Franco Ordine believes that there needs to be some tactical questions asked of AC Milan after their defeat against Borussia Dortmund, but also some psychological ones as well.
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The 3-1 defeat versus Dortmund in midweek left Milan’s Champions League last 16 hopes hanging by a very thread, and it also exposed the soft underbelly of the squad in times when they need to be resilient the most.
Speaking in his latest column for MilanNews, Ordine touched upon some of the things that are concerning him from the pro-Maldini camp to the constant calls for Pioli to be sacked, and he spoke about the lack of leadership and tactical intelligence shown in midweek.
“The gesture of desperation by captain Davide Calabria on the occasion of Thiaw’s injury will not have escaped anyone’s notice. He put his hands in his hair as if to say: ‘Oh no!’. Well: this means that at that moment such moral distress occurred in the team as to cause the subsequent holes and the final result,” he said.
“No player on the field, not even the expert on duty, Giroud, was able to revive the group by infusing a hint of reaction to the event. This too must lead to some reflection. Without leaders on the field there is no future.
“A tactical deficit also emerged against Borussia which is worth examining. As we saw, Pioli used Calabria as a fake winger to bring Chukwueze into the middle of the pitch, just as Pulisic did to free up space for Theo on the left.
“With two sensational differences: 1) that Calabria’s opponent, Bynoe-Gittens, didn’t follow him and when he set off again he put the Rossoneri defence in crisis; 2) the opportunity Calabria had at the end of the first half was wasted.”
The point on Calabria is a salient one, given that Bynoe-Gittens gave him real trouble in the defensive phase and yet there was no adaptation to change the approach and guarantee more coverage/less space for the winger to attack. The full-back brought the Englishman down for an early penalty, so the warning signs were there.
