AC Milan failed to build on their Champions League success and thus fueled the top-four worries, drawing 1-1 against Salernitana at San Siro tonight. Down below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri.
Starting XI
Maignan (6.5): He made an incredible tackle to deny Salernitana what should have been a goal after a 1v1. He could do much about the goal, to be honest.
Kalulu (6): He was an important player for Milan in both phases of the game tonight, even if there was indeed a breakdown on the goal conceded. Milan created the most when he pushed up in attack.
Thiaw (4.5): Not a good evening for him, unfortunately. He made a big error that preceded the fantastic Maignan tackle and he chose the wrong man to mark on the goal. One can understand why he made that choice, but clearly he needed to pick up Dia there.
Tomori (5.5): He made a couple of rash fouls this evening and the positioning wasn’t always the best. He could have tracked back faster on the goal, but just in general he wasn’t the one we saw against Spurs.
Saelemaekers (5.5): A couple of good moments here and there, but not enough contribution in the end. Diaz didn’t pass him that often, even if he was in a good position, but he didn’t do much on the ball either.
Bennacer (6.5): He started the game very poorly with several misplaced passes but grew into it, assisting Giroud for the goal with a lovely corner. He then had a couple of good chances that were nearly converted.
Krunic (7 – MOTM): He was the one constant this evening. He was good from start to finish and did a lot of the dirty work for Milan. In the first half, he also made a crucial block to deny the guests a certain goal. He needs to continue like this.
Hernandez (6): If he had played like he did when Leao went off all game, then the rating would have been higher. He was simply too shy when the Portuguese winger was on the pitch and didn’t push up enough (maybe tactical reasons).
Diaz (5.5): He did quite well in the first half and helped Milan break down a tough Salernitana defence. Unfortunately, he faded completely in the second half and this didn’t help the team.
Giroud (6.5): He got the crucial goal with a nice header and came close with an overhead kick as well. For a higher rating and the MOTM award, though, he needed to do better in open play.
Leao (3.5): Horrendous from him this evening, truth be told. He made plenty of poor decisions and also failed to create anything when he got into good positions. Everything went wrong. His poor form is now a fact.
Substitutes
Ibrahimovic (6): He won made duels and had a shot that was saved by the keeper in the dying minutes of the game.
De Ketelaere (5.5): He lost a couple of duels and won some, making for a rather uneventful evening for him.
Origi (5.5): Came close to scoring with a chested effort but the keeper did well. Apart from that, though, he wasn’t brilliant on the ball.
Florenzi (N/A): It was nice to see him back but he didn’t play enough to be properly assessed. Nearly scored a goal but was denied by Kalulu (who had no idea of it).
Tonali (N/A): He didn’t play enough to get a rating.
Yeah. Truth on Leao. He didn’t deserve the figures we are proposing. Poor poor poor. We need more from him.
I’ve said it 200 times. How can leao demand such a high salary and then give performances like this week after week? Somebody has to bring him back down to earth. He looks like a shadow of the player he can’t even sprint past anyone anymore!! It’s absolutely ridiculous. If an offer comes in thats over 80m sell right away.
Also, what’s with this team in serie a this season? Can’t even beat mediocre teams anymore. Our attack is so poor it’s sad.
How can you been doing great and the club didn’t appreciate it with an offer you deserve? You will be bad
80M€? LOL. We’re lucky if someone offers 40-50M€.
Origi is just a waste of space on the Milan bench.
Bennacer, holds on too long on the ball, and misplaced so many passes.
Leao was aweful but, I prefer is bad days to the best of Origi in Milan’s shirt. I believe something better could have still happened if Leao was on the pitch rather than Origi.
Such a stupid foul to have been carded for by Giroud
I feel that was a penalty on Bennacer.
Krunic still remains our best player on the pitch in like 4 matches now
Giroud took the yellow on purpose. He’d rather miss Udinese than risk getting a yellow there and miss Napoli. It was a planned thing for sure.
I think he did it because he needed a rest and knew the only Pioli is so stubborn that the only way to get a rest on this team is through injury or suspension
Like I have been saying, this teams setup is all wrong, I doubt Pioli can fix this, we never seem to win any second balls and Leao playing just makes the pressing fu**ing hard, off the ball there’s too much space for the opponent to exploit, we could see that on the first goal.
At this rate if we can get 50mill for Leao we should take it and run dude has mentally zoned out and it’s totally up to him.
If Pioli had the balls to try new things, this team wouldn’t be struggling. CDk is completely useless in this setup, maybe If CDK is played deep in the middle to recycle possession we may get something out of him.
I have been critical of Krunic but he did a masterclass today. I don’t think anybody would appreciate what Romagnoli brought to this team, those his midfield cutting balls from the back is seriously lacking, aside Krunic today no other player is or has been doing it.
Maybe just maybe Pioli is at his depth as a coach.
‘If Pioli had the balls to try new things’
Pioli already tried new things. The problem is the players who underperform.
A new thing with same format isn’t helping, switch to a three
Man midfield or ditch the double pivotal system and play to the midfields available strength. Even the mediocre Pobega excelled in a 3man formation but Pioli is trying to make all midfields play his system.
I don’t see the reason why he needs to go back to 3 man midfield when the current 4 man midfield is better. They created a lot of chances with 4 man midfield.
But again, the current problem is the players who underperformed and didn’t finish the chances, NOT the formation.
Leao was terrible today. A little harsh on Thiaw. “he chose the wrong man to mark”, that’s because there were two attackers there for him to mark, meanwhile Tomori wasn’t marking anyone.
I’m actually glad Giroud is going to miss the next game. 1) he desperately needs a rest, and the only way you can get a rest on this team is by injury or suspension. 2) he doesn’t really add anything offensively other than getting his head on the end of a cross every now and again. I want to see Ibra play from the start. Milan created more chances once he came into the game. Unlucky with Firenze’s ball on the goal line, and then a great save by Ochoa to stop Ibra’s shot.
And also Firenzi looks much better on the right than Saleamakers.
Ibra only has about 20 minutes in his legs, so Pioli will never start him, even though it would be better if he played the first 20 so we can take the lead and control the game. Sadly Pioli doesn’t have the balls to try new things. Even his positive changes usually only come because of injuries, like dropping Calabria or starting Thiaw. Or how he switched to 3 central defenders, only because he was about to get fired.
The players were clearly tired from their mid week efforts. I was hoping for some rotation but not too much. This was a big opportunity missed because we never know what’s going to happen with the Juve decision seeing as they are 2nd without the penalty.
Also if you’re going to blame Thiaw you got to blame Kalulu and Tomori. Candreva was never the bigger threat
That penalty for the foul on Bennacer should have stood. It wasn’t clear that he WASN’T fouled. To me that was inconclusive and the penalty award should hv stood
The problem with this squad is that there is not one, not a single skilled, technical, creative player in the whole team.
All we have are bunch of players that can run around the field and kick the ball around. Not pass the ball, not shoot the ball, but just kick it.
When it comes to the “mvp,” I’ve been consistent here over the last few years, great athlete, poor footballer.
BTW same can be said about the so called best LB in the world. Speed and flopping .
Theo and Leao without acres of space in front of them are useless.
Hopefully we manage somehow to get top 4 but at the end of the season there should be a lot of changes.
We made fun of Juventus and how they play but we better pray they don’t get those 15 points back because they’ll be 5 points ahead of us on the table.
2nd best team in the league.
Also, finally understand why some say if Rabiot can make 7+mil a season, so should Leao. Because They score the same amount of goals. The difference is one of them is a box to box midfielder and play for the most defensive coach and the other is a forward.
Offer him the same salary as Theo or sell him for whatever you can get
Like this analysis, we just have a lot of fans daydreaming. 4mill at best to Leao, the whole drama is unnecessary.
That’s because all Pioli’s cares about is how much people run. Not if they are skilled, creative or good passers. That’s why he loves Krunic and Tonali and Saelemaekers. They run hard Burbank can’t create anything. The only creative player on the team is a 41 year old Ibra who should be starting now that he’s healthy. Giroud does nothing for most of the game, then gets his head on a cross every couple games and people think he’s doing great.
Overall they just have no ideas offensively, no movement, or patterns of play. They just wait for Leao or Theo to make some great run or else they are lobbing balls into the box. That falls on Pioli.
Yeah but Pioli isn’t in charge of buying players and letting players leave for free (can’t use selling). That’s on Maldini and Massara. They are the ones that build the squad.
It’s not like Pioli keeps some skilled players on the bench.
There are only runners on the bench, too.
Very true, but when you say this you are a fanboy or a hater.. Tomori again left his man free, another mistakes after Fiorentina. We have a team that’s fit and works hard. Honestly Juve is doing good now so hopefully the -15 stays otherwise top 4 will be very difficult. Leao deserves 5M maximum, inconsistency still in his play
Completely agreed. We have a lot of good athletes. But not many footballers especially in attack. Watch kvara, he’s a footballer, his brain is always anticipating, his movements are purposeful, his technique is good and consistent. Not that he’s the only one as there are many attackers out there who are skilled. We just have none. Could hVe had zaccagni for cheap when he was offered to us and could have had dybala for free… yet we chose to pass on both… smart…
I think that’s a problem overall in the sport. They value athleticism more than skill. Too much emphasis on how much someone runs throughout the game and not enough on creativity and talent. People even want to get on Messi for not running all the time when the team doesn’t have the ball. That’s not his job. His job isn’t to create offense. Football is being taken over by great athletes but not necessarily great footballers and the sport overall is suffering. The creativity and beauty is being taken out of the game because the coaches just want big fast robots that run hard and do exactly as they are told.
Is to create offense
“The problem with this squad is that there is not one, not a single skilled, technical, creative player in the whole team.”
And combine that with the slow and inaccurate passing of everyone on the pitch and we have a winner. Eh, not a winner but the complete opposite. The last 15mins were frustrating to watch when the midfield and defense only passes the ball sideways and so slowly that Salernitana players had time to walk to new positions to cover the passing lanes. You’re never going to open such defenses with a) slow and inaccurate passes sideways and/or b) without any creativity.
That 1 point we got in this game.. was a gift from Salernitana. This should’ve ended in a loss if SAL could capitalize on the chances they got.
How on earth a team plays with NO urgency in a must win game? Saele, Krunic and CDK are the only players who actually put the effort. The others walked throughout the whole match except a few runs here and there.
Agree with most of the ratings except diaz.. a 5.5? How? What did he do really? He didn’t break the defense of Salernitana even once. What game were you watching mate? lol
How on earth a player loses the ball EVERY SINGLE time he receives it? It should be some sort of record today. Running head on to three opponents like a he@dless chic_ken is the only play the dude has, the decision making is unbelievably poor. Mancity and Real realized it a long time ago that Diaz’s calibre is Exactly this.and neither of those clubs kept him. Real is trying to milk as much money out of Milan as they could for Diaz because they know. .Diaz ain’t worth more than 8 mil and if Milan doesn’t but him, they would have to let Diaz leave for free.
To be honest.. Salernitana defense wasn’t very tough. left a lot of opening all around… our players are just so clueless in the attack, the don’t even think about spotting the player in the best possible position.
Pioli…. I have no idea what took him so long to make subs when even a blind d0g could see the team was just walking around doing nothing since the beginning of the second half. But then again, it’s not like we had messi in the bench. So blaming Pioli would be unfair.
This should’ve been an easy win if the players just … played. But W_T_F? This makes NO sense. Nothing explains this performance. Our whole Attack is literally all about Leao. If he is not in form.. we just cant win.. We barely avoided loss in this game. Hope Leao gets back in form soon enough.
Anyway.. Forza Milan.
Diaz scores a beautiful goal every 3-4 months. That’s it. But because we have 0 creative playmakers, Pioli starts him every time. Then he loses the ball 90% of the time.
Leao has checked out, Origi has never checked in. Giroud is old, Ibra is ancient. So our offensive strategy is hoping that Theo makes a run or someone like Bennacer takes a shot and gets lucky. That’s it. We desperately need a good coach which we haven’t had since Ancelotti!
Thank you!!!
I’ve been thinking for months even years now.
I will never understand what they see on diaz.
And i don’t know why whoever gives the rating here always have a soft spot for him.
You already said what i want to say about that headless chicken.
Sure he scores once here and there, but most of the time it was all luck or a simple tap in.
I really hope milan send him back rather than wasting money and wasting spot for him.
It’s hard to admit it, but this milan could have been so much better if kessie and calha still in the team, especially kessie, ever since he’s gone tonali suddenly becomes mediocre.
I agree 100%
He maybe good in seria B
Zyeich could have don a better job at No.10
This is problem of rotation.
You need to have at least 7 good players on the bench. We did have it with Romagnolie, Kessie, Hakan. And now we don’t have even the first team.
They can’t run so much every 3 or 4 or 5 days and result can’t come.
When you have good bench, you can see what is bad in half time and pull them out. Pioli is blocked because our bench is much worse than first team.
Well price will need to be payed if Milan stayed out of champions league zone and that price is to saving the money for the better financial balance.
I am always bewildered when the issue if players on the bench comes up, do you mean the players on the bench cannot rotate for this Salamitana team?
The coach has never trusted the bench he has never wished to integrate the bench with the first team, so yes it’s the coaches fault. If not for injury we’d still think Malick is terrible player.
The coach has enough beach to rotate but his dogmatic system/idea would never allow him play to the players strengthen. That’s why we have a toothless, pass lacking midfield.
So yes the coach is at fault
This site always overrates Kalulu. The guy has terrible positioning, how can Thiaw be blamed for not marking two people at once and Kalulu doesn’t get any of the blame even that the goal came from his side in the first place. Before Calabria was always the one taking the blame for Kalulu bad positioning, now it seems it’s Thiaw lol.
On the salernitana goal, it was 2 defenders Thiaw and Kalulu vs 3 attackers.
The question is where was Tomori ? About 20 meters behind. No one positioning is worst than Tomori’s.
Could’ve been worse. Could’ve lost. This was a ‘we’re gonna lose’ performance
Kalulu even blocked a shot that would have been a goal for us!
Come on, noone can blame him for that. He was getting up from the ground when the ball hit his arm. He tried avoiding it but nothing he could do.
This proves, despite the Scudetto win, Pioli is and has never been a great coach.
He’s never been a good tactician.
He relies too much on a single player to do the magic for him.
First he relies on ibra, now he relies on leao.
People seem quick to judge on leao, but forget that pioli doesn’t provide this team with any tactic aside from attacking from left side where leao and theo operate.
When they fail to do so, milan simply can not attack, thus people so harsh on leao.
There is no strategy or players that can relief the pressure from leao and theo.
Diaz is a headless chicken while Sala and messias are too inconsistent.
You want him to attack from the right with Messias/Saladmaker and Diaz?
Every coach tries to take advantage of his team’s strong players. Give him Messi and he will attack from the right side, too!
Milan lack quality and a balanced squad. Napoli, Juventus and Inter have better players. We’re on par with the likes of Roma and Lazio.
Usually I criticize the team when they olay like today. Truth of the matter is some of these guys were tired. Giroud 36 has been playing game in game out, besides scoring 1 like today from a corner he can’t help much more, make runs etc. Hell for his age he is doing ok. Kudos to salernitata they parked the bus well and the truth is a lot of teams would have had problems with that 11 men defense. The most worrisome is leao’s form. He used to be the guy that created most of chances, now he just seems sloppy or lazy. Ben is still not 100%. Lack of depth makes these situations. For all of you that blame pioli for not trusting players, who is there to trust? Origi? Cdk? Or florenzi?. Pioli has his own faults, i ve called them before. Forza milan
Horrible match and even worth result. No easy games in Serie A. Almost all the top teams lost points this week except Napoli.
To me it’s clear that Leao will leave in the summer. It’s already decided. The player knows it, the management knows it too. Only the fan base is in the dark but imo it’s decided 100%. He will leave.
Mentally he has already left. He disappears on the field all the time and doesn’t defend. Good riddance! I just hope some rich club gives us some money for him.
IMO the real reason why there are no easy games in Serie A is because there aren’t any really strong teams, except Napoli, not because the smaller teams are good.
Pioli and his squad still haven’t figured out how to manage these type of games. Everything is too predictable.
Pioli is stupid coach…very stupid! Sack him and get de Zerbi…sell Leao!
Our set pieces are so bad (albeit we scored from a Bennacer corner which is a miracle).
Putting Zlatan aside, Tonali is the only one who can get the dead ball to curve and dip at pace. He needs to spend more time honing this craft because the dead ball striking of Bennacer and Hernandez is woeful.
We’re seriously luck to have drawn this game. It’s really only thanks to Mike’s genius. That we scored from a Bennacer set piece suggests we should have known our luck had run out.
Bennacer’s freekick in the 79th minute (from the left flank) was a perfect example of Milan set-pieces: no one anywhere near the ball yet Bennacer manages to kick the ball straight at the stomach of the first opponent standing all alone in in front of the penalty box. I’m not really sure how anyone could give a worse free kick from that position. And it wasn’t a “one time thing” but it happens in every match where Benny is giving those freekicks/corners.
He got lucky – REALLY lucky – in the Giroud goal and it’ll take a year or two to get another set-piece by Benny to find a teammate. Mark my words.
I love Tomori but Isak Möller said it right… “He could have tracked back faster on the goal”. I hope they let him see that goal over and over again as I did.
When they moved the ball on the other side of the pitch he should have understood the danger.
At the end Thiaw was between two players and he chose the wrong one. Please, a little bit of collaboration from everyone really, not just him.
yeah but Kalulu went for the wrong guy.. bad mistake u have to go for the guy running at the goal…
Yep Candreva was less of a threat as he had a worse angle.
Like Kalulu had time to assess who the players next to him are and which is the more probable guy to score. Of course he went for the guy closer to the ball and relied on his partners to do THEIR job and covering the man behind him.
That was 10000% on Tomori and blaming Kalulu for it will only highlight that the commentator hasn’t played the game himself and doesn’t know how teams are supposed to work/defend. There’s a man for every defender and Kalulu had to defend two because Tomori wasn’t doing his job. Period.
11 individuals out there playing without a plan, strategy, or purpose .
Milan won over the last few year not because they had the best players or the best squad but because they were the best at playing as a team.
Not anymore and it shows on the field especially in those players they were most overhyped over the last couple years. They are invisible on the field
Yep. We haven’t seen them play as a team in Serie A for ages. Against the Spurs it was all team effort but in Serie A… Nope. It’s like they don’t even care what happens.
That’s why Pioli should field players who aren’t getting any minutes against teams like Salernitana. Players who are eager to show what they’ve got and earn more minutes on the pitch instead of dragging the tired starting 11 from match to match. You can clearly see that some of the players aren’t focused enough on these matches against midtable (or bottom) teams. That’s when you bring in the hungry lads eager to prove their worth.
And no, I don’t mean CDK & Origi. I mean players such as e.g. Pobega & Adli who haven’t given proper chances in months. I’m sure they’d be willing to give their all to get more minutes. Unlike CDK & Origi who just surf around ineffectively from match to match.
I dunno. The usual complaints against the usual individuals when we lose/don’t win. How about the formation? Sure the 3-5-2 has brought more “solidity”, but it has also meant less attacking outlets. Notice how Leao has stopped being effective AT ALL since the switch? His strength is speeding around the fullback and then cutting in for the shot or pullback. Of course he has always been inconsistent, but that was better than nonexistent, which is what he is now. He has nowhere to run now. When he receives the ball he turns and is immediately running into two defenders, because instead of being wide of the FB now he’s between the FB and RCB, or the FB and a DM. Easy to see. Pioli needs to consider returning to the 4-2-3-1, at least against teams like Salernitana.
I share the same opinion, we should be back to 4-2-3-1, especially after Maignan is back. 3-4-2-1 was meant as a radical, yet temporary fix to the leaking defence but it sapped away a lot of our firepower, especially one tailor-made to fit Leao’s strength. It is no coincidence that our RW is actually performing better/more dangerous than Leao with the new formation.
Unless of course, this formation is going to be adapted permanently, and this is just a subtle way to edge Leao out of the club and getting a more suited player for that LW role. Heck, even Maldini himself hinted that he prefers lineups with 4 in the back and a more attacking one. We’re Milan and not Juve ffs.
BTW, against Salernitana, well this has been such a disaster. You just don’t play a defensive formation against one of the leakiest team in the league and shackling your own forward in the process. Not to mention we don’t even rotate, making this draw even more silly in hindsight.
All hallmarks of a mediocre coach. Sticks to the same formation against all teams. You can’t play the same way against Spurs and Salernitana ffs. And the subs are usually just a sign of lack of ideas. Let’s send in useless Origi and CDK to win us the game! If it wasn’t for Mike we would have lost!
Pioli doesn’t have better subs. That’s all he has in the bench.
“Notice how Leao has stopped being effective AT ALL since the switch”
It started before the formation change.
Terrible writing. Why not at least proof read it?
I’ve hardly ever been critical of the team, and by extension, it’s players and coach and that’s because I’ve always known that this team is greater than the sum of its parts even though I think that our players are better than most people perceive them to be. Regardless though, these performances are becoming more and more difficult to watch and remain silent.
Milan is lacking so much on a tactical and technical level that it makes us look amateurish. We play with an empty midfield when we have the ball, leaving us with no options through the middle when going forward. But that’s not even the worse part. The strategy to move the ball at pedestrian pace is anti-football imo, and it does us no favors. It only allows the opposition to keep it’s defensive structure because of how slow we move the ball. This type of football is appalling and I’m growing sick of it. There’s hardly any real urgency unless we’re down and that’s not the way to approach a game that you’re trying to win. Our dead ball opportunities are almost always wasted and I’ve wondered many times what is it they actually try out in practice. Pioli has done a decent job so far but he has to step up and evolve or he should be removed from his position as coach.
The players also need to step up their game and stop thinking that they’ve reached the pinnacle. From the beginning of the season, I saw quite a few players with some extra swagger and that was to be expected. They were champions of Italy so I could understand the confidence coming into the new season but it’s as if it’s gone to some of the players’ heads. I’d also like to think that it’s becoming uncomfortable for some players to see preferential treatment being given to players who work less than what’s expected of everyone else. There’s just too many individualistic talents on the pitch and no real cohesiveness. We were great last season as a team but now we’re just looking for those isolated 1v1 moments to create something and it’s just not happening. They need to get their heads in the game and remember what qualities got them the scudetto.
I’m fairly confident that we’ll eventually get it right as I expect us to win the champions league. How’s that for optimism?
Anyhow; on to the next one and Forza Milan
No one italian players in the starting line up…
Tomori made another blunder again. He didn’t tracked back and forced Thiaw to mark two players.
Leao bad performs is worrying. The guy’s mind aready thinking about playing for other clubs.
Good thing Milan now in 4th place and they must win against Udinese while Inter vs Juve and Roma vs Lazio.
Lol. This comment has become almost obligatory. I’m beginning to wonder if people are actually taking the piss.
This was meant as a reply to @EPP.
Its funny how the evaluator gave Diaz 5.5 and Leao only 3.5. I see them both equally bad this evening.
Diaz didn’t win any duel either last night.
I am not sure what makes Pioli love this slow and weak player. His replacement CDK was even worse.
I hope Maldini sells Leao and CDK and bring Eden Hazard and Ziyach.
I believe Pioli’s time is up. He cannot give anything anymore. There is no team in Serie A now that fears Milan. Milan has gone back to the days prior Ibra move. Nobody respects Milan anymore.
Why Malick Thiaw is being blamed????
In that goal, Tomori was marking nobody and Kalulu was nowhere near so Thiaw was in between 2 opponents. Last time also stupid Tomori made poor pass to Thiaw and it almost led to goal and these clowns blasted Thiaw for that, instead of Tomori.
Tonali almost always kicks the ball away randomly to the opponents and Tomori cost us many goals and penalties, why you never blasted them ????
I feel like Tomori is trying to made Thiaw look bad so that coach will go back to Theo-Kalulu-Tomori-Calabria. He was screaming at Tata as well when he himself was making mistakes.
Oh wait, you are biased , right? I forgot. Every time when ‘rookies’ made mistake, they are blasted… but when these ‘seniors’ (Calabria, Tonali, Tomori) you are silent. I think Tonali will be critisized only if scores own goal. He is taking all the standards but I don’t remember when was the last time when he did something cool from standard which led to goal.
because who ever writes these ratings never played a game on full pitch in his life. “He marked a wrong man” 😂😂 yes because attacking player can’t choose were to pass😂 Guess what they usually passes to the player that is open unless you are Origi.. And somehow Thiaw is to blame because he can’t cover 2 friking people in the box. That goal was on Salad for not closing his man and kalulu for being out of position and lets not even talk about that stroll back from Tomori but yeh lets blame only player that was actually in postion might as well blame Mike then 🤷🏻
LOL. Exactly.
I am perplexed by Diaz’s decision-making when he receives the ball, as he tends to run into areas congested with defenders. Similarly, Leao often chooses to take on 3-4 defenders instead of making a quicker pass. Additionally, I find it frustrating to watch Tomori and Kalulu frequently resort to passing sideways or backwards. It is clear that our players struggle to identify and exploit open spaces, and I believe the coaching staff should address this issue. It has been a persistent problem, and I wonder whether the coaches are aware of the lack of forward pressing from the team.
You took the words out of my mouth. Absolutely spot on! It was frustrating to see the team need a goal to take all 3 points all the whole Tomorrow and Kalulu passing the ball slowly between them. Granted, there wasn’t exactly alot of movement in front of them but why not give the ball to an attacking player instead and let them try to do something?! Very frustrating to watch. To me, that seemed more of a strategic “play it from the back” decision which makes sense if they weren’t chasing a goal.
” It was frustrating to see the team need a goal to take all 3 points all the whole Tomorrow and Kalulu passing the ball slowly between them. ”
And this wasn’t the first – nor last – time that this has happened. And the worst part is that the passes are slllooooooooooooow. So slow that the opponents have time to regroup. If the passes were fast & accurate, they would create opening to the other side. But they’re not. And that’s the main issue.
Agreed. It is very predictable and easy to defend especially in the case where Salernitana were playing with 11 players behind the ball.
Two weeks in a row now we’ve failed to take advantage of our rivals dropping points. With Mike back, it should be safe to switch back to the old formation and add an extra attacking player. Diaz can play on the right with either Rebic in his best position as a second striker, or a midfield three of Tonali, Benncer, Krunic. The Origi, CDK substitution last night after conceding made no sense. Origi shouldn’t play if both Leao and Rebic are healthy. CDK made some good runs and passes but too few and far between. He needs a string of starts but we can’t afford that now the way we’re dropping points.
How are supposed to win Udinese without Giroud? Maybe now is a good time to buy a penalty or two from the referee. 😛