Champions League Round of 16: Tottenham vs AC Milan 08/03/2023 21:00 CET

[KujaIX]

Superb performances over both games, should’ve had more goals over 2 legs but result is the main thing. We’ve gone 2 more rounds and counting than previous season so on that upward trend. Next tie is a free hit, this team if we finish in top 4 has had a good season. Pity about the league but we are on the right track definitely need to sharpen up our finishing

We played excellently. They never really had a proper chance (header in this game the only real chance).

We could have scored 3 or so tonight alone when we had 4 players in the box and we fluffed it.

Extremely proudy over this team.

I will fully admit I expected the midfield to be overrun but this was a sterling two leg CL performance, reminiscent of Carlo.

 

[KujaIX]

People want Leao to run all game. I guess they want another Salad.

He is a sprinter, he can't chase the ball all game. His job is to be explosive, and for that he needs to keep his energy levels to be ready for those key moments. He chases the ball when it's required or when we press, but he is selective about it. I don't think it's laziness, as some choose to see it.

His shooting is shit tho, he needs to put in the work there. Although he had that one shot lately when he hit the post, so maybe he is improving, but it doesnt happen over night.

I think it's clear as day that as games become stretched he is advised to stay up the pitch to wait for counters. It almost got us multiple goals today.

 

[Pigeon]

padre masterclass

0-0

 

[Hitchens]

I don't know what's worse, Leao regressing back to passenger Leao or Rebic still not even close to challenge him.

This contract situation is visibly weighting on Leao. And I wouldn't even say Rebic isn't trying because I see him running all the time, even against Fiorentina, but his physics has regressed so badly that he doesn't even look like a Serie B player anymore.

One way or another, and I meean that quite literally, the Leao situation has to be solved soon.

Storm in a glass my friend.

 

[Swagotelli]

I enjoy Bayern shafting the English/psg repeatedly, but I don’t want them to win #7

 

[Mr. Anonymous]

Don’t post here as often anymore but advancing through to the quarters motivated me to come see the energy and contribute a post.
Happy we’re through, but we should have killed the game off several times.
Gotta get better at finishing chances….get a freakin striker next season.
We’re getting spanked next round unless we can score more goals.

 

[Sheva0172]

<3

 

[KujaIX]

I can only assume everyone is out celebrating

 

[BillyTheKid]

Still trying to figure out if it was us defending superbly or Tottenham attacking poorly. Probably a bit of both. Still, they are like 4th in EPL, aren't they? So yeah, the Fiorentina we faced last weekend was intimidating. And they're a midtable Serie A team. Tottenham was a stark contrast to what we faced four days ago and they are supposed to be an EPL top team, despite players like Kane and Son.

It was very obvious that Pioli prioritized UCL over serie a, at least for this round. Against Fiore, he took off key players despite a goal down. The team was conserving energy for this UCL match. So, not surprising Theo was bossing the left side and going back and forth nonstop the whole match.

 

[kevin_dk]

I still can't believe Romero played dead after hurting Theo. Had Theo been injured Romero would have been dead for real, no need to play it.

 

[Ash]

Well played team!

Fully deserved

Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk

 

[gioiuzza]

what a life, what a night, what a beautiful beautiful ride

a group of milanisti revealed ourselves after 90 minutes of blending in and got to jump and sing in the home section

curva sud in incredible voice as always, but the spurs songs and chants were so shit! even when the volume was good there was no joy or creativity in it

nice to visit a stadium with good toilets though, can’t wait for Milan to have that

all the boys were amazing! Thiaw was super impressive, seemed to be everywhere, and Brahim worked really hard

Leao was frustrating at times, created some great chances but if I weren’t hiding among the enemy I might have yelled at him a bit

 

[leaf]

People want Leao to run all game. I guess they want another Salad.

He is a sprinter, he can't chase the ball all game. His job is to be explosive, and for that he needs to keep his energy levels to be ready for those key moments. He chases the ball when it's required or when we press, but he is selective about it. I don't think it's laziness, as some choose to see it.

His shooting is shit tho, he needs to put in the work there. Although he had that one shot lately when he hit the post, so maybe he is improving, but it doesnt happen over night.

n00bz don't understand this

 

[Congo Powers]

That set up for messias w the free kick at 17:00 was a fking layup !

 

[Ultra Swan]

Diaz has really stepped up this season, well played.

Also, Ref was MVP.

 

[bola]

It's the truth, so I won't delete it
Ofc it helps to have some more and spend it on the right players. But the truth is that money alone can't buy you everything. PSG will probably never win CL, no matter how many stars they buy. Makes me happy to see them lose.

It's not the truth though, as Berlusconi & Abramovich prove it already.

 

[Jivara]

People want Leao to run all game. I guess they want another Salad.

He is a sprinter, he can't chase the ball all game. His job is to be explosive, and for that he needs to keep his energy levels to be ready for those key moments. He chases the ball when it's required or when we press, but he is selective about it. I don't think it's laziness, as some choose to see it.

His shooting is shit tho, he needs to put in the work there. Although he had that one shot lately when he hit the post, so maybe he is improving, but it doesnt happen over night.

You explained it well, Leao should not defend so much and has to be selective in his sprints.

But he also should improve his control of the pass and his off the ball movements. It's part of his evolution so I am willing to be patient with him (assuming he renews ). But you notice that he doesn't time his runs well, when Giroud lays it off, or when a midfielder wants to play him through, Leao is either too early or too late or sometimes running in the wrong direction. And when he did get to the ball he was not able to get it under control, stumbling over it or running with it wobbly.

He still plays instinctively, he wants the ball at his feet on the wing where he has space. In that situation he is confident and he hardly ever loses the ball. Playing more centrally is more difficult for him but it is a necessary step in his development as a player. If he can improve in this he will become a real superstar.

 

[Stitches]

Dna

 

[IL Maestro]

The game made me mad, just a few changes and it could have ended a lot better
i started to watch the game again and thought about taking some screen shots to talk about them then i stopped and lost focus
i don't even know if you guys like analyzing pictures from the game or not
what annoys me the most is Giroud and Diaz joining Krunic and Tonali, two halves at defending could replace one of them with one at defending as a third midfielder and then let the other stay up front ready for the pass
but there was a bit of bad luck also, Messias received a ball on his right which is his weak foot just like the first chance he got against Atalanta
this time he was injured before getting another chance and Saelemaekers didn't advance like Messias because there was no point as his finishing is miserable
Giroud put up a lot of fight yesterday, was only effective defensively which would have been better done by Ismael Ben Nasser
Leao put the same fight, occasionally but i saw him trying so hard to dribble and get past more defenders than he should
Tomori played a great game, that is how he is when covered right
Krunic was quite good defensively and Tonali did very well too.

 

[theduck7]

Leao has such immense talent you almost just want him to unload against these teams like you know he can. You really want a one man CL performance to quell any doubts people have

 

[Bird]

If I'm Maldini I'm telling Leao 'you've got till the end of the month to sign a new contract and start performing or your ass is out of here in the summer.'

I'm sick of him no-showing every game.

I was "fine" with him sucking ass in Serie A because I was thinking that he wants to save what little energy he has for CL but he's done fuck all in CL.
He is fucking it up for himself and the club with these performances.

 

[Az.]

Went with some mates to a pub for this one, im still hung over.

We should have won this, we were not spectacular by any means, but we schooled the chicken boys.

Bring the cup home.

 

[brk]

Dna

We are so lucky to have him.

 

[IL Maestro]

Vinicius 46 dribbles then Leao follows him 42
let's say Leao dribbled past Harry Kane who is Tottenham's striker so he is around Milan box, this is considered a successful dribble however it has no benefit to the team
it would be so much better if it was against Romero their CB and then shooting
but if he dribbled against Romero then Davies then found Lenglet in front of him and lost the ball, it doesn't benefit the team as well
now he could dribble then waste an easy chance so lets look at that stats
Vinicius scored 6 goals in 7 games and wasted 9 chances
Leao scored 1 goal in 7 games (before yesterday) and wasted 2 chances
so Vinicius got 17 chances and scroed 6 while Leao got 3 chances and scored 1
Brahim Diaz wasted 2 also and Giroud wasted 4
so why we don't notice Leao's efforts? it is because he rarely finds himself 1 on 1, so we don't feel what he is doing
if he keeps it up but gets a little more help from other players to disturb the opponent's defense, Leao would shine a lot more.

 

[theduck7]

I used to always think Balotelli could've given more and had more talent than he showed, maybe Leao will spend his career the same we I mean we can't say for certain. I think he needs to sign a new del as it's getting out of hand, I think we are the right place for him so not sure what he is doing dragging this out

 

[IL Maestro]

Here are some screen shots from the game

Giroud and Diaz here applying pressure, Giroud is going to kick the ball to Krunic



Krunic gets the ball, Giroud is running towards Milan's goal and Diaz starting to run but too close to Krunic



Krunic can't pass to Leao or Diaz because of the Tottenham player circled is cutting the passing line towards Leao and is too close to Diaz



Krunic trying to pass to Leao but under pressure and it went inside Tottenham's box while Giroud and Diaz are too close to him

 

[IL Maestro]

here is an example of Giroud problem with building the attack

Theo gets the ball, Leao starts running while Giroud is free to get the pass



Theo passes to Giroud who is going to pass to Leao



the pass wasn't good, it went to the Tottenham player and Leao stops running


now this if played right, it would've been a good chance to score because Tottenham were on the attack and there was a lot of space
this is just an example because every player could make a miss pass, however i believe it happens more often than it could if Milan used a different striker who could pass
Giroud against Atalanta succeeded in a couple of those but failed in a lot in other games

 

[leaf]

I used to always think Balotelli could've given more and had more talent than he showed, maybe Leao will spend his career the same we I mean we can't say for certain. I think he needs to sign a new del as it's getting out of hand, I think we are the right place for him so not sure what he is doing dragging this out

I feel you but I feel Leao was more productive when he had less workrate.

My main criticism of him right now is his poor shooting which he has to be practicing more

 

[IL Maestro]

here is Leao trying so hard to get the ball from Tottenham's goal keeper, a lot of effort there which proves he is trying hard despite what is said that he is careless

 

[Wild]

People want Leao to run all game. I guess they want another Salad.

He is a sprinter, he can't chase the ball all game. His job is to be explosive, and for that he needs to keep his energy levels to be ready for those key moments. He chases the ball when it's required or when we press, but he is selective about it. I don't think it's laziness, as some choose to see it.

His shooting is shit tho, he needs to put in the work there. Although he had that one shot lately when he hit the post, so maybe he is improving, but it doesnt happen over night.

Most of his critics dont care about him running all game.
Loosing possession easily & wasting easy chances its where the problem is an issue.
We all know his engine isnt a world class one so if he isnt clinical & 100% concentrated then what is left ?
Usually you allow players to save energy so they can decide a game but as it is Leao is saving energy for what exactly ?!