Ruben Amorim has taken charge of three friendlies with AC Milan, and the work that remains to be done now seems obvious.
La Gazzetta dello Sport write that Milan ‘suddenly themselves in deep trouble two weeks before their first competitive match’, with a squad to trim, reinforcements to identify and a playing philosophy to develop. In particular, in the game against Chelsea there were very few encouraging signs.
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Pressing
In the first three friendlies, everything has been pretty clear (at least, in intentions): compared to Milan under Allegri in 2025-26, this team has a higher centre of gravity by several metres and has one of its tasks being to win the ball back in the opponent’s half.
The first 20 minutes against Inter showed what that can look like. Now, that’s the Milan that Amorim wants and seeks. At the beginning of August, against a strong opponent like the Nerazzurri, it’s not a given that it would succeed, especially for the entire match.
Against Chelsea, it felt as though Milan’s press was disjointed and then evaporated completely. Even in the first half, against an opponent far from transcendental in ball movement, the Rossoneri never managed to get up the field and cause problems for the Blues.
The attack
Not that the derby had been a spectacular display, but at least some interesting plots from the defence forwards had been seen. This time, the Diavolo were nowhere to be found.
Against their Premier League opponents they registered no shots on target, showing a complete inability to serve Francesco Camarda in the first half, and very little changed even with the introduction of Nkunku and Ramos in the second half.
The team were more stretched this time than in the derby and took longer to make decisions on the ball. The attacking midfielders were never able to create, which is a worry.
The defence
Shivers of fear ran down the spines of fans tuning in to the match in Jakarta. It felt like we were back in May, or even worse, in the Milan of Fonseca and Conceiçao.
The Rossoneri continued to concede goals largely through their own fault: individual errors, poor positioning, and poor runs. Anyone who attacks the Rossoneri’s rearguard, right now, has an excellent chance of creating a goal-scoring opportunity.
Amorim is obviously giving the defenders new tasks, but – aside from the tragic final month and a half of last season – how is it possible everyone has forgotten Allegri’s wise teachings?
The wings
It’s been known since Amorim was announced that the Portuguese coach loves to play through the flanks, which are essential to his tactical plan. The problem is that with the current squad, the flanks lack suitable players.
The only player capable of ensuring quality in both phases is Alexis Saelemaekers. Otherwise, Samuel Chukwueze is showing all the (predictable) difficulties involved and Zachary Athekame wasn’t even considered.
Then on the other side Pervis Estupinan has reiterated his usual shortcomings when out of possession, and Davide Bartesaghi lacks the pace the coach requires to be direct.
Mentality
While the team had shown significant signs of a reaction up to this point (from 0-2 to 2-2 against Celtic, from 0-1 to 1-1 in the derby) this time, there was no response. Indeed, the first goal, scored in first-half stoppage time, was followed by five more in the second half.
A flat line then followed after half-time and – even more seriously – a flat line for the rest of the second half. In essence, Milan never attempted to come back, or, more likely, were never capable of doing so.
Two months in and he’s the only optimist left.
Wtf guys keep calm. 2 friendly matches played and everybody panic, wait at elast half a year to make any statement of what is working and what is not, or who to fire etc.
The preseason matches mean nothing, even more succesfull teams are sometimes getting trashed in the preseason and? Both our preseasons with Allegri and Fonseca were really succesfull, and we all know how it went.
Please give Amorin time, even if we might struggle in Torino, give him at least some time. With all the shoutings that banter era is on the edge, you are guiding us there too, just keep calm and enjoy some football
How? What you or I write here is read by a few hundred people. Amorim isn’t one of them. Or Cardinale. Irrelevant.
Yeah thats completely ture, our comments are irrelevant and wont change the situation. But at least for the few readers here, I can share the thought that they dont have to panic yet and dont have to take such articles really seriously before they post a peace disturbing comment hating on everybody in our club.
Could not agree more.
Some people here do love to hate everyone and everything though. You know who these people are. 😀
“With all the shoutings that banter era is on the edge, you are guiding us there too”
This is why I commented. No, fans are not guiding the club towards the “banter era” by criticizing the owner, players or the manager.
What you don’t seem to grasp is that this isn’t on Amorim. It’s on the incompetent ownership which puts in place an incompetent management structure, brings in a coach with the wrong ideas given the players available with no real plan to improve the roster or any ambition to actually put a sporting project in place. What’s Milan’s project?
Amorim is almost a copy of Fonseca in his plans and declarations, except Fonseca had a better roster available to him. And how did that work out for him?
Gerry has ZERO plans for the sporting success of this club and until that changes or until he sells the club all of our seasons and off seasons will look the same.
I can’t with this media framing. If we would have bought random players before the friendlies, without really knowing which areas to address and which players to sell (apart from the obvious ST and CB signing, which were taken care of in time), we would have been stuck at this point. Now there is still flexibility to sell and buy the right players and start the season with the right squad. This is why Amorim fielded different outfits and I think that is very legit, if for once, they look at this club as a project rather than a one year thing. It is no more than logical that the team of deadwood players fails to deliver. This is no reason to panic or start blaming the staff or the management. Only if they fail to offload the deadwood and to strengthen the squad with the right profiles, we can legitimately be worried. I’d rather lose every single game in preseason with 6 different squads if it’s actually the start of a thought out project, than to win all games and suffer all season. I would have been 10x more worried if Amorim would have requested and sold all sorts of players without even seeing them train together. Also, people, please bear in mind that most players – between traveling the continents – did not even have more than 1-2 trainings and matches to absorb Amorim’s ideas. This is not a weird thing. What I saw against Chelsea is Allegri-ball and how that is still sticking with even some of the more veteran players. It takes time to regain confidence in playing build-up etc. It’s ‘only’ 10 August. With the right strategy in the weeks to come, I fully believe we will be fine. Not talking about the first games of the season (which would always have been difficult due to the World Cup squad planning), but rather the long term, which is something that is much more important.
Liverpool lost to Leeds and Monaco PSG lost 3-0 to Mallorca and drew against Man Utd to but they are all fine right? Only Milan is ever in ‘deep trouble’
All these low-effort rage bait articles are pretty stupid
This Milan team managed really badly, now with about two weeks left to first giornata in the league they still unable to sell the deadwood like Stupidnan, Musah, Gimenez, Terraciano, Bondo, Tomori, RLC, etc while the coach still want new Players suit to his style of play.
This management become worse and worse,lack ambition and clear vision how to build a strong team.
Cardinale need to sell Milan ASAP
And here it is, first comment full of criticism and hate…
Where do you draw positivity from? Current outlook or roster? Last season? The season before? What looks promising to you? What trends do you see that indicate a positive progression at the club?
It is not sincere to rate a new coach with just mere friendly matches,give him time,he is cooking something with the team,just matter of time;
Forza Milan!!!!!!!