AC Milan’s performance against Bayer Leverkusen last night continues to divide opinion, as seen for example by the differing assessments of Paulo Fonseca and Zvonimir Boban.
A piece from MilanNews has a rather honest opening: ‘More than being satisfied with the last 30 minutes, we should be annoyed with the entirety of yesterday’s match. Milan, against Bayer Leverkusen, wasted an hour of the game by going on the defensive, making it easier for the Germans to control the match’.
Admittedly Milan were well on top in the final half-hour after Victor Boniface’s goal and Alvaro Morata’s introduction, but there is still regret for the team’s initial approach and that it took them so long to get going.
The defend-first tactic was completely in antithesis with what Fonseca said before the game where he spoke of trying to change the attitudes towards Italian teams by playing on the attack.
Milan barely threatened in the first half aside from a half-shout for a penalty on Tammy Abraham and a weak shot from Christian Pulisic, which means Boban might be right in not agreeing with the enthusiasm of Fonseca.
The Milan we saw from the entrance of Morata onwards is what we would all like to see and what we must see, in Italy and in Europe: a courageous team, aggressive on second balls, that plays and moves the ball in a certain way and that gives no respite to the opponents.
There is still a lot to do at Milanello, also in the much-needed correction of the quality of execution of certain choices such as Reijnders’ shooting, Loftus-Cheek’s end product and Leao sometimes searching too hard to be the man who does it all.
Fonseca, having reviewed the match, will probably agree that there is a lot to fix, collectively and individually, and that the final 30 minutes increase the regret.
FONSECA. SMALL TEAM MANAGER 🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🇵🇹
Could Milan have done better in the first half? It certainly is. But let’s repeat a few facts:
1. The match was played in Leverkusen, against the champions of Germany. At the stadium where Tuchel’s Bayern conceded 3 goals and had 0 shots on goal.
2. Milan had a hard time dealing with pressing, but showed that it can defend positionally low. Perfecting this part of the game.
3. It is not true that Milan played 30 minutes, they played the full 45 minutes (except for the first 5 when the goal was scored), although the goal was also scored from a half-counter.
4. Milan showed that they know how to play a positional attack and create chances from them, not only from the counterattack (reinders, morata and rlc).
5. If he continues all the games as he finished last night, Milan will be powerful.
6. Boban can say whatever he wants
….
This team has wirtz as well he’s almost like a messi regen, has real quality in the first 11 and have been together 2 years and are riding that wave of winning momentum. Last night was definitely not all gloom and doom. I just watched back the highlights, they didn’t show 2 potential penalties, a potential red, the crossbar and morata follow up, any of reijnders flops or another where the keeper literally stuck his arm out and it catapulted off – maybe rlc. We did ok, away from home certainly not ashamed of that performance although many are. I actually miss the fact we don’t get a 2nd crack at them this year, although it could work out like dortmund did last year.