AC Milan are very much a two-faced team, the statistics show, or perhaps more accurately a team of two halves.
As MilanPress point out, there’s a worrying statistic that has emerged from the second half of the season so far for Milan, which has seen 11 matches played so far. From Fiorentina 1-1 Milan to Milan 3-2 Torino, Massimiliano Allegri’s team have scored just 15 goals and conceded eight.
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Attack in decline
Their average goals per game has dropped from 1.68 in the first half of the season (with 32 goals in 19 matches) to 1.36. In other words, Milan are not scoring regularly (despite getting three in the last round) and no one player has more than two goals in the second half of the season
The Rossoneri’s top scorers from round 20 onwards are Strahinja Pavlovic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Adrien Rabiot, Rafael Leao and Christopher Nkunku, all with two goals scored. Some of those are injured now (Loftus-Cheek) or on a drought (Nkunku).
It is an obvious problem for Milan who also have the second worst attack of the top five in the table with 47 goals scored in 30 games, at an average of 1.56 goals per game. The defence, however, is smiling (23 goals conceded in 30 games) and is the second best rearguard for goals conceded after Como.
Allegri is preaching calm in the present but is already working with the club to plan the next transfer window, which will require some movement up front to solve the goal-scoring problem that has plagued Milan for some time.
In the first half of the season, we almost never saw Leao and Pulisic on the pitch together. Both had a good first half. We have seen them start together much more regularly since January and neither is have a particularly good second half of the season. The obvious conclusion is that they do not play well together in a 352. So there are several options. Return to a 433 after acquiring a effective #9.
Sell either Pulisic or Leao in the summer.
Get either Pulisic or Leao to accept a role coming off the bench.
Move Pulisic back to midfield, in place of Fofana or Bartesaghi.
“Sell either Pulisic or Leao in the summer.”
We can’t have just 11 good players on the roster. Depth is needed. We need both – even if they’re not starters in Allegri’s plans.