Rafa probably wants to avoid muscle fatigue with the World Cup less than two weeks away. He's played a lot recently, so better he faces Fiorentina than Cremonese.

I can't wait for this extended winter break. We have several players who need to start showing more to give Pioli more options. Aside from De Ketelaere, Adli seems to have vanished after looking so promising in pre-season. Thiaw might have the potential to jump ahead of Gabbia in the pecking order but he is not there yet. Vranckx similarly, although Pobega is a good third choice already.

CDK played a lot as a striker for Brugge, so maybe he could be a sub for Origi if needed (in Giroud's absence).

 

Rafa probably wants to avoid muscle fatigue with the World Cup less than two weeks away. He's played a lot recently, so better he faces Fiorentina than Cremonese.

I can't wait for this extended winter break. We have several players who need to start showing more to give Pioli more options. Aside from De Ketelaere, Adli seems to have vanished after looking so promising in pre-season. Thiaw might have the potential to jump ahead of Gabbia in the pecking order but he is not there yet. Vranckx similarly, although Pobega is a good third choice already.

CDK played a lot as a striker for Brugge, so maybe he could be a sub for Origi if needed (in Giroud's absence).

Thinking of what you have just said, basically none of our summer signing are being given proper opportunity apart from Charles.

 

Yeah I can't remember Leao resting almost at all. Even hough as mentioned elsewhere he does not do a lot of tracking back, it's a lot of games and his running is very explosive.

Also agree on the "missing" players. Can't fault Pioli too much as his selections have kept us up there and there is after all competition for spots, but I too would like to see more of these new guys.

 

Origi has played a lot since getting back from injury.

The others have just not been "needed", except for Dest.

He is not getting game time even with Calabria and Florenzi out, and Kalulu essentially playing every game.

I think it will be some time before Thiaw gets a shot considering how it's so hard to tinker with defenses, but Vranckx should really be in contention whenever Pioli considers Krunic instead.

Regardless, our performance so far has been more than decent so can't fault Pioli for not taking unnecessary risks.

Don't forget in recent years most our signings didn't do quite well in their first seasons. Maybe only Theo? And Maignan

 

A bit random, I was watching Odegaard vs Chelsea last weekend. Wondering if you all think CDK can model his game after him? Pretty sweet player to watch

 

ORIGIIIIIIII

 

Aghhhh outruled

 

Rebic is shockingly bad, I mean horrendous

 

It's pure comedy some of the hilariously bad passes I have seen from the players today..

 

No idea why Rebic was not taken off instead of Diaz

 

Sometimes I think Pioli underestimate the opponents too much, thinking we are able to win with new formation and 4-5 changes to the starting line-up.

 

Yeah, really hopeless!

 

Great to save players for Fiorentina and then lose points to Cremonese..
And with only 2 games to play before the World Cup break...

 

That was the worst game I have seen the last 3 seasons. The amount of amateurish mistakes from Rebic, Diaz, Messias, Leao, CDK...

 

CDK looks completely lost. I'd consider the option to loan him out in January. Or even sell if clubs are interested in buying him!

 

In his first couple of games CDK looked so composed and like he would always make the right pass. Now, whenever he is in a good position, he just cannot find a teammate in front of the goal..
But Rebic's performance today is probably the worst I have seen him play

 

Throwing cdk on as a sub when we're desperate against a team playing catenaccio . . . Is that how to develop a player?

 

Frankly, I expected CDK to start in front of someone like Messias. Was surprised to see Leao rested when we already missed Theo on the left...

 

He really was poor today, but I will always remind you guys how diabolical his first few games for Milan were. He just could not play football.

Rebic really is one of strangest players out there. He has these few games when looks like an amateur player, can't do anything; abject to a degree I've rarely seen for a club like Milan. He also misses large chunks of every season because of injuries. But when in form, and he does hit form every season, he is an absolute monster: amazing shot with both feet, very direct, strong, can head, can play anywhere in attack, wins you games.

 

He really was poor today, but I will always remind you guys how diabolical his first few games for Milan were. He just could not play football.

Who?

 

Bad result and bad performance. Nothing to add.

Missed that one stroke of luck to score in the first half, but we were totally gone in the second.

Not a great precedent after Torino.

I dare say this result has lost us the Scudetto. Let's hope we're good enough to finish 4th.

 

At this point, the Scudetto needs to be out of our thoughts. We need to finish top 4 at all costs, and secure UCL earnings.

 

If Napoli don't win this Scudetto with all the rivals failing they should close down the club tbh

 

We seem to be in bad form but are actually only 2 points worse off compared to last season at the same stage.

At the time we were behind Napoli by 3 points, but Napoli have 5 more points than they did last year.

Besides the fact that I think Pioli massively underestimated the opponents last night, he actually was left with not much choice because he simply needs to rotate because of the crazy schedule.

Our depth is no good at certain spots and injuries seem to perennially be a problem.

Ballo Toure offers really nothing as a sub Theo. He is literally there to just make up the numbers in the eleven. He doesn't overlap, he doesn't cross and he actually doesn't even defend. He is just there to receive the ball and play it backwards or sideways.

Our striker problem will NOT be solved by Origi. He is not even better than Giroud even if he is younger. I still don't like his tinge of selfishness that to me doesn't suit the spirit of this side.

CDK was horrendous. He's definitely not going through a good patch but constantly throwing him onto these situations isn't great for him either. I hope the club mean it when they say they need to be patient with him because the fans will be ruthless and turn on him very quickly.

At right back, it is crazy that all THREE of ours are out. Calabria, Florenzi and Dest. I've said it a few times and will say it again, Kalulu offers nothing in attack these days when he plays RB. Couple that with Ballo Toure on the other side, recipe for disaster.

Ahh, so frustrating. I just wrote those random points in no particular order or flow. Just letting it out. At home vs Fiorentina next before almost two months with no Milan football.. We better win..

FORZA MILAN

 

We basically have the same problem we had last season, in which we managed to win the scudetto despite this problem. This problem is finishing off chances. against Torino we had Leao with two important misses that more or less lost us the game, in this game we had several big chances in which the keeper made some great saves. it makes such a difference just putting away a chance to the score, to the points given and to a whole season. As said, last season we didn't score a lot of goals for a champion, often winning games with a single goal. Chances? Origi clear on goal, Header from corner (great save!), Messias shot, Rebic free header on Tonali cross.

No surprise i said the dream signing for this team would be Haaland. A guy that just put away chances. Giroud is currently the only we got that is decent at that. Messias is okay, Rebic is hit and miss, Leao miss way to much, Alexis miss a lot, Brahim never been deadly, CDK got -100% confidence, Krunic isn't really a scorer. CDK really is the missing piece as far as what our management expected, as he contributed nothing so far.

I mean we did dominate the game, we didn't give away chances and we created several good chances (especially after a poor first 20 minutes). But we did not score and the subs seemed to make us worse, I only remember a good turn and a bad finish from Lazetic in the last minutes of the game.

 

Yes, you are basically saying we lack a great striker.

Napoli have several. Osimhen, Simeone and Raspadori.

We really missed out on Vlahovic 😭

 

We rely on Leao individual but his inconsistency is glaring. This match is all Pioli.