Tatarusanu lost after every corner

Shameful, shameful display

With two man up this is the least effective thing

Probably the most shameful under Pioli.

You have 2 of the best headers of the ball in the game. That's the logical thing to do when you have zero creativity through the centre

BENNNNNAAA!!!

BENNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

And Ballo Toure and Alexis to cross?

Anyway, now we won. Lets forget this shame ever happened

Conceded 2 goals in 3 successive games now

Have to improve

Baka brilliant play there

We have Toro next Tuesday with potentially 10 players out...

Calabria is a good crosser. Generally tends to go inside though rather than cross

Ballo Toure's crosses were half decent today, it's just that he's so flat, even his runs. And he's got such good pace...

Still, you have to cross at Ibra and Giroud. That's one of their biggest stengths

IBRAAAAAAA

Totally shItty game. Goal and assist...

3 points. Just take them and move on

We need to improve greatly for the game against Toro on Tuesday.

Maybe we can have Rebic back for that. Still holding out hope for Theo. It's been 12 days now. Plus he was not symptomatic so should be good to go

Some points after watching this game

- We need to improve our general play, first half before we scored we already showed signs of shakiness. It has to be difficult coming back from Porto, half the team out and keeping consistency in our performances. But we have to be better. We won't always be able to play out of the messes we get ourselves in

- Maignan is such a big miss. The out-balls and the general peace of mind he brings to the defense is sorely missed. I keep forgetting that he's out because he's a keeper and not as important as other positions. But when the ball gets near our area you can clearly sense panic. We're conceding too many, we can't always score 3+ goals a game. The defense is not as assured as it was just a month ago.

- I'm not going to name names because I think everyone was poor. Only Tomori imo was flawless. Even Kjaer made a few mistakes. We need to recover well for the Toro game on Tuesday. I hope they can have an off day tomorrow to rest up and clear their heads.

- We need better game management. Why oh why were we in that position during the equalizer? With the whole team pushed up? The changes imo weren't that great either. I know Pioli has his hands tied but taking off Tonali and leaving on Krunic when he was missing all game was a mistake.

- A few positives though. Last season when we were in a similar situation injury-wise, we totally crumbled. Now we're arguably going through a worse injury crises and we're soldiering on. Maybe no sailing through but still plodding on and getting the wins. I keep saying to myself if we win this game with all these players out, then it's a sign of how strong we are as a group. Today we shithoused our way through this, but that's how Juve won 9 Scudetti basically

- Things can only improve once we start getting players back. Right now we're getting by with what we have, once Theo and Brahim are back we'll be in better position. And we'll be even stronger when we have Rebic, Messias, Florenzi and Maignan back as well.

One last point. We absolutely have to go out and buy an attacking player in January. Not getting Faivre was a huge mistake on management's part. He's absolutely balling atm in League 1. The asking price is only going to increase now all this because we cheaped out for a few mill

Shameful performance. Nothing more to add. Alright first half, disastrous second half. If we didn't have those two extra men we would have never won this.

Attitude was the biggest problem tonight. A focus team would have never conceded those two goals, and it wouldn't have had such difficulty in securing the win. But the sheer mediocrity in some of our players is too great to ignore.

We need a striker as well. Ibra is trash, Giroud is mediocre, Pellegri is not even worth commenting. Right flank is even worse with Saelemediocre and Castillejo. Hopefully Messias gets back for good.

I don't think we would have let it slip to 2-2 if we weren't a man up tbh. They clearly showed a lack of concentration in that 2nd half. Assuming it's wrapped up and going on auto-pilot.

That being said, we weren't even good in the 1st half. We're been poor since we came back from NT duty, and I can't even really point fingers because we've had to deal with a lot of problems. Most teams in Serie A have one or 2 players out with injury at any given time. We have 9, potentially 10 players out. This is just not normal. The strain is going to take it's toll. We're already seeing a big dip in performance compared to the game against Atalanta before the break for example and even then we had a few players out.

I'm not excusing the fact that we made this more difficult than it needed to be, especially with the 2-man advantage. But the constant losses are going to effect our cohesiveness. We've looked disjointed in these last 3 games. The attacking options were not there. Ibra and Giroud together up front is just no a good idea, but unfortunately that's what we had to do. I really can't see us improving until we get some players back unfortunately...

Nah. Ibra is just rusty. He hasn't started a game in I don't know how many months now, probably 5 or 6 with knee surgery added in there.

Same with Giroud. He was great before he got Covid and then that back injury. He's a great hold up player. Once again, we're simply unlucky with the injuries. Giroud was available for nearly all of last season for Chelsea, he comes to Milan and gets struck down, same thing with Messias.

That's the issue with having all these injuries, we constantly have players that need to get back match fitness. Especially players like Ibra and Giroud who are older and will need a bit more time


Alexis is getting on my nerves. He's never been the most talented player, but when he's playing well he's important to the way we play, he's just not been at his best this season. I can't remember a single game where he performed well

I'd save getting a striker for next summer. There could be opportunities like Belotti or David from Lille.

Leao invisible in the second half against Porto, Leao invisible in the second half against Bologna as well. This guy completely switches off after a certain moment, it's ridiculous.

Agreed on this. He's still our most dangerous outlet though. We just need Rebic and Diaz back to take the focus off him.

If Rebic is back for Toro Pioli needs to consider playing Leao as an AM like he did last season when both Diaz and Hakan were out. Krunic is a no-go right now

After Torino on Tuesday we have Roma away, Porto at home and Inter at home. We really need to get back as many players as possible. Rebic, Theo and Brahim in primis.

Theo tested negative today

Excellent news. Wouldn't be surprised to see him against Toro. We are that desperate

@Han - Leao our most dangerous outlet? Man have you seen him yesterday second half? Bar that fluke goal he scored he went MIA and never returned. We were up by 2 man, Ibra tried everything, almost all of our players at least tried and failed (mostly), but Leao simply just wasn't there. No man, he's not our most dangerous outlet, he's the most unpredictable. But yesterday already shows how you can table that "clutch player" overreaction for quite some time.

@X-O - Ibra is garbage? Oh come on, let's be honest. He's 40, he's very rusty and injury prone. This is probably his last season and all problems are very visible. But to say he's garbage... that's really uncalled for. In his worst performance the man scored (even twice haha) and made an assist. No man, Ibra is good to have and valuable, if fit.

Re Han: I think one of our biggest problems in recent games was the midfield situation. Not only do we lack Diaz or a quality AM who can do his job, but also Kessie started the season rather badly, Bennacer is awfully inconsistent even during games (the last few matches he made some horrendous unforced mistakes and stupidities), Tonali seems to be dropping in for as well (Pioli subbed him off rightly because he was going to get a second yellow for sure) while Bakayoko seems to need more time to recuperate and get back where he was with us two seasons ago (even though last night he provided the pass for Bennacer's goal).

Buy what? What Kessie goal are you talking about?

ManUtd won on experience. Experienced and well rounded teams tend to do so. Half of the knockout games Milan won during Carletto's reign or even with Capello were such performances, decided by episodes, games were we had nothing on our opposition yet managed to hold onto the brilliance of Kaka, Pippo, Sheva, Serginho or whoever was in the right mood.

So you say the details, the real treasure of football is luck and episodes? This you call details? Man, I really don't follow you. I acknowledge all your interpretations. But in the end, you tend to choose one episode and use it as a pars pro toto argument, which is false. Milan got robbed by Cakir, there's not denial there. But this is something you cannot influence, this goes down to what you say - luck. But could have Kessie used his brain and avoid fouling with already a yellow card on his shoulders? Could Milan have defended like Bologna against us for the better part of the game and not like some shaky scared bunch of players who stopped doing anything but defending their box? Yes. More could have been done. Experience is what we needed. The botttom line to this CL campaign will be "experience needed, experience gained" and not "we should have won bot got robbed every time".

He's been hugely important in all our wins, and that is very far from an over reaction as he's been involved heavily in our goal scoring. Especially in these last few games when we didn't have Rebic and Diaz, we wouldn't have won the games if he wasn't on the pitch. And that is a fact

I concede that today he lacked his usual input, I thought he would grow into the game after the goal. Against Porto we simply couldn't bring him into the game as we barely were able to get the ball past the midfield.

What's important for me with Leao is that I see the willingness to improve, not just his attacking game, but his overall contribution to our pressing game, which he has done this season (this game aside - tiredness is also creeping in with a lot of our players and this is a factor into our dip as well)


Agreed about the midfield

We haven't see any consistency so far this season. Once again, another area were we continuously have players coming in and out of the squad. We're always changing the double pivot as well rather than having the set 2 as it ideally should be. We just need some consistency and the performances will come imo.

Both Tonali and Benna are better next to Kessie. Bakayoko can fill that role but he's another player that needs to recover match fitness + having the added issue of needing to integrate into a new team. We really need to find a solution for Kessie by January, we really cannot drag this out to the end of the season, either renew him or sell him in Jan and bring Kamara from Marseille early. This could be the difference between winning the Scudetto and fighting for 4th

Kessie had a regular goal removed for a non-existent hand ball. An away goal at that. We were much better against Man U in that tie. Overall had the better performance and were f@cked over by the ref. Man U were actually quite poor overall and did not deserve to go through ahead of us.

Some good news today

Kessie, Pellegri and Theo all trained with the rest of the team today

Hopefully we'll have Rebic as well for Toro. Fingers crossed

This was my initial comment after the Porto game:



I AM acknowledging everything you say. That this team is not ready for the Champions League just yet. I'm not pointing my finger at episodes and luck as the main reason why we have zero points.

I am claiming however that they are part of the issue. That's it. Tough group, injuries, bad refereeing, these are all factors that cannot simply be ignored. Greece won the Euros in 2004 because everything went their way, not because they had a great and experienced team.

Football is not an exact science, but an amalgamation of many, many factors. That's why the strongest team doesn't always win.



I read Rebic didn't train with the team today, and is in doubt for Toro.

If Rebic becomes available, we need to play him behind Giroud. Otherwise play Tonali or Bennacer as AM. Enough with Krunic!

Hopefully Brahim gets negative as well soon.

Atalanta 1-1 Udinese

Let's just hope Roma-Napoli and Inter-Juve also end up in draws (even though I would fancy very much a Roma win).

Agreed. Although i doubt roma would do well.

Agreed re Roma winning. They don't look good for the long run imo.

Napoli are doing amazing things, but I think they will dip a lot after christmas.

Juve-Inter is the most important one imo. A draw would be best in that one. Juve are gaining ground with their annoying 1-0 wins


This

They haven't been impressive imo this season and their soft centre against the big teams is still there to see, Mourinho hasn't really improved on what Fonseca was doing with them last season. In fact they look even shakier at the back this season


Atalanta's draw means we have a 10 point cushion on 5th. All the points we're taking now will be huge in terms of CL football, especially if we go through bad spells

Yep, Rebic probably won't be available

And I agree re the AM position. However don't think Pioli will go for it.

I want the scudetto

Shouldn't we play Mirante instead of Tata, at this point? He looks shaky as hell.

Great! At this point, we should go all in Serie A, try to win each game.

Simeone scores 3 past Lazio. Verona play some really nice football. I wouldn't be so sad with getting Simeone, he's always impressed me.

Me too. That's the dream. But I'm also keeping realistic goals atm. If we're still in this position after christmas then I will start to believe even more, especially if we get past this injury situation and keep the squad as healthy as possible.

Still, having that cushion between us and 5th is reassuring


Lazio have been immense for us this season, I have to say. They've beaten all the top sides they've faced so far (except for us) while they keep bottling it against the smaller sides, meaning they're out of the top 4 equation. Roma on the other hand are the exact reverse of that Don't think they'll do anything today against Napoli

Mourinho is a savage, sent 6 players who lost to Bodo to the stands today... The honeymoon is already over it seems

Roma 0-0 Napoli

Another good result.

Yep, turning into an excellent weekend for us.

1 last game to make it perfect. Give me a draw football gods!

Inter up 1-0

I think Juve have it in them to get the draw. Inter are so suspect at the back. Can't believe this is the same team as the one from last season

It's not 🤣

Well only Hakimi is missing from that backline, and he's not even a defender

Yes! 1-1

Juve as usual with a call to save them Too funny

Bullshit call ahahah

Oh yeah, sorry thought you were talking about the team in general.

What a bad game though...

Hmm, I have to say though, it was a foul. Dumfries clearly kicked Sandro's foot and it was in the area.


Well they have lost 2 key players plus Conte. Which is a huge blow for them. Conte being the biggest as they have lost the solidity he brought. Inzaghi has made them seriously suspect. Even in that first half when Juve were there for the taking, they were pinging around the ball in front of Handanovic so clumsily, and when you have a goalkeeper that's an accident waiting to happen you have to wonder wtf is going through their minds to play like that.


Juve are such a poor side, disgusting really. Allegri makes them unwatchable but at least he brought solidity back which was missing under Pirlo. They still have no clue in attack and simply rely on players like Chiesa and Dybala to score one and sit on it

It was a foul. Dumfries made an insanely stupid tackle. It didn't change anything in the flow of the attack, but by the regulation handbook at hand it's nothing else but a foul.