What is with Pioli and using Bakayoko suddenly?

He's a mistake waiting to happen

And as I am typing that he nearly gives away a goal...

Pioli and his decisions this season... Really baffling

Alexis could have had a hat-trick of stunning goals

Empoli up next, if we f@ck that one up after this... I give up

Table back to looking much better for us. We should be able to beat Roma away and Lazio at home imo. If we don't we do not deserve CL next season after this season of bare minimum and showing up in moments only

Edited to 'Napoli will murder us if we stick with the back three'

Soon as I saw my first choice defence I knew we were gonna win. Where has this Milan been? It's simple - begins with the defence. We've not had one all season, too much rotation injury blah blah.

But as I said some days/weeks ago, my first choice was to go four at the back with a RB (fine, Calabria), Kjaer, Tomori and Theo. Plus Maignan in the goal.

It makes a ridiculous difference.

Napoli just aren't that good and a Milan with better management this season could have won the league again.

Ok I didn't see us ripping them to pieces 4-0 but that Milan is no surprise when we have the right players in the right slots.

It's not goddam rocket science?!

For once I agree with you completely, almost that is

I think regarding the league, Napoli have been swatting away the smaller sides too easily. They have been pretty much perfect in the must win games, which are against the bottom half teams plus the fringe ones outside the top 6. The bad teams in the league have still not been able to shut out Kvara and Osimen effectively this season and even if we had not imploded in January, we made too many miss-steps against that bad sides this season.

That game we lost against them at home still stings because it feels like a major turning point for our season. And to make it worse we were the better team in that game as well. But losing Leao to that stupid red against Samp in the game prior and then replacing Calabria with Dest of all people made the difference in the end.

As for the defense, I agree to an extent, although I do not think Kjaer is the long term solution, I think Kalulu at RB and then Thiaw next to Tomori could be the way going forward but Kjaer's experience plays a huge role in games like this

Plus aside from the defense, I think this biggest vulnerability for us was the midfield, we were getting outnumbered, which left our defense exposed. Last season we went on that run of only conceding something like 2 goals in 20 matches because we switched to a 4-3-3. It did not look like that on the formation sheet but we played Tonali, Benna and Kessie. And that along with Tomori and Kalulu being bang on form is what made us rock solid. I do not understand why we switched back to a 4-2-3-1. Diaz gets absolutely swamped in the middle and the same thing was happening to CDK. This give us much better balance, we just lose out a bit with Krunic instead of Kessie imo because while Krunic does a lot right, he tends to have WTF moments with a simple pass and then completes a stupidly nice looking back pass for example. Just boggles the mind

What gives me hope for the CL tie is that in both games we've faced Napoli this season we've been the superior team. We did not deserve to lose at San Siro, and we smashed them tonight.

I think Pioli knows how to handle them. Add to that the motivation and concentration of the players, and we've got really good chances of passing through.

True, Osimhen was not available tonight for them, but still we defended so well that in the grand scheme of things we would have won anyway.

Stunning display from Milan. That first half was perfect, defence, midfield and offense; the team worked like a precision Swiss watch.

The difference was in three: 1) starting the attack from a back four, 2) Leao and Brahim tracking back to shore up the midfield and 3) Tonali Bennacer and Krunic owned the middle of the park.

Bennacer man marked Lobotka, who is the man behind the creative engine for this Napoli. He shut him off completely.

The team had three players pressing for the ball when lost, kudos to Krunic and Tonali for such a high work rate.



This game aside, CL will he a different fixture completely. Napoli had a wonderful season and will be crowned champions in the next couple of weeks. But this game will not be on show when the CL tune is played, Milan will be up against a very angry Napoli side. Assuming the team is injury free, fresh and able to put in 120% again, otherwise Napoli will definitely have their say. It won't be easy at all.

Tonali was monstrous. Probably his best performance as a Milan player.

Just f@cking knew it!!!!!


F@ck this sh!t

Pioli once again f@cks up a simple game with needless changes. Pobega, Rebic, Origi.... No f@cking words


His picks just f@ck up another 2 points when there was no reason for it. We play next Wednesday, plenty of time to recover yet he rotates to the most sterile set-up he could. Draw written all over it FFS

Another golden opportunity wasted, so many points lost to f@cking crappy teams. Unforgivable at this point

Pioli has to go this summer.

Make me understand why CDK, Adli and Vranckx cannot get a look in while Pobega still gets chances.

He did nothing wrong today but he's the most basic player I've ever seen. At least with an Adli you have some vision in there Empoli did not have a shot on goal, don't tell me it's for defensive cover just inexcusable how he's handled these players

CDK as well, he's a creative player, his confidence might be shot to hell but giving him 10 minute cameos is certainly not going to help one bit in that regard

Origi... What a waste this guy has turned out to be.

Rebic looked decent in spurts but it was not enough, should have scored on that chance, same for Diaz

Every time we rotate, we lose points, and to rotate the attack that heavily, a blind man could see this one coming.

Just unbelievable that Pioli is gambling with CL qualification like this. If Juve get those points back, we're toast.


And all this when there was no need for it. The excuse was that Diaz and Leao weren't 100%. He still ended up having to put them on. Why not just go for it and try to wrap it up quickly and then take them off? Just boggles the mind how he would think we'd win with that dumb as nails attacking line.

He better have the aces against Napoli on Wednesday because this is unforgivable imo. Especially if it costs us CL football and ultimately players like Theo and Leao as well

Soon as I saw Kjaer on the bench I knew I'd made a good call not to watch.

Simple maths.

Start with the best back five and we should take at least a draw back to San Siro.

The defence wasn't the problem though, Empoli had 2 shots and 1 was on target. Maignan could have taken a nap

The issue was with the rotation in attack.

Now we cannot relax a bit against Bologna. If we don't get the 3 points there we'll drop out of top 4.


As I'm sure you know now, we played the home game first (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Anyway, not our best showing but we got the job done. Pioli just has Spaletti's number imo.

They'll probably have Osimhen back for the 2nd leg, but Anguissa and Kim both missing are big blows for them. Let's see if we can get this over the line. That Kjaer header and Leao chance... Should have taken a 2-0 to the Maradona. Now it will be heart attack after heart attack next week.