AC Milan have conceded 25 goals in 22 league games and yesterday’s game against Bologna certainly highlighted the defensive issues. A problem that Stefano Pioli should have dealt with a long time ago, as Andrea Longoni states.
In the last two league games, facing Udinese and Bologna, Milan have conceded four goals. They almost didn’t win the first clash due to this fact, while the other ended in a 2-2 draw. The defensive issues are still very serious for the Rosspneri, in other words.
Andrea Longoni highlighted exactly this in his editorial for Calciomercato.com this morning. It’s something that Pioli should have focused a lot more on, as the journalist states, and the manager is now paying the price for failing to do so.
“Milan seem to think that it’s enough to score more goals than their opponents, but they have conceded too many. The defence is not worthy of a great team, in terms of the numbers and how they play. 25 goals conceded in the league, more than one goal per game.
“It’s also the philosophy desired by Pioli this year, with an ambitious but unscrupulous attitude, which often leads you to give space to your opponents, chances, and in the end goals. We are almost in February and this team still has no balance: a concept that was perfect in the Scudetto year.
“In the last 11 games [in the Scudetto season], Milan conceded just 2 goals: today they concede 2 goals against teams like Udinese and Bologna who don’t even have great attacking numbers. Furthermore, a clean sheet makes headlines….”
Milan will take on Frosinone next and a strong performance will be needed to restore some confidence. They are still unbeaten, and Bologna are certainly no pushovers, but the feeling is still that two points were lost yesterday. And the key stats attest to that.
Yeah that’s what happens when you have all 3 starting cbs out at once. Unlike Inter and Jube and they still both only managed draws with Bologna.
What was the excuse last season? We always concede tons of goals because Pioli has no clue when to apply pressure and when not. From a strategy point of view he has always been terrible. We got lucky yesterday in that Bologna basically imploded after we got awarded that first penalty (Motta sent off) and that Zirkzee was clearly feeling the spotlight on him. We simply got outsmarted by a better coach. If Motta had a better squad at his disposal we would have been dead meat.
Yep I agree mostly – just saying if we had our first choice cbs, or if our two Frenchmen put away their pens, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.
The excuse last season was your best friend Paldini provided sh*t depth and the team couldn’t juggle UCL and Serie A and lost form/confidence after Christmas.
you praising Motta so much when he has 2 draws 2 losses and 1 win in last 5 games, are you insane? By your logic Motta can come here and will never lose/draw a game because you said so
Last season we had a weaker midfield and no Kessie replacement.
We cannot be honest about our defensive performance without speaking about the crazy injury situation. Now people got used to it, but it’s not normal to have the 3 top defenders (Thiaw, Kalulu and Tomori) out at the same time for some many matches. There is of course also a system problem, but players are not all the same. Try to have Intern without Acerbi, Pavard and Bastioni out of the same time for 2-3 months and their performance will suffer.
There are a lot issues, mostly that our midfield is rather weak defensively (unless bennasser and maybe mousa are in there).
But another issue is that Mike is not as good as we thought in terms of pure shot stopping abilities
Pioli should have put in Simic and not Terraccino, considering this was the latter first game with the rossoneri, with all the excitement such an occassion brings with it.
OK, so Simic makes a mistake and what, you’re gonna call for another youngster to play?
“pioli, play the youth” He plays Jimenez and Terra who both make mistakes…
“pioli why did you bring in inexperienced players…?”
Simic on has the benefit of the doubt until he makes a similar mistake. Then you’ll call for his head too?
Come on…. This is so old. Never happy.
The Pioli worshippers are such white knights. They will defend him at all costs. It’s never his fault, Europa League is awesome, and top 4 is just fine. Mediocrity is acceptable to these salams.
Dont worry Motta will join Milan and win 5 titles in a row, you guarantee it, Redbird should trust random fan like you
There are no Pioli worshipers. But there are an objective few who understand that despite his tactical limitations (that can be frustrating) Pioli has done a great job with what he’s had to work with, especially with this young bunch.
Unlike the PioliOut crowd who just need to vent and maybe see Dr. Phil instead of always sounding like a broken record player….
-We missed PK’s: Pioli’s fault
-We aren’t good defensively. Starting CB’s are out: Pioli’s fault
-injury crisis: Pioli’s fault – he injured them.
-You aren’t playing Primavera and Youth. Pellegrino, Jimenez and Terraciano play and make mistakes: pioli’s fault for fielding inexperience….
It’s so myopic.
Who put on Terraciano at that moment? Who was insisting on playing 4-3-3 beginning of the season? Who said we didn’t need a DM bc we had Krunic? Our offense looks like a 6-0-4 as someone else mentioned. The plague of injuries isn’t the S&C and medical staff’s issue? The same S&C staff Pioli refuses to change.
We lose to Inter, Juve, Atalanta and blow a 2 goal lead against Napoli and are out of CL and Coppa. But, it’s never Pioli’s fault right? He should be our manager forever, got it. Wake up.
Please re-read my first paragraph… Thank You.
Did we concede all 25 goals while Thiaw, Tomori, and Kalulu were unavailable? No, we conceded majority of them while they were on the pitch. You guys need to refrain yourself from using the injuries as an excuse for Pioli’s downfall. The injuries themselves happened first of all because of the training he provided to them.
There is 1 simple and obvious reason, that is we have no Defensive Midfielder.
Therefore we have no screen in front of defense, no platform to build from and no control in midfield
Stick a proper DM in there and defence and attack will improve massively.
After that we need a forward who can score because our front 3 have been a joke.
(4 goals between them in last 8 league games, 3 for Giroud – a penalty and 2 headers, 1 for Pulisic. So our forward line has scored 1 goal from open play with a foot in 8 games!!! Mostly against crap teams)
Agree regarding thr CDM part