AC Milan made it three wins on the bounce in the Champions League on Tuesday evening, beating Slovan Bratislava 3-2 away from home.
Milan started off their European campaign poorly after losing to both Liverpool and Bayern Leverkusen, which meant they had to win all of their easier fixtures if they wanted to guarantee themselves a spot in the last 16.
The Rossoneri started off well in that regard, defeating Club Brugge 3-1 at San Siro, but it was certainly not a walk in the park. Then came the big shock: a 3-1 win at the Santiago Bernabeu against Real Madrid, which rocketed enthusiasm again.
Poor performances against Cagliari and Juventus domestically ramped up the pressure ahead of the trip to Slovakia, and Paulo Fonseca made quite a few changes to try and freshen things up against a physical side.
In the end, goals from Christian Pulisic, Rafael Leao and Tammy Abraham were enough to seal a victory, yet the home side levelled moments after the opener and they made it a nervy finish late on with 10 men. Here are five things we learned from the game.
1. Like a washing machine
Once again, Fonseca made the decision to interchange a number of key players and it can be argued that there isn’t much obvious strategy at play. Tijjani Reijnders and Youssouf Fofana are probably the only two players that are a constant in the line-up and have been able to build some kind of chemistry.
In the defence department we constantly see different centre-back pairs whilst Emerson Royal was also rested this time out, though there were doubts about his condition going into the game. The result? Two goals conceded, against a team who had scored twice in four games before last night.
The attack – and admittedly partly due to necessity – was also overhauled again, excluding Christian Pulisic who played in a central role. Tammy Abraham did have a very positive outing, it must be said, but overall the football was not fluid and not pleasant to watch.
The Portuguese coach doesn’t seem to be able to decide on which is his best starting XI and that’s really hurting the cohesion of the team. With the performances of Samuel Chukwueze and Noah Okafor, it’s obvious that they are not in rhythm and when they do get starts, the pressure is then on them to produce instantly.
2. Trio save the day
Abraham and Pulisic combined really well in the first half resulting in the opening goal. The Englishman held the ball up very well, evaded his marker with a nice touch and played a perfect through ball.
In the second half Rafael Leao was need to shake things up after a ghostly performance by Okafor and the Portuguese did not disappoint after a lovely run and finish to give his side the lead.
Then Abraham got his goal too to double the advantage, and these three moments are probably the only real dangerous attacks that Milan had throughout the game which is telling. Aside from that, it was a lot of tame possession and aimless crosses.
Fonseca’s team continue to labour in their attempts to achieve the ‘possession-based domination’ the coach has spoken about, hoping individual brilliance will get them out of trouble. Against Slovan it worked, but in games like the Juventus one it didn’t.
3. Both flanks disappoint
Davide Calabria started his first game in weeks after overcoming a calf issue, and it would be fair to say that the captain seemed a bit rusty. He didn’t time a couple of his challenges well, whilst also not being particularly efficient going forward.
The same can be said for Theo Hernandez although the Frenchman was tidier at the back compared to his team-mate. The fact remains though that the left-back just simply doesn’t look close to the same electric levels we have been used to.
As mentioned above, Okafor and Chukwueze both failed to contribute with anything meaningful in front of the two full-backs. The Nigerian was a bit more active in the sense that he received the ball fairly often, but then he followed with a sloppy pass or failed to beat his man every single time.
4. Self-destructive defence
There’s little new to say on the defensive front since it has been an issue since the start of the season and it was an all-round horror show again on both of the goals conceded, even if the second was a rocket.
On the first goal, the last Milan players were incredibly high up the pitch due to it being a set piece situation, allowing Slovan to break quickly and get in behind with relative ease. This was despite the Diavolo having just established a lead that they could handle with care.
Assuming those were Fonseca’s instructions given it was a corner, then this was baffling as well given the chance of a counter-attack happening against you. Surely with a lead the instruction has to change, by leaving an extra man back for example.
On the second goal it was again a group effort: a failure to clear the ball and then to react allowed Nino Marcelli all the time in the world to let off a belter of a shot into the top corner. Fonseca has blamed the collective and the individuals in recent weeks, when will it change?
5. Time is running out
We might as well keep the fifth point reserved for Fonseca’s future each week and ask ourselves how long is he going to last at his current job.
Milan played the team sitting at the bottom of the table in the Champions League and created very little aside from the two goals (the Expected Goals was 1.6), with the third one being a gift from the home side.
It’s just incomprehensible that a team like Milan can barely cause trouble for Slovan Bratislava, with all respect to them. The ball was moving slowly, the players were taking too long to release it, there was no creativity or risk-taking with the passing, and on top of that there was no compactness at the back.
There is only so long without improvement before the fingers begin to point at Fonseca himself, and whilst Milan clinched the victory they continue to look way off the pace. A European run might not be enough to save him either, given the domestic struggles.
Things we keep saying on repeat:
1. Stop rotating CB’s
2. Ditch the 2 man pivot.
3. Play counterattacking style – this team is built or it, and not the bullsh*t you’re trying to implement.
Stop reinventing the wheel and keep it simple.
100%. Completely on point there.
“3. Play counterattacking style – this team is built or it,”
Exactly what I was thinking during the match. It looked as if the players were instructed to stop every quick attack and wait until the opponent got under the ball and only then start building the attack slowly. But it is really insane as we all know that Milan forwards shine on quick counterattacks.
While I agree on the 2 first points, but can we guys stop asking for playing counterattacking style when it’s not an option ?
Yes we can do it when we play against stronger or offensive teams but against a weaker or defensive team we’re forced to play possession because they will be happy with a point.
You can’t play counters again 11 men in the defense, if we do it we end up like Juve’s match.
“5 things we learned”
No, no you’ve got that wrong, we need to unlearn whatever we did for this game. Whatever we did must never be done again, we just happened to be lucky to play against a serie C level team otherwise we would have lost.
Let’s just enjoy the win, celebrate that we have 3 points and closer now to make it out of the league phase and pretend that any footage of this game is lost and must never be found.
Well said.
Damn Red Star Belgrade is completely annihilating Stuttgart and is leading 5-1 a few minutes before the final whistle. Krunic also scored a goal earlier in the first half of the match.
What a legend!
Well i always liked Krunic as he was a good utility player for us and that should garner some respect but I would nevertheless not suggest that he was a legend that moniker is only reserved for the very few in the history of the club and as I see it we have no current club legends within the current squad and club except Baresi. Club icons sure but that is a different matter.
That is of course unless you are referring to the Red Star smashing of Stuttgart which was kinda legendary 🙂 Hopefully we will be able to handle them better when we meet them in December.
Yes legend might be overstating it but he was part of the legendary side that won the Scudetto (our third this century) and he was absolute class in midfield.
He basically dictated the pace of the game and we’ve never replaced that..
“Yes legend might be overstating it ”
NO SH’T SHERLOCK!!!
I think he did well with us and was useful as a squad member and he gave great value for the money invested on him but nothing extraordinary but cogs and gears are essential for a watch to work.
Stuttgart beat Juventus who we drew to.
Crvena zvezda beat Stuttgart. Are they better than us? Well, I guess we’ll find out in December ahahaha
😀 hopefully not and at least we play at home in that match.
I think this weekend it is dead or alive match against Empoli for Fonseca , we are now 9 points out from top 4.. only positive things is there are still around 26 matches until the end , what mean there is room for fight for CL . But if he even draw , it will be hard to fight with Fonseca for our Future…
First I hope for win, but also I want him to go out, it’s time to hire someone experienced ( Sarri, Alegri) who firstly fix defence
I want him out.
Napoli went from 1st to 10th to 1st in 3 seasons under 3 different managers with pretty much the same squad.
The manager makes all of the difference.
Chelsea went from 1st to 10th to 1st between Mourinho and Conte.
Man Utd collapsed after Ferguson left going from winning a title in his last season to 7th the season immediately after.
Juve went from 7th to an unbeaten 1st in Conte’s first season.
Conte is a common denominator in a lot of the above and I am regretting my opposition to him (not that it makes a difference!).
There’s simply no way of judging these players under Fonseca. They’re clearly not playing anywhere near their potential given we finished 2nd last season.
Problem is we don’t know if our trio won’t to fire him… rather win the game then lose and go to the next match with him again
There are others here who thought we did splendidly. We needed a mistake from their player (backpass) to win this game along with their player missing an open net/Pav block. Think about that for a moment.
They could have easily been up 2-1 or 3-1 by half time as they squandered golden opportunities as our defense was in shambles during counters. So, yes we did win, but I can’t see how people watch this game and say this was a good game by us.
Also on the point of the CB pairing. At first I thought Fonsy was just trying out to see who’s the best fit as he needed time to get used to the players. I didn’t know it was a a customary thing that he’d swap CBs so often. No wonder why these guys look so lost at the back.
Rio Ferdinand said that one difference between Ferguson and Moyes was that the Moyes would keep the team guessing who’d start the next game whereas Ferguson would pick his team a week in advance and drill them.
Fonseca seems to be more of a Moyes….
“Fonseca seems to be more of a Moyes…” yep that’s the tier of coaching level he’s at
They have a very realistic chance to make the top 8 in the Champions league. But honestly they can’t slip in Serie A anymore. I’m cheering for Fonseca. I want him to be successful but he has to start consistently getting his tactics and formation right and to stop rotating. If he doesn’t it should cost him his job soon. He’s shown promise and had some very big wins but Milan is suffering from inconsistency and a lot of that is on him.
Perfect take.
He found a CB partnership and midfield trio that worked and I’ve no idea why he keeps changing.
Just stick with Gabbia and Tomori, and Musah, Fofana and Reijnders, and play that base for 10 games in a row as we’re so far behind with team cohesion.
As for FBs Calabria showed the difference a proper FB makes. Contrary to the nonsense being spouted, Calabria made one sort of mistake on the first goal but how did we only have one player back from a corner where we were 1:0 up and what was Reijnders doing jogging back.
As for the rest Calabria showed both in the defensive and offensive phases what we’ve been missing.
He pushed their wingers back in circumstances where Emerson Royal would’ve gotten beaten (and it’s beyond ironic that Calabria is being criticised for committing in an area of the pitch where players should commit – the other team’s half).
He also made runs forward both inside and outside, with the weakest link being Chuk who held onto the ball too long and missed a number of passing opportunities.
But none of this should need to be said. I shouldn’t have to analyse and defend the club captain’s performance against a media and fan base that seemed determined to push him out (and when the current alternative is Emerson Royal).
We’re going nowhere as a club if we can’t support the club captain. It makes supporting the club utterly pointless. Some weird brand loyalty for a not particularly well performing brand. Like having some passion for Volvos.
What’s with you and Calabria? Just curious. Not sure why you think he’s so special.
What’s with me a Milan fan and our club captain, longest serving player, Scudetto winner and one of our most consistent performers who is coming back from injury?
If you genuinely don’t understand why a fan should support Calabria, or at least not overplay/celebrate his deficiencies whilst either mocking him or writing him off, then you simply don’t understand what it means to support a football club, what it took for Milan to become Milan, and what it will take for us to return to the heights of….2 years ago.
Calabria shouldn’t have committed being the last man; captain or not, it was a clear mistake usually reserved for the inexperienced. Other than that he was okay, apart from cheaply loosing the ball here and there, but we basically played a midtable serie b team. Nothing to write home about.
Can SempreMilan confirm if they’re sending emails asking people to confirm their subscriptions or is that a scam?
Chances are it’s a scam. I didn’t receive anything and even if I did, I’d never click on anything out of an unsolicited email. Beware.
Yeah my thoughts exactly!
Clownseca out ASAP….
————–Maignan————-
??? — Gabbia — ??? — Theo
Fofana ——– ??? ——– Tijji
Pulisic ——– ??? ——– Leao
That’s all there is worth in this team. If put in the right system and formation of course. But not with this coach and this management and their recruitment policy.
That’s what we learn week in week out.
It’s very strange seeing Gabbia with all these names. Yes he’s homegrown and Italian, but he needs to show much more to be up there. I’m also not sold on Mike yet tbh, despite his superstar status. Other than that, yeah that’s the core we need to build on.
Gabbia is currently our best CB by a comfortable margin and one of our most consistent performers this season if not since last season. If anything, it’s actually Theo who needs to show much more right now.
I’d say Fofana in the center of midfield with Musah on the right of it. Because, well, look at our other option.
From current CB rooster, Gabbia showed the most. And above all he showed consistency and character be it in small games or against big guns. Captain material right there.
Mike has been nothing but solid this season and saved this team on many occasions already.
Actually, these two should be prime candidates for the armband.