Since scoring really lost it. They could have been further up

The midfield is the problem. Bennacer and Bakayoko look lost together. Kessie or Tonali need to come on for Baka. Kalulu should come on for Florenzi as well.

Leao looks off the pace but we don't really have an alternative for him

How can they be playing like this? Zero concentration, zero grit.

Champions league... champions league...

Leao is getting on my nerves the most. The kind of balls he loses are beyond stupid. He's playing like this is a training session.

An entirely different team playing today.

Entirely different? Come on, you know what I mean. This team cannot play on multiple battlegrounds.

Sure Baka and Leao made a few errors. Bennacer isn't good as well, just like Diaz isn't making the difference (once again). But our backline seems to be lost as well, Kjaer mostly picking up the mistakes and covering for the dangerous situations, but their positioning is bad and they lack better communication.

Have not improved at all!!

Wtf are they doing??

Maignan, Florenzi, Bennacer, Bakayoko, Leao and Zlatan didn't start against Atletico. That's 6/11 of the line-up.

This has loss written all over it. Not trying the slightest to change the outcome. So, so disappointing.

Toying with us. We're not pressing well at all...

1-3...

7 goals in the last 2 games.

So what?

Un-f@cking-believable....


How? Just how??

So many f@cking errors in front of our area. So sick of this!

Collective mess. Maignan should have done better, Romag should have done better. Kessie... much much better.

Not good enough. Simple as that.

And he was right.

All goals, once again from ridiculous errors.

We have been trying that diagonal to Theo all game and they keep cutting it out. Now Kessie with the f@ck up

So CL has nothing to do with anything. We're just bad.

I don't believe that

So we were good enough a month ago but now we're not good enough?

It's the usual complacency

It's looking like the usual top 4 fight will be the order of the day for us. Just not good enough when the going gets tough

F@cking Sassuolo man!

Such a cursed team for us

I honestly think we underestimate these games. We think we need to give that 100% effort in the CL or in the big games, then we can walk these Serie A games with minimum effort. But there are no easy games in these times. You need to give your 100% in every single match.

Romagnoli red card.

Such a disgusting display today.

San Siro was sold out today. This defeat is a fraud. Shame on everyone.

I was watching Inter last night. They were playing against a truly awful side, yet their concentration and determination were as if they were playing against a big name.

That's the difference in mentality between us and them, and what ultimately makes a difference in the title race.

6 points lost within a week...

This after all the hard work we did against the top sides, we f@ck it all up within a week. Just unbelievable.

How was that not a penalty btw??

After all the sh!t calls I've seen this season that was not given? When it was clearly in an unnatural position

Messias is terrible btw. I'm sorry, but he's just not good enough. He's not a Milan player

Indeed. But let's not point the finger in a game where everyone was fucking terrible.

Wasted the first half when we were on top, then proceeded to totally fall apart. Getting worrying now. Inter have reduced our lead to just 1 point.

And if things keep going this way we could easily be completely out of the equation by the break.

If we have any dignity left, we shouldn't let that happen. Against Fiorentina we lost due to individual mistakes for the most part and too many wasted goals, but today the team was nowhere in its entirety. Zero. Nada.

Kudos to Sassuolo who played this like a final, as every team should.

It's not just about this game though

Every time I've seen him, I've been completely underwhelmed. He's too slow, and not just in terms of pace, his decision making his passing, he seems like he wants to do everything on slow mo. Today he had the chance to run at Sassuolo twice on the counter, and he just put the brakes instead of released the ball.

Anyway, that's another loss.

Since Tomori's been out we've shipped 7 goals. Mistakes by the midfielders, mistakes by the defenders, just overall worrying

Leao looks suddenly stunted for some reason. Theo was awful today and could have easily been sent off.

Inter must be rubbing their hands in glee. Napoli losing their 2 best players and us losing our way. This clears the path for them unfortunately


As for January when we have to do without Kessie and Bennacer, I'm really getting worried now. Bakayoko looking off the pace

I really wonder why Pioli decided to f@ck about with the line-up against Sassuolo and not Genoa. Would have been a much smarter choice to rotate in that one, Sassuolo always cause trouble for us

You can argue all the goals came from avoidable individual errors today as well

First goal, Bakayoko with a stupid ball back to Sassuolo right in front of our area. Second goal, Benna tried the same out ball we used over and over again that kept getting cut out, this time intercepted, which lead to the corner which was a whole clusterfuck of errors

Last goal, Kessie once against f@cking about right in front of our area, losing the ball and Berardi scores. Romagnoli was also terrible on that play


Just really bad stuff I've seen these last 2/3 games. Errors we shouldn't be making. Not if we have higher ambitions than finishing in the top 4.

I said last week that title challengers shouldn't be shipping 4 goals in a game. That's just a red flag, today we shipped another 3

True, true. Only difference is that against Fiorentina we played well for the most part. Today after they equalised we completely disappeared.

This also goes on Pioli. He clearly had not prepared the game properly. Playing Bakayoko from the start for example was a huge mistake.

Switching to the 4-4-2 in that 2nd half was also a terrible move.

Diaz was quite but he and Leao are the only players capable of running at the opposition. Taking him out to bring on Messias was a bad move. Florenzi should have also come off for Kalulu earlier.

As for Bakayoko, he has to play, because we're slowly moving towards a month where he will be one of 2 options in the midfield for us. But playing him today was probably not the wisest decision, especially when he could have just as easily played him at Genoa.


Rebic and Tomori are terribly missed that's for sure.

Tomori we simply cannot do without at this point. Kjear and Romagnoli are too slow next to each other. Romagnoli with a game full of brain farts didn't help either

Btw, I know we played terrible and it's pointless to talk about the ref

But Raspadori should have been sent off for that high boot on Bennacer early in the first half

And that should have been a penalty when Ferrari (I think) stopped the shot with his hand held up and in an unnatural position

We have been consistently getting the short end of the stick in every game with the refereeing. Inter yesterday got a ridiculous penalty for a ricochet when the player was on the ground, similar to the one we got called against us against Atalanta, yet this one was not called. When the player clearly obstructed the ball with his hand held up.

Pioli needs to work on the head of his players. He needs to make them understand that if you want to become a great team who aims for the Scudetto you need to consider every game like a final. There are no easy games at these levels. Concentration and determination are key.

Of course there's also the tactical aspect which today he completely botched as Dionisi had studied how to beat us to perfection, but if the players ain't conscious of the importance of each game then it's gonna be another crumble like last season.

I was angry after the Fiorentina defeat because we gifted them the win, but today I'm simply disappointed at the attitude of these players. To go to Madrid and dominate the champions of Spain (who, granted, aren't amazing this season, but still) and then put such a horror show at home against Sassuolo is UNACCEPTABLE.

Horrendous game by the team captain.


We entered against Atletico all-in and gave our best. While we underestimated Fiorentina and Sassuolo and lost vital 6 points. It has much to do with the CL rush. Conte by no accident decided to disregard CL football in order to win the scudetto.




Contradictory. You do not think we're not good enough yet you conclude we won't be battling for the title.

I think we lack quality and more careful planning to be serious contenders. The summer transfer market operations proved to be inadequate or (for the most part) disappointing. We created another mess with contracts and destabilized one of our crucial players. And never replaced Hakan's departure. All this is understandable.

What's less understandable is that Pioli is not trying harder to grow. We still depend on one basic gameplan and show no tactical flexibility. Our mentality is still the same of last year, squandering points against weaker teams and underestimating midtable clubs. The form dip is also a constant: everytime around Christmas we start to fold.

Not good enough because we are complacent, you said so yourself.

I don't think it's a lack of quality

Players are just not concentrating throughout the 90 minutes, it's what leads to these individual errors.

We started this game well also. Has control of the game up to the goal, then we just lost our heads as we did vs Fiorentina. Only this time I personally think Pioli got it all wrong with his changes as we were even worse in the 2nd half

I agree that this squad is simply not good enough to fight on 2 fronts, especially not when we are contently dealing with an injury crisis. I've been banging on about this since last season, the medical and fitness staff should have been improved as there is clearly a serious problem there. This season if possible the situation with injuries is even worse than it was last year.

Inter run their first 11 into the ground and don't have a fraction of the problems that we do. No other team in Serie A actually has as many injuries as we do. Just not normal

And once again it will cost us. The rotation today by Pioli was completely wrong.

When I say not good enough it means the attitude, the concentration, the effort.

Quality has nothing to do with it. Especially not against Sassuolo. If we were being outplayed by the top teams than I would agree, but the f@ck ups have come against teams we should have beaten

First of all, you are gravely mistaken if you think Conte disregarded the CL by choice.

Secondly, our underestimating of Sassuolo has nothing to do with the CL. It is a trait that has been accompanying us for quite a while. Just think how many points we lost last season because we did not take certain games as seriously as we should have. And we did not play the CL last season. That is what I have been harping on in the last two pages of this thread. We need to work on our heads, i.e. on our concentration and determination. CL or no CL...

For me it is all the same, with little difference. Yes, individually our players have quality. Same can be said about Cassano and Balotelli (these are of course extreme examples). But lack of concentration, focus and crucially, lack of consistently playing on a high level (see Romagnoli) - in my opinion - usually means lack of quality as well in a more broader sense.


I really think Conte didn't try for the CL at all (with Inter).

I disagree. This was not the typical Milan mentality clusterf@ck. This is more. And the Italian media seem to agree with me that the focus on CL football made them drop the ball and mental exhaustion caused many of these individual errors.

Honestly it's the first time ever I hear that teams snub the CL. And I've heard it twice already in this forum. Once with Milan this season, and now with Inter last season. It's illogical to think any of this is actually true.

Inter went guns blazing in Gladbach last season to win the penultimate game in the group, which they did, but then just couldn't get that last win against Shakhtar despite having many goal opportunities. They were just unlucky. You think that was the attitude of a team snubbing the competition?

Inter were great last year. They had world class players in Lukaku and Hakimi on top of the quality ones they already have. To think they would have the audacity to get out of the CL intentionally, to me at least, sounds ludicrous. And I don't believe it one bit.



Shouldn't it be the contrary? The win in Madrid should have increased the players' enthusiasm and self-confidence. I don't believe they were mentally exhausted, just didn't approach the match with the right intensity and concentration. It was a clear lack of focus.

Speaking about rotation, Inter have been playing Barella-Brozovic-Capanoglu nearly non-stop thus far, Serie A and CL, 3 players who also play all their NT games. Even against Venezia, and even against Spezia Mediaset has them still starting. I really don't understand why Pioli decided to experiment with Bennacer and Bakayoko in such a delicate match against a tough opponent like Sassuolo.

If we lost yesterday's match in any position on the pitch, it was in midfield. The two CMs didn't provide enough cover and made way too many mistakes, Bakayoko in primis. Bennacer was also quite poor. I feel the fact he's lost his starting spot to Tonali has affected him negatively. I think he's a player who always needs to play in order to achieve and maintain a top physical and psychological condition.

I will always keep saying that Tonali and Bennacer should be our starting pair, but for some reason people in here don't agree.

Tonali is showing real signs of progress and he has stepped up very boldly, which made me reconsider my earlier criticism.

Maybe you are right regarding Bennacer, maybe him not playing affects his mentality. But overall he's showing very little. I think he's the kind of player that shines at Empoli or Fiorentina, but isn't ready for a bigger step forward. He lacks consistency. Injuries also don't help, but all in all I think he lacks mostly consistency.

But consistency is achieved also be playing regularly. The only time Bennacer was consistent in his showings was in the post Covid break in 2020, arguably his best few months with us. Then last year it was a calvary of injuries, and this year he's been frequently benched in favour of Tonali.

And I get Pioli's decision to play Tonali. Like you said, he's stepped up big time this season and he's earned that spot. But, for example, to prefer over Bennacer someone like Kessie who clearly doesn't give two shits about this team anymore is just wrong on so many levels.

I don't think Kessie is not giving a damn for the team. That's complete und utter bullshit.

So how do you justify his pathetic performances this season? Bar a couple of good matches here and there, he's been for the most part utter trash.

https://twitter.com/francefootball/status/1...418482607177730

So proud of Simon.