Pioli has lost this team...

Just zero effort

Shambles...

I'm lost for words.

Everyone out of form

Players all over the place. Everyone looks like they have zero clue as to what the game plan is in both phases

I really thought we had turned a corner against Atalanta, but it is looking like that was a mirage and nothing else.

This 3 at the back BS needs to stop

Once again, appalling changes on top of the mess we start with

The team cant catch a break, Milan don?t seem able to hold onto the top four spots.

The opposition have nullified Pioli?s tactics/solutions.

Now its a 4-2-3-1; with 15 mins left on the clock ? lets see what the magician can pull out of his hat.

It's really not about the opposition at this point

We have shown a clear lack of urgency in these games

Not to mention the complete cluelessness as to how to create chances in this shape.

4-3-3 should have always been the simplest answer

Our midfield is still getting overrun because we still have 2 men in there.

Can't believe we were just 5 points behind Napoli after the 1st game of the new year. And we ended up here within a matter of lass than 2 months...

I honestly don't know what the right answer is now re Pioli

He has clearly lost this team, and we cannot keep losing points and this is clearly not going anywhere atm and the longer he stays, the longer we jeopardize that CL spot. On the other hand this is a crucial moment in the season with those quarter finals coming up. I don't know who could realistically come in to save this situation

He wants a club with a big budget. Don't think he'll want to come here

Plus, the man is terrible in the CL

If we're going for a big profile, I'd take Tuchel over Conte.

Cardinale needs to find a solution for his investment in Milan, the long term strategy is something all fans will embrace. But the short to medium term is a pain-point. With Elliot Milan won the Scudetto and got back into the CL.

Granted the transfer budget is allocated based on the profit the club achieves; the same bolstered by TV income, Sponsorships, matchday income and merchandizing (not neglecting player sales, of which Milan have no-one of note that could generate such income, bar Leao). That said, Redbird need to find a solution for the short-term and fast, as this team is starting to regress (not only in results, but ..) in quality of play, tactical solutions and technical abilities.

The coach I believe is to bear responsibility for where Milan is in the table and the direction the squad is headed to; i.e. a bad mental state. But the coach alone is not to blame, as Milan is one-dimensional, relying heavily on one outlet (Leao) who has met his kryptonite in Serie A as most coaches by now know how to stop him. What is left is very low quality.

The team shifted to a 4-2-3-1 in the second half last night, which is more suited to the solutions available in this squad. However, the tactics have been picked at by the opposition and most coaches know how to stop any threat this team can pose.

Its sad that after winning a Scudetto the club can not ?afford? a leap in quality for their squad. Its also sad that a player as important as Leao has his head and heart destined for a departure. Leaving the club haggling over renewal or a sale.

Overall I give credit to Maldini and Massara for the work they have done with the resources at their disposal, confirming Pioli on their part was also a courages decision. Now all fingers have to be pointed towards Cardinale, who has to dig deep and muster out sponsorships in order to fund this club, either that or raise equity! That said, I am not talking about a PSG or City takeover type of support, but something that instills confidence in the general direction and intent. As of now, the culprit is the owner, even though FFP has slapped shackles on Milan, he and not Pioli not Maldini is the sole culprit.

Berlusconi used to attend the players training, visit the players in the locker-room and challenge his coaches on their tactics. This Cardinale fellow has done nothing of the sorts.

I had booked a flight to visit Italy and was aiming to attend Milan Lazio in May. Yesterday night I decided to spend my time in Italy in Tuscany instead of going to that game. Such a shame.

Rant ends/

This is getting ridiculous. These players have lost all motivation. We never played football champagne before, the only reason we won the Scudetto was the group spirit. Take that away, and we're nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Why we passed against Tottenham, aside from the poor quality of the opponent, was that everyone was 100% focused in both games. In the league this concentration and desire is non-existent.

Pioli has no grasp on the team anymore. It's useless to talk about changing coach now because it's never going to happen, but the players themselves need to be self-aware and understand that we must make it in top 4 at all cost.

So if I may also offer my worthless 2 pence.

This is where Milan last season really were. We had the difference of Ibra and Maignan, and they made the difference while the rest of the league floundered. We were utter rubbish and it's the worst big five league title I've ever seen, aside Leicester, who were just right players right time and Ranieri fluked it. This and last season's Milan are not as good as that Leicester. We have a few good players, but not enough, well short.

What doesn't fit is how good we've been in the UCL - this looks like UCL DNA Milan, players who actually know what they're doing.

It reminds me, and this is going back a bit, of the bipolar Valencia of the late 90s and early 00s. They were actually bottom of LaLiga but somehow got to two UCL finals in a row, they were ruddy great in Europe. We're managing to be good in Europe (albeit some favourable draws) and we're barely scraping by in the league.

There's no difference really between both sides, this season and last. It's just that this season, last season's Milan have been exposed domestically, and the manager is completely out of his depth.

But it's not all on Pioli. We just don't have the players. We're a good top 5 team, but that's the limit.

I don't expect anyone to agree with me.

Conte fired, yet another bad appointment for a club who deserve all bad fortune they get. I look forward to their next failure.

The next three weeks against Napoli will be crucial, both for Milan?s Serie A push for a CL slot and also to pass through to the next round of CL.

Napoli are a tricky foe, ones I would rather avoid. It is what it is.

????-

Leao seems destined to leave Milan, I came to this conclusion after the precedence on how Dollaruma, Calhanuglo and Kessie left Milan. Maldini was pushing for a renewal and then let go, it seems all but destined that this summer is when he leaves.

It will be difficult as the team kind of molded around his movement, but Id say with the money collected and the salary saved Milan would be able to replenish the coffers and allow room for someone equally important to take over the left flank.

P.S. Im not a fan of wingers, I very much prefer the Xmass tree formation from Carlo?s days. So my hope is that Milan invests in making that formation the core. Wishful thinking from my part ?

????

Bring on Napoli!

A story is also running that Theo might be allowed to leave if Milan dont secure CL birth. This could have some momentum to it, as he is a France regular and one of the best in his position; EPL teams will be bidding big this summer.

Napoli will murder us and this forum will go nuts.

What a first half! Where has this Milan been all season long? Let's hope we can keep up the momentum till the end.

It is both joyful and an endless feeling of despair watching this team play like this. After f@cking up points against Salernitana, Udinese, etc in these past few weeks

Let's see if we can see this through

Once again, outplaying Napoli like we did at the San Siro, but this time we take our chances.

We clearly do have issues with quality in depth but our first 11 at its best is as good as Napoli's imo. The problem has been with the motivation and concentration levels in the run of the mill league games


Also, I have been banging on about this for months now. A simple switch to a 4-3-3 will go a long way into addressing the defensive issues. The 3 at the back was never a long term solution and we were still being outnumbered in midfield. Tonali and Benna both look much much better today and if Krunic had that extra little something in his game, he'd be a great complement. But it's clearly an area we should invest in during the summer and finally replace Kessie

Also, Brahim. Another excellent display, imo he's been our most important player for the past few months now. His work rate and skill in tight areas is priceless. Will be a shame to see him go in the summer

Concentration and effort clearly come and go depending on the opponent it seems. January black out aside, we've been best against the top opposition for a while now, and while last season we grinded out results against smaller sides, we can't seem to muster that up this season. Which is a shame because it's why we're in the position we're in now with fighting tooth and nail for CL football when it should have never been the case

What a goal!!

Tonali impeccable today

Btw, 2nd game in a row now that Calabria has eaten up Kvara

We got f@cked in that first game when he had to come off and Dest came on

He comes under a lot of shtick at times but when he wants, he's another player that can really put in a top notch display

If we play like this in the CL games, we have a great shot at the semi final, which is astounding to even comprehend

Playing like true champions today

Sad that we f@cked up our season a while ago now

What am I watching?

Alexis....

Wtf am I seeing from him today???

Salad, WTF is happening to you???

RIGHT??!!!

What is with Pioli and using Bakayoko suddenly?

He's a mistake waiting to happen

And as I am typing that he nearly gives away a goal...

Pioli and his decisions this season... Really baffling

Alexis could have had a hat-trick of stunning goals

Empoli up next, if we f@ck that one up after this... I give up

Table back to looking much better for us. We should be able to beat Roma away and Lazio at home imo. If we don't we do not deserve CL next season after this season of bare minimum and showing up in moments only

Edited to 'Napoli will murder us if we stick with the back three'

Soon as I saw my first choice defence I knew we were gonna win. Where has this Milan been? It's simple - begins with the defence. We've not had one all season, too much rotation injury blah blah.

But as I said some days/weeks ago, my first choice was to go four at the back with a RB (fine, Calabria), Kjaer, Tomori and Theo. Plus Maignan in the goal.

It makes a ridiculous difference.

Napoli just aren't that good and a Milan with better management this season could have won the league again.

Ok I didn't see us ripping them to pieces 4-0 but that Milan is no surprise when we have the right players in the right slots.

It's not goddam rocket science?!

For once I agree with you completely, almost that is

I think regarding the league, Napoli have been swatting away the smaller sides too easily. They have been pretty much perfect in the must win games, which are against the bottom half teams plus the fringe ones outside the top 6. The bad teams in the league have still not been able to shut out Kvara and Osimen effectively this season and even if we had not imploded in January, we made too many miss-steps against that bad sides this season.

That game we lost against them at home still stings because it feels like a major turning point for our season. And to make it worse we were the better team in that game as well. But losing Leao to that stupid red against Samp in the game prior and then replacing Calabria with Dest of all people made the difference in the end.

As for the defense, I agree to an extent, although I do not think Kjaer is the long term solution, I think Kalulu at RB and then Thiaw next to Tomori could be the way going forward but Kjaer's experience plays a huge role in games like this

Plus aside from the defense, I think this biggest vulnerability for us was the midfield, we were getting outnumbered, which left our defense exposed. Last season we went on that run of only conceding something like 2 goals in 20 matches because we switched to a 4-3-3. It did not look like that on the formation sheet but we played Tonali, Benna and Kessie. And that along with Tomori and Kalulu being bang on form is what made us rock solid. I do not understand why we switched back to a 4-2-3-1. Diaz gets absolutely swamped in the middle and the same thing was happening to CDK. This give us much better balance, we just lose out a bit with Krunic instead of Kessie imo because while Krunic does a lot right, he tends to have WTF moments with a simple pass and then completes a stupidly nice looking back pass for example. Just boggles the mind

What gives me hope for the CL tie is that in both games we've faced Napoli this season we've been the superior team. We did not deserve to lose at San Siro, and we smashed them tonight.

I think Pioli knows how to handle them. Add to that the motivation and concentration of the players, and we've got really good chances of passing through.

True, Osimhen was not available tonight for them, but still we defended so well that in the grand scheme of things we would have won anyway.

Stunning display from Milan. That first half was perfect, defence, midfield and offense; the team worked like a precision Swiss watch.

The difference was in three: 1) starting the attack from a back four, 2) Leao and Brahim tracking back to shore up the midfield and 3) Tonali Bennacer and Krunic owned the middle of the park.

Bennacer man marked Lobotka, who is the man behind the creative engine for this Napoli. He shut him off completely.

The team had three players pressing for the ball when lost, kudos to Krunic and Tonali for such a high work rate.



This game aside, CL will he a different fixture completely. Napoli had a wonderful season and will be crowned champions in the next couple of weeks. But this game will not be on show when the CL tune is played, Milan will be up against a very angry Napoli side. Assuming the team is injury free, fresh and able to put in 120% again, otherwise Napoli will definitely have their say. It won't be easy at all.

Tonali was monstrous. Probably his best performance as a Milan player.

Just f@cking knew it!!!!!


F@ck this sh!t

Pioli once again f@cks up a simple game with needless changes. Pobega, Rebic, Origi.... No f@cking words


His picks just f@ck up another 2 points when there was no reason for it. We play next Wednesday, plenty of time to recover yet he rotates to the most sterile set-up he could. Draw written all over it FFS

Another golden opportunity wasted, so many points lost to f@cking crappy teams. Unforgivable at this point

Pioli has to go this summer.

Make me understand why CDK, Adli and Vranckx cannot get a look in while Pobega still gets chances.

He did nothing wrong today but he's the most basic player I've ever seen. At least with an Adli you have some vision in there Empoli did not have a shot on goal, don't tell me it's for defensive cover just inexcusable how he's handled these players

CDK as well, he's a creative player, his confidence might be shot to hell but giving him 10 minute cameos is certainly not going to help one bit in that regard

Origi... What a waste this guy has turned out to be.

Rebic looked decent in spurts but it was not enough, should have scored on that chance, same for Diaz

Every time we rotate, we lose points, and to rotate the attack that heavily, a blind man could see this one coming.

Just unbelievable that Pioli is gambling with CL qualification like this. If Juve get those points back, we're toast.


And all this when there was no need for it. The excuse was that Diaz and Leao weren't 100%. He still ended up having to put them on. Why not just go for it and try to wrap it up quickly and then take them off? Just boggles the mind how he would think we'd win with that dumb as nails attacking line.

He better have the aces against Napoli on Wednesday because this is unforgivable imo. Especially if it costs us CL football and ultimately players like Theo and Leao as well

Soon as I saw Kjaer on the bench I knew I'd made a good call not to watch.

Simple maths.

Start with the best back five and we should take at least a draw back to San Siro.

The defence wasn't the problem though, Empoli had 2 shots and 1 was on target. Maignan could have taken a nap

The issue was with the rotation in attack.

Now we cannot relax a bit against Bologna. If we don't get the 3 points there we'll drop out of top 4.


As I'm sure you know now, we played the home game first

Anyway, not our best showing but we got the job done. Pioli just has Spaletti's number imo.

They'll probably have Osimhen back for the 2nd leg, but Anguissa and Kim both missing are big blows for them. Let's see if we can get this over the line. That Kjaer header and Leao chance... Should have taken a 2-0 to the Maradona. Now it will be heart attack after heart attack next week.

Milan did very well to absorb Napoli?s anger and get a goal. It was always going to be tough after that 0-4 ruthless humiliation.

The second leg will be an uphill battle for both Milan and Napoli. I don?t see this fixture as over, however psychologically Napoli are feeling inferior. That said, they will probably have Osimhen back who will add complexity. Fixture is not over.

On Pioli, I have to hand it to this man; he took Milan from its shambles in 2019, to a CL participation and a Scudetto the following season. This season, Milan has one foot on a semi final showing. Baby steps or giant leaps? Even if Milan get knocked out in Napoli and miss out on CL football next season. Pioli has proven me wrong and he has earned respect and admiration for how he made a team out of this Milan.

Bravo!

Still unaware of this



Games are measured on goals. Forget chances xG and all the stats, it's who scores. And we just went 180 minutes with supposedly Italy's best team scoring 5 without return.

As I said, best back five is all you need.

We have an overall 7-3 goal advantage over them in the last 5 games we've played since they've been under Spaletti. Can't see us botching this, but we should have pushed harder for a second goal once Anguissa got sent off.

Osimhen Will be back for the return leg, he will sit the bench for their next league match.

Milan go to Bologna and a rotation is most likely, however 3 points is crucial. A tough week starts tomorrow.

I f@cking hate Pioli!!!


How do you go into such an important game for top 4 with that line-up??

Already a goal down and there is no way on god's green earth that we're scoring a single goal with this front 3/4, let alone 2