologically weak this team is. We crumble at the first adversity. Milan just gave up against Liverpool.
The problem is Cardinale. He doesn’t want to hire a good coach, because, good Coach will cost him more than what he is paying Fonseca & Pioli. So, if you are stingy this is the price of stinginess, period.
Why on earth will you sacked Pioli if at all you would not bring his upgrade?
The solution to Milan’s problem is at the top. Without an experienced Sporting Director who knows how to build a winning team Milan will always be a mediocre club.
All of Milan management including the coach should be replaced by EXPERIENCED people.
Tomori should play as our starting RB with Gabbia and Pavlovic at CB. Get rid of Calabria, injury prone Maignan, Bennacer, Thiaw, RLC and Theo.
Use the money to replace them with better players. Theo is poor defensively and when he makes forward runs he mostly makes the wrong decisions and holds onto the ball too long.
Theo not worth a bigger salary and the same goes for Mike Maignan who was at fault for 2 goals. He should have clear those balls in his area.
Ricci and Warren Bondo should be signed in January. They are better defensive midfielders. Fofana and Reinjders are mezzalas. Our midfield should be Reinjders, Ricci/Bondo, Fofana and play 433.
And lastly get an Italian coach. Milan has never done well with foreign coaches. I would take Allegri over Sarri because Allegri is better defensively and our wingers and CFs are good at creating chances and scoring goals.
Agreed on DS.
I disagree on Mike. Without him we’d have lost 6-1 …
Well, Fonseca is not the main problem, but the decisions made by the management, inclusive the clown Zlatan, who let Kalulu, Seleamarkers, Adli or even Pobega go and invest money into Fofana and Emerson Royal. What can Fonseca do when the overpaid Fofana is so bad, Royal marks from the wrong side, Tomori and Loftus Cheek can’t jump or mark the opponents and hinder Maignan from reaching the ball???
And many fans were shouting “pay the 30m for Fofana” he deserves it. Now they’re calling him a flop and blaming the management for that.
Most of the players are mediocre..period!! And I haven’t seen a GK so injury proned…so what if you are good? There are better out there. Royal is a joke…this team at best is lower mid table…and close to relegation zone in England. Been a Milan fan since 80s… The whole management and team is a joke
Questions of the management:
1. Why Ibrahimovic and not a Sporting Director?
2. Why Fonseca?
3. Why Emerson?
4. Why no true CDM’s?