Any notion that AC Milan’s defensive frailty from last season had been fixed in preseason seemed to evaporate pretty quickly, and now the management must think about acting.
MilanNews recalls how Milan faced eight teams in preseason: Lumezzane, Real Madrid, Juventus, Barcelona, Monza, Trento, Etoile du Sahel and Novara. In those eight games, the Rossoneri conceded ten goals, keeping just two clean sheets
Although they are only friendlies – even if the season start is in eight days – they are certainly worrying numbers for a team that wants to play on the front foot and must have rearguard stability to do so fully.
Malick Thiaw and Fikayo Tomori are the two starters it seems and while the defensive effort is not concentrated on only two players, the errors made by individuals seems to suggest that they are both not at 100%.
Above all, much more is expected from the Englishman. This year he will be a leader and he will have to lead the defensive line, so he must raise his consistency level and not have periods like last season where he was error-prone.
Looking at the two alternatives, Pierre Kalulu and Simon Kjaer, there are also some concerns. The Frenchman was initially adapted to right-back due to the injury to Davide Calabria and with Alessio Florenzi’s sub-optimal form.
Florenzi and Kjaer certainly cannot be said to be 100% based on the game against Novara. The Danish defender is not yet in top condition and he struggled against Corti, who with all due respect is not at the level of the best forwards in Serie A.
Therefore, Giorgio Furlani and Geoffrey Moncada’s ninth summer signing must be a central defender and must arrive with a certain urgency, especially if Kalulu finds himself playing full-back more and with Matteo Gabbia having left.
