AC Milan’s midfield department struggled during the loss to Torino on Sunday night and questions have been raised about Stefano Pioli’s rotation strategy.
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Antonio Vitiello writes in his column for MilanNews that playing in Serie A and the Champions League is a difficult double challenge given the aim to defend the Scudetto and reach the knockout stages in Europe, something even Carlo Ancelotti’s sides struggled with.
Rotation is therefore necessary to keep things fresh and maintain high intensity levels, but last year the rotation in midfield was between Kessie, Bennacer and Tonali, and this year in all the games in which at least one of Tonali or Bennacer did not play, the Rossoneri have had problems.
Milan struggled in the away matches against Sassuolo (drew 0-0), Sampdoria (won with a late penalty), Hellas Verona (won with a late Sandro Tonali goal) and Torino (lost 2-1), Pioli’s side had some more problems in managing the match in the midfield.
Against Sassuolo the double pivot was Bennacer-Pobega, against Sampdoria it was Tonali-Pobega, in Verona it was Tonali-Krunic and then most recently on Sunday it was Tonali-Pobega.
It seems that once one of Tonali or Bennacer are replaced, Milan do not play close to their usual levels which is a problem for Pioli because they cannot play every game amid this crazy schedule. At the moment, a solution has not been found to better compensate for when one or the other of the owners is missing.
