AC Milan midfielder Sandro Tonali is finding it hard to tell whether to consider the draw against Atalanta as one point gained or two points lost.
The opening goal came against the run of play as Gian Piero Gasperini’s side too the lead through Ruslan Malinovskyi. The Ukraine international was not closed down and his shot from just outside the box deflected off Pierre Kalulu leaving Mike Maignan stranded.
Milan dictated the game throughout but struggled for that bit of end product, but it came midway through the second half when Ismael Bennacer fired in an equaliser off the post after cutting back onto his left foot. Despite bringing on five forwards off the bench however, a winner never came.
There were no real concrete chances for either side to snatch it late on meaning both had to settle for a draw that, in truth, they might well take in a feisty and intense early season meeting.
Tonali spoke to Milan TV after the game to reflect on the draw and the performance from him and his team-mates, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
Is it one point gained or two lost? “We have all seen the performance, I don’t know if a point gained is the right definition. We have done much more, we created a lot and finished little. We cannot say either two points lost or one point gained.”
Did you expect this match like this? “Yes, we prepared for it being like this. Conceding the goal changed our plans, in the second half we started from scratch. We played as a team and fought until the last minute.”
Do the teams face you differently than last year? “For sure, we are the Italian champions: the goal now is to fight. We know, we enter the field with even more desire than last year.”
Next up is Bologna: “Maybe it will be a different match, but let’s start from scratch. Always fight and try to do the best possible.”
Hopefully, in these two games the management have noticed what to me is very clear and has been very clear since last season, that we’re losing far more points for lack of intensity, quality and creativity on the attack than a lack of depth in the midfield or defence. Messias DOES NOT have the quality to be a Milan player, not as a starter, not as a sub. People watched a couple totally irrelevant preseason games and thought that was enough to keep a starting point in this team, it’s very clear that it’s not. This teams needs a Ziyech (not saying him specifically, but that type of player) than a 4th CB or an Onyedika. One good match every blue moon is nowhere near enough to trust Brahim a starting spot in such a crucial position in Pioli’s scheme, specially now that we have Adli and De Ketelaere, hard to understand what Pioli is thinking, I understand that some fans get hyped up by ONE good match in who knows how long against Udinese, but Pioli should know much better than that. for that position we cannot afford to lack consistency, Brahim makes Chalanoglu look like the most consistent player in the league by comparison.
If you really watch the full match, Milan definitely didn’t lack in terms of “creativity, intensity, or quality”. There’s plenty of great chances but the boys just lack the finishing touch. That’s all.
Adli and CDK didn’t get the start because they still lack the tactical awareness compare to Diaz. You can say you don’t understand what Pioli is thinking because you’re just a fkin spectator. You didn’t work and train with the team directly day after day / month after month like Pioli did!
My man, you have to stop watching the games while you’re on drugs, then you say things like that, have you ever played football in your life?? The boys lacked finishing precisely because they lacked the intensity and creativity needed to score the chances and create more against one of the poorest versions of Atalanta I’ve seen in a long time. If we played the same way we did yesterday against the Atalanta from a couple years ago they win by 4 goals. Atalanta played very very poorly last night, a more intense squad would have made us look reaaaally bad last night, you can do all the drugs you want but at least think before you speak, you are the only person on Earth capable of seeing Brahim, Messias, Rebic and Leao play last night think they were intense, creative and showcased quality, better watch tennis or something, you still have no idea what football is about
Tonali really should have scored from the magical CDK pass that put him through on goal.
No creativity in the midlfeld messia should have started from bench Milan lack playmaker seriously
our right side of attack is useless and even Pioli don’t trust it to attack from it but that made our plan easy to deal with by other mangers because they all now by now our threat is from left side so they always cover it with more players like Atalanta did , our owner don’t want to give maldini necessary founds to strength our team , Ousmane Dembele would’ve been perfect player as right winger how we didn’t go for him as free agent is beyond me ,
davide calabria don’t have quality to be our starting right back if we can have quality defender that pioli trust let Pierre Kalulu be our starting right back he is way better then calabria ,
we should’ve got Boubacar Kamara and Ousmane Dembele Andreas Christensen and Paulo Dybala as free agents they would’ve fix every problem but the owner didn’t want to spend like every other great football clubs
“Ousmane Dembele would’ve been perfect player as right winger how we didn’t go for him as free agent is beyond me”
The insane salary demands might have something to do with it. Also he has a major surgery at least once a year.