Are we watching the same match?

A shame. Leao has been good.

We're f@cking about with the ball needlessly

I don't know about you but I don't feel comfortable that we'll keep the clean sheet today. Everyone seems like they just came to do the bare minimum here

Finally. Calabria on. Kalulu was giving me an ulcer these past 20 minutes or so

Trying to be too cute in front of goal Just hit the ball hard FFS

Can't wait for this clusterfuck to be over

. you're exaggerating a bit. We're not playing a good game though

Nah, he's right. Spezia could score at any moment because we're so sloppy.

There you go.

The only reason we win games because we're a very tough team to score against. I don't want to jinx it

We don't deserve to win today. Simple as.

F@@@@@CKKK

What are they doing FFS???

**** mee

Shameful display today

So pissed off we're going to lose points to this team again FFS!!

BRAHIM!!!!!!

He is on form

YEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Brahim!!!!!

Spezia are not a walkover. They play decent imo

We've been beyond **** though for sure

Ice cold there Brahim.

But this is not a performance I want to see from us. Not when I know we can do so much better. A disgusting half @ssed performance

The assist was quite good as well

True true

Leao's been a huge impact sub today. Just missing that goal

Saelmakers

Yeah, it will come, it will come.

F*ck man, never thought we'd win this after they equalised. Probably some of the most important 3 points we'll get this season just because of how badly we played.

3 points in the end.

I liked pellegri he might end useful for us

Agreed. Sometimes you just have to grind it.

We have too many players who seem out of sorts. Which is understandable with players always seemingly returning from injury

Still does not excuse that we seemed to want to play in 1st gear intentionally. That sh!t does not fly, because you'll get punished eventually.

Still. 3 important points that we did not deserve.

Kessie needs to wake up. He'd demanding how much? And playing like this?? F@ck off mate
Giroud was rusty AF. He's only been training for 2 days so I'll let it slide
Rebic was donkey Rebic today rather than virtuoso Rebic, cannot figure this guy out for the life of me
Tonali seemed off
Maldini is too green imo, but happy he got his first goal
Alexis was bad imo, great assist though
Theo quiet as well
Kalulu was giving me palpitations and making the Spezia players look like Barca in the hey day the way they were playing around him
Calabria didn't bring much of anything. Same situation as Giroud so I'll let it go

Pioli i think mentioned lole before the first game or so that tonali, leao and diaz were a major step up. Its really showing.

Agreed. However it does sort of feel like we took one step forward and one step back with players like Kessie and Bennacer not playing at the level they were last season.

If we can get everyone performing at a high level we'd be up there with Inter. Still think we lack something in attack. But Brahim is coming up clutch right now

Ibra and Giroud coming back will be a huge plus. Just need to get both of them fit

Super pissed off that we f@cked up our clean sheet here. Had the joint best defensive record in the league

ATM lost to last placed la liga team. We need to get a result against them midweek

I want to blame this performance on that game. Seemed like we wanted to expand as little energy as possible

I want to see real ferocity against Atletico on Tuesday

It's hard to analyse this game. We were messy, sloppy, disorganised, even unwilling at times. Probably one of the ugliest games I've seen in the last few years.

First half was just terrible. In the second as soon as we scored we could and should have closed it, yet we kept jogging and trailing on that tight advantage. Can't have such a mentality.

I also think that the performances of the various Giroud, Pellegri, Rebic, Maldini and Kessie were very bad and conditioned the rest of the team. At full power we would have closed this game sooner, but it's obvious that because of injuries, players out of form and fatigue our overall gameplay suffered a lot.

Nevertheless, 3 crucial points.

PS: Leao was spectacular today. If only he had scored...

Yeah, just heard. Alaves had 0 points prior to this match, 5 losses. Atletico have been really bad result-wise thus far, we need to take advantage of this.

Agree completely.

It feels like this squad is always conditioned into playing at 50% because we're always having players coming in and out of the team.

Rebic against these smaller sides is just a donkey at times. Don't know what he was doing! Still want him to start against Atletico though. The guy is a big game player. I'd play him as a CF there. Giroud seems off the pace and Leao should play. He deserves to keep his spot going by how he'd played this season

Brahim performing like this while still being a Real player will keep me up at night though. Can't see us keeping him if Real want him back

Now come on Atalanta. Draw pls!

A Maldini scores for the history books

Im so happy for the Maldini legacy at this club, so rich and enhances the essence of what it means to play for this club.

Agreed. Rebic and Leao should start against Atletico. Giroud is completely out of shape.



Don't worry. He's on a 2-year loan, then we also have the right of purchase at 22M. So, at the very minimum he'll be here for 3 years. And then in case Madrid will want to buy him back, the player will also have to agree on the transfer.

But it's still too early to talk about it. Who knows what will happen in 3 years' time.

Can't help it. Same situation as it was with Morata at Juve a few years back. Real will take him back even if they don't need him because they can flip him for good money if he keeps performing at this level.




Anyway some interesting words from Pioli:



I though the pitch looked too tight both last season and today. It makes it easier for Spezia to press teams since it's apparently a smaller pitch. Pioli going there apprehensive says it all. I almost felt like we were going to create a boogey man out of Spezia when that goal went in. Shows the spirit the team has now to not panic and bring in the win

According to Spezia's official website, the field dimensions are 105x65, whereas that of San Siro are 105x68. I don't think 3 meters narrower is going to make such a difference.

We from the TV have the perspective of a smaller pitch because the camera overview is too close to the pitch due to it being a very small stadium.

3 meters is not a small margin though.

Yeah, the camera angle is terrible as well. That's a good point

Inter losing 2-1

They started off good, but Atalanta then came out strong. Let's see if it's going to be a repeat of the Florence match.

Inter riding their luck!

Atalanta close 3/4 times now