AC Milan had to settle for a 2-2 draw against the bottom-placed side Salernitana on Friday night, with a late Luka Jovic strike earning them a point.
Fikayo Tomori got the opening goal as he bundled in a Rafael Leao cross from close range, but then Federico Fazio equalised before half-time with a header from a corner and then Antonio Candreva’s strike had Milan looking at a nightmare result.
Luka Jovic came off the bench and was on hand to smash home an equaliser with not long left in the game, but there was not enough time to force a winner as the Rossoneri had to settle for a point.
Milan could well end up nine points behind Juventus and 11 behind Inter in the title race, which is fast becoming a mirage with such inconsistent league results.
Stefano Pioli reverted to a four-man defence with Simon Kjaer partnering Fikayo Tomori at centre-back and Davide Calabria returning at right-back, with Ismael Bennacer making his first start in seven months in the defensive midfield role.
Milan had the first bit of danger in the second minute when they won the ball back inside the Salernitana half, with the feed from Tijjani Reijnders to Rafael Leao ending with a shot deflected behind for a corner after a VAR check for handball.
Salernitana called Mike Maignan into action for the first time five minutes later, when a cross with the outside of the boot from Bradaric inside the Milan area found Dia unmarked at the far post, whose weak effort was tipped around the corner by the Frenchman.
There were a couple of half chances for Milan inside the first 10 minutes, with Christian Pulisic first firing a volley well over the bar near the edge of the box then a header from the resulting corner was glanced over the bar.
With 17 minutes on the clock, Milan took the lead and it had been coming with the pressure. A corner kick was flicked on to the back post where Leao was waiting, and he controlled with his chest before firing a low cross in that was headed in by Tomori from a few yards out.
The two sides then began to trade chances. Theo Hernandez was put through in behind by Leao but Costil came off his line to make a brilliant stop, then Maignan made a stop from a free-kick that was headed on goal by his own man.
Just after the half-hour mark, Milan surrendered possession inside their own half and Salernitana worked the ball to Candreva who cut in on his left foot and had a shot fizz over the bar.
The Rossoneri continued to have their moments when they went forward, such as when Leao danced to the touchline and fired in a blocked cross that ended with Bennacer seeing a shot deflected wide from the edge of the box.
Maignan made his first big save of the season five minutes from the break to deny Kastanos, and from the resulting corner Salernitana levelled. A Candreva corner from the right was met by a towering header from Fazio, who directed it perfectly inside the far corner to make it 1-1.
Pioli made a change at the break, with Jan-Carlo Simic coming on for Kjaer who hadn’t displayed any signs of injury but might have been feeling a bit of fatigue.
The start to the second half mirror the start to the first, with Milan applying pressure in terms of territory but struggling to find the bit of quality needed to break their hosts down.
Not long after Loftus-Cheek had a shot saved at one end, Salernitana took the lead at the other. With Tomori down injured, the home side built an attack down their right side and Candreva unleashed a shot on goal that got past Maignan at the near post and went in.
Immediately after the goal, Tomori went off with a hamstring injury to add insult to injury quite literally, given the defensive crisis, and Alessandro Florenzi came on for him.
With 20 minutes left on the clock, Pioli made a double change. Pulisic came off for Samuel Chukwueze while Luka Jovic came on for Bennacer, with a two-man attack being the order of the day.
Jovic was denied after a fantastic double chance for Milan. Leao was the one who darted to the byline and provided a cut-back for Jovic who first saw his header parried and then his rebound was charged down.
Just as the game went intro extra time, Milan got themselves level and it was once again the substitute Jovic who scored. A cross from Calabria was knocked down by Giroud, and Jovic let it bounce before hitting it on the half-volley and making it 2-2.
ENOUGH. Pioli and his “medical” staff will destroy what little is left of this team at this point if no one stops them. This cannot continue. Enough.
Just don’t say medical. It’s the athletic trainers. The medical doctors only intervene after a player gets injured. Sorry but I am a doctor and I don’t like it when doctors get blamed unfairly. The doctors don’t participate at all on whether or when a player gets injured. They fix the injured players; they don’t cause the injuries. Our trainers though are utterly incompetent and need to be fired and replaced.
In fact the medical team/staff is working overtime as half of the squad is injured. We need a medic!!!
We have also had players clearly being rushed to recover, players who don’t heal properly from past injuries and get injured again very quickly, among other things. The trainers are the absolute worst but they have to work alongside the medical staff to prevent injuries too and to approach recovery in the best possible way. They’re a team and they’re all in this together and both are equally responsible for this mess. Either trainers and medical staff don’t talk to each other or I don’t know what’s going on but clearly something is not working, this is nowhere near acceptable and deep changes have to be made both in the medical staff and the trainers because they’re both an embarassment.
Probably players are rushed to recovery out of pressure from the coaching staff and due to the short list of available players. Again, not the fault of the doctors. They don’t tell the head coach to run players into the ground like Pioli does.
Medicine is not just reactive, it’s also preventive and in that aspect it’s left a lot to be desired (considering they’ve done anything at all in that regard). No more excuses, they are ALL responsible for this nightmare
“Probably players are rushed to recovery out of pressure from the coaching staff”
Well… I’ve never met or even read about a player who hasn’t been anxious to return to the pitch ASAP. They want to play. They want to get back on the pitch the second they feel they could play. You don’t need to force them. Quite the opposite actually. The medical staff are trying to reason with the players NOT to rush it.
Why do you think so many players use pain killers to be able to play? Because the medical staff says them to or because they want to play despite the pain?
Should have kicked that Interista out in summer.
The irony is Pulusic who has been injury prone is healthy…..go figure
I thank GOD my prayers are working gradually, I pray Milan falls out of Europa league just as they fell out of champions league and am also praying they fall out of top 4 so that cardinal and d rest idiots who thinks Ibrahimovic presence in d club can change anything without firing pioli and his idiot staffs immediately and bring back our legend maldini back, stupid and naive cardinal who doesn’t know anything about football hates to hear d truth. U all should mark my world there’s no player that will be signed that will not face this same problem until they sack this pioli I have not seen a couch as stupid like this pioli how can u play reijnders as dm and play RLC as AM and expect Milan not to conceed goals, every dying and losing club in d buttom of d table in Seria always wake up to beat Milan or draw Milan because of this stupid pioli, nonsense let cardinal continue to deciev himself.
We don’t play that good against bottom of the table. Although the goal conceded is because of the corner and Maignan error. 2 More injuries in the defense now? Abate would come out of retirement at this rate
Yeah, You guessed it. #PioliOut. NOW. I was going to wait for the summer but then it’s too late. He needs to go now. We cannot buy him 20 new players to break to get through this season.
The irony is Pulusic who has been injury prone is healthy…..go figure
@IKWYDLS called it lmaooo
Rock bottom.
Thanks guys for the wonderful XMas present! A point against Salernitana is all I wished for. Wonderful performance from all of our superstars, especially “jogging” Leao and “rolling” Theo. Even Mike pitched in with nice howler. But the man of the match is Padre Pioli, the father of the modern zero-attacking-ideas football. Bravo bravo!!!
MM16 showed he has amazing xmas spirit. Such a lovely present to Pippo & co.
According to some Leao is worth every penny, and Theo is irreplaceable.
On a good day they do look like they are superstars but too often they act like spoiled kids. Theo rolls around on the ground way too much and gets idiotic cards. Leao sometimes just walks around, and rarely tracks back after losing the ball after a stupid dribble. We need a stronger coach or just sell him if someone is willing to pay $100M. We could buy 3-4 good players with that.
Leao has always been streaky. Nothing new.
Theo is just overplayed. He never rests. Mentally fried.
I don’t know about you pals, but I have reached the point where I physically suffer watching Milan’s horrendous performances. We are out of the Champions League, halfway through the season we are out of race for Scudetto, we are unable to clinch there points against the bottom team. Honestly, what does it take to fire Pioli??? If we continue on this path, we may even finish the season outside the Top 4, as we did last season, only to be saved by the Juve’s shenanigans.
Perfect comment describe the situation
I’m so f**ng angry right now it’ll take an hour or two to get any sleep. That Pioli-guy is killing me…
I don’t think any blushes were saved, that was an embarrassment. Leao continues to underwhelm. He needs a proper coach to give him direction and instruction. His decision making is poor at times…too often in fact. We got bullied off the pitch and outplayed by Salernitana…!!
At this point am speechless merry Xmas and happy new year in advance
I’m almost sure the primavera would win Salernitana.
Leao worst player on the pitch by far. And yet Pioli left him for the full game. Also Florenzi idiotic argument with Salarintana bench just wasted the last 2min of the game for nothing. He needs to be disciplined. Such a mess of a game.
Sad game
Idiaat Pee-holee
Scraping a point against a team with 8 points
Where was the ‘intensity’ and ‘clarity’.
Pioli: We played better than sala for 60 minutes then lost clarity.
Oh my days, sack this baldie.
I f*ng pray Zlatan has gone mental in the locker room today. I’ve seen pathetic displays by Milan but FFS this is the limit and this has to be the worst. We cannot get any lower than this.
I hope when we saw Ibra on the phone that it was the message to get Pioli out…this guy doesn’t know his arsehole from his elbow..enough is enough…really this is a quality team…there is no reason for us to be scraping out results like this…hell I’d take Pippo back at this point…
Pioli should have been fired after 2:5 loss against Sassuolo in January. It’s obvious that his formula ran its course and he won’t come up with anything new.
The team is extremely easy to read, they make a lot of mistakes and are clearly poorly prepared to the season. How many more do we have to lose until someone up top grows some balls to do what needs to be done?
Aaaand guess who we’re playing next week…
Give us a Christmas gift and sack pioli. I’m so done with him. Goes back to a 4 3 3 and once again look awful. Loftus and leao were absolutely horrible and nobody knows what to do. When is Jovic going to be allowed to start consecutive games? Come on Santa, I’d like a new manager.
Three words, Sack the coach. Let separate injuries from the lack of tactics by the coach.
One could tell from the misplaced passes and poor decisions in the final 3rd that this was going to be one of those games. Nothing worked on the day…Milan just know how to choose the games to mess things up. Looks like we will have to pull another rabbit out of the hat for a top 4 finish this season.
Am tired of this coach and management pls do something froza Milan
Another flat performance. So inconsistent.
Another injury. So consistent.
Literally nothing is going right at Milan currently. The only bright spot being another Jovic goal. Not sure what wise he needs to do to get a starting spot.
Out marking on set pieces remains a weak point that Pioli can’t solve. He couldn’t do anything on Maignan’s error obviously and that can happen. But mills looking so flat and out of ideas is entirely on Pioli.
He shows that he has the team with the win at Monza. And then lays an egg against literally the worst team.
Players have to take accountability too. Oli, Leao, RLC (again), Puli to some extent, Theo were all flat. Pre vacation malaise?
And to make matters worse we have NO Centerbacks left. I mean honestly, you can’t make this up. If Kjaer is ok, he’s the only one. Otherwise we are playing with wing backs and primavera players…
🤯
Those of you calling for Pioli’s head, would are you trying to replace him with MID SEASON?
That is the main question but let me reverse it on you. Why keep him? All season long and even last year after December we’ve done two things consistent.
Play very bad.
Get injured.
It’s easy to mention the best coaches available but maybe it’s best to bring in an interim or a coach willing to take a contract until the end of season and reflect when it’s done.
But I’ll tell you one thing. With pioli, we’re on pace to lose top 4 and scudetto is probably as good as gone. Champions league is gone. He’s showing no signs of changing things because today he goes back to his 4 3 3 that hasn’t worked. We need change, he needs to go.
And to add. No I don’t think abate is the answer. It’s not like the primavera are doing amazing in the league and he’s still a rookie coach. Let him stay with the primavera and help them grow. If we hired him it’s not like we would let him go back to the primavera end of season nor would he probably want to.
Either bring a coach in on a contract till the end of the season like what napoli did with mazzari or try to snatch a top coach you think can suit this team whether he’s already on a team or on vacation.
Maybe Boban was right. Is Ralf available?
“Those of you calling for Pioli’s head, would are you trying to replace him with MID SEASON?”
Two days ago I was saying Pioli needs to go next summer. After (actually during) yesterday’s match I’m now convinced he needs to go NOW.
Remember how awful Milan and Milan’s tactics were during Pippo Inzaghi’s coaching era? Well… That “wizard” beat Pioli 100-0 yesterday. So… Yeah, Pioli needs to go now. He’s not even better than Pippo.
Is Pirlo available? After all, he was Maldini’s first choice to replace Pioli? 😀 😀 😀
The scudetto hunt is now officially over. Before the halfway of the season. Incredible. To be able to compete for the 4th spot Milan needs a coach who is up to the task and Pioli is not that guy. Period.
Come on….plenty of clubs do it. The season is done now anyway. We are more likely to bounce with a new manager than get into the top 4 or get far in the Europa league with Pioli. He just has no answers to anyone half decent. Inzaghi set up Salernitana to frustrate and disrupt.
The management might need to realise that they may just need to spend a bit on a good coach. This trawling the league for managers who show a bit of a spark, or who might be the next thing are not good enough. We need a steady pair of hands now.
I think we would have won this game if Jovic had started.