Pioli and the players have a lot to answer for in the last couple of games - all of them they have been poor, top 4 should have been more or less straight forward - And still can be. The injuries of Mike has been a major factor but Milan's general team form has been poor recently. I hope Pioli will start playing certain players in roles and positions where they can contribute more playing their natural game. And a key factor the defence really needs to be tactically modified to accommodate butter fingers Tata in goal. At this point I wouldn't object to Pioli going with a five man defence and countering - grinding out 1-0 wins just to reclaim ground. At least until Milan have a reliable custodian between the posts - but even with Mike back the defence have to sharp, aware and not concede stupid goals because even with Mike there have been too many this year.
I think changing the system to a low block or counterattack is the wrong way to go. We were doing great with the way we used to play. We don’t need to throw out the baby with the bath water. Most of the goals we conceded were of two types: counterattacks and set pieces.
We’re trying to counterpress when we lose the ball because we commit so many players forward that we usually have only the two center backs and a midfielder behind the ball. We HAVE to counterpress as that’s the only way to maintain pressure and not concede counterattacks. We’re also not cynical enough to foul and stop counterattacks. We used to be VERY good at counterpressing, at least by Serie A standards. Our PPDA is consistently the lowest in the league.
What’s broken is that our counterpress has suddenly become shit. Giroud was always a non entity here and he was never supposed to be our starting forward. Leao was to blame for a lot of the initial moves that resulted in goals, either by losing the ball and not regaining it, or not tracking the runners like Marusic on the break. We used to protect Leao a lot better before to avoid this. This was Kessie’s job.
Another thing that’s broken is that Brahim, no matter how much he improved this season, is not covering space and cutting out passing lanes like Krunic (or Kessie) when they played AM last season. A lot of our effective pressing happened because we were so good at closing down that dangerous central space that we forced teams out wide and we could handle it better there. Now, teams slice through our press straight down the middle. It’s so easy. CDK can’t play this role. We NEED a physical player like Krunic or Vranckx or whoever in AM otherwise the whole system breaks down. If we don’t have anyone like that in that role, then change system. Don’t force Brahim or CDK to do it and expect the same results.
I think this is finally the realization that’s dawned on Pioli. We can’t play the same way. So either we play Krunic or Vranckx as the AM and sacrifice Brahim/CDK, or stop playing so crazy attacking and commit fewer players forward and play a safer 433 with better coverage when we lose the ball.
The only reason why we were blowing teams away last season was because we believed in ourselves. We believed that we could throw 7 players forward and still get the ball in a few seconds when we lose it, not caring that Tomori was pressing all the way into their box to fill in during the counterpress. It was magical, but it depended on absolute unity and confidence.
That confidence was eroded gradually after the Napoli loss (which was one of the best games we played in months). It then got worse and worse as we let in shit goals with Tata. Now confidence is at an absolute low after it got shattered in the end against Roma (a game where we seemed to have finally regained some confidence).
The only way we can play the way we used to is to regain that unity and confidence. The only way we can do that at this point is to win some games and get clean sheets. The only way to do that is to sacrifice something and play it safe, then slowly get back to playing crazy once we’re confident and have Maignan back in goal.
It sucks to be this bad after winning the title, and to discover that our system is so brittle and that it depends entirely on mental superiority. That’s something I wasn’t expecting, it’s shocking how quickly it unraveled once we stopped believing in ourselves. This is on Pioli as he should have understood that playing his system at that point was making it worse. Hopefully there is a way back once we rebuild our confidence. We lost the coppa, the super coppa and the league in a month. That’s terrible. Getting 4th place is crucial and it would be disastrous on many levels if we can’t make it.
I’m still not too worried about it as I think once we get our shit together we’ll string a few wins and then start to feel the same as before again. I really hope this is the bottom. Even if we don’t beat Inter, I think what needs to happen is to see some kind of change in mentality, that we’re looking for balance first and not to win at all costs. It’s that ‘winning at all costs’ mentality that fucked us up. Our squad is too young, too thin and too injured to shoulder that mental burden.