While most of the attention will be directed towards Malick Thiaw’s red card for the reason AC Milan lost against Juventus, Stefano Pioli has made changes to the team that are not all positive.
Calciomercato.com write how Thiaw’s red card and the result that followed might well mask the real problem: even when the game was 11 vs. 11, Rafael Leao and his team-mates are struggling to turn possession dominance into big chances.
Added to the chronic problems of unlocking certain games against opponents that defend deep, there are other approaches that are not being utilised such as shooting from outside the area or having quality set pieces.
Then there is the midfield. There were a total of 13 goals scored by the Kessie-Bennacer-Tonali trio in the Scudetto season, then last season Tonali, Bennacer, Pobega and Krunic scored nine. This season only Loftus-Cheek out of the midfield has scored any of the 16 netted in the league by the Rossoneri.
Tijjani Reijnders has had 15 shots but is yet to break his duck, showing precision well below the standards to which he had accustomed everyone in the last two years in the Netherlands when he scored 13 total goals in the two most recent seasons.
A couple of assists from the Dutchman and from Loftus-Cheek must be factored in, as must Yunus Musah’s for Pulisic’s winner against Genoa, but on a purely statistical level the attacking production of Milan’s midfield ends here.
The real problem is that Milan command games up to a point, holding firm on the edge of the final third looking for one-on-one situations that sometimes do not come, but at the same time being held back by the fear of suffering on the counter.
The risk-taking version of this Milan that was systematically taken apart by Simone Inzaghi’s Inter was gradually abandoned in the weeks to come to try to maintain a more balanced structure.
After the 9 goals scored in the first four games of the season, Milan have scored six goals in the seven post-derby games, also considering the first two Champions League matches.
Pulisic’s flash at the end of the match in Genoa is the only goal that Milan have scored in the last three games and it seems that it is for fear of defending in a less effective way.
Taking the Inter game out of the equation, the previous matches had also shown a tendency to suffer from counters when leaving the field open. Pioli and his players have chosen to compromise, but things done halfway are often the ones that fuel the greatest doubts.
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