After disappointments against Roma and Inter, AC Milan travelled to Turin with the hopes of redeeming themselves. Although it was far from a brilliant performance, at least they kept a clean sheet.
Indeed, it was far from an entertaining game and it certainly didn’t look like second against third in the league. Quality was lacking most of the time, especially by the Rossoneri, but at least the five-point cushion in the standings was maintained.
Milan have mathematically secured Champions League qualification for next season and the goal is now to preserve second place, which is well within reach. Below are five things we learned from the game.
1. Thiaw finally responds
The German centre-back has struggled a lot throughout the season and we can blame his injuries to an extent, but after recovering he also failed to find his form.
Having said that, against Juventus, Malick Thiaw was arguably the best Milan player on the pitch as he got the better of Dusan Vlahovic. This helped his team’s clean sheet and eventually the point, also making a goal-line clearance in the dying minutes.
Thiaw showcased ver good positioning and had just the right amount of aggression to intercept the ball on multiple occasions. It’s definitely a performance to build on and finish the season strong, also in view of the upcoming campaign in which he could be decisive without injuries.
2. Sportiello stepped up when needed
Marco Sportiello had to step in and replace Maignan as the Frenchman wasn’t fit enough to participate in the game, sustaining an injury during the warm-up. The experienced goalkeeper did a good job and helped his side keep an important clean sheet.
Admittedly, he didn’t have loads to do thanks to the performances of his centre-backs. However, when called into action, Sportiello really stepped up as he first denied Vlahovic’s free-kick and then a great double chance for Juventus.
Milan fans can’t ask for much more than that. In fact, he probably performed even better than what you can demand from a deputy goalkeeper.
3. Midfield disaster
There’s no point in separating the midfielders, i.e. Yacine Adli and Tijjani Reijnders, as both of them were dreadful on the night. They both struggled with their passing in the attacking phase and lacked the urgency to truly impose themselves.
No big mistakes were made at the back, except perhaps one or two poor passes, but it was their failure to dictate the tempo and create chances that was noticeable. Juventus were thus able to take control of that part of the pitch rather easily.
Adli has been very up and down lately, so perhaps his outing was less surprising, but Reijnders is usually the most lively midfielder for Milan. He’s simply been too quiet as of late, though, and it’s starting to affect the Rossoneri.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek also struggled with his decision-making in the final third, after usually doing the right things in the build-up. We all know that he can have a big impact on games but he just isn’t having that at the moment.
4. Toothless in the final third
It wasn’t just the midfield that had a night to forget. Christian Pulisic, Olivier Giroud and Rafael Leao were also very ineffective and poor throughout the game. Taking a look at the stats, it was toothless to say the least with zero shots on target.
Pulisic made himself available a lot and managed to get on the ball on several occasions, but the end product simply wasn’t there, nor was the flair. Leao was arguably worse as he didn’t even try to get on the ball as much, excluding one or two good runs.
Finally, Giroud failed to position himself properly for crosses and passes, losing all the duels against the Juventus defence. The Frenchman tried to drop deeper and combine with his teammates, which didn’t really work, and it was a very tough game for him.
5. Pioli’s tactics disappoint again
The fact that Milan had just zero shots on target shows what kind of mentality they had when entering the game. Sure, it was understandable to keep the distance down to Juventus, but Pioli completely failed to make the most of his attacking quality and a club like the Rossoneri cannot travel to Turin for a point.
Not the attacking struggles are new, though, as the Italian has struggled tactically throughout the season as well as the last campaign. It’s just so boring to watch at this point, with a rinse-and-repeat approach and no speed or movement whatsoever to the attacking plays.
Why not play
————–Okafor—————
Leao——–Pulisic—-Chucky
——–Reijnders–RLC———
Maybe I am starry eyed because they were such gorgeous sliding tackles or may RLC won 6 of 9 duels and 3 of 4 Arial duals making home the most effective midfield defender on the pitch for either team statistically speaking.
Is it possible out defense was as good as it was because we had RLC screening hard?
While I agree Adli and Reinjders were less than ideal. I believe RLC, in this game, it criticized unfairly.
Personally I want to see him and Adli in the double pivot and something like what @Rimp describes for the attacking set up.
—
Tactics rant incoming
Musah was the RB … But he played almost of the game in the midfield. Adli came back deep. Reinjders came back deep. Why? Musah is 21 and needs improvement in passing. So we ask him to play put of position except when he plays in position (inverted) so that another midfielder can then play out of position.
I’m confused just typing all that.
I cannot find the purpose in these positional set ups. Simply speaking each player has to run more to get from their nominal posting to their tactically set up spot.
During that extra running they are out of position and this space can be exploited. We are this exploitation all the time.
If we want Musah in midfield then put him there and play Barts (who looked much improved for his 10 minutes by the way).
Musah would have been an excellent option off the bench with Reinjders having a poor game. Instead we had an out-of-position gu we bought to develop playing in position so another mid could be out of position.
My head hurts.
What I learned, however is we are still attached to a system of inverting our FBs in spite of it clearly providing no value to the team.
Completely agree about RLC.
Cannot believe the criticism he gets.
Adli on the other hand is a disaster.
And for people claiming he’s out of position, that might explain his non-existent defence, but it doesn’t explain his terrible passing when he’s got the whole pitch in front of him.
We need a new DM. And Adli is the obvious candidate to go.
If only we had a player like Locatelli!
Adli was 9 of 9 on long passes. This really surprised me. I was frustrated feeling he was really loose with the ball and his dwell time seemed really high.
He and Reinjders were non-factors defense statistically.
This seems to lend some weight to giving Adli a crack at 10 before we put Puli there.
9 for 9 and we created zero chances!
10 is one of the most important players in the pitch.
They’re difference makers.
I just can’t see how Adli can be that player.
Another difference maker is that midfield general. These players have transformed clubs overnight.
For example Man Utd finished 8 points behind Chelsea and the next summer they signed Michael Carrick. He plugged a hole in their midfield and they finished 1st.
Chelsea themselves added the final piece to their title winning sides by signing Makélélé in 03/04. And the minute he left Real Madrid their midfield collapsed and they lost the title to Barca.
And slightly different but highly relevant example is Pirlo when he moved to Juve and with that Milan past the batten of midfield dominance to our biggest rivals.
Juve went from 7th to an unbeaten 1st and kicked off their Scudetto run.
Given the importance of the roles I just can’t see Adli as viable. He’s made so many errors. I am never sure how the stats work given I’ve seen with my own eyes him giving the ball away!
The idea is to add layers of attack and unpredictability that can confuse the other team’s zonal and man marking. The issue is we seem to be more confused and hesitant than our opponents, those split seconds and mistakes in the distribution phase gave Juve time to win possession back.
If Musah actually had an ounce of end product and vision, the overloads could have worked in our favour because it could open lanes for Pulisic to run in, win one on ones, ultimately score. His end product when he has less time or space to react is abysmal. That’s why in big games he is m.i.a. When a team’s wingbacks and midfielders are quick, like in the PL, he is easy to isolate. He doesn’t have the speed or explosiveness required to open top notch defenses. He was matched for speed by Danilo and was completely useless.
Chuk is quicker and more incisive. He should have got more minutes. Pulisic after 50 to 60 minutes was obviously overmatched and wasn’t going to open Juve up.
Why not play
——————–Giroud——————-
Leão—-Pulisic——Musah——Chukwueze
———————-RLC———————
Theo——-Tomori——Gabbia——-Calabria
——————-Magnian———————-
I think Id rather see Adli instead of Musah. Musah to deputy RLC?
I so like the 4141 idea as it fits out attacking desires. It puts your best folks out there and with Tomorri + Gabbia as you suggest.we.are.a bit more solid in the back. When you start to think about depth
* Reinjders for Puli or Musah
* Bennacer.for RLC
* Kalulu or Thiaw for Gabbia when we need more speed (more Gabbia for physical/dark arts)
Suddenly our roster.looks like something we can build from rather that start over as we would with Conte.
Question – why have I not.seen a 4141 outside of international games? (Morocco played it.to great effect).
Pep plays it here and there and that’s what I think we should be doing. Pioli’s same tactics are figured out and we need more variation to keep teams guessing. I remember we went 343 against Monza and they looked confused for at least the first 45. I know this 4141 is not our best team formation but it does get our top attackers in positions they play best and seeing goals would be a nice way to close out the season.
The down side is you need a finisher and hold up play up top for this to work and we don’t really have that. Giroud runs and covers ground and can pass so those work in his favor. He’s already out the door so playing him less would also be a good idea for him and the team. We’d also need a strong talent in the defensive midfield which we don’t have. I would say Bennacer but his season hasn’t been stellar. RLC is the next closest thing. I want Musah to play a defensive midfield but does he? He wants to play RW or in the attacking half of the field. I want him to get minutes so he can clean up his mistakes and gain experience because we got him to develop so might as well do it now with the season over.
We should just go for a 343 or 433, or 4312 system, our midfield is wide open, Pioli should try Aldi in the middle, with Bennacer on the left, and Reijnders on the right, then put RLC in an attacking midfield role , put Okafor and Leao as the two strikers, and see how the team plays..,
Don’t force Thiaw or any of the other CB’s to push high and be extremely aggressive and they will look like Thiaw looked vs Juventus.
With a new coach next season fans will see that Milan has good defenders but a bad defensive strategy.
Milan CB’s and midfielders are asked to aggressively push high and teams are using that aggressiveness against them. The coach is too limited to understand that.
Fans and media are talking about the defensive problems Milan has this year and they usually blame the new midfielders or the lack of a DM. As bad as you think this season is defensively, it is on pace to be Milan’s 2nd best defensive season under Pioli.
Thru 34 games
19/20, 43 goals allowed.
20/21, 41 goals allowed.
21/22, 30 goals allowed.
22/23, 39 goals allowed.
23/24, 39 goals allowed.
Milan was never good defensively under Pioli outside of a 1 season, because they are way too aggressive which leaves a lot of space for the other team to capitalize on.
Just for comparison in 18/19 under Gattuso, Milan allowed only 36 goals in 38 games.
If Motta is gone to Juve, and they don’t want to spend money on Conte or De Zerbi, I would like Gattuso back. He was on the right path, and If he was given the time Pioli got he would have achieved the same and more.
Milan started to get out of the banter era with Gattuso. He laid out the foundation and the winner mentality. That was lost after he was let go for Giampaolo and Pioli, until Zlatan came back and brought back that same winner mentality Gattuso implemented in the players.
This is impossible. All top teams play with a high line so as to compress the field. You want to play counter attack then you play like yesterday. I don’t think any Milan fan wants to watch a low block and counter-attacking football.
Also Thiaw didn’t do that well, Juve had like 8 great chances.
Please explain De Zerbi and all the live he is getting?
Brighton is 12th in the table. They’ve drawn twice and lost 3 of the last five games. They have allowed 57 goals.
They played well last year and managed 6th. They conceded 53 goals.
What is De Zerbi doing that I’m not seeing? I’m willing to watch a couple of games. What should I look for to get me on the De Zerbi train?
I dunno man – I think people get all misty eyed because he’s Italian and ex-Milan. If he was, say, Mexican and ex-Juve I’m pretty sure no one would give a cr*p.
Not gonna lie. The cynic in me was thinking it, but I figured I’d ask to see if it was worth avoiding chores to watch a couple Brighton games and learn something.
Hell back to mowing the lawn!
We all love Rino for what he has achieved as a player, an unforgettable player in our history and how he tried his heart out when he was coach but you got to be kidding when you say he would have achieved more then Pioli with time.
Come on now , there is no comparison between Gattuso (as coach) and Pioli . Every Club Gennaro coached since Milan has ended in chaos with absolutely nothing to show for his time there.
This is from someone who adores Rino but call a spade a spade .
💯 – Gattuso’s meat and potatoes football was truly a sight to behold – 3 DMs, zero tactics and even less achievements. But plenty of “grinta”…. I’d take Pioli for another 10 years over the return of Rino.
Ha ha ha because Pioli’s football is a sight to behold.
What is Pioli offensive tactic? Give the ball to Theo and Leao and let them out run their defenders which creates numerical advantage. Gattuso can do that too. Gattuso didn’t have Theo and Leao, Ibra, Giroud. Shoo, Gattuso didn’t even have Brahim Diaz. Gattuso’s best offensive talent was Suso , who couldn’t outrun a turtle. So yeah he had to do with what he had. You give Pioli the same players and he will finish 15th.
When you wanna compare coaches make sure you compare the players that they had at their disposal.
Also, the coach that you want for another 10 years had the only success when he was playing with 3 dms.
21/22 Milan mostly played with 3 DMs, Kessie, Tonali and Krunic/ Bennacer.
Last season in the UCL Milan got to the semi-final because they played with 3 DM’s Tonali, Krunic and Bennacer. That and the lucky draw of course.
Yeh I was joking about the 10 year thing… I didn’t want Pioli when Maldini hired him, then I liked him, and now I don’t want him anymore. Gattuso I couldn’t stand from beginning to end.
It’s interesting to see those stats. It does make the Scudetto season defence look like an outlier. The improved defence was most achieved through the sudden combination of Tomori and Kalulu moving from RB to CB as an emergency. Where they were both fast and fully fit. Giving the high line the best chance of working.
Agree with that.
Pioli needs fast paced CBs for his system.
It’s a shame injury and form prevented the Tomori and Kalulu partnership from becoming more established.
The distraction with Thiaw also didn’t help.
This is the problem with constant tinkering. It breaks up partnerships.
Since when is 0-0 away to Juventus a bad result?
Thanks for this question @ Floss oneri
It’s not a bad result. I’m happy with it considering we had such a make shift back 4.
However you’ve got to concede that we were somewhat fortunate to get away with nil all.
1. Multiple great saves from Sportiello and when he did make a bad mistake, Thiaw did a brilliant clearance off the line.
2. We really never looked like scoring. Zero shots on target.
RLC’s shot from midfield was the closest we came. When you saw that from the angle behind the player it was actually a great strike. He had the keeper beaten and it only missed by a few inches.
I don’t recall any other moments that looked genuinely threatening.
I guess that is not surprising though when Pioli continues to keep the most inform players on the bench.
All good points but….With a make shift back 4 on the road at the business end of the season, I take a 0-0 draw against the club with 36 Scudetti with both hands.
Every club Gattuso went to it was in the middle of the season, and that club was already a mess. Gattuso didn’t create that mess.
Also, Gattuso coached Milan when Juventus was at their peak, Napoli was strong, same with Atalanta. Pioli was lucky to coach in the weakest era of serie A. Juventus have fallen of the face of the earth. Atalanta went thru a transition. Even though Napoli won the scudetto, they had better teams when they were coming 2nd behind Juventus. Milan and Inter are the only decent teams over the last 4 years, with a fluke Napoli season.
Pioli was saved by the covid stoppage as well. Prior to the stoppage Milan was worse than it was in the benter era. Playing without fans also helped him.
I’d rather have Gattuso over the names that are floating around that are not Motta, Conte, or De Zerbi.
Pioli coaching record before Milan was not better than Gattuso’s, and Gattuso is in his mid 40’s. Still growing as a coach.
You can’t hate a person who manages your club this much….
I don’t hate anyone.
You on the other hand hate facts because they hurt your feelings.
I prefer Gattuso to Pioli is not a fact….
Please learn to distinguish between facts and opinions, and please learn to stop hating your own team.
Bro I think there’s a reason that only “messy” clubs hire Rino in the first place, no proper club has ever hired him to build on, he always been hired to clean the mess and stabilize, pave the way for a better manager to take over, but he hasn’t been able to do that in the majority of his jobs, I think there’s a reason behind that, surely these clubs know better than you and me, also try to understand, we’ve outgrown that era of desperation, now that we’re moving on from Pioli, it’s time for a better coach. All the names linked like RDZ, Motta, Conte, Galtier, Gallardo, Lopetegui, Fonseca, Conceicao, Van Bommel are better than Rino and have a better CV than Rino, leave aside the nostalgia and think objectively.
Pioli’s tactics got us a 0:0 against a team that is 5 points behind us in 3rd and where we missing 4/5 of our first choice GK and Defenders.
These reviews disappoint again.
lmao, it ahould have been 5-0 for Juve. Sportiello was good and their offense was terrible at finishing.
But it wasn’t.
As for Bartesaghi, again what a mess.
Every second that Real owned Jiménez or, even January’s distraction, Terraciano, has played has denied Bartesaghi crucial Serie A minutes.
I’ve got nothing against Jiménez or Terraciano, but there’s only so much space.
This happens in nearly every position.
We simply cannot make up our minds.
We had a midfield mostly sorted last season. We completely revamped last summer for no reason.
All we needed was a RLC type player and we sold Tonali and got bored with Krunic, and signed 3 box to box players and reinvented Adli!
Adli who is far worse a player than Locatelli WHO WE USED TO OWN!!!
This is what drives me mad. The constant need to tinker rather than leaving a settled squad and adding to it with targeted, next level signings.
I hated it when we sold Locatelli too at the time. He’d become a starter under Montella if I remember correctly, but then Gattuso turned up and immediately benched him. Presumably because he didn’t have enough “grinta.” Next thing we know he’s off to Sassuolo and winds up at a direct rival. Thanks, Rino!
I like Adli, though, for his commitment to the shirt and he’s still young and showing flashes of good things for someone being played out of position. I’d at least give him another year to see what he can do.
Locatelli (like Cristante before him) suffered from our obsession with signing 3 players for one position.
Cristante was the obvious successor for Montolivo but then we signed a past it Essien a month after Cristante scored his first goal.
Locatelli then arrived as the next obvious successor for Montolivo but again we had to sign Biglia.
Tonali was our next attempt and, no, changed our minds again.
Adli is the latest and is clearly the worst of them all!
We need a DM to give the CBs some kind of cover, and probably should stick with Reijnders and RLC, so again it’s a space thing.
And that is why I refer back to these examples. I’m not living in the past but I do wish we could learn from it.
Can’t wait for another restart this summer!
One of the few smart comments I’ve seen in these threads. That’s also why maldini kept Kessiec hakan and gigio until last the point of no return bc he understood how good they were and all that was needed was to add on. Unfortunately they went back on the promises made but that’s done and dusted. Maldini said with the revenue earned last year, there was no need to sell tonali. These owners simply have zero clue plain and simple
These analysis articles are useless because they just reiterate the same tactical issues we’ve had all season, especially against the bigger teams.
At this point just count the games left and hope for a brighter tomorrow. Makes no sense to suggest tactical adjustments since Pioli hasn’t changed in 5 years 😆
Is that the bigger teams that are below us in the table?