[X-Offender]

That is true, but you can't win a league playing champaign football in every game. Sometimes you just have to grind out wins. And had the refs not intervened we would have done so. No one would be complaining that that is not how we should be winning games

Just look at Juve and the last 6 or so Scudetti. Utter sh!t football, yet they don't care how it came about. Look at them now. Having the gall to even mention the Scudetto when they play like they're Salernitana in most games FFS. Some of the worst football I've seen in a good while yet they don't care. They just want to win games. No matter how they come about. No shots on target vs Fiorentina yet getting the incredible luck of an own goal being scored. Some really dreadful stuff against Spezia as well. And while we were unlucky enough to have the events that unfolded happen to us, they managed to scrounge out the result.

I'm not talking about winning ugly. That's something even Ancelotti's golden era Milan did many times. I'm referring to the attitude. That nonchalant, carefree attitude we displayed against both Salernitana and Udinese is unacceptable. In the second half Udinese started to press high and put us under pressure, yet we didn't respond. We were simply content with waiting them in our own half. The goal was an unevitable consequence, regardless of how it came about.

This is what we should work on. Take the Napoli match. Ugly football, but the attitude was right. And we barely conceded anything. Now we have 10 games. 10 finals. And the approach should be the same in each and every single one of them. And preferably with a bit more decent football, too.

[X-Offender]

Btw, anybody watched Liverpool-Inter? Gotta hand it to Inter, considering the first leg and the first 60 minutes of tonight they were the better team. If Sanchez hadn't fucked up they could have very well played their chances till the end.

[han2503]

I'm not talking about winning ugly. That's something even Ancelotti's golden era Milan did many times. I'm referring to the attitude. That nonchalant, carefree attitude we displayed against both Salernitana and Udinese is unacceptable. In the second half Udinese started to press high and put us under pressure, yet we didn't respond. We were simply content with waiting them in our own half. The goal was an unevitable consequence, regardless of how it came about.

This is what we should work on. Take the Napoli match. Ugly football, but the attitude was right. And we barely conceded anything. Now we have 10 games. 10 finals. And the approach should be the same in each and every single one of them. And preferably with a bit more decent football, too.

I really don't think the attitude was the problem against Udine, maybe against Salernitana it was a bit of a factor, but we've seen this team struggling to play against teams with a low block. The attitude is an issue when we're leading for sure, as we should kill off games and I don't know why we don't go for it more. against Spezia we missed a lot of great chances, against Salernitana we scored and decided that was enough, that was the issue there. I really do think that against Udine though it had more to do with how Udine played us and how we struggle against that type of set-up and we've seen it throughout the season. That being said, against both Spezia and Udine the ref had a critical hand in both games.

Those would have been ugly wins but they'd be 5 more points on the board so who cares how they came about.

Btw, anybody watched Liverpool-Inter? Gotta hand it to Inter, considering the first leg and the first 60 minutes of tonight they were the better team. If Sanchez hadn't fucked up they could have very well played their chances till the end.

Liverpool, despite winning a lot in the EPL as of late have dropped off a lot in terms of their pressing and high octane play as of late. This is not how they played against us when we faced them at Anfield. Had they applied that kind of ferocity against Inter they would have crumbled.

Plus the 2nd leg it felt like they were mostly containing them and playing within themselves seeing as the tie was pretty much done and dusted already.

[William405]

No one watching?

[William405]

We suck

[X-Offender]

Terrible second half. Basically leaving the keys of the match to Empoli to attack however it pleased them. Which is mind-boggling considering we started so well. For the first 30-35 minutes we actually dominated. Then in typical Milan fashion we switched off.

Our attack is useless. We can't create jackshit aside from Leao's runs. It's seriously worrying at this point.

When was the last time we won a game with a 2-goal cushion FFS? Can't honestly remember. Always gotta suffer up until the very last second.

[han2503]

Was watching.

Decent first half. But 2nd we pulled out our usual sh!t

This BS with not being able to finish off games is really f@cking annoying at this point. The goals have dried up. Our right side basically kills off all our attacking moves. Theo missing on the left hurt the attacking department even more, those chances Florezi had would have most likely resulted in a goal if Theo was in those positions.


At least CBs are playing excellently. Because we cannot score more than a single goal atm. Which is worrying

We have a decent run of games where picking up max points in imperative. We really need a strong display against one of these sides to get back our attacking flow

Leao is really over-doing it with the dribbling. He needs to calm down a bit, just lift his head and look around. And why was he playing so centrally? Empoli are one of the narrowest sides in the league and we did not stretch them

Messia and Alexis... At this point I really don't get why we don't just play Rebic there. Or even give Samu another shot. They are disgustingly bad in all aspects. Messias dribbles once tries to cut in, loses the ball. Over and over again. Alexis is just a dummy who cannot give a final ball to save his life

[han2503]

Terrible second half. Basically leaving the keys of the match to Empoli to attack however it pleased them. Which is mind-boggling considering we started so well. For the first 30-35 minutes we actually dominated. Then in typical Milan fashion we switched off.

Our attack is useless. We can't create jackshit aside from Leao's runs. It's seriously worrying at this point.

When was the last time we won a game with a 2-goal cushion FFS? Can't honestly remember. Always gotta suffer up until the very last second.

The right side atm is a huge problem, and when you don't have the Theo+Leao combo on the left we're basically DOA.

Once again. This hard headedness from Pioli is going to cost us. The Messias/Alexis situation on the right is a serious problem at this point because not only do they not contribute in anyway in the G/A department, they are basically becoming attacking liabilities. Anytime we try to open up play to that side the move is killed. Messias just constantly wants to dribble and shoot. He's seriously terrible and selfish on top of that. Alexis is just useless atm.

Once again, you have Rebic wasting away coming on for 10 minute cameos. This is the critical point of the season. And we're going to f@ck it up because we cannot score enough goals.

[X-Offender]

Was watching.

Decent first half. But 2nd we pulled out our usual sh!t

This BS with not being able to finish off games is really f@cking annoying at this point. The goals have dried up. Our right side basically kills off all our attacking moves. Theo missing on the left hurt the attacking department even more, those chances Florezi had would have most likely resulted in a goal if Theo was in those positions.

At least CBs are playing excellently. Because we cannot score more than a single goal atm. Which is worrying

We have a decent run of games where picking up max points in imperative. We really need a strong display against one of these sides to get back our attacking flow

Leao is really over-doing it with the dribbling. He needs to calm down a bit, just lift his head and look around. And why was he playing so centrally? Empoli are one of the narrowest sides in the league and we did not stretch them

Messia and Alexis... At this point I really don't get why we don't just play Rebic there. Or even give Samu another shot. They are disgustingly bad in all aspects. Messias dribbles once tries to cut in, loses the ball. Over and over again. Alexis is just a dummy who cannot give a final ball to save his life

Honestly, I don't think Messias has been that bad. Sure, he can't be a starter for a title-fighting club, but at least he provides much more quality than Alexis. Tonight he was average-to-decent, definitely not disgustingly bad. Playing Rebic there would be an option, I agree, but I don't think Pioli sees it.

But it's not just the right flank. Our AM position is a cunundrum at this point. Kessie is totally not suited and Brahim is poor as f*ck. Leao plays by himself, and the CF problem is glaringly obvious. Giroud is just bad. The fact that I want to see a 40 year old Zlatan back speaks volumes about how desperate we are.

This post has been edited by X-Offender: Mar 12 2022, 10:58 PM

[han2503]

Now that I can think better without the haze of frustration that match put in front of me


These are 3 huge points here. Kalulu and Tomori are really stepping up big time and this is what we need to finish out the season strongly.

These next 3 games need to be played like CL finals FFS! Especially with the games Juve, Napoli and Inter have coming up, it is imperative that we don't take our eye off the ball.

The championship is won off of games like these. We just need to hit our attacking stride. Pioli has really worked hard with shoring up that defence, especially on set-pieces. I've noticed we're handling them much better as of late. We're even connecting much better on the attacking set-pieces as well which is always a plus.

Zlatan is coming back at a crucial point. I'd start him against Cagliari. He just brings in that extra bit of edge that Giroud doesn't and you know the players around him will be more alert with him shouting at them non-stop

Pioli now needs to find better solutions for the attack. Maybe even playing Brahim on the wing as we did last season could work as well. Just anything to take Messias and Alexis off the pitch at this point because they are unwatchable.

[han2503]

Honestly, I don't think Messias has been that bad. Sure, he can't be a starter for a title-fighting club, but at least he provides much more quality than Alexis. Tonight he was average-to-decent, definitely not disgustingly bad. Playing Rebic there would be an option, I agree, but I don't think Pioli sees it.

But it's not just the right flank. Our AM position is a cunundrum at this point. Kessie is totally not suited and Brahim is poor as f*ck. Leao plays by himself, and the CF problem is glaringly obvious. Giroud is just bad. The fact that I want to see a 40 year old Zlatan back speaks volumes about how desperate we are.

I really measure a player's performance based off of the amount of steam they have coming out of me ears during a game. And at this point Messias has turned me into a kettle (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) Every decision he makes, whether it is to pass/dribble/shoot, is a bad one. He's either losing the ball, making bad runs or just dribbling into a wall of players. We cannot keep using him as a starter if we want to win this thing at this point and Alexis isn't an option either.

Rebic or Samu are the only options. I really don't understand why we can't just use Rebic there. We're wasting him using him as a sub. He's not effective coming on for short bursts. He needs continuity, and he's played on the right side for Croatia so it's not like we're going to be playing him in some obscure position that he's never played in. Pioli has pulled off worse moves. Kessie in the AM position comes immediately to minds as he's terrible there. Against Napoli he wasn't playing as an AM. It was a 4-3-3/4-1-4-1, it works against an attacking side that you want to press, but it makes no sense to use him there against these smaller sides.

Zlatan being back is going to be huge for us. Not because I think Giroud was bad today. I think he does his best with some seriously bad service. But Zlatan is just a different type of player, he can drop deep and bring others into play better as well as fulfill the attacking midfielder role by dropping there and bringing runners into play better than Giroud.

[X-Offender]

Leao touched 36 balls tonight, and lost 12 of them. Basically 1 touch every 3. And had zero shots on target.

Just to make you understand how unprolific he is the way he plays. The guy has true qualities, but he places too much importance on his pace and speed that he forgets football is actually a team sport. He plays too much with his head down and his end product thereby is sub-par.

[William405]

On other news:

Looking at the table, we are 5 pts in front of Inter who have 2 games in hand. That's a massive psychological boost for us IMO. Yes, inter are capable of winning both games, but one slip up and we're Scudetto favourites again.

It's just I don't know, everything that I thought made this team solid doesn't seem do great anymore. Ibra is totally out of it and injured most of the time. Rebic is gone as a football player. Salemakers used to be decent, not even decent anymore. Diaz has completely fallen of in the eyes of Pioli. Kjaer is gone for a while, he was one our biggest stars. It's really tough to look at the current team and understand our position.

[Rossoneri7]

On other news:

Looking at the table, we are 5 pts in front of Inter who have 2 games in hand. That's a massive psychological boost for us IMO. Yes, inter are capable of winning both games, but one slip up and we're Scudetto favourites again.

It's just I don't know, everything that I thought made this team solid doesn't seem do great anymore. Ibra is totally out of it and injured most of the time. Rebic is gone as a football player. Salemakers used to be decent, not even decent anymore. Diaz has completely fallen of in the eyes of Pioli. Kjaer is gone for a while, he was one our biggest stars. It's really tough to look at the current team and understand our position.

I see, Milan started the season with those players as starters, then as the season progressed others took their places (either due to injury or dips in form). Nonetheless, Milan sit 1st in the table.

Dont think there is a favorite now, with 10 games or less left to play. The teams competing are really close. Even Juve are back in the running. Its gonna be an interesting sprint to the finish line. I like it like this tbh (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[han2503]

Leao touched 36 balls tonight, and lost 12 of them. Basically 1 touch every 3. And had zero shots on target.

Just to make you understand how unprolific he is the way he plays. The guy has true qualities, but he places too much importance on his pace and speed that he forgets football is actually a team sport. He plays too much with his head down and his end product thereby is sub-par.

I've been saying this for a while now. If Leao could improve his end product, he'd be an elite player. I think he's young enough that he has enough time to learn these things. I remember Ronaldo in his first 3/4 seasons at Man U and he was mostly a frustrating player with very little end product. He then made the huge leap in the 06/07 season and was suddenly a top class finisher. I'm not saying Leao is at Ronaldo's level, but certainly the raw talent is there. And we've already seen him make a big step from last season to this one. It's just that final step now that is needed for him to reach his full potential.

Regardless. I think the problem on the right side really make it tougher for Leao as teams generally double up on him, especially when Theo isn't there as an added headache

On other news:

Looking at the table, we are 5 pts in front of Inter who have 2 games in hand. That's a massive psychological boost for us IMO. Yes, inter are capable of winning both games, but one slip up and we're Scudetto favourites again.

It's just I don't know, everything that I thought made this team solid doesn't seem do great anymore. Ibra is totally out of it and injured most of the time. Rebic is gone as a football player. Salemakers used to be decent, not even decent anymore. Diaz has completely fallen of in the eyes of Pioli. Kjaer is gone for a while, he was one our biggest stars. It's really tough to look at the current team and understand our position.

The fact that we're in first is a testament to our strengths. We've gone through major injury crises after injury crises throughout the season. It's only now that the injuries have really gone down. Ibra and Rebic will be important boosts for this run-in. I know Rebic has struggled to get back into match fitness, but I really do think that if we give him a couple of full matches to really get back into the swing of things he'll be back to pre-injury levels. these 10 minute appearances Pioli keeps giving him won't help him. He's a player that needs continuity, he's not an impact player coming off the bench imo.

Ibra will also be hugely important to help the team in the run-in. He might not be the Ibra he was just last year, but we all know how important he is for the squad even just for the mental aspect of the game.

Players seemingly keeps coming in and out of form, but never together. When Tonali was playing out of his skin Bennacer was struggling, now it's the opposite. Part of this is due to how many injuries all the players dealt with throughout the season so we never really had any continuity.