A continuous progressioncertainly conditioned by the disconcerting outcome of the last derby, but which in a certain way highlights how in the fourth season of technical management of Milan from the beginning the defects of Stefano Pioli’s team remain essentially the same. An often effective offensive phase – especially at the beginning of the championship, when the characteristics of the players and the type of preparation have the greatest impact – corresponds a certain difficulty in keeping one’s own clean sheet. The caliber of the opponents and the different interpreters who have taken turns in the Rossoneri 4-man package in recent years are not entirely deceiving: Milan is a team which, by vocation, tends to concede to its rivals, because by accepting to defend almost always in one-man situations against one the risk is of being particularly difficult against opponents who are good at underlining certain limits.
THE PROBLEM OF GOALS (CONCEDED) – A goal conceded in the first four matches of the 2020/2021 season – finished in second place behind Conte’s Inter – against Bologna, Crotone, Spezia and the Nerazzurri themselves, who were then overtaken in the derby which always fell on the fourth day. The balls collected by Maignan, who in the meantime took over Donnarumma’s legacy, became 2 a year later, against Samp, Cagliari, Lazio and Juventus: at the end of the season the championship will arrive and the explosion of the unprecedented Tomori-Kalulu couple (together with a general solidity given by other performers not present today for different reasons such as Kessie, Tonali and Bennacer) will be one of the secrets of the tricolor ride. The first real alarm bells started ringing last season, when Udinese scored twice at San Siro on their debut and in the subsequent matches against Atalanta and Bologna Milan conceded another goal. What Maignan avoided on the Sassuolo pitch in the fourth round, neutralizing a penalty against Berardi. We finally arrive at the season that has just begun, which seems to fully confirm the dangerous creaks manifested by the pre-seasonin which Pioli’s men conceded goals from Real Madrid, Juve and Barcelona (5 in total), but also from Monza and even Trento, a Serie C team. The matches against Bologna, Turin, Roma and Inter did nothing else than to reiterate, beyond the heavy burden of 7 goals conceded, that the defensive phase (which evidently involves the whole team) is still an unsolved puzzle. Net of a summer transfer market that touched almost all departments but which perhaps partially overlooked the one at the center of many critical judgments today.
MARKET CHOICES – A market that, all things considered, has brought only a new face in the person of the young Argentine central defender Pellegrino, who took over the position previously occupied by Gabbia, who moved to Villarreal. The overall confirmation of the package made up of Tomori, Kjaer and Kalulu – a particularly valuable player as he is flexible enough to double as a right back – and the trust placed in the growth of a talented prospect like Thiaw have addressed the assessments of Pioli, Moncada and Furlani of the construction of a battery of central defenders which has changed a lot in the last four years but which continues to seem dominated by an overall interpretation of the score in which the re-aggression of the rest of the team does not always reveal itself effective, exposing it to bad impressions against tactically organized opponents. Little turnover among the central defenders but also not too many alternatives to the two wingers, who since the Emilian coach has been in charge have been two undisputed starters, perhaps “squeezed” beyond belief due to the absence of truly adequate reserves in terms of performance.
With the exception of Dalot in the 2020/21 season, when Calabria and Theo Hernandez did not play, the difference was evident. Why neither Florenzi nor Ballo-Touré – to mention the players who theoretically arrived to give the owners some breathing room – they managed to carve out the playing time that would have offered Pioli level options and allowed the first choices to take a breather to appear in some key matches in the best possible conditions. Yet the last transfer window saw Milan explore more than one possibility on both sides: on the right the former Torino Singo was an idea that lasted the space to collect the not of Pioliwho would have preferred a player more accustomed to playing as a 4-man and possibly with the predisposition to transform into a midfielder added to Calabria, and with equally little conviction the trail leading to the promising Spaniard Ivan Fresneda was pursued, then moved to Sporting Lisbon. On the left, however, the exit which occurred only at the tail end of the market – and with a formula, that of the dry loan – of Ballo-Touré blocked any possibility of intervention in the entry due to budgetary reasons. Allowing Bologna to overtake Riccardo Calafiori.
IN JANUARY… – Time will tell if the programmatic choice to divert investments mainly to the midfield and attack departments will pay off, because one fact continues to emerge and remain relevant, having reached Stefano Pioli’s fourth season since the beginning: this Milan continues to have the usual big players problems in the defensive phase. It’s too early to draw hasty and definitive conclusions after so few games, but that the January transfer market could offer the chance to correct course where it was not possible to do so is not an option to be discarded absolutely.
2023-09-17 08:30:00
#Milan #remains #defenseless #choices #Pioli #Moncada #Furlani #happen #market #January
