AC Milan’s soft underbelly was once again brutally exposed as Sassuolo put five goals past Ciprian Tatarusanu in a 5-2 win at San Siro today.
MilanNews focus on the horrendous defensive record that the team have had this year, which reads seven games played and 18 goals conceded across all competitions, including 12 in the last three matches alone.
Milan’s defensive performance in 2023 has been the worst of any team in the top five European leagues according to Opta data with 14 goals conceded in five Serie A matches, to which the other four conceded in the Coppa Italia against Torino and the Supercoppa against Inter. must be added
Today ‘s match against Sassuolo only confirmed a flaw in the system that had been evident for weeks now and things seem to be getting worse. Today market the third time in history that the Rossoneri have conceded more than three goals in three consecutive official matches (the two previous streaks in the 1940s and 1950s).
The squad are suffering psychologically but this is just one factor that is only exacerbating a defensive problem that Milan have been carrying around since the beginning of the year.
Ciprian Tatarusanu is struggling, as Sassuolo had 7 shots on target and Milan conceded 5 goals, while against Lazio the Biancocelesti had had 5 shots on goal and 4 went in. In short, Tatarusanu is perhaps not being helped but he could have done better on three of the five goals today.
The charisma of Mike Maignan is missing but the defence deserve criticism too for their enormous concentration drops, a completely different story to what was shown in the past season. It seems a tactical change is needed to try and turn a corner.
Milan is playing without a goalkeeper.
Tatarusanu is doing more harm to than good. He concedes the cheapest of free kicks, shots, flicks, etc.
Our defenders have zero confidence in Tatarusanu as a goalkeeper, it’s very obvious and they aren’t hiding it.
Pioli is really poor in handling the team professionally ( Kessie, Donnaruma, bakayoko,Romagnoli) should all still be relevant players if only Jose Mourinho was our coach.
( Kessie won a trophy already with Barcelona, Donnaruma same with PSG, calhanoglu same Inter) all left with zero capital gain. Very much an Outrageous behavior!
Worst defense in europe but Maldini walks into his boss’s office and asks for money to sign Zaniolo.
Paolo, RW was the most pressing need in 2020, you failed to address it for 3 years, right now we have much more pressing needs in different departments.
An inebriated fan from the stands can do a better job than the GK Maldini signed to back up Maignan and he does nothing.
Napoli somehow swaps GKs loans with Fiorentina, but poor Paolo can’t do anything on his own without money from the owner. Where is that kind of creativity by Maldini to help out the coach and the squad.
Kad pustiš Romagniolija bez veze i štediš doslovno par tisuća eura onda dolazi KAZNA !!!!!!!!!!
It’s time to admit that Pioli and Maldini are both out of their league at this level. The Scudetto was more of a miracle than a logical result of their work. The new signings are a joke and Pioli is a one trick pony who can’t admit his mistakes or make changes. Forza Tata! Hope we can keep Inter to 5 goals next week…
this is the truth. Milan are no longer playing football. The losses of significant players for free season after season has finally caught up with us. The actual truth is that Pioli showed his limitations in the CL over and over. It was most obvious when he faced PL opposition. Also in the league, when he needs to respond decisively, he does the exact opposite. He freezes and does nothing until it is too late. Maldini, is a club legend. But, I cannot tell how much of this is his fault and how much is being caused by his hands being tied by budget constraints.
finally, they get the bill for super stupid managment
Pretty surprised when Gabbia showed up in the line up. He was horrible the last match he’s subbed in. Tata, well, he knows that his contract will not be extended next season. He has near to zero motivation. Nothing to proof, etc. It’s shown in the field clearly. The decision on why we keep playing him is beyond questionable.
I wonder where the guys who have been praising Gabbia are now… “The most reliable CB this season” 😀 😀 😀
And even more I’d like to hear from the guys who have been criticizing Berardi every time myself or others were saying “We should get Berardi to fix our RW issue”. Yeah, he’s not good enough. Clearly.
Everyone knows this squad is still vulnerable in some areas.
1. Without Mike, we’re conceding 2 out of 3 shots, and his absence further weakens defender confidence/coordination, leading to more shots. Easily 5+ more points out of the last few games with MM in goal.
2. Summer signings not working. At this point it’s still unclear if these were good or bad deals, anyone can explode next year, but we know these did us no good in 22-23.
3. Offensively, we’re Team Leao, but it’s not like you can go out there and sign a world-class striker for 20M or so. We have to get by for now until we make more cash.
Milan didn’t become a bad team in a few weeks, we’ve just had our weaknesses exploited, this is fine, we’ll be back to winning ways and most likely in top 4, which is the objective.
“1. Without Mike, we’re conceding 2 out of 3 shots, ”
Actually it’s 3 out of 4!
What ever the league, what ever the level, it is IMPOSSIBLE to win matches when 3/4 of all shots on goal end up in the net and the opponent gets 4-6 shots on goal.
NO ONE could perform worse than Tatarusanu atm. NO ONE! “Vasquez isn’t ready yet” F*** THAT! Tatarusanu never was and never will be!
Winning the league last season was an incredible achievement. the truth, is that the combined power and leadership of kessie and ibrahimovic took us to the title. Everything that could have gone for us during the run in did. Including that horrendous keeping error for Inter. But we have been degrading year on year for the last 3 years. Players leaving on frees and not replaced. Now the club stands at a real precipice. If we do not make CL, we will collapse. Possibly into selling our crown jewels. And forget about keeping Leao. RedBird borrowed heavily to buy the club. Truth is, there is no money. CL appearances are paying everything. Hence if we don’t make it, we are done. I don’t know what other evidence people need.
Not replacing tatarusanu in summer was milan’s biggest fault since he also made many howlers last year.
Not getting a good central attacker who can score 15/20 goals in one season (an Osimhen) was another huge mistake.
CDK was and is a huge flop. You can see on tv that his face shows he seems scared, unsure of himself, timid, physically weak, always loses the ball when he is tackled ….. in short, a big mistake by maldini and co.
Also when the team passes the ball back, sideways, back again, again to the side, back to the keeper … that shows they have no clue what to do next with the ball.
Trying to start an action by ball from goalie to defender, back to goalie, back to defender on the right, back to goalie, back to defender on the left …. this makes no sense and again shows team has no idea how to push forward.
Finally leao must go …. we cannot have a player who is absent from the game for 80 minutes …. let us sell him straightaway before his value drops down enormously.
Atlanta showed how you spend 15Mill in the summer with Lookman. How we could have done with him!