We'll keep all Coppa discussion in this one thread considering the very low activity in the forum atm

Must win for momentum, so I expect a few starters to be present. Also expect a 4-3-3 formation.

Wow. Looks like we played pretty good after a long while and it was a pretty comfortable win. The only despicable thing was the ultras banner etc. Talk about premature. Apparently Gigio was in tears in the dressing room and Bonucci lifted him up.

Also I didn't watch the game deliberately and we seem to have won!

We now face Inter in the Coppa quarters on Dec 27th. I swear if we win it, I will happily forget the Benevento debacle.

Next game is Verona again this weekend!

What did you expect after what happened? The ultras never forgive these kind of things.

The ultras are an entitled bunch. With the management, Raiola and Gigio denying it they look like scum who made the club look bad.

At the same time Raiola alleges this to be a conspiracy by Mirabelli to distract from the disaster that is his technical plan.

Tbh, I'm really close to getting on the Mirabelli out wagon. Can't think of a single player he's brought in who's been a difference maker for us.

I hate to say it, but Galliani and co. would have done a better job with 250 million to spend.

That's highly questionable.

I dunno man. I know I'm setting standards a little low, but can we really debate the following in terms of impact:

Bacca vs Kalinic/Silva
Bonaventura vs. Hakan
Suso vs Kessie
Romagnoli vs Mussachio


I don't know anymore. It looks so disjoint the strategy. And I've really lost patience in Mirabelli's 'technical project' whatever the hell it is

I had gripes about hiring him in the beginning, like most people I got blinded by the gloss of our transfer window. I even forgave a few 'huh?' transfers like Hakan and Borini, but look where we are now.

There are two ways at which you can re-build a team.

One is the thought of building an entire team from scratch. You get a bunch of dependable players who've all performed very well for their respective clubs. You sign them early in the summer campaign so they've got the time to gel, and by the start of the season you have a new, fresh team ready to deliver. Quantity over quality.

The other is the thought of getting 3-4 good players (Musacchio, Kessie, Rodriguez) coupled with 2-3 marquee signings (say, Bonucci, Fabregas and Aubameyang). Quality over quantity.

Mirabelli went for the former. Was he wrong? In hindsight, yes. But I think we were all more or less happy with our signing campaign this summer. The problem is that the players didn't gel as hoped, and I think most of that falls on Montella. He was not able to build the team with the players he was delivered.

In the end, we're in the same position if not worse as last season, but with the "slight" difference of having spent almost 250M. Now the damage has been done, it cannot be controlled any further.

The appointment of Gattuso was also a mistake. Montella simply didn't have what it takes to make a team with so many changes work. We were all worried about it but still the majority thought that he deserved the chance to work with a better side than he had last season

Anyway, the season is over, I've been taking a bit of a break from all things football, including Milan because it's just so exhausting to see. Will most likely miss the majority of the derby tonight as well as I'm going out tonight.

Maybe we'll do better in the second half of the season, but I honestly think we'll actually manage worse considering how even more disjointed we've looked under Rino in the matches I watched

Anyone watching the game?

Just tuned in

How are we doing?

Not bad, mostly dominating but not being able to finish off the chances we had...

What a goal from Cutrone

The guy is really doing good in this dreadful team..

Milan advance, deservedly!

Hopefully this can be used as a spring board for the rest of the season starting with the game against Fiorentina next Saturday

Cutrone definitely has that deadly instinct

But what's been impressing me most about him is his work on and off the ball outside of the penalty box. He's very strong and skilful, and I'm happy to say that I misjudged him when I thought he was simply a poacher when he first came onto the scene

..which begs the question why have two coaches still insisted on having Kalinic start??!!! Ugh!!

But man, what a win! I deliberately chose not to watch coz I was sure I'd just bring bad luck. Phew! But mostly I loved Rino's press bite. Unlike all our past coaches, he seems very direct and self-aware.



I like that he says the win doesn't mean a big deal and is just some room to breathe. He also says he's aware of where he stands in the coaching hierarchy but also what he brings to the table.

Anyway,I also understand his subs were spot on? Hakan and Cutrone made a huge difference in place of the players who he replaced. That's pretty amazing.

Anyway, a great win to be cherished. I can honestly say this win has exorcises Benevento for me, though the points we lost there will hurt us for sure come the end of the season.

In other news, Montella will move to Sevilla as coach soon. Good in a way. We're not paying his wages anymore.

Anyone watching the game?

Me.

Night and day performance compared to Sunday. The players all look tired

Yep.

Good result. Though how the f*** did Hakan miss that open goal?!

I think it's a positive result too. The team improved slightly in the second half. Defence did well tonight.

I read on twitter that we basically throttled one of the most free-scoring teams in Serie A. I'm just glad that Rino has shored up that defence.

Game by game, Ringo is proving he is the right man for this crucial period. Results are secondary at this point, primary goal is to get this team to function as a team. Something beautiful.

I hope you're right guys. I'm still very skeptical.

Well, it's true that we've been playing better in the last few games than through the rest of the season. Doesn't mean our problems have been solved, though.

Somehow I don't see this team achieve anything. Tbh I'm not blaming Montella much; yes he experimented, but rightly so. We all hailed for a 3 man defense for God sake!

And whereas the other seasons were mostly stained by lack of quality and depth, this season should have been a clear step into another direction. But if I'm concerned this is the worst Milan offered in years. In terms of footballing skills, in terms of attractiveness, results, you name it.

We've lost or played a tie against all major opponents and rivals bar Lazio a week ago. We've conceded the same amount of goals we scored. None of the new players showed much promise or and leader material. I think our management hit the wrong mixture and next summer we'll again have to cross of 7-8 players and begin yet another cycle of rebuilding, scouting, signing, etc.

I didn't! Was always against it.



I think the worst Milan was by far that of Inzaghi. I mean, our last 4-5 seasons have been absolutely disastrous, but Inzaghi's season has got to take the cake. Especially his post-interviews were vomit-inducing. Made me dislike a guy I adored for years.



Can't say we don't have potential. Unlike past seasons, I think all our players are good players. It's just, we lack a couple of TOP players in midfield/attack to make the difference. As much as I like Suso, he's not a top player. And neither is Bonaventura. We need a Modric, a Hazard, a Dybala, a Suarez. Players that win you games single-handedly. Since Ibra, we've sorely missed that type of player.

Perhaps.

And I'm saying this is the worst Milan having in mind the amount of money we spent, amount of experienced players, etc.

Yes, we played bad under Pippo, but the team selection was much worse back then and we still didn't manage to get as embarrassed as against Verona, Benevento...

I was shocked for a clear minute after he skied that. I guess he was coming in fast and hit it too hard as well as got a bit under it


Meh, we were lethargic and slow in the first half, not much better in the second but managed to combine a bit more.

That being said, I think tiredness was the biggest factor. Players like Biglia, Jack and Suso looked out of it right from the offset, we did much better when Rino switched things around to a 4-4-2 in the second half and managed to make Lazio work a bit more


I'm sceptical too and I definitely do not see Rino as a solution for the long run. But talking about this season which was already down the toilet before Montella was even sacked, I'm happy with the improvements I'm seeing each week. I like that we're seeing individuals also improving a lot since Rino took over whereas before they were terrible under Montella and within the system he was using.

Guys like Kessie, Hakan, Biglia and Bona have really shown notable improvement in their performances and I don't see this as a coincidence that this coincided with the change in coach

Well...we all saw "improvements" under Montella as well, up to the point where the improvements stopped.

Final about to start in 15 minutes guys

Forzaaa milannnn

Another mistake from Donna from a long ranger, this is what I mean about him

Donna diabolical at this point

I don't mean to be harsh on the kid, but if you're going to extort your club for huge amounts of money and make your agent issue threats at every turn, you better back that up with half decent performances FFS

Yeah, I agree, I think Donna has more potential than any other young gk in the world and it isn't even close but before all of the Raiola nonsense, he could do no wrong. I would rather have a cheaper gk (Perin) and use the money we could get from his sale to build up the rest of the team.

When he only loved Milan and didn't care about the money poor performances by him were something you deal with. Now that things are different, I feel like the patience is less. He is getting paid to play really well he needs to show it. Even if he was getting paid this much but he was our hero, and he actually loved the team it was all easier to swallow. I have readied myself for the time that he wears a different shirt and all I can really see in him now is ~80 Million that could be used elsewhere.

That being said he has been quiet recently, done his job and before today been a star gk for the past few weeks.

As for the first goal, there were two clear fouls in the box. The ref completely ignored them, and when Bona was counterattacking right before that another clear foul was ignored. Hard to blame the ref, but Juve will never get the benefit of the doubt and decisions and performances like this where they are "helped" will only perpetuate the narrative.

And Kalinic Finally scores... Into our own net


I'm afraid this game will completely kill off our last bit of impetus and we'll lose our last 2 games in the league as well. This has been brutal, and we haven't even played bad. All goals coming off terrible individual errors aside from the first one

Donna has been bad all season imo, he's made a lot of errors throughout. Some of the goals we've conceded from long shots were truly cheap ones. Just in the past couple of weeks, the one against Sassuolo jumps to mind. Sorry but he has to go this summer. I have no patience for his self-serving @ss and I don't believe for a second that Raiola acts on anyone else's cues but his.

As for the game, Juve have (as usual) gotten all the 50-50s. The ref has ignored clear fouls on our players and whistled for every half a touch on the Juve players. There's just no going about it at this point. They've received so much help this season it's ridiculous. I wasn't that hopeful about tonight but as soon as that foul on Hakan before the half was made and Benatia got no yellow and we weren't allowed to take the free-kick, you just knew how things were going to unfold.

Our individual errors continued to sink us, no doubt about it. I just feel generally bad about the fact that we played a very good game up until we conceded and then Donna commenced the clown show.



Fact here is, Juve have players who can change the game on a dime. We simply don't. Costa, Dybala, Pjanic, Cuadrado. They're all game changers. Then they look to their bench and can bring on Higuaín and Bernardeschi. We're a million miles behind them at this point and that fact has to be respected.

I think it shows pretty clearly that we need an injection of talent. I know we don't have the money to blow like last summer but we definitely need some upgrades. In the midfield, we need at least 1 clear starter, same with up front. Also, we need pace and trickery on the wings.

I thought Locatelli had a good game, he needs full games because he has the potential to be a good anchor in the mold of Bousquets.

Locatelli has been good these past 3 weeks. He wasn't the problem. Even though the quality levels between us and Juve vary greatly we were doing very well up until the point of that Benatia goal. Which was a very good corner and subsequent header. There wasn't much to be done about it imo.

But the following 3 goals were shocking individual mistakes which should have been avoided.

Our team needs upgrades for sure. But there's only so much you can do when you repeatedly shoot yourself in the foot. 2 of the shots fired came from one of our supposed "prize" assets btw. Not from one of the players we've been talking about upgrading for most of the season

Despicable.

Perhaps I'm disappointed with the outcome today, but... I really don't see a light in this Milan road. This season we looked worse then last season. Is Gattuso really better then Montella? Is he the man we need? Do we have a management that has a good vision? Do we have the right scouts and strategies? Do we have a stable management and owner at all?

I think there's just too many questions open to be optimistic about our future.

Tragicomic.

Addressing Fillipo - I personally feel better at the end of this year then I did last year. Let me explain why:

Coach: Major Upgrade - I know on the surface it doesn't seem like we upgraded here but I think we have. Gattuso brings something that Montella did. Both coaches are meh tacticians. But nowadays how many coaches are truly amazing tacticians? A small handful, a very small handful. But Gattuso brings something that other coaches (Montella) lack. He brings passion, zeal, and anger. When the team loses and plays awfully he holds players (and himself) accountable. He incites something in players when there are no true champions in the locker room having someone like that can inspire players to play out of their skin. Look at Conte. When he began Juve were not in a good spot, he had a few champions but he was the one who lit a fire under those players.

It's a long ride to get back to the top. In my life, I got to see Milan in 3 CL finals and win two of them. This is incredibly lucky on its own - very few teams can achieve this even with all of the money in the world. Look at Bayern and PSG and City. All of the money and superstars on superstars, but that can't buy championships. The best teams grow senators establish a culture and try and catch the next wave and ride it out to the CL. We have been believing in our academy for years and it is beginning to bear fruit.

How many teams in Serie A have the players with the potential that we have? Maybe Juve? No other team has so many of their own homegrown players in the team and showing promise. Let the boys grow into men. Let the coach grow into a tactician supplement them with players who can help in the short term and invest for the future.

We are just starting on the path. We were bought last year they have had 1 summer and 1 technical director get a shot at this. Look at Napoli, how many years have they come close and every year they run it back with a tweak or two. Look at Rome, same thing. This path takes time but of those teams who have their own youth in the team that have a real chance of blossoming into something. We have Donna, Romag, Calabria, Loca, Kessie, Calhanoglu, Suso, Cutro, Silva. All of those guys have potential and next year will be better than this year.

This project will take baby steps and patience, a smart move here and there, and tons of luck. But I see the future being bright for us. Keep the faith. The longer the climb the better the view from the top.

I have been feeling the same way as you for parts of this season but I look at my father a lifelong Inter fan, he saw some good years, some poor years. Finally, in 2010, he got to see them win the treble and even talking about that memory brings sheer joy to the man. We will be back. Not this year, maybe not next year but soon it will be our time again and we will revel in it because of the grind it took to get there.

I agree with a lot of the above. I feel much better going into this summer's transfer window with the players we have now compared to last summer. We need a couple of really good tweaks for sure, but the roster is much better this season compared to what we had last season.

Rino for me has done everything he could, but there's only so much a coach can do when you have very limited options. His hands are basically tied. Do I think we rushed into giving him a new contract? In hindsight, yes, I think we ould have waited to see how the season ended before making a move, especially when there are coaches of the calibre of Ancelotti, Conte and maybe Sarri available at the end of the season.

I'm curious to see what Rino can do with a better roster and starting the season from scratch rather than having to try and re-float an already sunken ship like he had to do this season. But I'm also afraid that we're going to miss out on a huge opportunity to get a top class coach in. Something that doesn't happen very often.

For me, what really has to be looked at is the management, specifically, Mirabelli. I don't think he's the right man for the job. I think he made fatal errors last summer, errors which could have far reaching repercussions for us on financial terms even more so than footballing ones. Over 200m spent and we could potentially finish worse off than we did with the scrap heap we had assembled last season. That would be a massive failure, and I don't see how anyone can keep their job after a blunder like that. For me the fact that he's still our sporting director is seriously worrying. It just goes back to the loop we had under B & G where no one was accountable for their mistakes. Any other club would have sent both him and Montella packing before November rolled around. But we seem to be persisting with him whatever happens this season. Had Fassone really wanted to replace him he would have done so months ago to allow the new SD to create connections and start setting up a market strategy for the summer. I'm personally very afraid to see how we'll be spending whatever budget we have this summer. We cannot afford any more missteps at this point.

This also all calls into question Fassone and Li (or whoever the f@ck is our real owner). How can you allow a man to keep his position after squandering over 200m? Just inexcusable.

Who said Mirabelli is going to keep his position?

Again, I'm really not that optimistic. Rino is okay, but the same was said about Montella. Whereas what we truly need is a coach that can attract top players, a coach that has experience and won something of importance, who has a legacy. We could have tried for a few such coaches, but again we decided to give the chance for yet another inexperienced legendary player.

Truth to be told, Rino has motivational skills for sure. He was the kind of player you can bet will become a good coach because he always was determined and wasn't that much talented so he clearly had to find out ways to make up to it. But than again look at our season finale? We are in shambles, we lost or squandered every single opportunity we had to step out. On the first sign of pressure we crumble and fall, the Coppa final being a epic failure that will linger for years.

I'm really not sure. Again, all I see is uncertainty. Financial uncertainty, in terms of management, in terms of having a plan and strategy, in terms of selecting players, establishing goals. I'm really very very pessimistic.

Because he'd have already been sacked by now if it was going to happen. A new SD would need time to work before the transfer window started. I doubt they sack Mirabelli now and bring in someone new just before the season started

Sacking him before the end of the season would have caused much turmoil, which wouldn't have been good for the team spirit.

I doubt the sporting director situation would have that much effect on the team tbh. It's not like he's part of their day to day routines at the club

I just think that if it were going to happen it would have happened by now. And he wouldn't be off watching CL games and meeting with agents