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.