A tough one but getting the 3 points is a must here after the disappointment at Roma. Thankfully we'll most likely be getting Bona back, and I think Berto can be a nice surprise for us under Montella. Plus Bacca is also back so that's another option up front.

Juve-Roma this week, so we have a chance to regain some ground if we can get the 3 points

Bona is instrucmental to the way this team plays, and I think there are chances for three points just that Atalanta will be equally motivated especially after their last game with Juve.

Agreed

Regarding Bona, I hope Montella plays him in the front 3. Please spare us from watching Niang bumbling about for another 90 minutes in a crucial game Montella!

Have any official lineups come out? I saw one that had Kucka, Berto, and Bona in midfield and a front three of Suso, Bacca, and Niang. I wouldn't mind seeing Bertolacci in that deep lying playmaker role, I like Locatelli but I would also like to finally get a string of strong performances out of Berto.

With Pasalic playing better and Berto coming back, we have some actual options in midfield. I hope Montella drops the idea of pushing Maxi and Sosa in there. I thought Sosa would adapt well but he just hasn't performed when called on. I am excited to get to see some more of Atalana's young crop. They have a good team of young players in Caldara, Conti, Kessie, Gagliardini, and Petagna, hopefully, those guys put on a good show and push the management to make a move on them.

They come out 1 hour before the game starts.

I think we will go like this: Donna, Abate, Paletta, Romagnoli, De Sciglio, Kucka, Pasalic, Bertolacci, Suso, Lapadula and Bonaventura.

Most outlets have that defence, but Jack, Kucka and Pasalic as the midfield with Suso, Bacca and Niang up top. That's the last I saw.

It's about confidence. I've given up on Niang, yes, but I also know he is a confidence player and right now has none. Up till recent matches he's been a vital part of Montella's system and like it or not a reason we've been so successful this season.

He's in dreadful form, and needs dropped, but I do still believe if Montella handles him well like he has Suso, he might just be able to get something out of him. In time.

His form is bad in the past couple of games, but overall he has impressed me. He came here young and is still young, yet he seems to have matured and just needs to find his space.

The tactics that Montella is playing with works and I'm with you in that he'll get the beat out of him.

Watching the game I am reminded why I live in California and not Milano

Yeah, the fog is irritating af

So close by both teams there

We need to do better in the second half

We are missing some simple passes there, even Bona and Suso not completing theirs.

HT 0-0

Milan controlled much of the game, but Atalanta created better chances (we got lucky a couple of times). Bona earned himself an unnecessary YC.

BTW: Donna, Antonelli, Romagnoli, Paletta, Abate, Pasalic, Berto, Kucka, Bona, Lapadula, Suso

I think we're missing Locatelli's physicality in midfield, Berto is such a lightweight he can' be the focal point of the midfield, I'd take off Pasalic bring on Loca and move Berto to the side

Bacca is needed.

Yup. Not a huge fan of Bacca, but this is one situation where he could make the difference.

... and now he comes on ...

Damn! 2 lost points

FT 0-0. Frustrating, but Atalanta was very solid defending and dangerous on the break.

Didn't have a chance to watch. How did everyone look?

In my opinion our worst players were Bertolacci and Suso, while our best players were Paletta, Kucka and Bonaventura. Abate was solid too. I think that if Montella made the subs a little earlier we could have had a better chance.

I would add Romagnoli to the list of best players he was immense in his tackling.

I only saw the second half, we should have won. Atalanta were rubbish, only had a few counterattacks. Too bad about the lost points, especially since Napoli most probably will surpass us tomorrow.

PS: Atalanta's players were a bunch of clowns. The referee was horrible as well.

The faul on Bertolacci comes to mind as an example.

Interesting stat that proves me wrong:

Bertolacci made more tackles (5), touches (80) and completed more passes (61) than any other Milan player tonight.

I think one of the worst players on field was Lapadula. Can anyone tell me, beside the two won penalties (which is a really good score btw.) how many shots/goal attempts did he make in the last 3 matches combined? IMO he's too distanced from the goal and poses rarely a real threat.

Paletta wasn't exactly splendid as well. Abate had to cover up many of his completely wrong passes, his long balls, lack of speed (while trying to bomb forward), etc. I get his passion and determination but it's usually just careless and faulty play.

I think Bertolacci did good. Montella shocked me once again. His subs, bringing in MDS and the Niang for Bona perplexed me.

Have to say the mildly jovial tone in this thread is surprising, because after my optimism over recent months, the past three matches suggest the honeymoon is over, and we're going into freefall.

Crotone was humiliation, and we didn't deserve the win - to manage it with the last kick of the ball against Serie A's equivalent of San Marino was diabolical, and against Roma we were just second best period with too many players not producing.

I thought this match was yet more of that direction, with too few players producing - for me Jack and Gigio were terrible, while the only players who seemed in form were the excellent Romagnoli, Paletta and Antonelli. Suso's decline is continuing - absolutely typical that I big him up and now his form is in utter free fall. I barely saw anything from our midfield, which is fine when the attack is compensating, but right now it isn't. In case you guys hadn't noticed, we haven't scored against a worthwhile team since Empoli four matches ago.

We look like we're staring at total free fall, and a major reason is for all the praise I gave Montella, he has no plan B. It's a complaint us Rangers fans had of Mark Warburton, and we were struggling. He's now nailed a plan B and that's three wins in a row. Meanwhile Montella's not offered anything different and that's 180 without a goal and just one point. If both Lazio and Napoli win we've suddenly 6th and I don't see anything in the past 3 matches which points to us regaining form and position.

Montella's done a great job till now, but it's coming undone now.

It's Carlo-itis. That unerring ability all Milan managers since Carlo have had to make absolutely bewildering and frustrating subs which clearly aren't going to add anything.

Antonelli was excellent yet got taken off for the cancerous MDS (who is now my new Montolivo in being the Milan player I now hate) - Niang added little but I thought Jack was poor. Honda should have got a run out - made the difference against mightly Crotone.

I disagree, I thought Jack was far and away our best offensive player. Suso didn't produce much in terms of end results but he chipped in with a lot of running and tracking back. Lapadula was mostly isolated trying to latch onto a ball or two over the top, I think he would work well playing alongside Bacca with a playmaker behind them.

I also thought Antonelli and Romagnoli had strong performances. Atalanta is a good young team. They have taken a few scalps this year, and Gasperini has the players working in his system. They have a few studs.

I am not entirely happy with this result but I also didn't foresee us being in this position when the season began. We have essentially the same team from last year, at least this time around the boys are playing with real heart and drive. You can't support Montella and approve of his plan and then at the first sign of trouble condemn him. We don't have power on the bench, that much is apparent. Who is he going to bring on? Honda? Sosa? Maxi? none of those guys can provide much. The team is still exactly what I thought it was and that is seriously overperforming. We have a very young team and winning takes time and careful building.

Pasalic is getting better and Berto is finally getting healthy which is a good sign for our once depleted midfield, but I still think that out best lineup includes Jack and Niang. The former needs to move back into the midfield. Niang - whatever his flaws - works as a hybrid striker for us. Running our counter attacks and cutting inside when we need more bodies in the box. He is clumsy and is a terrible finisher but he operates as a wide SS and is arguably our most dangerous counter-attacking player.

Last few games have been rather disappointing, but that should not come as a surprise. Realistically speaking, we do not have much of a team. If everyone performs at their best and/or we get some luck, we can win games. However, we cannot expect things to go our way every time. Bottom line, I do not see the last few games as the start of a negative trend (at least not yet). Desperately need some quality additions, and until we get them we will keep struggling, and there will be more negative results.

As for the subs, it felt like some players were getting tired and needed replacement. Bur we are back to the fact that Montella does not really have all that many options.

Suso is an attacker. It is not enough to say 'he helped with running and tracking back' when we drew and he gave nothing based on what he's supposed to do. If he'd made an assist or a goal or we'd won, his tracking back and running would have been relevant. I don't think Baccadula would work at all tbh.



They also only have 3 away wins, none against a decent side. All their scalps were at home.



Pasalic is growing on me a lot. Berto probably never will.



Fair post. I'm not blaming Montella too much, he is limited by this utterly ghastly squad - he got them punching well above their weight till now, and its limits are just starting to appear. He needs alternative options, but doesn't have the depth on the bench to try one.

What is it with you and Lapadula?

What do you expect a striker to do when he is isolated and not being given even the stalest of breadcrumbs to feed off of?

Bacca wouldn't have done anything more either, in fact he would struggle more than Lapadula as he barely bothers to get involved in the build up play and very rarely helps out by dropping back. Lapadula did what he could in the conditions he was forced to play in, just like against Roma. He's not going to be effective if the midfield is not supporting him

Also thought Berto was decent but the fact that he's a lightweight and easily pushed over is a problem when he's playing in the centre of a midfield 3. Kucka and Pasalic didn't offer any help in that regard either. I thought Kucka was terrible yesterday tbh. This is the problem with him and why we need a proper box-to-box guy to replace him, so inconsistent, and when he's bad the entire team suffers


Meh, I don't think it's that much of a doom and gloom situation

Sure we'll most likely drop in the table after today's games are played, but this was expected, we can't expect to keep winning at the rate we were, we simply don't have the team for it and a few stumbles were expected especially when injuries start cropping up and we have to shuffle the team around, which we've had to do over the past 3 weeks.

Fact is that we've struggled each time Montella was forced to make big changes to the squad. Our midfield has lost the consistency we'd managed to build over the last few months with all the re-shuffling we've had to do because of injuries and suspensions.

Point is, I don't think it's time to push the panic button just yet. The winter break couldn't have come at a better time for us actually, just as we're about to start stumbling a bit due to the rigours of a long campaign a bit of breather is coming. So we can regroup, players can rest a bit, those who have been injured will have a bit of time to regain optimum fitness and maybe (hopefully) we'll sign another midfielder in January to help us out a bit. So sure we'll most likely be sixth come tonight, but we're only 2 points away from second. and that's the part we should be focusing on

Like I said before the Roma game, atm we have a lot of factors to thank for being in the position we are currently in. This break will allow the players to regroup and hopefully pick up where we left off for the rest of the season.

Am I the only one who doesn't view things so negatively here?

Yes, we played pretty bad against Crotone (but still won), whereas against Roma we could have easily walked away with a draw if it wasn't for individual mistakes (Niang, Donnarumma) and last night we were far superior than Atalanta. These last three games haven't been a disaster, rather, they've confirmed that we can stand on our own till the end of the season.

I mean, with the crappy players we have at disposal, we are severely overachieving.

Agreed

Just posted a rather positive post (If I do say so myself) above yours

If I was M1ke I'd ban the pair of you for unacceptable joy and cheer.

So both of them won as expected and we're in fifth (not 6th sorry). We have the insurance of a four point gap to Atalanta so we can afford a loss but that my mindset is going this way is a bad sign.

We need January, we need a few new players, and Montella needs a few new options for systems to use. We also need a smooth win over Bologna (no given, away from home) to halt the form slide I can see kicking in.

You guys are right, players are tired and we need a break.

We also, and this has been alluded to, need our manager to quit with the moronic substitutions which have, as I said earlier, afflicted nearly every Milan coach since and including Carlo.

Taking Antonelli off? Putting Niang on? True, the man is hamstrung by a complete lack of options on the bench right now, but even with the subs we have it's obvious at times that Montella's making a bad switch. The only time he made one which worked recently was Honda on v Crotone.

Is someone opening a thread about the supercoppa game? (Assuming it is still happening, that is.)

No reason it won't happen? And if ever a match had less importance, it's the Super Coppa!

Agreed about the subs, luckily the Bologna game will be postponed, so we'll have a match in hand over the rest of the teams around us (Atalanta won earlier today and Lazio are currently playing inter as I type this)

This break just couldn't come at a better time for us. Hopefully we'll regroup after the Super Coppa and get back into it in peak condition


Will do, have been busy this past week so I didn't have any time