AC Milan faced Juventus in the first game after the October international break and it was the first in a tough line of fixtures that includes playing PSG twice and Napoli.
Stefano Pioli had eight absentees to deal with, the biggest one probably being the absence of Theo Hernandez due to accumulated yellow cards and thus suspension, as well as Mike Maignan who was sent off against Genoa.
In the middle Rade Krunic wasn’t fit enough to start whilst Ruben Loftus-Cheek didn’t even make the bench. Up front Noah Okafor was also not 100% as he trained very little with the group in the days prior to the game.
Samuel Chukwueze was not available after picking up an injury with the Nigerian team, and Marco Sportiello suffered a calf problem meaning a 40-year-old Antonio Mirante got his first league start in over two years.
Despite all the absences, Milan started the game rather well as they kept position and had a couple of good chances to score. Everything seemed in control Pioli’s side up until the 40th minute when Malick Thiaw picked up a straight red card, leaving his side a man down after a clumsy tackle on Moise Kean.
Juventus did gain some momentum in the second half and started to threaten Milan a bit more, but it was a deflected shot from long distance in the 63rd minute from Manuel Locatelli that ended up being decisive.
Milan ran out of steam in the closing stages and the substitutions made little impact as Pioli’s men fell to their second defeat of the campaign. Here are five things we learned…
1. Signs of immaturity
Malick Thiaw has been a great signing for Milan showing his quality and also his high potential and whilst the German has had some great moments in big games he has also had some growing pains as well.
The situation against Moise Kean was not one that should result in a red card and the 22-year-old had to do much better to begin with when he presses up to challenge the Italian striker, because he can show him outside.
Even when the ball gets past him he should have not committed the foul that was clearly going to earn him a red card. Kean might have gone on to score, but the Rossoneri would have had a higher chance to keep controlling the game with numerical parity.
After struggling a lot in the derby against Inter, this was another tough lesson for the centre-back which certainly played a big hand in the end result, but mistakes are the best way to improve.
2. Dreadful in the middle
The midfield just simply were not at the races, with Yacine Adli and Tijjani Reijnders standing out above all as having a mediocre game. The duo weren’t necessarily bad nor did they make any critical errors, but they didn’t put their stamp on the game as they have.
Adli often found himself dropping between the centre-backs but his influence was limited, and that might well be due to the fact that Juventus sat quite deep before the red card so there was no space for the Algerian to exploit with long balls.
Reijnders also struggled to involve himself either in or out of possession and this might have been his worst performance for the club since the derby when he was also anonymous.
Yunus Musah, on the other hand, was probably the brightest out of the three and really tried to make something happen. His high work rates allowed him to virtually cover the entire right side, especially after Christian Pulisic was taken off.
3. Evergreen Antonio
Antonio Mirante was called into action given Maignan and Sportiello were not available, and the third-choice goalkeeper did really well considering he hadn’t played a Serie A game in two years prior to this.
The goal was not really his fault as it was a nasty deflection off Rade Krunic – who half-heartedly stuck a knee out towards the ball – that sent him the other way.
He did well with his feet and made some huge saves towards the end from Dusan Vlahovic and Andrea Cambiaso to keep his side in the game.
It was really solid performance and it’s refreshing to see that even the third goalkeeper can have such an impact, especially after the struggles in that particular position last season. In a strange paradox, we might hope that’s the last we see of him.
4. A blunted attack
Whilst we can blame the red card for the loss it’s fair to say that prior to that Milan didn’t look their fluid best up front as they struggled to get clear chances and only once really threatened Szczęsny.
Leao didn’t have much space to operate given how deep Juventus sat plus the fact Gatti and Weah double-teamed him, but when he did get the better of them the decision-making left a lot to be desired.
Pulisic was very quiet before being sacrificed and Giroud wasn’t far away from scoring but for Szczęsny’s heroic save, though we must now point out that he has not scored an open play goal since round one back in August.
The midfield are not chipping in with goals either, meaning Milan just didn’t really have anything interesting to offer going forward. The tactics simply can’t be all reliant all Leao and the ball moves in a slow, predictable way.
Often there are one too many touches in the final third to trouble a side, which has really been the case in each of the four games Milan played against more serious opponents – Inter, Juventus, Newcastle and Dortmund.
Two losses, two draws and just one goal scored in these particular games tells its own story. Pioli may have a lot more quality and depth this season, but things aren’t looking rosy in the big games.
5. The culprit
Finally, we must mention Krunic’s performance. The Bosnian came on and was just dreadful, to the extent that there has to be question marks about if he was fit enough to play.
The deflected shot came off him and whist these things happen, in this case, we can put a lot of blame on the player because of his positioning and awkward movement of his body.
Even excluding the deflection Krunic played very poorly, giving away the ball on the edge of his own box in dangerous places, putting his side back under pressure and contributing to the early fatigue.
If he wasn’t fit enough then Pioli is to blame for putting him on the pitch instead of Tommaso Pobega, for example, but either way the mistakes the midfielder committed weren’t really fitness-related.
It will be interesting to see if Krunic starts against PSG. If he does and he plays like that then getting far in the Champions League might turn into a mirage.
