Mid-day kick off guys so take note or you'll miss it

Probable XI vs Sampdoria: Donnarumma; Zapata, Bonucci, Romagnoli; Abate, Kessie, Biglia, Bonaventura, Rodriguez; Suso; Kalinic [Sky].

The Zapata over Musacchio inclusion is baffling, the guy is a walking liability


Also, I hope this converts to a 3-4-3 and isn't a 3-5-2. Bona and Suso have both struggled in those positions

Actually, Mediaset has: (3-5-1-1) Donnarumma; Musacchio, Bonucci, Romagnoli; Borini, Kessie, Biglia, Bonaventura, Rodriguez; Suso; Kalinic.

Yes, you read it right. Borini as RWB.

That's even worse


To experiment in the second most difficult game of the season so far is just nonsense. If Borini and Zapata start I'l really start to question Montella's place at this Club

He has 5 EL games to mess around in, the best 11 need to be played in the league on a consistent basis and they shouldn't be rotated as frequently

Apparently, Montello wants Suso to play more centrally from now on so that he can be closer to goal and score more goals. So, Suso whether he prefers it or not will have to adapt. He has to become our Paulo Dybala.

Donnarumma; Zapata, Bonucci, Romagnoli; Abate, Kessie, Biglia, Bonaventura, Rodriguez; Suso; Kalinic.

Montella has not played the same starting 11 for 2 games in a row. This worries me personally, I get that you want to rotate but over rotation is bad as well

Zapata over Musacchio is also another major head scratcher. WTF is he trying to do? Get fired before Christmas? We've got a realty difficult fixture list ahead of us starting from today and he's still messing around with the defence when that should be set in stone for all the league games

NOO

How the f@ck is that a penalty?? His hand was glued to his body

VAR works in our favour there and it's the right call

Zapata, Kessie and Abate are having an absolute mare on that right side.

We’re playing like a Serie B side. It’s embarrassing.

All we've done so far is foul, make bas passes and allow them space in dangerous areas. This is worse than anything we showed last season

Bonaventura and Suso are just invisible

Agreed

Suso and Bona need to be moved to the wings, both are absolutely useless in the positions they're being used in. Kessie needs a reality check and Zapata needs to be taken off

Correction, both Kessie and Zapata need to be taken off.

Kessie just hammers the ball at Biglia who's a few feet ahead of him.

Montella needs to bring Locatelli for Kessie on now, make a statement. But I'm sure he'll leave him in there for the full game

Kessie is nowhere near decent in this game.

He's terrible actually

Locatelli is warming up so I think Montella is going to give him the hook at HT

He should do the same to Zapata

No one is nowhere near decent in this game.

Rodriguez is the only one I'd say that about

So we made it into HT at 0-0, which is a miracle considering how we've played. This gives us a chance to recoup and try to actually do something in the 2nd half

Because so far it's been an embarrassment.

The players look so static and unbothered, like they can't wait for the game to end and go home. Good job, Montella.

Montella has really failed this group so far imo

He's had so much time to get them ready and he's failed at it big time. He's messing around with the formation each week, he still hasn't identified his best 11 and he's giving certain players too much leeway

Kessie has started all our games so far, he's been given too much confidence in his position as a starter, that needs to change.

Borini warming up...

Yeah, really not the level of football I was expecting.

But even so he's still so limited as LWB. He never dribbles the opponent, only receives the ball, looks around and makes a simple pass. Compare that to, say, Alex Sandro and you notice they're worlds apart.

Same with Suso. He can't do sh*t in this new role. Our Dybala? Let's not kid around.

This 3-man defense system doesn't convince me at all. I still think 4-2-3-1 is the best possible formation we could play.

Sub Zapata for Hakan and play 4-2-3-1.

What a snore fest.

Good job Zapata. Both of them.

Zapata <3

Comical

Zapata... What a joker

If Zapata starts again for Milan, I wont watch Milan until Montella gets sacked.

And OMG, he fields Cutrone. In a game with zero services, let's play the guy that thrives only on service.

Montella GTFO!

Bringing on Borini!! FFS Montella

Borini and Zapata conspiring against Montella there

Such an embarrassing display. Another much needed kick in the teeth

Montella continues in this vein and he'll be out of a job by christmas

yup

Montella is clearly not the man for the job. His constant switches in formation and line-ups, his fixation with certain elements, his inability to make changes before it's too late, the fact that the team plays without an identity and so demotivated when the season has just started. They're al shortcomings that fall on his incapacity as a coach.

It took him a debacle against Lazio to drop that ugly 4-3-3 system, now it takes another ugly debacle to consider other things. But most importantly, why do the players seem so demotivated? Even when the formation is wrong, you must at least have players that give their all on the pitch. Instead, as I said before, today our players seemed like they didn't even wanna be there. That is very worrying.

I'm not sure about this 3-man defense system. Our fullbacks aren't very capable of translating it well on the pitch, especially now that Conti is KO. Rodriguez is a very decent leftback with a great left foot, but as LWB when he should be pushing further ahead he's incredibly limited. Same for Abate. And this is accentuated even more when that line of three in midfield makes a joke out of themselves.

Do we wanna talk how incredibly bad Kessie and Bonaventura were today? And how incredibly ineffective Biglia is when the team isn't working properly? How Suso as second striker is a complete nobody, and that Kalinic is left completely isolated up ahead? Take all these factors together and you realize why we played so badly.

Things need to change, and soon, otherwise I predicted another 6th spot. And this time around that would be a tragedy.

I think the 3-man defence is a good solution for us. It's the implementation that is incorrect

Suso and Bonaventura are both being misused, if you're playing with them then it simply has to be a 3-4-3.

Also I think we've actually seen the best football from Rodriguez since we switched to a back 3. Abate is the problematic one. Picking Zapata over Musacchio is also inexplicable for me. There is simply no excuse for doing that.

For me, the big issue atm is the constant rotation. It's gotten to a point where it's become a hindrance more than something that actually helps the squad.

Kessie is just so patchy, he's actually making me miss Kucka. Not getting a proper substitute for him will hurt us in the long run.

The changes were also bad and pointless.

I'm very sad to see little has changed. We've signed new players, but much of the old losing mentality stayed. And this is mostly on Montella. We all know how limited Allegri is, but if he's able to do one thing, it's to shake his team up and produce every now and then a turnaround miracle. Montella, when playing bad or loosing, just switches to autopilot and drives us steadily into an abyss.

His rotation and player selection is baffling, and it's also clear that he never had a proper gameplan prepared for us, nor did he prepare the transition to the 3-man defense intelligently even though he had the time. So I think we should part ways with him; Milan seem unresponsive and unconvincing.

Yet I wanna remind you what I said in my summer transfer summary. Not ALL the blame should be directed to Montella. I think our management fail in communication there as well. It's clear they haven't hammered out all the details and potential needs; we made some (seemingly) unnecessary buys, some players who are redundant or not fitting for Montella.

So far especially Kessie and Bonucci disappointed me. Bonucci hasn't shown any classy defending so far and also hasn't been able to come through as team captain. Kessie is young and talented, but he's very limited and he's making me think more and more that he was perhaps a one season wonder. He lacks technique and intelligence in attack to be a modern box to box player or offensive midfielder and also defensive intelligence and discipline to be a good DM. I'm worried that he's perhaps the typical jack of all trades ideally suited for mid table clubs like Atalanta or Torino.

So far Milan has been a massive disappointment. Granted, we need to glue, we need time for this team to work; but in all honesty, great teams usually click together sooner rather then later. They may have occasional hiccups and difficulties, but all in all you can see them clicking. Well, sadly I don't see this Milan clicking on almost any level.

Following the 2-0 defeat at Marassi against Sampdoria, Marco Fassone spoke to Milan TV. Our CEO analysed the performance of the Rossoneri and gave a constructive message to the team that he considers could and should do better. These were his words:

ON THE TEAM SPIRIT
“After this defeat, Montella and Mirabelli will review the tactics and technical aspects of the team. From my point of view, as an outsider, the thing that I disliked the most was the team spirit shown by AC Milan during the first 60 minutes of the game. This is not AC Milan’s spirit. There is a simple solution to this: we need to face each other and understand together that we are AC Milan, that we are wearing an important jersey.

THE POINT AVERAGE
“During summer, we were lucky to have more chances to play official matches than our opponents in the championship (Serie A) and Europa League. Now there is not much time, the competition ends the same day for everyone and our goal is very clear, we have announced it, it is to arrive among the first four. So far we have an average of two points per game, which is usually enough to make it to the Champions League. However, this year may not be the case, so we cannot be satisfied with 4 wins and 2 losses every six games. We have won 9 games out of 11, but in the competition (Serie A) we’ve only won 4 and away only 1 out of 3. We have to be alert and step up because our rivals are doing better than us.

You can't blame everything on rotation.

Playing 3-4-3 would be no different from playing 4-3-3. We don't have the attacking wingers for it, unless you wanna count Borini as a viable choice.

And I disagree about Rodriguez. He simply doesn't have the necessary attacking prowess for a quality LWB.

I am pretty sure that right now 4-2-3-1 is a dead idea. Unless we change coach, we'll stick to a 3-man defense system. I just hope that we see a better implementation of it.

Well, that was an utter disaster.

I'm still mad, more than a day later, that I got up at 6.30 in the morning to watch that (insert naughty word I would be scolded for).

I am trying to be patient with a newly formed squad. I really am. However...the players were pretty much uniformly awful and Montella needs to either pull his head out of his *** and get a plan (and stick with it, the revolving thing doesn't work. Neither does playing Suso out of position) or he needs to GTFO.

There's apparently a closed door meeting this morning with Fassone, Mirabelli, and Montella before training today. Fassone was pretty clearly not happy with things after the game yesterday.

Did not get to see the match, travelling quite a bit these days. Montella performed miracles last year with a crappy team (at least, early in the season). However, he seems totally lost now Perhaps it's time to part ways. Problem is, who do we get to replace him?

(BAD PENGUINS. Where's the new match thread!?!?!)

So Sky Italia is reporting the rather disturbing news that a number of guys will be rested for the EL game v Rijeka --- Bonucci, Biglia, and Kalinic out. And *GULP* Paletta and Jose Mauri to start.

The assumption is that there will be significant turnover for what's perceived as an easy EL game in light of the not so easy Serie A game this weekend v. Roma.


I am a frightened fish.

Id pick Carletto.

But honestly now, we are only at the start and with 11 new players on the roster. There needs to be an adjustment period. Hence you can not expect the the team to win all the time as the players are yet to form a team. Time is needed, if we get a CL spot its an achievement. it is attainable however the team and coach should be given time to adjust and from that point onwards and if they dont achieve then I'll be calling for the coach to be axed. Until then he has time.

At this rate we are not getting to a CL spot (maybe EL if we are lucky). I can (almost) understand losing to Lazio, but not losing to Samp. Even more worrisome, some of our victories against lesser teams were not all that brilliant. I understand "give the team time to learn how to play together", but how long do we keep losing to teams like Samp and barely winning against teams like Spal before we find ourselves too deep in the hole to recover?

I always figured it would take three months. So if we're still so inconsistent come early December, then I'd start to think of a change.

I'm not sure about Carletto. I've not seen him build a team from scratch ever. Actually I don't know which current coach I'd take who is actually available if we decided to part ways with Montella.

Nagelsmann? But it's too much of a cultural shock I think. We'd need a proven winner coach. We'd have to pull of the Bonucci equivalent of a shock coach landing move.

I would love to see Conte, but it looks like he is OK at Chelsea (despite an uneasy start of the season). Not sure about Carletto (he has done decently with good teams, but this is a different situation). Not overly thrilled by the other names Iwe appear to be linked with (may as well stay with Montella).

Part of me wouldn't mind Conte, just because it would really annoy the gobbi.

You call 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss an uneasy start?