Milan is on defensive

Milan on the defensive
24.9 || scharatz || $source

Source: Football Italia


Milan boss Carlo Ancelotti is concerned about his side’s uncharacteristic defensive frailties this season.

The Rossoneri have conceded four goals in three games, all at home, after a sluggish start to the new campaign.

"We are conceding more than we have in the past and more than we expected," he stated after last night’s 2-1 loss to Messina.

"We are currently less effective than we were last season and we need to play with more attention.

"Even if it is true that we are an attacking side and it is normal to give away a few chances to the opposition."

One of the Rossoneri’s main strengths last term was their defence as they conceded just 24 goals in 34 games.

Their rearguard was supposed to be even tougher to break down this season after the arrival of Jaap Stam from Lazio.

However, that has not been the case so far with some critics pointing the finger at the advanced average age of the defence.

Paolo Maldini, Marcos Cafu, Giuseppe Pancaro, Jaap Stam and Billy Costacurta are all the wrong side of 30.

Juventus and Udinese currently have the best defensive record in the top-flight with both sides yet to concede so far.

Theres no problem, Milan are a bit slow to start the season off, we have many players still not at peak fitness but anyway no excuse we just got to play better and with more enthusiasm

i just knew that milan only conceeded 9 goals on the entire first part of the league season last year... and now milan have conceeded 4 so far

it was heart breaking to see Maldini the gr8 plunge in air in vain as the goal happened against Messina, maybe Milan are taking sometime to adjust

logan said:

maybe Milan are taking sometime to adjust

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Adjust to what ? They are basically the same team of last season, same coach same players same tactics and some 'reinforcements' which are not up to the standards yet. The tactics we use are getting old and innefective now. Other teams can read what we are going to do. We need a change of tactics and some fresh ideas of how to approach, build-up and prepare for a game.

Basically It is teams like Chelsea that need to do adjusting, we just need to realise that scudetto won't come our way if we don't work for it.

mtfco said:

i just knew that milan only conceeded 9 goals on the entire first part of the league season last year... and now milan have conceeded 4 so far

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"so far" Juve conceeded 0 goals... damn!

Zambrotta---Cannavaro---Thuram---Zebina???

Their back-line looks so?

i wouldnt say that milan's defense is not in the same level (as juve's), hell we could be even better if the players have the determination... the players should all forget that we won last season, that feeling of being the champions could really ruin things...
as for the age problem, we have at least 7 players (maldini, pancaro, nesta, stam, cafu, kaladze, collocini) i dont see any reason for carlo not to rotate the line-up a bit... those legs need rest u know

Milan

I think the team needs a real wake up call,but to be sincere juve has a pretty tight defence ,how i wish we had zambrotta

Milan is still adjusting their defensive strategy, i think.
i hope these early games would give opportunity for Milan to be ready to play Juventus. It seemed that Juve always have 3-0 for the past 3 games.

i wouldn't say its a crisis, but its nowhere near good enough. with the players we have it shocking that were letting in goals like this...maybe a new face(coloccini) is needed, i don't know.

they didn't show the messina game over here...was maldini at fault? i love him to bits, but if he's a liability then he should NOT be playing.

~Biski Biskit~ said:

Adjust to what ? They are basically the same team of last season, same coach same players same tactics and some 'reinforcements' which are not up to the standards yet. The tactics we use are getting old and innefective now. Other teams can read what we are going to do. We need a change of tactics and some fresh ideas of how to approach, build-up and prepare for a game.

Basically It is teams like Chelsea that need to do adjusting, we just need to realise that scudetto won't come our way if we don't work for it.

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Couldn't agree more. Milan's play is very.. easy.. to figure out + since there is little tactical variety (no idea if it's cos of Ancelotti's or the team's 'deficits') opponents of course will find it more easy to succeed in tripping us up.

I'm so not surprised about complacency + lack of spirit + will power currently displayed by the majority of players .. They are saturated, a) mentally from previous successs + 'protection of their status' (knowing a bad performance virtually has no consequences) + believing their own hype (i meravigliosi blabla), b) financially from the convenience of very long-term contracts.

Add to it that some of our players ARE getting old + others ARE NOT fit physically + the list of current problems is complete.

Passion for *9* said:

Couldn't agree more. Milan's play is very.. easy.. to figure out + since there is little tactical variety (no idea if it's cos of Ancelotti's or the team's 'deficits') opponents of course will find it more easy to succeed in tripping us up.

I'm so not surprised about complacency + lack of spirit + will power currently displayed by the majority of players .. They are saturated, a) mentally from previous successs + 'protection of their status' (knowing a bad performance virtually has no consequences) + believing their own hype (i meravigliosi blabla), b) financially from the convenience of very long-term contracts.

Add to it that some of our players ARE getting old + others ARE NOT fit physically + the list of current problems is complete.

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i agree with you guys...milan is starting to piss me off this season.

at the end of last season, i was kind of worried about the squad getting complacent and that age would show, and that's EXACTLY whats happened...that being said i think our squad is fine for the most part, except maybe for our dinosaur defenders.

i think there's plenty of time to recover, though.

I think Carlo should rest Maldini, Nesta and Cafu.. they have played all the game!! Give Coloccini and Stam a chance to show his quality!
I'm really upset with the last result against Messina but think positively, Milan will be better next matches!

FORZA MILAN!!

ics_rk said:

I think Carlo should rest Maldini, Nesta and Cafu.. they have played all the game!! Give Coloccini and Stam a chance to show his quality!
I'm really upset with the last result against Messina but think positively, Milan will be better next matches!

FORZA MILAN!!

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I agree with you.And Milan cant be worst in the future.

us_bombs said:

i agree with you guys...milan is starting to piss me off this season.

at the end of last season, i was kind of worried about the squad getting complacent and that age would show, and that's EXACTLY whats happened...that being said i think our squad is fine for the most part, except maybe for our dinosaur defenders.

i think there's plenty of time to recover, though.

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can't lose hope, bro.
Milan is Milan... they're so unpredictable.
even tho the strategy stayed the same, how could Milan stayed on the Championship? there's always hope in the future.
and with Jesus Christ (gatusso) in the team, MIlan will be blessed.