AC Milan’s defensive department is the one that collapsed during a difficult run early in the new year, but it is now the attack that is the cause for concern.
As MilanNews report, in the 15 official matches played so far in the 2023 calendar year Milan have scored only 15 goals scored, which is of course just one goal per game and is well below the level required for a team with top four aspirations.
Not only have the total of goals been a problem, but the lack of a consistent scorer has also been a big issue for Stefano Pioli’s side, as Oliver Giroud is the top scorer of the second part of the season with three goals.
The Frenchman is followed by Rafael Leao (who hasn’t scored since exactly two months ago) and Junior Messias who each have two goals, with seven other players (Theo Hernandez, Brahim Diaz, Divock Origi, Davide Calabria, Pierre Kalulu, Tommaso Pobega and Sandro Tonali) on one. Finally, there was Juan Musso’s own-goal.
We’ve always relied on individual brilliance with this team. Giroud, Leao, Zlatan. They make something out of nothing. Right now, we get nothing from something more often than not. Two are old, one acts too young.
The opponents have already figured out how to deal with a very limited frontline. Leao sorry not world-class yet. Lucky – he scores. Unlucky – whole team suffers. No right wing penetration. Midfield is hardworking but uninventive. There is no real plan other than to pass ball to Leao or cross the ball in hopefully. I am against 5-3-2. Bring back 4-2-3-1 and get Krunic to play like Kessie.
Get Krunic to play like Kessie? Good idea. We should be able to turn CDK into Kaka then too. That way Cardinale won’t have to spend big this summer.
Get Krunic to play on the left forget leao and buy Laurienté for next year
Start Ibra. Problem solved.
the problem is PIOLI….
the problem of Milan forking PIOLI
please start ibra
I agree with the comments re Pioli. We went from one extreme to the other. We went from an imbalanced 4-2-3-1 that left us exposed at the back to an imbalanced 3-5-2 that has no attacking threat. Maybe we should split the difference and try a 4-3-3 with a true flat 3 in the middle. Krunic-Bennacer-Tonali. That places Leao back to his natural LW, and CDK can be given a chance at RW. Theo-Tomori-Thiaw-Kalulu across the back. The problem is that he’s married to the idea of having a trequartista, but Diaz is on a dry loan, so fvck it and leave him on the bench, or play him at RW. He also does not seem to want to play Kalulu as an RB in a back four, even though this is his original position. It’s perplexing.
I’ll also note that Krunic and Tonali are also both originally mezzale, so that should return them to familiar roles. In possession they would move forward and more centrally, so you would have something like Tomori-Bennacer (dropping low almost between the two CBs)-Thiaw, Theo-Krunic-Tonali-Kalulu (the two FBs moving up into the midfield) and then the three forwards in a line. Again, this would be in possesion/attack. In defence you would have the traditional 4-3-3, or even a 4-5-1 if you got Leao and CDK/Diaz to fall back to help.