AC Milan come away from their match against Real Madrid with another win in the bank and an impressive performance to build on, soon after beating Manchester City as well.
As highlighted by Milan News, there were a number of positives on show in Chicago against the Spanish and European champions, as well as some tactical clues for the new season.
Perhaps the overwhelming positive from the game was the performance of Samuel Chukwueze, who is showing that he could be in line for a far more positive season with Milan than the one he had in 2023/24 under Stefano Pioli. He scored the winning goal and was a threat throughout.
The assist for that goal came from 17-year-old Mattia Liberali, who along with 19-year-old Lorenzo Torriani, put in a very impressive display that shows the quality of some of Milan’s young players.
Milan started the game in a 4-2-3-1 and Fikayo Tomori played on the right of the two central defenders, rather than the left. Ruben Loftus-Cheek was played in a deeper midfield role with Ismael Bennacer, which allowed Liberali to play as the No.10.
Milan controlled the game and were dynamic in possession, particularly on the wings. The defence looked very strong, and that still has Strahinja Pavlovic and potentially Emerson Royal to be added to it.
finally RLC-less CAM position. just upgrade Adli and Pobega with 2 new signings and midfield should be good as well.
Scuffet loan and Torriani in instead of injured Sportiello and Nava (demote to Futuro), will fix GK.
defense and wingers are also complete, imo.
” just upgrade Adli and Pobega with 2 new signings” – LMAO!!!
Reijnders, Musah and RLC are the upgrades over Pobega and Adli. hell, I bet even you would be an upgrade over those two …
Exactly. People want us to have 6 CMs for two positions and 4 AMs for 1 position. It’s crazy. For this point on, we need an outgoing for every incoming. So if Fofana comes in, one must go out (looking like Adli is most likely). If Samardzic comes in, ostensibly for the AM position, then RLC or Reijnders need to go. Why not Pobega? We still need to respect the UEFA list, which just got harder with Sportiello going down (nevermind that Samardzic incoming would mean one of Chukwueze or Pulisic on the bench). This will be FURTHER complicated if Calabria is sold. All reasons why I don’t think Samardzic is needed or will even arrive, and that’s not even touching the need to raise funds with sales, after spending on Morata, Fofana, Pavlovic and Royal.
I knew the squad is not as bad as shown last season. I feel Musah will do very well this season and I’d like to keep Thiaw too. He’s had a bad season but aside Pulisic ,who else does not? When almost all your players played below expectations then it’s a bit unfair to judge and assess just a few based on those performances. It’s understandable if another club overplays while the player’s replacement is expected to be capable which I believe with Pavlovic but I refuse to agree that Thiaw should simply be transfer listed because have had a bad season. They are just friendly matches but the team is clearly showing good signs.
You nailed it
Agree! . I may be hopeful, but what are the chances of having basically 3/4 of our defense on injury list at the same time? . I seriously think some of these guys did not have a good season because of injuries (and youth).
Specially a Musah or Thiaw.
Your writer up is crystal clear @calmdown
Guys I know calabria is seen by many people as the guy that needs to go. But playing out from madrids high pressure, every single link up with his team mate and pass he made under pressure was spot on. The whole team has impressed me a lot with this positive football. I hope fonseca wont change it to mutch when the games become more important and its not just friendlies.
The worst part of all this is that the main protagonists are not in action. What happens to the plot when you add in counterpart compensation to accomodate (an extra CF) Leao who will not hustle as much as Salaemaekers? Plus Hernandez who will require additional cover when going forward in comparison to Terraciano? And then, most importantly,that the bulk of our home games will be played against teams who unlike Real and Man City will sit back and bait us, happy with a point at least? My point? There are encouraging signs but when we get down to the season proper, a lot of present Fonseca ball will be tweaked. Case in point; Last year’s pre season with a deliberate departure from 4-2-3-1 with Reignders and RLC as Mezzalas in a 4-3-3. Exiting stuff. But before long, Pioli was forced back to his default. There is hope based on what we are seeing now, but I will not read too much into it personally