Player Ratings: Lecce 2-2 AC Milan – Musah gifts two goals; Reijnders shines

Isak how can you say the managers decision to play Musah out of position had nothing to do with his performance? If that were the case we could play anyone anywhere and it wouldn’t matter. Musah played incredibly against PSG in midfield and at RB against Lecce he looked like it was his first day on a football pitch. The responsibility for his performance is entirely Pioli’s.

Pioli is coaching himself out of his job. Vs Napoli he cost us the game with his substitutions. Vs Lecce today he cost us the game with his substitutions. He must be one of few coaches in top fotball whos changes makes things worse rather then better.

Why Musah was picked at right back instead of an obviously fit Florenzi is beyond me. Florenzi is limited, but hes experience and its his position. At half time Musah or Adli should had come on, but instead of Pobega and Florenzi instead of Calabria.

FIRE PIOLI.
With the international break coming, this is the perfect time to replace this mediocre coach.
Some people defend this clown like he is Capello or Ancelotti.
They keep using the fluke scudetto to justify keeping him. That’s the only trophy this bum has won in his career, and that will be the only trophy he will ever win.
Get rid of him already.
Missing on top 4 and UCL money will cost Milan a lot more than the 4 million they have to pay Pioli to sit at home.
There is no gift from the courts coming this season to save Milan from finishing out of top 4 as last year.
Fire him and all of his strength and conditioning staff. No team has more injuries than Milan under Pioli

Chuk is slowly but surely going down the CdK path. And I also rate CdK higher, he’s more versatile. Chuk is one trick pony. Useless player. Remember us before Ibra came? We’re back at it.

The previous leadership and experience of Kjaer and Ibrahimovic is greatly missed in games like this and the one against Napoli. Second half is partly the result of mental collapse, which maybe could have been avoided with clear leadership on the field.
Mental fatigue from the PSG-game should not be underestimated.
Musah showing his inexperience, which should be expected. He is still growing.
Chukwueze needing more time to adapt is evident.
The confidence of some players is visibly hurting after weeks of poor results and criticisms which to me was evident during the game.
The players and the coach are hurting badly atm and they need the support of the fans now more than ever.

Another draw against Lecce.

All of that activity this summer and another draw against Lecce.

All that activity over lots and lots of summers we’ve drawn against lots and lots of Lecce’s.

No matter the manager, no matter the players, we always seem to drop points to Lecce’s.

Are we better than Lecce?

Does it require us to sack the manager to beat Lecce?

Does it require lots of new signings – DEPTH – to beat Lecce?

For me the notion that all these radical new signings are somehow next level players is exactly the reason we struggle to beat Lecce.

Because the entire mentality is predicated on the notion that there are these huge gaps in ability between players, that a player like Sansone is somehow vastly inferior to these wonderful new Milan signings.

But the gaps are not that vast. Games come down to inches/moments.

This whole mentality causes a drop in focus in these decisive games. The fanfare of this summer’s transfers leads to arrogance and a lack of focus so when we play teams like Lecce they “surprise” us.

I don’t want to write off Chuka as he’s only been with us for 5 mins but would Saelemaekers have been any worse out there?

We don’t really know Chuka from Adam. He played in another league where according to his YouTube reel he seemed to do some amazing things but there was never any guarantees he could reproduce that in Serie A. How many examples do we need of players struggling to adapt?

There was no need to speculate with Saelemaekers. He was a known quantity, a player who had been part of the Scudetto winning side. But, no, everyone was convinced he was not a “good enough”. And if you don’t think Saelemaekers is “good enough” then you don’t think Sansone is “good enough” even when he’s scored a ton of goals against you.

This is how Galacticos become unstuck.

This all starts at the top. The owners down. Their lack of discipline and focus this summer has a resulted in a lack to discipline and focus from the manager and the players.

Pioli will eventually be sacked (as most managers are). The players will eventually be flipped and bartered for new players. What to do about the owners?

We are all on the fire Pioli train and with good reason. Like I said many times before we have PEAKED with him and will NOT get any better as a team. He is a motivational coach better with younger players. However, that wears off over time especially as the players grow older and what you then need is a coach that understands tactics and can manage a live game. Sadly he has not demonstrated the ability to consistently do that over the course of his career (Milan is his longest coaching stop if I am not maitaken). He often gets outclassed and outcoached by many other tactical coaches regardless of whether they are coaching bigger clubs or smaller ones. Now of course We won’t fire him during the season in the middle of a UCL qualification race – but we definitely should come summer no matter if we end up qualifying for top 4 or not. There is no more growth coming from the players and that is what Pioli is primarily there for – to develop and harness all these younger cheaper players talents.

Now we can all blame Pioli and think that will solve ALL our problems. BUT that would be untrue. It is time to start pointing the finger at MANAGEMENT. Thus far they are getting a pass. The FALSE narrative is that they had the perfect summer transfer window and it’s ALL the coaches fault it’s not working as expected. This is a naive view and fails to allocate blame where it is also due: MANAGEMENT. Chuk looks like a bust. Where are the CDK-type screams from the Furlani lovers over chuk’s signing??? Who is to blame for securing Jovic as our striker over Thuram, Lukaku, Taremi???? Where is our back-up LB?? RB??? Who decided to sign Pelligrino and thought he could contribute this season??? Who’s decision was it to fire Maldini and NOT REPLACE him with another respected and experienced locker room presence straight away – another “shield” to help Pioli deal with the players and management like Maldini had done? Who’s decision was it to foolishly give Pioli all the power and think he was capable of doing it all (tactics, dealing with players, media, management, transfers, formations, etc…) by himself??? And now because they realized that was a huge mistake – they are begging for Ibra’s return? (Mark my words – Ibra’s return will be either BOOM or BUST. He will either help motivate the team and inspire them or it could go the complete opposite way). Who’s fault is all of this??? MANAGEMENT = FURLANI. As smart and as skilled as I’m sure Furlani is – the one thing he doesn’t have is EXPERIENCE playing the game or in the locker room like Maldini did. It’s easier to sign players than it is to understand how these new players fit within the culture of a current team that went all the way to the semi-finals of the UCL. Yes new signings take time to gel and integrate into the team – but these signings many rejoiced over – are not having the impact many thought they would. Now I am happy we finally signed players (albeit at the expense of a major sale in Tonali) – BUT let’s be honest. How much did we really spend AFTER the Tonali $$ was used up? 35M maybe 40M?? And how have those signing contributed to the team thus far?

Some fans were going crazy when we signed Luka Romero lol. They said Furlani was “cooking”. That is all I heard we were “cooking” all summer with all these new signings (10 plus) and all were amazing. Truth be told save for Reinjders – the “Maldini” players – RLC, Pulisic and Sportiello are the ones who have contributed the most and the other “Furlani” signings – Chuk, Jovic, Pelligrino, Romero, deciding to bring Pobega back, have not. Musah has been up and down as expected – but in fairness has been more positive than negative (save for this Lecce game) and Okafor despite two tap in goals has been nothing special. We spent 60M plus on midfielders yet we still have no consistent service to our forwards and still have holes at DM. Whose fault is that??? Nobody seems to mention the weakness of our market as a reason for our poor form. The fact we are STILL relying on a 37 yrs old striker to lead the line and play every 3 games is astonishing and shows the ineptness of this management team. Where are the fire Furlani chants lol from the Maldini haters lol? Now I am in no way saying we were better off with Maldini than Furlani – what’s done is done and we move on. However what I am saying is that the same level of criticism that was hurled at previous management should also be thrown at current management. The same set of standards should apply. Nobody should get a pass – not Maldini nor Furlani.

I am not fan of Pioli. I thank him for what he has done – he along with Maldini – brought us back to relevance. However that is as far as he will take us with this team. If we are serious about going to the next level we need a coach who constantly gets his tactics right and can adjust in game. Period. BUT let’s also not pretend that JUST firing the coach will cure all our troubles. This team has MANY HOLES that were simply NOT addressed by this current management team – and until they are – a coaching change (although warranted) will not solve all our problems.

Otherwise, and as I see it, the mental fragility of this team stems from the players being thought of too highly.

I don’t think they’re as fragile as they are lazy and self satisfied. I don’t know who to blame for that.

Professionals shouldn’t need the coach to keep their heads in the game for more than 30 minutes.

It’s weak personalities that are satisfied with mediocrity. It’s probably not enough of a focus in recruiting.

I’ve watched enough different sport for long enough now to know that the good version of an inconsistent team is not the real team, it’s not ‘us’. Milan is the average of the side that produces the tripe against Udinese and Lecce either side of the PSG game.

‘PSG is us’ is what weak, flaky teams tell themselves to convince themselves to perform once in every 4 games.