AC Milan’s time in Saudi Arabia was cut short by Napoli, as they prevailed in Thursday night’s Supercoppa Italiana semi-final.
Napoli scored not long before the half-time interval as David Neres bundled in a square ball from Rasmus Hojlund, and then the Dane turned from provider to scorer just after the hour mark, spinning Koni De Winter and firing in from a narrow angle.
The Italian champions saw out a 2-0 win which allowed them to get some revenge after their league defeat at San Siro earlier in the season. It bad night at the office for Massimiliano Allegri’s side, and tensions boiled over towards the end of the game between the two technical areas.
Now, there is only Serie A to focus on, but doubts will once again have grown about how ready this team are to really go on and challenge for the title. Ivan Stoev picks out five things we learned from the defeat in the desert.
1. Not so magic
Let’s just start off by saying that Mike Maignan has generally been really good this season ,and Milan would not have been just one point off Inter if it weren’t for some superb saves by the goalkeeper.
However, against Napoli, we saw a completely different Maignan for the wrong reasons. He could’ve done much better on both goals if we’re being honest and given the standards he himself has set this season both of Napoli’s goals should’ve been saved by the Frenchman.
Players will occasionally have a bad game and we can’t judge Mike too harshly. Interestingly though, there is a parallel with a year ago, when renewing him at a certain amount felt like a no-brainer until a string of bad performances. Let’s hope that doesn’t repeat itself.
2. Nuclear De Winter
Koni De Winter got to start the game in the absence of Gabbia but failed to seize the moment, and was bullied by Hojlund. The Dane beat him easily on the second goal whilst the centre-back could’ve also done a lot more on the first goal too.
Goals aside, he was no match for Hojlund who seemed to get the better of him in every situation. The Belgian seemed to be lacking in confidence and in decision-making when it came to challenging the ball holder or the ball receiver. This hesitance caused general disorganisation.
The struggles De Winter has had every time he’s been on the pitch just further highlight that Milan need to bring in someone more experienced in January that can give the team solidity in the second half of the season.
The addition of someone with defensive nous (Thiago Silva, anyone?) could potentially help them stay close to the top and dream about the Scudetto, which is still a realistic target thanks to the magic that Allegri has done given the squad he has.
3. Blunted, again
With Rafael Leao sat in the stands nursing an adductor issue, it was the two Chris’ who led the line: Christian Pulisic and Christopher Nkunku. It was a night to forget for them both, for different reasons.
We saw very little from the American on the night as he failed to get into those dangerous positions in the box that he usually loves to exploit. When he did drop deeper to get on the ball he was often left isolated in possession and well away from the zones he can make his best impact in.
Then we have Nkunku who continues to struggle, and it becomes more and more frustrating to watch given the price that the club paid in the summer hoping he can make an impact.
The Frenchman is yet to truly grab a game by the scruff of the neck. Playing with his back to goal isn’t his strength and it wasn’t last night, but then when he had some more space he wasted it, like for that counter-attack where he lashed over from Alexis Saelemaekers’ feed (that was admittedly behind him).
To make matters worse, Allegri had nobody on the bench that could come on and influence the game either which highlighted another area where a January signing is desperately needed.
4. Rust to remove
Ardon Jasharu started the game which allowed Luke Modric to take a breather, but there was an evident gap in quality. Jashari still looked a bit raw and not fully fit which is understandable given how long he was out injured.
The midfielder did get on the ball quite a lot which showed a willingness to get involved. He often dropped between the centre-backs like Modric does to be the first pivot in the build-up, but he perhaps wasn’t brave enough in possession.
Moving the ball horizontally far more than vertically meant he failed to help his team find away thought Conte’s compact defence. On a positive side he at least didn’t commit errors, and he should grow in belief with each game.
5. Limitations exposed
We already mentioned that there are some gaps in the squad and the depth is virtually non-existent, but it feels like this topic deserves it’s own point.
The reality is that Allegri has done wonders with the squad he has as he managed to outsmart a lot of his direct competitors, but his team have struggled against the ‘weaker’ sides due to the lack of a central forward that is able to impose himself in the opponent’s box.
Gimenez and Nkunku are struggling, while Leao and Pulisic are not typical strikers. Even if they were, one of them has always been injured whilst the other was fit making life even harder for the coach.
Then in recent weeks the lack of defensive depth has also been highlighted, given that when Gabbia or Tomori were unavailable De Winter failed miserably to replace them even partially.
Looking at the table, Allegri deserves some reinforcements in January, ones that he actually wants and approves of, that can fit into his system and help Milan make a push for the Scudetto. Now, they have the advantage of not playing in Europe or in any cup, so an effort is neeed.
You know you’re in trouble when you’re making freaking Hojlund look world class … so now we can all agree (well, apart from Maldini’s Heir) that Allegri deserves some reinforcements in January – the question is will he get the ones he wants or just cheap garbage like Fullkrug…
“so now we can all agree (well, apart from Maldini’s Heir) that Allegri deserves some reinforcements in January ”
I was just about to type in a similar post!! 😀 😀 😀 😀
Without Bartesaghi the Milan defence is weak.
Maignan should go and Nkunku .Estupinan too.
I don t know about Jashari but Ricci must be integrated is a fantastic player and very compatible with Bartesaghi
We need Gimenez scoring or another forward.
De Winter need a second and last chance.
Can you stop this ‘5 things we learned’ thing??? It’s quite annoying. Games are won, drawn or lost – that’s it. If there is anything learned then we would keep winning. And no one keeps winning all the time. Therefore – nothing is learned.
1- The defense was supposed to be our strongest point here, but since the last 3 games or so, teams didn’t find it too difficult to pass the ball quickly and find the back of the net against was seem a confused and static defense. In september we barely conceded a total of 1xG in 3 consecutives games, now we concede 2 goals per game. To meditate…
2- It’s clear to everyone the gap between our starters and our benchers (Nkunku, De Winter, Jashari, Athekame,…). And before Maldini’s Heir claim it’s normal, injuries are always going to happen, we can’t afford to have only 11 or 12 good players. The number of games isn’t getting lower, soon we might be playing serie A games in Jupiter. The best teams in serie A and in Europe have more than 11 good players and can win few games even if some of their starters get injured, and even they with their massive benches still struggle sometimes with injuries.
3- I’ll be blunt here, but I think it’s maybe time to think that the stretch of 5 consecutives wins from late august to late september was a bit lucky and might have lured us to think that the team is better than it actually is. But even if we don’t admit that, then maybe we should admit that teams have now figured us out and that what worked in september, won’t work anymore. But with Allegri, I don’t see changes happening.
4- For the winter we’ll need a striker (or maybe even 2), a central defender (Thiago Silva ?) and maybe and offensive minded RWB to back Saelemakers a bit.
I don’t think judgements can be made yet on all these players. Athekame has not had much time but when he has he has not looked bad at all. Even scored a nice late goal to get us a point. And Jashari hardly any time since recovering from a very serious injury. It takes a long time to fully get back from a broken leg, I think he looked better against Napoli. Definitely too early to make a judgement on him.
Nkunku has not impressed. I think it probably has more to do with him not fitting in this system. Playing him as a target man up top is not doing him or anyone any favors. Not having a striker is a real problem. We’ve gotten away with hitting teams on the counter but when we face teams that sit deep and defend the lack of a real striker hurts us and Napoli knew that.
De Winter needs to get stronger. He was bullied by Hoiljund, I can only imagine what Lukaku would have done to him.
I think Thiago Silva will be perfect and really solidify the defense, and of course a striker.
The only problem with bringing in a good striker is that it may create another problem which is who starts along side of him? I would say Pulisic has earned it but then you will have an unhappy Leao on the bench. Unless Allegri changes his system which I don’t see him doing.
My judgement on the players wasn’t definitive but as it currently stands.
Athekame is a fullback that we forced to play as a wingback. Now it did work with Bartesaghi, but not sure it can work every single time.
Definetly agree that Jashari needs time and hasn’t done anything wrong per say.
Nkunku is a winger/second striker/attacking midfielder that we forced as a striker. But even in his natural position, he hasn’t done well in 2 seasons (due to injuries among other things).
De Winter well,…
Unfortunately he has been injured but Balentien is a more attacking option for the RWB reserve.
Leao will start and Pulisic will be a sub. Meaning that he will request a transfer in the summer as he doesn’t want a repeat of his time with Tuchel. While there is time left on his contract with the extension, no team wants to keep a player pushing to leave. I thought this would happen as soon as they hired Allegri.
Who gives a shizz. It was a glorified friendly.
Like Chivu said before, neither Milan nor Inter should have been eligible for this.
This stupid game should have been Bologna (Coppa Winner) v Napoli (Scudetto Winner) from the start.
They only added Milan to earn more money from Arab fans because they know Milan is the most popular club from Serie A outside of Italy.
We. Don’t. Care.
Heck even Allegri used it as a game to tweak his tactics, rather than a competitive match.
I agree but it’s not just this match though – Nkunku is off the pace and out of position and we’re looking at bringing in a German who’s injured more than he’s fit with 0 goals in 18 months… Modric is looking tired and Jashari’s not ready.. we need an experienced cb but management don’t want Silva for some reason.. De Winter cost us against Assuolo.. I’d be much more optimistic if we knew they were going to make the right moves in January…
The problem is not necessarly the supercoppa per say but the team’s current trend.
We look weaker and easier to score against that we did earlier this season. Giménez is out for a while so that means we will only have Leão, Nkunku & probably Füllkrug as our possible strikers. We play with 3 at the back but only have 4 CBs, one of whom is De Winter.
We have issues that need to be adressed otherwise the only trophy remaining this season will be put in jeopardy.
Allegri has done well but it’s clear that we won’t go anywhere with these trash players like de winter, estupinan, nkunku, udogu etc. Better pay up and get a top class CB.