AC Milan followed up the disappointing draw against Juventus with another poor display against Slovan Bratislava. Nevertheless, a few players actually did well and below are the ratings for the Rossoneri.
If you haven’t already, make sure to check out how we decide the player ratings. From the scale to what affects the rating, we have compiled everything there.
Starting XI
Maignan (6): He could do very little on the goals scored, even if a stronger arm could have saved the second, and it must be hard to constantly be exposed by the defenders.
Calabria (4.5): It was his first start in a long time and it showed, especially after set pieces as he failed to protect his own half properly. We saw this on the first goal as he was way too rash in trying to intercept the ball, rather than protecting Maignan. He was also rather poor throughout the game, in both phases, and was carded for a rough tackle.
Tomori (5.5): His positioning wasn’t always brilliant, as seen on the first goal when he got caught in two minds – either play the offside trap or follow the man. The passing also left a bit to be desired on a few occasions, and he was booked in the second half for a rather rash foul.
Pavlovic (6.5): He lost one duel (with a sliding challenge) that could have proved costly for Milan, but he also saved a goal with an absolutely brilliant goal-line clearance. Aside from that, it was okay and although it mainly wasn’t his fault on the first goal, his positioning also could have been better at times.
Hernandez (5.5): The vice-captain wasn’t necessarily poor, we just didn’t see much of him this evening. A few combinations as well as runs forward here and there, but against an opponent like Slovan, the feeling is that he could have been more commanding.
Fofana (6.5): He had a couple of poor misplaced passes in the first half but improved as the game went on, and was an important presence in the midfield. This was seen especially on the second goal with the beautiful pass for Leao (like we saw against Cagliari).
Reijnders (5.5): The midfielder was put in a very unfavourable position by Calabria on the first goal, clearly behind from the start in the foot race. Having said that, it perhaps wasn’t his best game for Milan in terms of passing and movement, at least we can certainly demand more.
Chukwueze (5): Unfortunately, it was not a good game from him at all. Fair play for almost always taking on the man, which is what we like to see, but he failed in most 1v1s and the end product was poor when he got past. He also threw himself to the ground way too easily in duels, and the crossing was truly below average.
Pulisic (7): It was a great run to open things up for Milan and slot home the first goal of the game. He also had another good run prior to that, but the effort was saved. He continued to be lively in attack and considering how the rest of the play looked, this was essential.
Okafor (5): Apart from one or two combinations with Theo, and maybe on run into the centre with no end product, we really didn’t see anything from him. He was rightfully subbed off at half-time by the manager.
Abraham (7 – MOTM): It might sound generous to name the Englishman the best, but his awareness and vision were brilliantly displayed on the first two goals. The dribble before the layoff to Pulisic was great, and the little dummy to put Leao through was fantastic. The goal topped it off, and even though it was a gift, he had good positioning (and shot quickly).
Substitutes
Leao (7): We can say whatever we want about the counter at the end, when he could have laid it off to Theo, but his run was ultimately the ice-breaker for Milan in the second half. It’s just like what we saw against Cagliari and the finish was brilliant too. He needs to continue like this.
Musah (6): The American did a good job in possession and showcased his ability to break through departments with the ball as well. We can’t ask for much more off the bench.
Emerson Royal (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Loftus-Cheek (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
Camarda (N/A): We didn’t see enough to give him a rating.
The theme of the season remains… Shambolic defending. Instead of getting better, it’s getting worse.
Open play, set pieces… doesn’t matter.
Top of the league, bottom of the league? Also doesn’t matter.
Europe or Serie A? Who cares…
Algorithm says Fonseca is the answer. Nevermind the eye test… doesn’t matter what the management observes jabber in and game out …
* Game in and game out
Well said!!
Just stop rotating the CBs….for the love of god!
This is the most confused I think I’ve ever been as a Milan fan. At least with other managers and players you knew they were crap and what to expect. This bunch go from beating Real Madrid in Spain to this…
Your eye test is actually not failing you. This team looks confused because it was put together in a confused manner by confused management without a sporting director.
Exactly
Ok who stole ACM1899’s phone ? Lol 😂 we’ve been saying this since last year,.glad you’re coming along bro. It was confusing then as it is now,. probably a bit more now tbh.
I always give it the benefit of the doubt to see what Fonseca can get out of this team. It was confused AF under Pioli with no defensive balance.
We’re 12 games in under Fonseca and there’s no improvement. Same problems. Same confusion.
Yes agree…I saw Milan played, and gosh, it was so bad to see.
Yap, it is not AC Milan like I know before. They are now Algorhytem Computer Machine team.
Out there, so many coaches better than Fonseca. Even Gasperini they can hire, but why hire someone who was failed in Roma.
What Ibra, Moncada, and Gerry doing.
And lastly, why Fonseca not change the formation. 4231 is clearly not fit for the team.
Very bad play.
In Pioli era, Milan had at least left flank. And, all other teams did know that, but Theo and Leao always managed to create chances, goals etc.
But now, Milan lost everything.
There is no game play there are no chances, and Milan can’t create anything even against lowest position teams.
Very soon Milan will go to knock out phase in champions league. But will loose sooner rather than later and in serie a Milan will finish like Napoli last year.
Why did they sack Pioli to bring lower grade coach is biggest mistake of this Milan management.
As for Theo, I think he’s simply gassed. Remember, he’s been playing for five seasons without a proper backup, played for France deep into the Euros this past summer, and is not once again being asked to play every single game he’s fit/not suspended for. It can’t go on like this. He’s not a machine, and even machines need maintenance.
*now once again
Agree
He’s playing less than 5 other starters. Stop making excuses for him
Do they play like Theo, run up and down?
Do they play for national team like playing every tournament until the finals?
Do they play without backup’s?
First let us know who’s that 5?
The answer is no. No other player plays like he does in the team.
didn’t know we went back to slavery… everyone’s body is different and Theo role is even harder since he has to keep going all the way up and down…
not to mention how annoyed we are with management fails in comparison to what quality players feel. We have to use Musah to protect Emerson… Calabria also went complete $hit this season… Florenzi is out this season and we are paying him vocational 3-4M… we have no RB but on Transfermatkt it says that we have 5
Ibra already talking about Bennacer being our winter signing… RLC is useless and they are too stubborn to get that through… We need Italians and Scalvini, Ricci, Gnoto, Fagioli and Parisi are our last bet for next couple of years at least…
And Theo is also being critisized a lot because he is that good. Once a performance drop, every camera will go to him. The thing is, Milan bench warmer is not up to the task most of the time. Hence, player like Theo, Leao, Reijnders is over used both in the club and national team
Lol he played less than 5 other starters?? Which are those? According to Fbref, only 3 outfield players (don’t make sense to include a GK, he doesn’t run) has played more this season (for the year though, it’s Theo by miles) and those 3 are the other players being ran into the ground: puli, Fofana, and Deers. At least they have a sub and we’re subbed tonight. That ain’t happening with Theo though because he doesn’t have a legit sub.
Fonseca was literally criticized by Pocettino of all people… this is not ok… you stated our team’s problem not its strength… we need midfielders and fullbacks but management is delusional
bring Parisi, quality RB, Frendrup and Ricci/Fagioli
sell RLC, Calabria, Florenzi, Jovic and loan Terraciano+Jimenez
But this needs money that these clowns won’t spend… Ibra last interview is the fact… “Bennacer will be our winter signing”…
the only ones need to be criticized are the clowns that think they are playing 3d chess, when it’s not even close.
Kalulu sale? really? he would have been worse than Disaster Royal and ex-Capitan? Adli deal can bring Parisi but that needs actual brain cells to see…
No Italians only foreigners… and yes we need them! Fagioli can be a steal but Jerry spending money is hilarious…
I can’t lie we were so lucky to get away with a win, fonsesca is so bad, the directors wanted a manger who can win not a manager who can’t get us into top 4
Stop with the constant negativity. We were not lucky to get a win. We dominated possession. Had more shots, more shots on target. Yes , still some defensive lapses but it was a deserved win. You want to complain after losses, fine, but to come in after a Champions League win and act like the sky is falling… Spread your doom and gloom someplace else.
The problem is Milan can’t put away teams that they are supposed To put away. Its a God Damn adventure every time they take the field…
Our identity is confusion.
You don’t watch the games, it’s clear. This is trash
Sounds like they did, and looked at the stats too…
Never easy with this team. A good win anyways and now we are in good position in Champions League.
I think we’ve seen enough of Calabria at RB. He’s done as a RB, not only can he not defend but his crosses are the worst.
Nice game from Tammy. Involved in all 3 goals. I really thought he should’ve been brought on against Juventus. Hopefully Fonseca gives him some more minutes.
Pulisic continues to be the real leader of this team. All class.
Still shaky in the defense. When teams sit deep Milan gets frustrated and then starts pushing everyone forward, and I mean everyone. It’s a little too reckless for my liking. One turnover or wrong bounce and we are in a ton of trouble. A little more balance needed.
Happy with the win. Let’s get another one this weekend.
The disc performance put your mind at ease? Because it didn’t put mine to ease. I am just as confused now as I was before this game.
“When teams sit deep Milan gets frustrated and then starts pushing everyone forward, and I mean everyone. It’s a little too reckless for my liking. One turnover or wrong bounce and we are in a ton of trouble. A little more balance needed.”
This has been an issue since the Pioli years. We don’t have players who unlock defenses. We’re built for the counter, with Leao being the most suited for that. So, ultimately the problem is being built for one thing, and then having this fantasy that we need to play like another. Unless we’re planning on getting rid of Leao, what we need to do is bring in a world class CB, world class RB, and word class DM to play next to Fofana (Reijnders moves up to AM, or switch to 4-3-3) and then sit deep on purpose and actually play a counter attacking style on purpose. Because offensively, our main threat functions like this, for better or for worse. Forget the high press.
This is what I’ve been saying for years now. Milan could be a devastating counter attacking team with the players they have. It’s basically what they did when they beat Inter and Real this year. But every coach has the idea that there is only one way to play nowadays. Everyone wants to be Man City. Everyone wants the high press with a high line. Problem is if you don’t have Man City players you leave yourself very exposed.
And without their worldclass DM, City isn’t really effective either. Today they just drew to Feyenoord.
Big teams can’t be counter-attacking teams only – when a small team comes with the intention to get a draw, and parks the bus, how exactly would we counter-attack?
It’s fine to say we should play counter-attack against big teams, but it isn’t possible against a small team who has no intention of coking forward. And that’s exactly the type of team we can’t beat.
There are only 2 goods things about this game as far as I’m concerned:
1- We won it
2- It’s over, so I don’t have to watch any more minutes of it and my eyes can stop bleeding.
I have to concede that some achievements were made. We managed to make a threat out of Slovan Bratislava, a modest Slovak team that had no business playing in the UCL and that so far didn’t win or draw a single game in this new league phase. For some moments of the game, they were actually the better team. I’ll have good faith and say this was done as a gift for their fans, a deal to make them look good in a way. Also it’s has been almost ten years since we brought Juraj Kucka, so maybe we thought it’s a good idea to bring back the memories from that era and play as bad (excuse me as good) as we did when Kucka was with us.
Fonseca might have considered experimenting try to play with no game plan whatsoever and see how the players organize themselves when they have no instructions whatsoever. It might be not the case, but it certainly felt that we didn’t have any game plan.
A game like this is generally a good opportunity for players who don’t always start (Chukwueze, Abraham, Pavlovic) and those who came back from a long absence (Calabria) to show their worth and why making them regulars should be considered, but instead perhaps they wanted to remind us why they belong to the bench and perhaps don’t even belong in a football field.
Pulisic&Leao: They deserve a slightly better grade than the rest, giving the fact that they scored. However, their performance was very subpar outside of that.
Abraham: He did score a luck goal and was involved in the goals actions with Pulisic and Leao, but I also feel like there is no point in crossing the ball to him.
Chukwueze: He had a lot of space, time and freedom to express himself and he did exactly that. A mediocre copy and a shooting and passing accuracy that makes Leao and Okafor look like they have snipers and lasers.
Okafor: I actually forgot that he did play today.
Reijnders: Was on camouflage mode today. I can’t comment on what I didn’t see and I didn’t see him play.
Fofana: Other than the nice assist, he was a bit transparent and by transparent, I mean that Slovan players had no issues going through him.
Calabria: Could actually give Emerson a run for his money for the title of worst right back.
Pavlovic&Tomori: defenders are supposed to… defend and this is exactly what they didn’t do. Their position was perfect, I didn’t think one can mess up his positioning to this extent.
Theo: Does he actually bother sometimes ?
Maignan: Was left alone for the 2 goals, but didn’t do something that deserves a praise either.
So wrong. Abraham was MOTM. Involved in all 3 goals. He put Pulisic in on the first. had the dummy on the ball to Leao when he could have touched it and ruined the play, and then scores the third. He actually should be playing more.
It’s a win, we rested some players a bit and got some bench players some good minutes. What a catastrophe!
I don’t know how you missed this in my post regarding Abraham
“He did score a luck goal and was involved in the goals actions with Pulisic and Leao”
Yes, it’s definetly a hard earned win that we should celebrate, and in these cold nights of november, we can also burn the tape of the game to heat oursevles up.
How don’t you read, they literally articulated why they disagree with you and your response is to requote yourself like it proves something. My god the big brain energy in this chat… 😩
This team played better in August and September than they do now 4 months later.
Worst game of the season so far maybe more to come
Isak must be smoking something real stuff these last couple of weeks…
First, Millan players are foolish. You are up 3-1 and you are pushing numbers forward. Yeah, it’s OK with Leao, Theo, and another player going forward, but they left the back line exposed. On a setpiece, your deep players are 25 yards from the goal- WTF. I like Musah, but boy is he foolish. He just pushes his play too much and ends up in a bad position. Musah, sometimes you drive past a player and then release the boy. If you up 3-1, you can just pass the ball around the back line until the other team opens up. If they don’t, you walk away with a 3-1 win. Tammy does not fight in the box for headers. Ollie was always trying to cut in front of a player to get on a cross. There were some good crosses in the box, but no fight to get to them.
Agree with Jim 1000 percent ! Manage the game better and they wouldn t come back.Sit back and draw them out to open up the field (space) and then go forward. I blame the coach for wrong tactics !! Spot on with the remarks concerning Abraham.
Fonseca ALWAYS substitutes too early — especially Puliscic — and always pays the price. That Pavlovic save was brilliant.
Chukw too wild, makes bad decisions and especially takes too many terrible shots from distance that cause turnovers. However, the writer correctly notes that he is one of the few who takes the defenders on while the remainder of the team timidly pass the ball around the perimeter. He needs to wait to shoot until he is closer, has better openings, and he needs to USE his ability to penetrate to dish off with better vision. Other players need to be moving for the pass from him when he penetrates instead of just allowing him to penetrate in isolation
Agree – he has no Chemistry with Pulisic as AM – several times Pulisic passed to Chuk and then made a run only to watch Chuk ignore the run and try to ALWAYS cut inside – run half way across the field and then shoot horribly wide or lose the ball… He needs to start gelling on the give and go with Pulisic – should be Pulisic to Chuk Chuk to Pulisic Pulisic to Abraham goal
Best start to the Champions League in a decade and a half. Conceded zero goals to a Juventus team that hung 3 on Inter at San Siro. Have beaten Real Madrid and Inter(Pioli hadn’t won a game against them in over two years). This team is still maddeningly inconsistent, yes. But the doom and gloom crowd have way overblown this start to the season. It’s true it’s not good enough for AC Milan standards, but I think time is warranted for Fonseca to implement his ideas and for this club to develop an identity. It would be foolish to change managers now. Let’s see where we are at the end of the season. And a reminder to fans that of course you can be critical of the managers ideas and the team’s performances, but you should still be supporting and wanting them all to come good. Yes, that includes ownership too!
Pls did you forget that Napoli. Lazio and Florentina have new coaches too but we can see their ideas already.
Are you saying that Foncesa needs 10 years for his ideas to show?????
What is on show so far is mediocre. The.wins against Inter and Madrid are because our backs are against the wall and the players are hype for such matches
You’d right. They’ve gotten off to a better start than we have. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will finish higher than we will…
Especially Arne Slot. He left his mark on the first game of the season and it has continued and continued and now Liverpool has beat Madrid for the first time and 15 years. Like, Fonseca needs to beat empoli to show that he can be comfortable against lower level teams. The Monza’s, the Cagliari’s of the world.
Why the hell should it include the ownership?
Because you should want the team to succeed regardless of who the owner is…
We aren’t objectively getting worse and I base this entirely on merit, our I should say lack thereof. Our defense is getting progressively worse, without any visible and palpable signs of improvement. I don’t think anyone is over blowing anything out of proportion at this point anymore.
The facts are, we are at the end of November and already seventh in the standings. Without any progress to ride home about. At what point do you start to panic?
The management is at every game observe in this chaos. And yet they still come out and defend the algorithms and continue to back Fonseca. This does not pass any eye test even Ray Charles could see how chaotic things are.
*we ARE objectively getting worse
This is not objective at all. You say the defense is getting progressively worse when we are just coming off of a shutout on the weekend against Juventus.
When you say we are seventh in the standings, you should also mention that we have played 1 fewer games than all of the teams ahead of us.
What would you have management do? Obviously they want more consistency but should they act like the commenters in here and run around screaming that the Season over! The coach is a clown! Fire him already? A new coach barely a third of the way through the season ? A coach who already has some very impressive wins over Inter and Real MAdrid? Who has us in a good position to go through to the knockout stages in Champions League. How would bringing in a new coach at this point in a season help anything?
No. You stay positive, back the coach and hope things improve over the course of the season. If they don’t , then you make a change after the season. But all the negativity, even after wins doesn’t help anything.
A shout out to Juve? LOL!!! K, Buddy, Juve had to attackers. Koop is no false 9 and McKennie is trash. Be objective. There was nothing to defend.
One game in hand still keeps us in 7th. It solves nothing. And given our form I don’t even know that we beat Bologna.
Management made a mistake in Fonseca. I hope they don’t keep him through the entire season thus throwing it away (if they haven’t done so already). I want management to step up, cut Ibra loose – he’s a joke in his position especially after comment like “I’m the boss” …
We need a proper Sporting director who can spearhead this project and hire an appropriate coach. Somebody with a vision beyond cheap buys with a high potential.
We have a mediocre team with good players, mediocre players and frankly “waste-of-space” players. The team looks confused every game. The coach’s tactics and rotations are confusing. Managements statements and leadership is confusing.
I want clarity. I want to know what the f*ck this project is about and on what timeline.
I’m beginning to think you don’t know what the word objective means, seeing as you use it and then go on to give your subjective opinion as a way of backing it up. We shutout Juventus. That is objectively true. You saying McKennie is trash or Koop shouldn’t be a false 9 is your opinion. Vlahovic was out but they still had plenty of attacking options. They did put 4 goals on Inter… I guess that doesn’t count either.
Yes, let’s be like Roma and sack a coach every 3 months that seems like a smart way to operate.
I think they have been quite clear about the project and their goals. They are not going to put the team in debt to spend a ton of money on players. They want to continue improving the team each year and compete for Scudettos and in Champions League. You want to make a judgement a third of the way into the coach’s first season, go right ahead. You may end up looking pretty foolish when all said and done.
Mckennie is trash? He’s actually a good player.
Mckennie isn’t trash, he just isn’t a 10.
McKennie was tied with Leao for most assists in Serie A, last season, and he’s not a winger or striker. He’s also a capable defender.
Our midfield could use such trash!
Oh wait, you don’t think we are really 7th because we have one game-in-hand? Look again. The sixth-placed team has 25 points. We have 19. Even if we won the game-in-hand (which is not a given because we’ve struggled against mid-table teams and even against bottom feeders), we’d have 22 points and still be 7th. All 6 teams ahead of us all have between 25 and 29 points to our maximum of 22 if we convert that game-in-hand.
Nope, we ARE really 7th, which doesn’t even qualify us for the Conference League, much less to the Europa League, and much much less to the Champions League. And we are not improving. We keep dropping points to lowly teams like Cagliari and we can’t beat a toothless, injury-decimated, handicapped Juve who were missing 5 starters and had to play with no center forward.
We have the lowest total of points in years; we are going back to the banter era, and to being a mid-table team. Actually, currently we ARE a mid-table team, outside of the European spots.
Look, there are two teams in the Champions League with zero points; they can’t beat anybody. We played against one of them. We barely beat them 3-2 and if not for a miraculous save by Pavlovic, would have conceded a 3-3 draw. Meanwhile Atalanta played today against the other team that had zero points. You know by how much they beat them? 6-1. Not barely 3-2, saved by the bell from a 3-3 draw. Six to one. That’s how you do it.
Sure, I’m happy that we won, but it wasn’t impressive or reassuring at all. Even with the opponents down to 10 men, we had a very nervy end of the game with them pressing for a draw.
This simply wasn’t a good performance, and I don’t really know what to think of your ability to observe how we are doing, if you couldn’t see that we were rather lousy.
By the way, the expression you want is a clean sheet. Not a shootout. A shootout is when both teams score lots of goals. Our game against Juve ended 0-0; that’s the opposite of shootout.
But why can we beat madrid. To beat all who bet on madrid.
No. I used the correct word, shutout, not shootout. It means the same as clean sheet. It means you kept the other team from scoring. But thanks for the incorrect correction.😉
Oops, sorry, I read you too fast and I thought you had said shootout instead of shutout, my bad.
On the other hand, you berated me for the wrong correction… but you said nothing about your own mistake of thinking that the game-in-hand means we’re not really in 7th place when we are 6 points from the 6th-placed team and all 6 ahead of us have 25, 28 and 29 points so regardless of our game-in-hand we’re still solidly in 7th place with our 19 points.
So you sarcastically “thank” me for the incorrect correction… while you ignore my correct correction? That doesn’t seem like a very fair way of holding a discussion.
When someone correctly corrects me (like you did for the shutout-shootout) I say, oops, sorry.
You should also say oops, sorry, regarding your stance in view of the 7th place and the game-in-hand; that one was a correct correction.
“On the other hand, you berated me for the wrong correction… but you said nothing about your own mistake of thinking that the game-in-hand means we’re not really in 7th place when we are 6 points from the 6th-placed team”
Welcome to dealing with K on the forum. Can’t tell if he intentionally ignores things or simply doesn’t read, skips over or doesn’t understand what other write sometimes. Take your pick. Or more than likely…it.doesnt fit his narrative regardless of facts being presented. “Objective” facts as per acm1899 debate there lol 😂
I agree, that doesnt do well for discussion esp when every time you have to extend olive branches.
I “berated “you ? Hah. I simply pointed out that I used the correct word when you felt the need unnecessarily correct me. In the future if you are going to correct someone make sure you are correct first.
I think you may have just done it again, because never did I say that we weren’t really in 7th because of the game in hand. I just said that when people bring up where we are In points they should also mention that we have played 1 less game. 10 points out and 10 points out with a game in hand are different things. And the people that get some joy out of making the team seem worse than they are never mention that.
Keep up the good work.
@IDKWYDLS – you’re using the wrong example here with K – have you never read a post from SJF, Rossi or Ted? 😂
@dejan10 oh really? 😂 Haha. We all have gotten passionate about things when we write but to have a convo is difficult when there no compromise. Admittedly I’ve done it once or twice in the past. For Ted et al, they’re way more passionate about the owners than I am but the underlying point is there and they’re willing to say my dark inner thoughts lol 😂
To say we are objectively getting worse it’s just not true. We be Inter, something we have been unable to do for the last two years. Our defense kept the clean sheet against the Juventus team that scored four goals against Inter at the San Siro. We beat Real Madrid. I agree that the team is inconsistent at this point. We need to do more. But to say this team is bad and getting worse is just false.
“But to say this team is bad and getting worse is just false.”
Well so far this team is a mid-table team. Don’t believe me ? Go take a look at our ranking in serie A. If the situation remains as it is, which isn’t bad according to you, we won’t be playing in the UCL next season. We have 5 wins out of 12 in serie A, we have losses and draws against the likes of Cagliari, Parma and Torino. It’s been 2 monthes since we’ve won 2 serie A games in a row, and we’ve never managed to win 3 games in a row in total.
We beat inter and Real Madrid which were good and even impressive achievments that I praised a lot, but even mid-table teams can pull these types of upsets from time to time.
If Fonseca can’t pull us closer to the 4th place by the next few games, he should be sacked. Moncada and Ibra should also leave with him.
We beat inter and Madrid and fall to Parma, and can’t beat the likes of cagliari and Torino for crying out loud. We’re Conceding goals in practically every game. Out forward have to score three goals just to tie game. I mean God Damn.
Bro beating Inter doesn’t mean we’re better. We’ve beaten Inter before in the Pioli era. Matter of fact it was in a comeback win on the way to the title.
Granted, we haven beaten them in two years sucks alot, it doesn’t mean that beating them once this season makes us somehow better overall. We’ve beaten them yet they’re competing for the title and we ain’t.
You are so right. It’s a positive result and we are in good position in the Champions League and already have some very impressive wins this season. Then you come to this forum after a WIN and read the comments you would think we just got knocked out of the tournament and are bottom of the table in the league. There are some legitimate things to criticize but the hate in here is so over the top it borders on delusional.
There are a number of people on here who are outright rooting for the team to fail because they don’t like the American owner or because they got rid of Maldini. You can tell them because they come in here angry after a win and are so happy to say “i told you so” after a loss.
I do think Fonseca is an upgrade over Pioli and he deserves some time. With time the team will improve even more.
Spot on assessment. We support the club regardless of who is on the field or in the front office. If not, how can you call yourself a supporter?
Being concerned for the team and for how poorly we are doing in many ways (look at the enormous number of goals we’ve conceded so far this season), is not refraining from supporting the team. When I go to San Siro, I scream to the top of my lungs and support the team nonstop. I never boo the team. It doesn’t mean that when I go home, I can’t be concerned for the weaknesses the team is showing, especially in the defensive department.
Saying that a manager who has just begun his tenure should be sacked, and a management who by all accounts have made historic levels of investment into the club, should sell the team…is not supporting the club.
Read my previous comment where I said criticisms of manager and team are not the same as not supporting the club. Everyone has the right to do that. However there is clearly a faction here that wants Fonseca and RedBird to fail because they don’t like the way they run the team. That’s the antithesis of support.
we are not doing good in champions league, 18 points with a goal difference of 5/6 might not put us into top 8 means winning all the remaining matches won’t be enough to skip play-offs, Atletti were 4 position down prior to this match but now they are above us after hitting 6 past sparta praha
They won. It wasn’t pretty but they dominated possession. Defense is still lacking and although they gave Pavlovic a decent score am I the only one that thinks he’s a liability in the back? He seems erratic and out of position often. My favorite part of the game was when Pulisic blasted a shot into Tammy’s face and then told him never to take his penalty kicks again.
Funniest comment award here.
that was great
This page is full of the biggest baby Milan fans I have ever seen. Win, Cry and complain. Lose, cry and complain. It’s embarrassing
Say it again bro!
Why doesn’t he run the 4-3-3 with Musah as RM, Pulisic back to Rw, Morata false 9, Leao LW and freaking stay with this. Don’t change it for any opponent, because at this point any other team has a chance at beating Milan there are no easy games. Hopefully when Morata is back Fonseca runs this. Tammy had those good moments, but he is awful in the air, he challenged zero crosses. Chuk has one move he does and he does it every time he gets the chance
Again, objectively, speaking, did this Milan performance leave you in high confidence?
It wasn’t great, but we did dominate possession, created more chances, more shots, more shots on target. A couple of defensive lapses that yes, it would be nice to solve that, but it is still a positive result in an away match in the Champions League which we are now looking in very good position to go thru. And we got to rest some players and get other players valuable minutes. Then you read the comments here and you would think we just got beat 3-0. It’s way out of proportion the negativity.
It’s like every time we are not playing a top team everyone thinks we should be up 3-0 at half and take out all our starters. Doesn’t work like that.
My most optimistic glasses are cracking man. Hard to draw positives. We’re 12 games in the league with the save problems and NO improvement.
Ha ha so true.
Oh and hate the club captain more than Inter players…
Ha ha so true.
Oh and hate the club captain more than some Inter player.
If I remember correctly we played god awful in 2005 in the group stage and made it to Istanbul… I’m not saying this team’s anywhere near good as that one, or that we’re going to get to the final but even the great Milan sides of the past struggled sometimes in the CL against weaker opposition (and Ancelotti and Sacchi were hardly wiping the floor in the league year in year out either.) Our problem now with Fonseca is that the struggling seems to be outweighing the performing. I’m not ready to sack him yet but he’s basically flying by the seat of his pants at this point.
Every game is a f*cking adventure irregardless of who we face
“I’m not ready to sack him yet but he’s basically flying by the seat of his pants at this point.”
Tonight’s game didn’t change my take on this last point. Fonseca has 3 serie A games to fix our serie A ranking and at least get us close to a UCL spot. Failure to do that, he should be sacked.
bro, Milan will get the 5th champions league spot next year ahead of florence and lazio/juventus as italy will remain in top 2 this season in europe
This site is so frustrating at times. I hadn’t posted in something like 5 hours. Then my first attempt at posting after 5 hours, it says I’m posting too fast and need to slow down. Then it refuses my post again when I try again after several minutes. Then it believes I’ve posted that post already (although it was refused), and it says duplicate comment because I’ve already posted that. Uh, what? You didn’t allow that post to go through, so how come another attempt is a duplicate?
People will start quitting if the administrators don’t fix this problem.
I think the post you made that was refused probably ended up in moderation and then later on most likely will get posted but yeah its pretty damn frustrating. I usually copy past my comments before posting them and if the before mentioned happens i repost them with small differences which can come down to a space infront of the post or addin some extra periods at the end of the text. It usually does the trick for me.
I think the issue is down to when a lot of people is posting and there is high activity on the website but not 100% sure.
It’s not moderation. When it is, the site says that your post was posted but is awaiting moderation. Besides, my post had nothing to require moderation; no attacks on other posters, no foul language, nothing.
It doesn’t really always matter as some moderation is not done manually so it can still be a technical issue that is causing it. I did a lot of moderating for goal years ago and some comments regardless of how harmless they were still ended up in a moderation queue. Not necessarily the case here but as I’ve experienced this issue before myself where it wont initially get posted and then later on it does suggests some moderation issue to me. Either way what I mentioned about making small changes still can help whatever the issue might be.
It should have looked like a win that was fine, but the 2-3 was simply a good goal and it makes the win look slim. In the end the boys did what needed to so it’s fine. We should play musah on rb and wait for kalulu to return lol
Other than the win, there’s nothing to brag about. We made the bottom placed team in CL look like world beaters, as we did with Cagliari. Worst part is – we KNEW this exact thing would happen, it’s just this team’s frustrating lack of consistency and winning mentality that always plagues is in these games, especially away. Never in my life have I seen Milan’s defense look like this. It’s almost becoming an entertainment, with comedy, tragedy, action and drama constantly mixing together. That first goal… wow, not even seen in Serie D.
The opponents are weak. They score rarely and concede a lot (entered today’s game with 2 goals scored and 15 conceded). They are the last team in the UCL. Still, they scored 2 on us, almost 3 if not for a goal line save. That’s pretty bad. Still, a win is a win and we have 9 points.
Maignan, 5.5. I’d expect a bit more in their second goal; that’s why I’m not giving him a pass.
Calabria, 4. Reckless foul and yellow, responsible for their first goal.
Tomori, 5.5.; saved Pavlovic from a blunder but got a reckless yellow.
Pavlovic, 6. Failed badly once but fortunately that didn’t result in a score, and he did save a goal which is the same as scoring one, so I give him a pass.
Theo, 5.5. Defended reasonably but didn’t help the offense.
Fofana, 7; awesome passes and an assist.
Reijnders, 5. Co-responsive for their first goal, blocked shots, wide shot, didn’t do anything right.
Chuk, 5. Again wasteful efforts, losing the ball, poor crosses.
Pulisic, 7. Scored, created another opportunity, did his part.
Okafor, 4. Totally useless. Come again, Leão critics; is this the player you insisted is better than Leão???
Abraham, MOTM. 7.5; despite some toothless attempts, did score once, did assist once, and participated in the other goal. Can’t ask for more than that. Results-wise, likely his best game this season.
Subs
Leão, 7. Again did his part, scoring once although he played for only 45 minutes.
Loftus-Cheek, s/v
Musah, 6; has been quite correct lately; continues to improve.
Camarda, s/v
Emerson, s/v
Mister Fonseca: In his favor, he did read that Okafor was doing nothing, and brought Rafa in; for this I’ll not rate him lower than a 5, but it’s the same Fonseca who rotated too much putting us at risk against lowly Slovan, and sat Rafa in the first half. He continues to be unable to fix the defense that should never have conceded 2 goals to this horrible team, almost 3.
4 for Calabria???
What a farce.
He made one mistake on the goal, and the only reckless thing was having one defender back from a corner when we were a goal up.
I have to question the point of supporting a club when you hate the club captain.
I mean this Milan side it terrible to watch, so what exactly is the point of spending your time watching this team if you hate the club captain and club symbol?
Go and support Real or someone.
It’s all meaningless.
I’ll never understand fans who support a mediocre club but then have ridiculous expectations for its longest serving player and club captain, who consistently puts in solid performances.
“He made one mistake on the goal, and the only reckless thing was having one defender back from a corner when we were a goal up.”
Do you watch each player with differents glasses or what ?
He does, he’ll always try to make Calabria seem better than he was.
Dude come on, Calabria was horrible tonight, you’re in love I think.
From Football Italia:
“Calabria – 6 A decent return to the starting line-up for the Milan captain all things considered, 96% pass completion rate and won 100% of his attempted tackles”
At least they used some stats to back up their rating and not merely “the eye test”. In my opinion, he wasn’t bad. Was fairly involved on both ends of the field and was generally solid. Toommuch negativity around here.
Agree. I think the score on this site was over the top from him. Sure he made a mistake on the 1st goal but he wasn’t the only one at fault for the situation. If you give up a goal on your attacking corner, it is more than the fault of one player. And an excellent counter from the opposition.
Otherwise I thought he was decent and I felt much more secure in his performance (and interactions with right winger) than I have with Emerson.
I actually think his combo with Chuk works well. He cuts behind him and crosses well with his right boot. Chuck starts wide and cuts inside on his left foot.
Calabria just needs some game time & fitness.
As to if he is too injury prone. Maybe.
This! Calabria was a big improvement over Emerson.
I;m not hating btw, he just came back from injury.
You’re putting Calabria above the club. And you’re the one questing things? That’s rich.
So what if he’s the captain. It doesn’t mean he is immune to criticism.
Calabria was good positionally in some very key spots tonight. Some which I don’t think Emerson would have been in. There were some good clearances and he did do ok overall. I wouldn’t put the first goal on him..Tijji seemed to have been closer but I wouldn’t put that on him either. Which coach tells the players to have the last man on defense just outside the 25 yard box???? After being up 1 goal. That CANT be the players. No way they did that in seasons past. I think Fonsy is over playing his press.
Also Calabria has just come back from injury and this was basically his first real game. Give him a few more games and Emerson will be permanently stuck on the bench as I expected all along.
I don’t remember anyone saying Okafor was better than Leao. They just said Leao needed to be benched which was true. Leao still walks around too much after he gets dispossessed or makes a bad pass. It’s annoying but at least he works somewhat harder now and is starting to score again.
The fact that YOU don’t remember it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Oh yes, they said it. Flyinturtle, bb… they literally said we should sell Leão and we’d be fine because we have Okafor. LOL.
Well if they said it then they said it. I don’t pay enough attention on here. The majority of what I saw was bench Leao because of his attitude and lack of desire.
We are up 3 -1 Sit back and draw them out to create space and then move forward with our possession. Why are we pushing forward …. WHY ! WHY! WHY! I BLAME COACHING .
That shot was a rocket. Nothing Maignan could’ve done man.
Scored two fast break goals, spent the rest of the time building slowly out of the back ending in pointless crosses or turnovers that led to goals the other way. We have fast skilled attackers but lets not use them properly.
Why did Fonseca push Calabria up so high? The guy is straight buns in the final third, what could he possibly offer? I like the guy and all but play to his abilities.
He offered a number to crosses which is why he’s provided goals and assists in every season he’s played.
He offers a goal and three assists per season over the past couple years. He gets more yellows than G/A combine. He hasn’t played much this season and I would prefer to see him play in the backline during build up and make over lapping runs if we are transitioning on the right side. Again, I like Calabria and appreciate how he represents the club and he is a good captain but he needs to stabilize the backline. We leak goals like crazy and the job of a captain is to shut that down through words or actions.
Yes, he’s better lower.
4.5 for Calabria?
He made a mistake on the goal but other than that actually showed what we’ve been missing with Royal.
He stopped attacks down the left with his positioning. Bratislava players were forced to play it backwards. That’s text book defending.
I’d have given him a 5.5 because of his mistake on the goal (when it should be noted Milan only had one player back).
Unbelievable. You ARE right that Calabria doesn’t deserve a 4.5. You are wrong on the reason for that, though. That’s because he deserves a 4.
He did NOTHING right. Gifted a goal to the opponents. Was beaten in other situations. Committed a reckless foul that earned him a yellow.
He was actually successful in one VERY hard thing to do: he made us miss Emerson Royal! Kudos to him for that; it’s an almost impossible feat but he got it!!!
Come on, he only made one teensy mistake that somehow led to a goal (like in every game he plays…) Other than that it was like watching prime Zambrotta….
Put Calabria and Emerson in a green suit and photoshop them in the game – couldn’t tell who’s playing.
This is zero difference. Apart from the fact both will give you a heart attack every time an attacker runs at them faster than a toddler.
Booooo terrible take.
Agree
Meanwhile de Ketelaere has one goal and three assists tonight. Buy whomever you want, without the proper coach, nah. You can’t judge the players without giving them a suitable coach first.
He has 2G3A but still it wasn’t a double double.
I hope Milan will try to get rid of Chukwueze this summer. He is a CDK kind of failure. I think CDK showed more promise than Chuk. Chuk just isn’t a team player. He only tries to do things on his own. And most of the time it fails. His shot was the start of their first goal.
He should be benched. Pulisic needs to reclaim the right. Morata as a false 9 please and Abraham as striker en reference point up top. Gabbia and Thiaw at the back.
Musah was good in the middle of field and I’m happy to put him in as a sub. Other than him. We haven’t got very good subs.
On today’s episode of Fonseca out
Calabria’s stats were good- 90% passing and 5 tackles won.
He wasn’t perfect but not sure why there is a competition between Fonseca and Calabria to be the most criticized around here. Just came back from an injury, first start in quite some time and decent. Sure, he made mistakes and his crosses were misplaced but name another player on that field who did not make a mistake of some sort.
The predictable pile on for Calabria.
All it took was one mistake (where for some reason we had one defender back on a corner where we were 1:0 up and where Reijnders jogged back after the attacker).
The levels of hatred for our longer serving player, club captain, Scudetto winner, are really beyond the pale.
It makes everything about people’s alleged support for this team utterly pointless.
As someone else pointed these people watch games and win, lose or draw come on here to moan and complain and write off players with the most venom saved for our longest serving players.
What is the point?
This is a pretty mediocre Milan largely due to our pretty mediocre manager and incoherent transfer strategy.
The players are mostly the victims in all this. If Fonseca was coaching Napoli you could probably swap the league positions around without changing a single player.
Napoli went from 1st to 10th after losing Spalletti and are now back up to 1st. That’s the difference a manager makes.
As for Calabria we saw some text book defending tonight. He consistently pushed the left sided attacker backwards. He also made more varied runs forward on the inside and outside, and switching with Pulisic. Unfortunately Chuk overcomplicates things and missed a number of passing opportunities.
But the trolls log on and attack the club captain, piling on that one mistake to declare the club captain finished at the age of 27.
If you hate the club captain you hate the club. The two are inseparable, as are most of the players we watch week in/week out.
If you genuinely find it so hard to watch this club do something else. Find another club. It makes no difference because you don’t have any connection to Milan. Just some weird addiction to moaning and complaining.
He’s just not that good. Although I would stick with him if the only other option is Emerson.
You’re ignoring the fact that Calabria just came back from injury. Players don’t perform at their best and usually need a couple of games to get back on track.
Calabria’s performance was a 4. Gifted a goal to the opponents which is pretty serious. Didn’t make a single cross right, they were all wildly misplaced. Was beaten in other occasions that resulted in dangerous counters. He was one of the worst players on the pitch. With ONE exception, all the other rating websites gave him very low scores.
Observing that this player is currently detrimental to AC Milan and wishing for a better right back (and that’s not Emerson Royal) is not hating the club.
True fans want the best for the club. When a player is not performing even decently, and is detrimental to the team, leaking goals in favor of the opponents, regardless of being the captain or being long-serving, he needs to go, for the good of the team.
YOU are the one putting your unreasonable admiration for a player, above the team. YOU are the one not supporting the idea of improving the team by advocating for the managers to acquire a better right back, because definitely our two worst defensive players are the two currently playing the right back position. Half of the numerous goals we conceded this season came from that sector, when the opponents’ left winger beats our RB, crosses to the second post, and another forward then scores at will.
If that’s what you want for AC Milan, maybe the fan who is not a real fan is you, not us who appreciate Calabria for his past, but know that currently he is incredibly subpar and needs to go.
On what you said about the coach and the managers, I agree with you.
You’re ignoring the fact that Calabria just came back from injury. Players don’t perform at their best and usually need a couple of games to get back on track.
Calabria had been horrible even before the injury.
Some good moments.
The issues with defence clearly remain.
We need to settle on a CB pairing.
RB at this point I’d like to see more chances of Terracciano. And that is saying something.
Perhaps if Calabria can get fit he will be okay.
USMNT is experimenting with Musah at RB given his tenacity and speed and dribbling skills – I think he could be developed into a world class RB – he just needs to learn when to pass vs dribble as he gets himself into trouble at times trying to go through the team – lose it at midfield you have a defense behind you – lose it at RB – uh oh
Dest will be the right back once he comes back from injury. Musah will play in the midfield or as a right winger since Weah is left eye dominant according to Poch.
Dest is not a very good RB either. Anyway, regardless of where Musah will be playing for the USMNT, I think that for Milan, the idea of trying him at RB is a sensible one, because he seems to do it better than both Calabria and Emerson. I’d have loved to have kept Kalulu and said so several times when his transfer saga was on (and it’s horrible to see him reinforcing a big rival like Juve) but since that’s water under the bridge, and since Terracciano is not good either, I’d favor trying Musah there.
I always thought that Florenzi, despite being older and injury-prone, was better than Calabria at RB. Too bad that he got severely injured.
Given that our amateur managers are not likely to resolve the RB position in January, I’d rather see Musah there than Calabria, Emerson, or Terracciano.
Dest is a great RB for the USMNT. And he’s been good at PSV. I know he failed at Milan and Barcelona but he’s actually got loads of quality. Hope he gets another chance at a big club.
You want to convert Musah into a RB? Musah likes to push the ball upfield and has little interest in defending. We like to think he can defend because he’s big and fast but he falls asleep on defense a lot and he even thinks of himself as an attacker not a defender.
Musah needs to learn how to pass. Not just when to pass. He misplaces passes 50 % of the time. I liked him on the central midfield yesterday. When he has more space he can actually use his great ball control.
Another factor to consider is Fonseca is actually rotating the squad. He is demanding high levels of performance from every player on the team. There are growing pains obviously, but he is using the entire squad, something Pioli only did when injuries forced his hand. Again we must wait and see if his strategy works over the course of a season of football with many games.
We only asked Leao for 45 minutes tonight and finished with a 16 year old leading the attack. It’s not as if we played our strongest 11 and scraped by…
About Pioli and rotations, that’s not true at all. Pioli often engaged in excessive rotation, changing 7 players at a time, unrelated to injury, and never learned from the blunder, despite Milan dropping points in 80% of those heavily rotated games, and despite the distance between first and second teams being actually wider last season than it is, now. In this, I think that Pioli was even worse than Fonseca (which is a big negative accomplishment…).
Most coaches, when they want to rest players and rotate, start with their best 11, secure the result, and when they are leading by 2 or 3 goals, they sub out the starters.
It is a lot easier to defend a lead because then the opponents have to chase it therefore they expose themselves to counters. It’s harder to try and catch up when you are behind, because then the opponents park the bus. That’s why it’s best to start strong.
Inter start their best 11 practically every game, and they only sub them out once they are ahead, like almost every coach with good common sense does. Also, doing it like this makes the players understand each other better as the core team gets more used to each other, promoting stability and team play.
Sure, rotation is needed when you play simultaneous tournaments, but there is a smart way to do it, and a dumb way to do it. I get the impression that Fonseca often employs the dumb way to do it.
Look, you said it yourself in your next post; we did not play our strongest 11… no, we didn’t, and for that, we incurred an enormous risk of drawing with the UCL’s worst team. See, without that heroic save by Pavlovic, they’d have scored 3 goals on us, like Cagliari did, and the game would have ended 3-3. We need points in the UCL given that we lost the first two games, so, Fonseca’s strategy was risky, and by very little, it didn’t backfire dramatically.
Seeing Royal, Musah and RLC come on together made my stomach sink. We were basically going to gift a comeback to Slovan! Luckily the clock did it’s job.
I agree – However the comments about constantly rotating the back line hangs on Fonseca – The back line needs to have stability – they play off each other and know what each other is going to do – keep mixing them up game after game and this is what you get
To the posters saying that the ones complaining of our performance are being too pessimistic, because after all, we won:
See, this way, we won’t be going far even if we qualify for the next phase. Inter are sitting pretty in first place; even if competitors win tomorrow, they can’t get any lower than 3rd.
Atalanta won their game against the Young Boys, the other last-placed team, 6-1. That’s how you beat the two worst teams of the UCL. Atalanta are sitting pretty at 4th. Arsenal beat Sporting which up to that point were the 2nd-placed team, 5-1. Atletico Madrid beat Sparta 6-0; at least Sparta have collected 4 points so far.
We on the other hand struggled to beat the 0 points, minus 13 GD Slovan Bratislava. That’s not encouraging.
Another way to look at it is that Milan are currently only 1 point away from qualification to the next round and avoiding the qualifying round. Both are true. It is all a matter of perspective. You and others see a glass half empty and me and others see a glass half full.
It’s not that I see a glass half empty. It’s that I’m concerned for our consistent weaknesses that are not getting any better, some 20 games into Fonseca’s tenure. We are leaking goals like crazy. We are conceding 2 goals in a game very often, sometimes 3. That’s not good. It negates all the effort that our forwards put together. Our problem is not goal-scoring. We’re scoring a lot, but we are conceding quite a lot too.
Looking at that and being concerned for the team, I’d call it being realistic, not being a pessimist who can only see the glass half empty.
The problem is, the glass for the defense IS INDEED quite empty; not just half empty. Just plain empty, and seeing that is seeing reality.
I mean, Cagliari can score 3 goals on us; Slovan Bratislava can score 2, almost 3 if not for a miraculous save??? Darn, that’s bad. Can’t you see it? Do I need to be labeled a pessimist because I see it???
You act is if others are saying everything is hunky dory. We are all watching the same games and wishing for better performances from the squad. There is plenty of criticism to go around, sure. But to make a change a third of the way through the season would be a fool’s errand. Why commit to a manager if you won’t give him a full term to see what he makes of it? All the over the top negativity sounds alarmist at this point. We’ve seen enough good things from Fonseca and the squad to allow him to work through the season and see where we land. In April we can start to talk about if this manager and team are good.
Lately I’ve been saying that at this point of the season, we can forget about any possibility of Fonseca being fired. I’ve been saying that it might do more harm than good right now, for three reasons: to restart from scratch is not good at this point; there is no guarantee that management would get us a better coach than Fonseca (unlike in the summer when better options were indeed available and willing), and I couldn’t think of a really good coach that at this point would want to walk into this mess. So, yes, we’re stuck with him until the end of the season. However I do think that he will be fired if we don’t qualify for the next UCL, because we’d miss more than 100 M Euro (at least; much more if we consider merchandise sales, the brand name, the valuation of the club) and we’re owned by an equity fund that does understand money.
This said, I never supported his hiring to start with. I said several times at the time that I thought he was the weakest option of them all. I would have preferred Motta or Conceição, and while I had my reservations regarding Conte, I’d have preferred him too, to Fonseca.
But yes, now it’s too late.
I do understand the idea of giving him some time. I thought so in some points of the season. But I confess that I’m not optimistic about that, because 20 games into his tenure, it does look like the problems persist and are not getting any better, so Fonseca’s work is not reassuring me that it’s just a question of time and eventually he’ll get it right.
I mean, he played as a defenseman. Can’t he fix this defense? The defense is a disaster and is not getting any better. I’d expect that he would have shown at least some hints of being able to fix it. He has not. The defensive problems remain the same.
Maybe he just lacks the capacity to get it right. He never coached a team as big as Milan before, and I wonder if he has what it takes.
But let me be very clear about a couple of things you said up there: do not count me among those who root for Fonseca to fail, or for RedBird to fail. While I believe that Fonseca is mediocre, and while I believe that RedBird is employing the wrong strategy for a large number of reasons, I will NEVER root for Milan to fail, be it the squad and its players, the coach, the managers, or the owner. I express concern; I express my doubts about their work, but of course I’d much prefer to see them succeed.
If others here root for them to fail, that’s not me.
I think a lot of the exaggerated criticism is anti-American sentiment. I do not share that. I criticize the management and the owner because of some things I think they are doing wrong, not because of the owner’s nationality.
What I think they are doing wrong: Not having a sporting director. Having a confused mercato strategy and scouting that often doesn’t really match an attempt to patch the weak spots on the roster. Being too slow and cheap when negotiating with players, clubs, and agents, resulting in worthy targets being snatched by other clubs. Having named Ibra as a manager when he appears very much lost and misguided – great player, lousy manager. Having a cap of 20 to 25 M for new signings: even if they invest quite a lot of money, often they sign too many so-so players instead of focusing on a few more expensive ones (above that cap) that would bring more permanent solutions to the weak spots.
I couldn’t care less if they were American, Italian, Chinese, or Martian. If they committed these errors, I’d criticize them the same. If they did not, I’d praise them.
I do praise them for implementing Milan Futuro (although they should have hired a proper coach for the kids) and for working on a new stadium.
Much like you aren’t a pessimist, I am not an optimist either. As Flossonero said in his response below, we can see the faults in this team, coaching, and management. My point is the exaggerations people make after a positive or negative results are over the top. The reality is the season has had its ups and downs but it isn’t “over”. Qualification for the next round of the CL is likely, the Scudetto (though unlikely) is possible and there is still the Coppa Italia to be played. Nothing is lost yet even though we all wanted a better start to the season.
Here’s some positives:
For the first time in the Champions League, AC Milan have scored at least three goals in three consecutive matches; when also including the European Cup, this hasn’t happened since September 1989.
AC Milan have won two consecutive away games in the Champions League for the first time since October 2009 – one of those two victories was also against Real Madrid.
Let the boys cook and hope that with each week they continue to grow and get stronger.
I’m with you. There have been very good moments(inter, Real) where everyone was excited. Also a lot of lows. I think Fonseca hurts himself with too much rotation. Pulisic, Leao, Reijnders, Fofana, Thiaw, Gabbia, Mike, Theo, and Morata/Abraham need to always start. Milan desperately needs consistency and that’s hard to get when you rotate too much. Plus the likes of Chuk, Okafor and RLC are a big drop in quality. The RB position is tough because they are lacking but if it was me I’d go 433 and have Musah behind Puli to help Calabria or Emerson out. And stick with that line up for a bit. The others can sub in early or late depending on how the game is going.
I entirely agree with what you said, but a big concern of mine is that we the fans can easily see these rather obvious things, but our professional head coach apparently can’t. That undermines all confidence I could have regarding Fonseca’s work.
Fonseca seems to lack the capacity to learn from his mistakes AND paradoxically, even from his successes. He did produce some magic against Inter and Real… but then he seemed to have abandoned the good solutions he found there, and regressed to tactics and lineups that had failed before, and kept trying to reinvent the wheel, engaging in excessive rotation and excessive experimentation, so that the team never gets stable enough to grow together.
It seems rather obvious that our best formation is 4-3-3 and the ideal midfield is Reijnders-Fofana-Musah with the latter helping the RB. Our best games were when we did that. But then Fonseca goes back to 4-2-3-1, sits some of our best players, insists with players who are much worse such as RLC, Chuk, and Okafor… I see myself shaking my head and not understanding why he shoots himself in the foot like that.
Yeah I’m not sure why Fonseca does it. Might cost him his job. But I’m hoping he succeeds and can learn from his mistakes eventually. I actually liked how he handled Leao because Leao is his own worst enemy. Loads of potential but seems to lack desire and hustle on the pitch for whatever reason. He needed to know that he could be benched. He’s playing better now. And Milan beat Inter for the first time in years and then Real away. So Fonseca has done some good stuff but it seems he can’t get the team motivated unless it’s against other big clubs. Hopefully Milan will get in a good groove but I don’t see it unless he stops rotating so much.
Ryan, I wanted to reply to you about Sergiño Dest but for some reason that post of yours didn’t have a Reply button on my screen. Look, I was at San Siro for that game against Napoli we lost 1-2, entirely thanks to Dest… While I never boo Milan, I’ve rarely heard my fellow supporters booing so much a player… everybody was extremely angry at him. So, those things stick with you, when you go to the stadium to see a game against a rival, and this one player blows it and you lose the game.
So, sure, maybe he’s good for the USMNT. While I do watch the USMNT especially to see Puli and Musah, I haven’t seen any great performances from Dest even there, but I believe in you when you say he did have good games for them. But it is easier to form an opinion from the games one watches, than from the games one didn’t have the opportunity to watch, and for me, Dest’s tenure at Milan was a disaster (not only because of that Napoli game, but he had other horrible games too). That’s why I think lowly of him, but I respect your opinion that maybe he’s better than that and did well in games that I didn’t watch. I’ll take your word for it.
Trust me, he has loads of potential and has shown it many times for the USMNT(not every game like Puli does) but I don’t know if that will ever transform into consistency at a top level club. He’s doing well at PSV but that’s hardly a top league. He had a bad injury so who knows how he will be when he gets back.
True, the Real Madrid win was great and filled me with joy. But the other two games we won in the UCL were against rather weak teams. Club Brugge and Slovan Bratislava are hardly top teams. We did have an obligation to beat them.
I do not blame the team or the coach for losing to Liverpool; they are just too good. I do resent the loss at Leverkusen; I thought we were too timid in the first half and could have at least tied that game.
Overall, yes, we should be able to advance to the next phase of the Champion League; maybe not as one of the top 8, but at least as one of the 9-24 teams. That’s better than what we did last season, so, there’s that.
However, my concern is not really just advancing out of the League phase. That seems to be a given. My concern is what will happen next, when we see the results that other teams are achieving. Like I said, of the two bottom feeders, we struggled mightily to barely beat one of them 3-2 (minus that heroic save by Pavlovic, we’d have tied with them), while Atalanta beat the other one 6-1. I look at Atletico Madrid winning their game 6-0, Arsenal winning theirs 5-1… both playing against teams way better than Slovan Bratislava. We just don’t seem to be on the same level of our future opponents, so I don’t expect that we’ll advance too far, beyond surviving this first phase.
Of course I’ll love to be wrong about that.
The thing is, not only we’ve been up and down, but we seem to only do well as the exception rather than the rule.
Look at our last six games: lost to Napoli at home, barely beat relegation-zone Monza 1-0 exclusively because Daniel Maldini wasted so many chances; beat Madrid, great! Tied with lowly Cagliari, with a nightmarish defensive performance. Tied with a handicapped, injury-decimated Juve that couldn’t even field a center forward; barely beat the very worst UCL team while conceding 2, almost 3 goals to them.
Ok, so, basically, we had ONE good game out of SIX!!! As much as that good game was against a formidable team, the other five games don’t inspire any confidence.
It’s admirable that you are focusing on the positives, but sorry, I just don’t see so many positives.
Abraham shows class??? Really??? Did you watch the game? Have you been watching Milan at all? Who did Milan play tonight….come on. Stop living in a Bubble.
Still a long way to go, but one silver lining: today’s Serie A results in the UCL pushed the league into 2nd place in the UEFA coefficient, which delivers a 5th UCL spot next year.
The EPL is first, Serie A is second. The top 2 earn an additional spot.
In third is the Portuguese league; fourth the German Bundesliga; fifth is Spain’s La Liga and sixth is France’s Ligue 1
Given that we’re in 7th place in Serie A currently, having a 5th spot makes we closer to qualifying for the next UCL, which is good.
Of course the Serie A teams need to continue to do well throughout the 3 European tournaments until the end, for us to keep this 2nd place and earn a 5th UCL spot, but it’s good that we are already in the top 2.
Unless it for a short time changed in the meantime of June then Serie A was already ranked 2nd back then as I remember reading the ranks back then. Come to think about it it probably changed when Spain won the Euros.
National teams don’t count for this ranking. This is a club ranking as the UCL is a club tournament.
Of course it is but I just thought maybe the coeffecient mitght be affected by national teams success as well. If that isn’t the case then Italy has been ranked 2nd best league since early June 2024.
This win felt like a draw. Slovan actually had the first big dangerous chance. And then we almost blundered it at the end. Thankfully one of their players was a Milan fan and got himself sent off (sarcasm in case ppl can’t tell). Why do we put ourselves in these positions I hv no clue. The one positive is we won and got points.
However we could have easily gone down 2-1 or 3-1 at the half to the worse team in the competition prior to this game smh.
We know we can score , it’s the pesky defending particularly in midfield. And it’s never a good sign to be conceding so easily to poor teams.
I put these things squarely on the coach. He’s not adequate enough. If you look at the first goal, I really can’t blame the players. Like why is the last two defenders on a corner not on the half way line, first of all to cover the minimum offside line and second to spread the play. Instead, they’re a few metres away from the pen box. Insanity! I noticed for Netherlands that Deers has played as the last defender on corners at the halfway line. It doesn’t mean we should incorporate that st.upid strategy too. He clearly doesn’t have that sort of pace for covering. It should be Tomori and Calabria (when fit) who both offer no major aerial threat on corners. The way they setup I can’t see how it could be the players. Deers stays back on the line for Holland,.he doesnt for us. There’s something wrong with the instructions.
The second goal same thing. Why the coach allows both fullbacks upfield is beyond me. At least Calabria (and during the Pioli era) has the sense to stay further back when he sees Theo up. But we’re up 3-1 taking risks like having both full backs upfield. Poor Musah has to cover RB and Pav has to cover the left side. And our mids struggling to get back because none of them defends (that’s on management for poor squad construction to be fair). It’s such shameful tactics.
At least Atalanta whipped the next worse team in the UCL, while we eeeked out a W.
Fonseca is clearly below the best coaches, but we needed an alternative to Pioli and no one was available. I’d put most of the blame on Moncada. Over €200 million spent in 2 years and the right backs are terrible, there’s no cover at left back and we don’t have strikers that score. I’d still expect fourth, then Moncada and Fonseca will be history at the end of the season. Maybe they can get Klopp out of retirement.
“Fonseca is clearly below the best coaches, but we needed an alternative to Pioli and no one was available.”
MANY coaches were available. We could have tried to hire Sérgio Conceição, we could have gone for Conte since Napoli didn’t had a deal with him very soon, we could even have gone for Sarri but no, we choose Lopetegui then Fonseca. There is clearly something wrong with this algorithm and the management in general.
No one was available? Several good coaches were available and willing. We basically chose the two worst ones (Lopetegui first, then Fonseca) when Motta, Conceição, Conte, De Zerbi, and others were available.
Just like the others I have to disagree here. Out of all the summers in recent memory, this one had quite of good/great set of names to choose from…yet we went with the cheapest in the hope it turns out well. Just like our player recruitment. Hope. What we really needed was quality in the coaching department.
Wrt Moncada I would prefer if he remained a scout and do that job effectively. He did so when Maldini was there but since he took over what was effectively the sporting director’s role, he just doesn’t have enough time between the two roles. And his scouting work is suffering. Plus he doesn’t have the better eye test and footballing experience ppl around him (Maldini and Boban) to confirm his findings. You can tell from the signings and dealings he made this summer.
Good Take.
Non of the players including the coach deserves 5/10 rating. Very shambolic display.
Always the same cry babies in here.
We are doing great. Remember only one team can win and we won.
Forza Milan ❤🖤❤🖤
Actually half of them aren’t even here – probably too depressed that we won.
It’s actually banter era football we’re having. Roaming in the middle of the table with occasional win.
Don’t understand all the hype around the win, it’s Slovan Bratislava for ffs, the worst team in CL this season who are worth as much as Emerson.
But, not everything is negative – Calabria was a big improvement over Emerson. Stats proven.
Anyway, you get what you paid for.
The Real Madrid win was great, no doubt. But look at the other five games of the last six that includes Real. We lost to Napoli at home, (although with many absences), barely beat relegation-zone Monza 1-0 only because Daniel Maldini had numerous scoring opportunities but only shot wide or high; tied with lowly Cagliari with a horrendous defensive performance, tied with a handicapped, injury-decimated Juventus while they didn’t even have a center forward able to take the field, and barely beat the worst UCL team 3-2 only because of a heroic save by Pavlovic who spared us a 3-3, and because their pressure for a draw was stopped by their having a player sent out.
Whoa. That’s 5 bad performances out of 6.
So, yes, great that we beat Real in this stretch of 6 games, but if we play one good game and five bad games, we definitely won’t go far in any competition, and will miss the next UCL.
We have only 5 victories in Serie A out of 12, and even if we count 3 additional points out of a hypothetical conversion of our game-in-hand (not a given as we usually play down to the competition), we would still have just 22 points while 6 teams ahead of us have 25, 28 and 29 points. We are currently VERY far from a UCL spot.
It will be a disgrace if we don’t make the next UCL; a disaster not only for the fans, but for the financial account, the valuation of the club, and the world-wide brand name recognition and merchandise sales impact.
The one silver lining is that if we don’t make the UCL, our mediocre, inadequate head coach will be sacked given that we are owned by a private equity fund and financial trouble is something they won’t want. However there is no guarantee that they will choose better next time. Their two choices in this last search for a coach, Lopetegui and Fonseca, is not reassuring in term of their ability to select and hire a good coach, despite numerous better options being available and willing.
A competent coach makes a huge difference. Look at Napoli. With almost the very same players, they went from #1 with Spalletti to #10 with Garcia and back to #1 with Conte.
We need a competent coach, period. This is as clear as pure water. Everybody can see it, except our management.
This season, it’s too late to get a competent coach. Likely changing now wouldn’t accomplish much or might even backfire (not to forget, even if they wanted to change coaches now, there would be no guarantee that the next one would be an upgrade). But next season we do need a better coach. Let’s hope that management can wake up and see it too, and can be wiser while selecting one.
“A competent coach makes a huge difference. Look at Napoli. With almost the very same players, they went from #1 with Spalletti to #10 with Garcia and back to #1 with Conte.”
There are different tiers of coaches and we went with the mid tier.
There’s Conte, Klopp, Slot as the premium tier. Sarri, Spaletti I’d put just below them. These guys are looking at top 2 in the table and competing for trophy with an identity employed to the team.
And then there’s a tier below that. Your Garcia’s, your Italianos, your Eddie Howes if you will. That’s where Fonseca lies in. That band. They could get you 4th but don’t hold your breath for a title push