Well. In just under 2 weeks everything worth playing for has evaporated. What a whirlwind. Milan went from having a very beatable opponent in Champions League and advancing – itself a consolation prize after choking vs Dinamo Zagreb and not advancing straight to the round of 16 – and having a game in hand in the league and potentially back only 5 points from 4th with 14 games to play, to…zilch.
The wheels have officially fallen off achieving anything meaningful this season (the Coppa and Supercoppa don’t do it for me) and the vultures are circling. So what happens now?
I don’t have a whole lot to say but the comment section from the matchday is fantastic, full of good thoughts and perspectives from our regulars and I suggest checking those out to get a sense of what people are thinking, including myself. But I will regurgitate some of things I said there and add a little bit new.
I can’t recall a faster collapse of a team in the midst of a chase of any sort, be it a Scudetto or top 4. There are a lot of different things to pick from for why this is happening and people have naturally gone to their go-tos to point the finger, usually the coach or the players, specific players, the refs, or management. But really this conglomerate of reasons makes it hard to identify what the main culprit is – the lynchpin or keystore or whatever metaphor you want to use, and unlock the main problem that can make all the others easier to solve. I know I’m at a loss for what that is.
I think people are also discrediting how much this run of fluky plays (or bad calls like yesterday) piles onto what was already a bad situation. Just like Milan caught fire in the second half of the 2021-22 season and rode it to a Scudetto, a negative run can form too and it can be just as hard to break. This doesn’t mean Conceição and the players are absolved of responsibility, but how these things manifest and affect confidence is important. And right now confidence is as low as it’s been in a while.
My own opinion on what’s causing this, at this particular moment because it’s been a moving target, is mostly a combination of overthinking and that low confidence mentioned above. For example, in this game Musah was getting too far forward and it was overcrowding the top of the 18 yard box on top of leaving them even more exposed on the counter. In Bologna it was more of the same with players not knowing what their jobs were and the backline and front line were disconnected, unable to build. There’s other examples before that but you get the point.
Then there’s the unforced errors. They just won’t stop. Poor decisions, poor execution. Feels like a team playing tight. Nervous. Afraid to mess up. Paradoxically playing like that usually results in the things they’re trying to avoid.
So here we are. A decent chunk of people want Conceição gone, less than that want him to stay. I think he’s turned into the default scapegoat, as happens with coaches, but it’s hard to coach when you’re seemingly always down a man and/or a goal. Still, this run of games has provided plenty of ammo for those who want Conceição out and I don’t have a great argument against it.
Yet, the team has fight. We saw that in this game. They didn’t stop and that makes me think they can overcome this. It won’t matter for this season. But like Pioli’s first season in charge when he took over, they ended up finishing 6th, which is close to where I think Milan finish this season (Pioli’s Milan was in 8th after round 27 that season for what it’s worth). We all know how they did the next 4 seasons. So these games matter. I know I’ll be watching.
What Happened in Serie A
The top 4 is even tighter with the top 3 teams all dropping points. Inter (1st) and Napoli (2nd) played to a 1-1 draw and Atalanta (3rd) drew 0-0 at home to Venezia (19th). This means that Juventus’s (4th) 2-0 win today over Hellas Verona (14th) brought them to within 6 points of the top of the table. Who saw this clustering at the top? Well, I kind of did. I’ve been saying all season I thought Napoli were paper tigers and that parity was ruling the day in Serie A.
We all know Lazio (5th) beat Milan (9th), but Bologna (6th) has been on a little run after beating Cagliari (15th) 2-1 and hold down the last European spot. Fiorentina (7th) beat Lecce (16th) 1-0 to keep pace and sit just 2 points back of Bologna.
Roma (8th) leapfrogged Milan by beating Como (13th) 2-1. Roma have won 5 of their last 6, including 4 straight in Serie A. No wonder they jumped over Milan. Rounding out the top half of the table, Udinese (10th) beat Parma (17th) 1-0.
Torino (11th) lead the bottom half of the table and beat up on Monza (20th) 2-0. They’ve won 2 straight after dropping points in the previous 3. Genoa (12th) drew 1-1 to Empoli (18th). The draw was just Empoli’s 3rd point in their last 12 league games.
That wraps up the league overview. Now, ratings.
Player Ratings
Goal Keeping
MAIGNAN 7 – One of his better games in a while. Saved an early goal after Gabbia got turned inside out. And yes, the penalty on him was bullsh*t.
Goal Keeping Overall 7
Defense
JIMENEZ 5.5 – Same score as last time but I think maybe he was slightly better? I don’t know, he got pulled for Walker and that helped balance the side a bit more as he was getting too far forward.
GABBIA 6.5 – Aside from getting turned inside out in the first 5-7 minutes, was solid.
PAVLOVIC 5 – Was having a decent game but then the red was backbreaking. I personally don’t think it was a red and I hate how the current rules are applied, but until they change them then you have to play by them. And he didn’t.
HERNÁNDEZ 6.5 – Was average across the board.
Defense Overall 6
Midfield
MUSAH 6 – Wrong position for nearly all of the 37 minutes he was out there.
FOFANA 6 – WTF happened to him? And FFS please STOP SHOOTING
Midfield Overall 6
Forwards
PULISIC 6.5 – Remember how many goals and assists he had and how he was WAY ahead of this teammates? Well Leão has matched him now in the league. Got to find a way to unleash him again.
REIJNDERS 6.5 – Was really invisible as the CAM but impacted the game more from the double pivot once Musah got pulled and João Felix came in. I know some of you want him as the CAM but I think he’s better in the double pivot (especially if FOFANA STAYS THE F HOME).
LEÃO 7 – Best offensive player for Milan. And he wasn’t even at his best. Which is a pretty damning indictment on the rest.
GIMÉNEZ 6 – Didn’t get much service but was not very good either. First touch kept letting him down.
Forwards Overall 6.5
Subs
FELIX 6.5 – Immediately helped bring some cohesiveness to the attack, both by his presence but also because it removed Musah from the equation.
WALKER 6.5 – Better than Jimenez because he stayed further back and balanced things better.
THIAW 6 – Came on after Pavlovic was sent off.
CHUKWUEZE 7 – Nice little goal.
JOVIC NA – He played.
Subs Overall 6
Coaching
CONCEIÇÃO 6 – Was on his way to another 3 but got Musah out of there in the first half and Milan immediately improved. I mentioned in the chat that I liked seeing a coach admit a mistake (initial tactics) and try and remedy it as soon as possible and not wait until halftime.
The team still has fight and even Leão posted on social media that they feel it’s them vs everyone else with all the backlash. So again, won’t matter for this season but seeing the team not give up is important. It shows they still care and Conceição hasn’t lost the locker room. I know this won’t matter for some of you. That ship has sailed. But I still want to see how they play and I support him finishing out the season and evaluating at that point.
Final Thoughts
Sigh.
Forza Milan.
gillis
