AC Milan’s squad construction has once again been criticised, given the lack of options available to head coach Massimiliano Allegri.
As Corriere dello Sport recall, Milan were unable to call upon the injured trio of Rafael Leao, Gimenez and Youssouf Fofana. All three sat in the grandstand near Francesco Camarda, who might also have been useful too, but is on loan at Lecce.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
Scanning down to the bench, there were two goalkeepers plus Estupinan, Ricci, De Winter, Athekame, Odogu and Jashari, who is lacking in fitness. No striker was available to replace Pulisic, who has been suffering from flu in recent times.
He still scored the goal that would have made it 3-1, but it was ruled out due to an alleged push from Loftus-Cheek. Perhaps Allegri looked on, with a hint of healthy envy, at Sassuolo’s bench, which at one point was capable of replacing the entire attacking trio.
One of them was Laurienté, who scored to make it 2-2 and almost found a winner with a shot that hit the post. The Rossoneri attack’s performance once again fell short of their stated needs and ambitions (getting into the Champions League next season).
The need for replacements
Nkunku provided the assist for Bartesaghi’s second, but he remains without a league goal. Gimenez is in the same boat, and nobody seems to know when he will come back from his ankle injury, nor what kind of form he will be.
If the Mexican continues to frequent the stands more than the San Siro pitch, it would be highly unlikely he’ll demonstrate anything significant between now and the January window, the report adds.
Tare is a staunch admirer of Nkunku , and the Frenchman’s resume speaks for itself. But now, resume aside, the time has come to prove with a few goals that he deserves the trust and, above all, the investment made in the summer.
Allegri is continuing to make do with what he has, requiring goals from midfielders (Rabiot vs. Torino) and defenders (Bartesaghi’s brace vs. Sassuolo). Reinforcements are now a necessity.
– If we had one or 2 strikers on the bench, perhaps Allegri could have brought them in when Sassuolo equalized (doesn’t excuse him taking out Pulišić though)
– If we had an offensive minded RWB (or just a regular RWB) on the bench, we could have swaped him in when Saelemakers looked tired, and perhaps even rest the guy from time to time.
– If we had another experienced CB, perhaps we could have brought him in instead of De Winter.
I KNOW that having too many players can be a problem, and I’m not here advocating for a roster of 30+ players, but in our case it’s clear that our depth is shallow, not just quality wise but even quantity wise.
Sassuolo, a newly promoted team, even with all their injuries, had more players on the bench than us. This is non sense.
Yeah Jovic, Jimenez and Thiaw covered those positions last season.
Our management are bafoons!
Also the excuse of not having European football is a red herring for selling half the squad.
Sure we neede to trim the squad but what happens next summer when we have no UCL money and we have to buy a bunch of players in order to compete in Europe the following season, its nonsense.
It’s also unhelpful tampering. Get rid of good settled players and then in summer bring in a pile of unproven rubbish again
That’s 103M worth of players on the bench.
I don’t think we’re looking at Sassuolo and thinking “I wish we had their bench instead”.
We brought two subs on before their goal, one of which was forced. We can say Jashari lacks fitness all we want… he’s not going to get match fitness or experience without minutes. We’re not in a cup, this is the only chance we get (I hope he starts v Napoli).
We were very unlucky not to be 3-1 up in this one, and we had some defensive lapses.
Yes, a stronger no9 would be a nice option to have, but it wasn’t the issue here – no need to overreact.
“I don’t think we’re looking at Sassuolo and thinking “I wish we had their bench instead”.”
No I don’t but I wish we had a least one forward. After they equalized and with Pulišić subbed out, we had NO ONE who could make a difference on the pitch.
It’s not much to ask.
Crazy that we don’t even seem to have youth team forwards to bring in during a bench emergency.
Tare must be working for another club with the sh!t he did to our squad in the summer, and what he’s planning for January
Tare hasn’t made much of an impression thus far. But then again, he’s just a front man to hide behind for Furlani & Co. anyway… Same people in charge.
This