Five Things We Learned From AC Milan’s 0-1 Loss to Roma toothless and strategically inferior.
Following a seven-game winning streak, AC Milan entered the Europa League match against Roma full of confidence. However, this did not show on the field, and the following are five things we discovered about the game.
The Rossoneri fans were optimistic because of their team’s recent performance and the fact that they were at home. However, the night did not go Milan’s way, as Gianluca Mancini scored just 17 minutes into the contest. The Rossoneri had plenty of time to respond, but they appeared lifeless after Roma’s first and provided little going forward. Pioli did not appear to be able to change the situation in the second half, with Roma defending deep and Milan struggling to generate.
When opportunities did arise near the end, Milan struggled to capitalize, with Olivier Giroud hitting the crossbar when he could have equalized. Here are five things we noticed during the game.
1. Unusually toothless.
Although Milan has struggled defensively this season, their attacking section has mostly operated at full capacity. Unfortunately, it did not appear to be the case against Roma, as Daniele De Rossi found a method to utterly neuter the Rossoneri.
All of the attacking players struggled in the final third, exacerbated by Ismael Bennacer and Tijjani Reijnders’ inability to provide critical passes. Theo Hernandez looked unrecognizable as he went forward, making things difficult for Milan. Indeed, a response will be required in the rematch; else, the Rossoneri would confirm their lack of a trophy this season before mid-April.
2. A ghost at the flank Rafael Leao’s
performance was undoubtedly one of the most disappointing aspects of the game. The Portuguese winger’s season has been somewhat inconsistent, but he has found some consistency in recent months. It is not surprising that Pioli hoped for a solid performance on the big night.
That was not the case, though, as Leao struggled to finish a successful dribble or a shot on goal. The winger was perhaps the Rossoneri’s poorest player (excluding Giroud) and will need to put in a lot of effort in the return match to help his club turn things around.
3. Gabbia and Calabria put up the work in the back We did see some positives throughout the game, primarily in the back.
Two of these positive performances came from Davide Calabria and Matteo Gabbia.
Despite the difficult challenge of containing Romelu Lukaku, the centre-back played well. The centre-back won the majority of his duels with the Belgian, and when he didn’t, he recovered just enough to keep anything threatening in front of Mike Maignan. Gabbia delivered a strong performance, continuing his outstanding run since returning from loan.
The captain, on the other hand, began slowly but quickly grew into the game, displaying strong work rates in both phases of the game, taking advantage of the open space and going into the middle to make something happen. That did not result in a goal, but Calabria performed admirably.
4. Giroud gave a terrible performance.
Returning to the terrible performances, Giroud clearly outperformed Leao in that encounter. The Frenchman did little nothing throughout the game, with Chris Smalling dominating him for the majority of their fight, and failing to make an impression when he did obtain the ball. The biggest letdown came near the end of the game, when the striker missed a sitter barely a meter from the goal line, striking the crossbar rather than bringing his team level. A horrible miss from a striker at this level of a European competition. Not to mention the striker, Giroud.
The fact of the matter is that this is most likely the Frenchman’s final season at Milan, and the big games have demonstrated why.
5. Pioli got it completely wrong.
We may critique the players all we want, but it appeared that Pioli got the tactics completely wrong for this game. Daniele De Rossi did make some unexpected alterations, but Pioli still arrived unprepared for the game.
Samuel Chukwueze, who has been in excellent form recently, was left on the bench, and it was clear how beneficial he could have been in tight spaces if given more time. Yacine Adli was also benched for much too long, despite being the midfielder with the finest vision and passing range of the bunch. Not to mention that Hernandez and Leao were completely excluded from the game. Although Roma expended a lot of energy to neutralize them, Pioli should have reacted to free up space for his star combo, or at the very least used the extra space elsewhere. The coach’s poor tactical performance will require him to react.