Milan’s Scudetto challenge risks falling apart because of two big problems, the inability to score goals and dropping points against minnows.
The Rossoneri have seen their lead at the top of the table cut to just one point from Napoli, while Inter are four points behind with a game in hand.
They were held to a 0-0 draw by Bologna at San Siro this evening, despite having 33 attempts on goal.
That is a record for the Diavolo in Serie A matches since Opta began gathering these statistics in 2004-05.
It’s part of a wider trend too, as in the last two games against Cagliari and Bologna, they scored only one goal from 54 total attempts.
There is also another big concern for Stefano Pioli, specifically their inability to beat the smaller sides who put 10 men behind the ball.
When it comes to facing teams in the bottom half of the table, Milan have dropped 14 points this season.
The giants were held twice by Udinese, lost to Spezia, drew away to Salernitana and now with Bologna.
In comparison, the San Siro giants did better than anyone else in the head-to-head clashes, taking four points off Inter, three from Napoli – with their only defeat – held Juventus twice, beat Roma home and away, with victories over Atalanta and Lazio.
33 – AC Milan have fired 33 shots tonight against Bologna, their most without finding the net in a single Serie A game since Opta started to collect this kind of data (since 2004/05). Fog.#MilanBologna pic.twitter.com/UXrUfOaKn8
— OptaPaolo 🏆 (@OptaPaolo) April 4, 2022
And 2 Italians starting from 22 places is a problem for the national side too.
Big problem 2 italiana of 22 in the pitch
Milan needs new life in attack. Dybala for free; Berardi at RW, Belotti for free, and Scamacca. Plus they will bring in italians this way.
I’d support a national team coach who completely ignored Italian players playing abroad… Verrati, Donnarumma that Brazilian dude who can’t take penalties, what was his name again?
If we want to revive Italian football then this is one way to aid that development. Let the players choose money, let them listen to their agents, but if you leave the league, you leave the Nazionale.
Too many foreigners, you say? Nah, that isn’t it.
Milan must must change formation, play 4-4-2 in a diamond formation, with a trequarista and play with 1 CM, play with 2 strikers in front 1 with speed or great dribbel, and 1 striker for possesion on the ball. Milan must also play with more pressure in the box of the opponent. milan plays to defensive. Pioli is not the right coach for Milan, because he doesn’t understand attacking pressure football, also the game play of Milan is to slow, they can not play one touch football.
kessie and benaccer wouldve been better against bologna tonight.
Zlatan shouldve come on and play with giroud.
The sad truth is that milan has a lot of crap players …… messias, rebic, diaz, salemakers, krunic, ibrahimovic, giroud ……. some are simply serie c stuff, others should be pensioned off.
and what about leao? ….. the least said about this guy, the better ….. he look like a sick, disjointed puppet on a string …… his head lolling here and there, his elbows swinging stupidly, his body slithering all over the place, his looks simply wild and his movements gawky ….. just sell him off and get rid of him ….. he never delivers in big matches …..
Vinnie you sound very bitter. It’s called career progression. Jorginho has scored many pens including the one that got italy to the final of the euros. Moving overseas is how you develop your game. Italys problem is they have no great players coming through. Wheres the baggios pirlos tottis. Italy have no super stars
Correct they rather play firigners than italians not 1 italuan was in bologna starting 11 its terrible getting
Problem #1 – awful attack
Problem #2 – awful new jerseys…
@ michele santorini
Lol.. calling giroud and ibra crap
And then jumpin on leao…bro who are you? Lol
For Milan to be great again
Maignan
Calabria Tomori Botman Theo
Bennacer Tonali
Florenzi Dybala Leao
Belotti
Sadiq in what reality do you play Florenzi at RW by choice? RW needs to be a priority investment, it’s been a gap in quality for years.
This is what I’ve been saying, we ruin what would be a great season by being poor against smaller teams. Poor last night and poor but lucky in the 2 games before that. There’s scraping wins like champions and then there’s hoofing the ball into the box for 20 mins because you have no other ideas.
Also, the new shirt makes it looks like they have their shorts pulled up to their chest.
It’s no coincidence that they didn’t score after the introduction of possibly the worst shirt in Serie A history.
The past 10 games or so have convinced me that Milan need a AMC, RW and ST, more than they need Botman and Sanches. We’ve barely won a string of games 1-0 and finally were not able to pop up with a goal against Bologna. The flip side of the 1-0 games has been the 0. Our defense is playing great and Kalulu has been right in the middle of it all. Either with Tomori or Romagnoli. Milan should just renew Romagnoli, and continue with Kalulu, Tomori, Kjaer and him as the CB group at least for another season. Botman seems really good but our needs should be focused on the attack. Even Sanches is a diversion of funds, as we’ll be getting Pobega and Adli in. I figure the club has ~60m “clean” to spend plus whatever else from sales (I read somewhere this is projected to be around 20m), so maybe around 80m. I say Scamacca (40m), Bernardeschi (free. Yes, I know, but we’re on a budget), and De Kaetelaere (40m); OR Scamacca (40m), Berardi (30m), Isco (free) and then maybe 10m on a good backup for Theo.