AC Milan continues to make mistakes that threaten to derail their Scudetto bid before it has even begun, and they are not learning their lessons.
After Milan blew a two-goal lead at the Stadio Via del Mare this afternoon, Calciomercato.com published a report highlighting the same errors that continue to be made.
We’ll start with the substitutions, where Roberto D’Aversa made the difference and Stefano Pioli may have cost the game. Nicola Sansone scored and assisted after replacing Strefezza in the 17th minute of the second half. Blin assisted Kaba, who came on in the same minute.
Piccoli scored a goal that was disallowed for handball, while Joan Gonzalez replaced Rafia in the second half and regained control of the midfield.
On the other hand, Musah’s introduction for Calabria at the start of the second half was disastrous: he lost track of Sansone for the 1-2 goal and lost the ball to Sansone for the equalizer.
Milan have already dropped four points from winning positions away from home this season, which is two more than the previous three Serie A seasons combined. Not only that, but they have only two points in their last four league games (2 defeats, 2 draws, 0 wins):
Only Fiorentina and Verona had a worse record.
Milan’s issue, which became clear after about fifteen minutes, was the speed of Lecce’s smaller players. Direct duels were created all over the pitch as a result of the two coaches’ use of the same 4-3-3 formation.
Calabria struggled to contain Banda, Chukwueze (despite his speed) struggled to keep Dorku in check, Theo Hernandez did not always contain Strefezza, and Okafor – who came on early in place of Leao – spent a lot of time running after Gendrey when the full-back attacked.
Milan was 2-0 up and could have won the game, but they chose to risk Lecce immediately halving the deficit. Theo was guilty of giving Gendrey space, and Mike Maignan denied Banda with a spectacular save. It was a foreshadowing of things to come.
The fatigue from Tuesday’s win over PSG was beginning to show in the second half. Lecce believed and scored twice in four minutes as Milan failed to manage the game well – just as they did against Lecce – when taking the sting out of things and slowing down the pace was advised.
Finally, we noticed a recurring lack of discipline. Giroud complained about a handball near the area, but Abisso failed to notice and booked the Frenchman for dissent. When he continued to protest, most likely using too many harsh words, a red card was produced, indicating that the Frenchman will miss Fiorentina.
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