I just hope we don't lose concentration in 2nd half. I cam sense a red for them despise the pk miss we still have good chance of a positive result

They have been super dirty.

I have absolutely no clue why Kessie is our penalty taker. I've always felt that he doesn't know how to take a penalty. He always gambles with his tactic a la Jorginho by shooting while looking at the GK, and most of his shots are appalling as a result.

The penalty taker should be someone who takes a look at the goal and then kicks with strength and decisiveness in bottom or upper corner. Theo and Rebic for example would be great penalty takers.

What a wasted opportunity. Look at Lazio now take home the game in the second half. FFS...

I had so much hopes up on this penalty.

We need to asap get the renewal of Kessie done. He doesn't seem clear headed.

Ibraaaa

Fantastic pass from Tonali

So good play by rebic not only the goal but overall whole game

You know he is really turning it on and will be giving a lot of headaches to the coach on team selection

Bakayoko terrible

FFS Bakayoko is losing every single ball!!!

Calabria with a Maldini like tackle

Terrible, now he is injured.

Krunic is better.

He is going off...

I will say it now, Calabria is a world class defender.

Are we playing 5 defenders or this fode bollo can play midfield?

FT, great win.

Excellent game. Defensively we were brilliant keeping in mind that kjaer was not playing.

Rebic was great and its just the depth appears to be much better this season. Great game from theo and Tonali as well

A solid performance, both defensive and offensive.

The midfield was amazing tonight, as was the wide players.

Bring on Liverpool!

I really don't get our last 15 minutes. I know we were trying to kill the game, but we were basically inviting Lazio into our own half the entire time. One slip up, one good pass and we risk conceding. We should be keeping ball possession, not allowing it to Lazio. It's not like we were winning 5-0 or something.

That aside, really good game. Lazio are usually a very nasty side but we completely annulled them. They basically had no chances to score.

I think Pioli has done a top notch work with relation to defence. We're very solid, very compact and organised. Set aside the usual brain farts from Theo or someone else, we know how to defend.

What needs improvement is the attacking aspect. We simply waste too many good opportunities and too many counter-attacks. That final touch is very often incorrect.

Great match from Rebic, I'd start him on the left against Liverpool. Leao could be useful in the second half.

Brahim was the only one absent today. Completely anonymous game. I simply wonder what we'd do if we had a top class AM, and RW as well (although Alexis is not bad).

Fully agreed there.

Obviously I'm commenting on this in hind sight. But they beat 2 Serie B sides. I think the hype with Lazio is a bit too bloated and I was confident going into this tbh

I'm more interested to see what we do next week against Juve after coming back from Liverpool. Because this is the key here. How Pioli uses the excellent depth he's been afforded by the management. We might have dropped the ball in the attacking mid recruitment. But you have to admit that we addressed all the holes we were faced with last season in terms of squad depth.

And personally. Looking at our current midfield options I'm going to be bullish and say that Pioli will find a way to utilise either Tonali or Bennacer as a makeshift AM in difficult games. They have all th tools to be able to play that position imo.

Tonali has been seriously impressive. Bennacer was good when he came on as well.

Bakayoko looked a bit lost imo but it appears he got knocked on that ankle very quickly after he came on not to mention the yellow. I think he'll need some time to get into the rhythm with this Milan side seeing as it's almost completely different to the one he left 2 years ago.


This. Pioli has a lot of options. The midfield imo is where we are the strongest. Especially once Baka starts to click with the team.


Rebic is a big game player, not to mention his chemistry with Theo is much better than Leao's. That being said. I've been impressed with how Leao has started the season. Much more committed to working both on and off the ball. I think as with Tonali, this is going to be breakout year for him

Against Liverpool I'd really like to see us explore other formation options for a more compact set-up which is capable of breaking on quick counters. I personally wouldn't play Diaz against Liverpool.

We need to be aggressive against them and Diaz, while capable of great moments even when having a quiet game as he was today, tends to struggle in physical match ups.

Roma will be the surprise of the season IMO

Surely, not as good as us, we have a much better defence and midfield.

Roma are very shaky defensively. They leave acres of spaces to their opponents. Sassuolo were always exposing them in the first half (didn't watch the second).

They did also expose them in the second half too. Sassuolo were unlucky and did score a late goal too, but it was called offside.

In surprise of the season, I mean they might finish 4 th place.

Yeah, but if you wanna break on counters you need Diaz. I think 4-2-3-1 is compact enough since everyone seems to understand their duties well. Even Leao was tracking back a lot last night.

I think we should go with the same formation. My only doubts are Tonali or Bennacer and Rebic or Leao.

I'd personally choose Bennacer and Leao yo start at this point. We can always switch it around. Alexis on the right will also be hugely improtant

Yeah, but Tonali is our most in form player right now (although he had intestinal problems last night and today apparently he didn't train, but his presence for tomorrow in not in doubt).

On the other hand, I rate Bennacer too much, probably more than anyone on this forum. I'd start him in every game. And Kessie is too important to be left on the bench for these kind of games.

But at least now we have choices, which is always a good thing and something we sorely missed last season. Even in attack, Giroud has recovered so Pioli can choose between him and Zlatan. Leao and Rebic is another 50/50. And we have to wait on Messias as well, which I'm hopeful will turn out to be a surprise.

Bottom line, if we don't have injuries, and if our players perform at their best, then we can put up a performance against anyone. Not saying we can beat Liverpool or we're better than them, but we're competitive enough for a decent challenge. And in the league I don't see any other team superior to us right now.

In other news, Bakayoko will return in October from his injury.

Zlatan will miss tomorrow's game due to some pain in the Achilles tendon.

F%$#K!

Forgot to to reply to this.

I watched the game and it was another mediocre performance by Capanoglu after Verona in the second week. He did only one good thing, when he recovered the ball which initiated the counter for Inter's second goal (which looked like a foul nevertheless), but other than that he was crap. Many misplaced passes and little involvement in Inter's play overall. Typical Capanoglu performance that when the team is having a tough day he vanishes from the radar.

This was the second game in a row he got the lowest rating from newspapers. And I will say, I'm glad we got rid of him. Yes, his departure gave us a headache and in the end maybe we didn't sign a proper replacement, but I'll take Brahim over this kebbabaro traitor any day of the week.

Should have been called back. He barged into Damsgaard's back. It wasn't shoulder to shoulder

But yeah, Inter were average and lucky to get out of there with a point

Calabria out injured vs Juve.

Great, looks like our injury plague has already started.

Notable absentees are Zlatan, Calabria and most likely Giroud.

This means we reply on Rebic and Leao for the attack, not sure if that is enough to penetrate Juve.

Giroud officially out as well due to low back pain.

Wow soo many injuries.. I was confident for this game but it will be difficult now.

In all honesty nothing changes for me, only Florenzi for Calabria. Otherwise it will be the same line-up that defeated Lazio last week, so we have to go in for the win.

Well, Zlatan... I don't think we'll see him play regularly anymore. Perhaps one or two last hurrah goals but nothing more. Giroud will be missed as a solid bench option.

Inter destroying Bologna. Not that Bologna is a good team, but anyway, they seem to be playing very well. One would never guess they've lost 2 key players and their scudetto winning coach. Gosh if they manage to win the second star, I'd be really pissed.

In all honesty Bologna were beyond terrible.

Maignan has a wrist problem and will not be playing tonight.

Milan are missing 6 players in total to injuries/fitness; Ibra, Giroud, Messias, Calabria, Bakayoko, and now Maignan.

Not too sure how this game will go anymore.

Well Rebic will be up for it so the attack doesn't worry me so much. Maignan and Calabria being out is more worrying


Agreed


Bologna, Genoa, Salarnitana, Venezia, etc. All these sides or going to be big whipping boys for the big teams. Inter were pretty awful against Samp who are a decent mid-table side. But this is part of the problem with this leaue, there is a huge gap between the top 10 sides in the league compared to the rest. It's why I think it's going to be very difficult this season to get top 4 because most of the top 6 sides will steamroll the rest of the league barring some exceptions against teams like Samp, Sassuolo, Udine, etc


FFS!!

I spent all summer harping on about the biggest investment we could make to the team would be an overhaul of the fitness department!!

We've barely started the season and already we have important players out. WTF is going on at Milanello?? Giroud spends a few weeks at Milanello and he's already injured when he was barely ever out at Chelsea. Bakayoko spends 2 minutes on the pitch, injured, Ibra, same.

Maignan is not out yet, most sources have him starting.

In all honesty I don't blame the fitness team that much this time around, mainly because most of the problems are not muscular in nature.

• Maignan hurt his wrist while stopping Salah's penalty;
• Krunic got injured while on NT duty;
• Bakayoko was barely with us before his debut;
• Messias was completely out of shape when we signed him;
• Giroud has back pain;
• Zlatan is an obvious case given his age.

Only Calabria's problems may fall upon the fitness team. We're just unlucky.

Last season we were unlucky, this season we're the boy who cried wolf.

And yes, most of these are just knocks, but I have no confidence that once we get to January/February, that the team won't simply collapse physically as they did last season which is what cost us the title imo


I'm still confident going into this Juve game, but just barely. Losing both Calabria and Maignan would be a huge blow. Let's hope you're right and Maignan starts because Tata is a liability

There's also rumours of Tomori playing at RB because Florenzi is not in his best conditions. Which I believe. He's been awful thus far, even for the Azzurri. All these players that were bound to leave their clubs (Florenzi, Bakayoko, Messias, Pellegri) were completely out of shape when we signed them.

Were they even training with their respective Clubs?

Taking Tomori out of the CB partnership is worrying as he's our safety net at the back with his pace.

I know for a fact that Bakayoko was training by himself, because players not part of the project generally don't train with the rest of the squad. I assume it was the same for Messias and the rest.

Typical Theo brainfart. What's new...

We look disjointed.

This Tomori on the right move has hurt us

Exactly what I was about to say. We look weird. Can't make our minds whether we're playing with a 3 or 4 man defence.

My tv subscription expired.. Seems like not missing much