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AC Milan were held by Genoa at San Siro on Thursday night in a massively frustrating game, which has left many questioning the team’s Scudetto credentials.
Last night was one of those games. Unfortunately, there are few better ways to describe it than by using one of football’s most used cliches. Milan could have won just as easily as they could have lost; both teams deserved something, and arguably, both deserved more.
Former Rossonero Lorenzo Colombo gave Genoa the lead, but a late header from Rafael Leao meant the Diavolo extended their unbeaten streak to 17 Serie A games. A late penalty from Stanciu could have changed things, but he skied his chance to win the game.
Here are five things we learned.
1. Kryptonite still apparent
The kryptonite for Milan this season has definitely been playing against sides in the bottom half of the table, and against Genoa, it was no different.
Colombo gave his new side the lead at the San Siro, albeit with a very preventable goal, and he shouldn’t have even gotten near the ball. If Matteo Gabbia hadn’t lost his concentration, it would have still been 0-0.
This situation highlighted the lack of a top defender in the squad, once again. Whilst Gabbia has been the most reliable and solid defender, he still has room to grow and is not up there with the best defenders in world football.
Sadly, against the bottom sides, the Rossoneri fall asleep defensively consistently, but they also struggle to score. That was the case again, even though the Rossoneri had over 30 shots throughout the game.
Massimiliano Allegri and his side were lucky to salvage a point, especially considering the huge penalty missed by Genoa in the dying minutes of the game. Hopefully, Niclas Fullkrug can help his new team improve against low blocks, as he did have a positive impact, but it was not enough on this occasion.
2. Centre back should be a priority
We touched on the defence briefly in the previous point, and there’s not a lot more to say except that Milan lack a top player in that area. Fikayo Tomori, Gabbia and Strahinja Pavlovic have had some very solid moments as a unit this season, especially against the big sides, surprisingly enough.
Nevertheless, there are games against, for example, Pisa, Parma, and now Genoa, where the Rossoneri are expected to have very little trouble at the back, but somehow manage to surprise everybody negatively.
Against this side, the Diavolo should not have had a problem keeping a clean sheet. Yet, a lapse in concentration was all that was needed for the hosts to drop another crucial two points in the title race.
Having a world-class defender in the mix would definitely have a huge impact on the pitch, and Milan probably would be a few points clear at the top of the table if they had one from the start of the season.
Given the miraculous job done by Allegri thus far, one would imagine that investing in January would be a no-brainer, but at the moment, there’s nothing concrete, sadly.
3. Leao saves the day but disappoints overall
Rafael Leao was clutch again in this new striker position, as he scored a late equaliser to salvage a point for his side. The goal, however, doesn’t paint the whole picture. Aside from the goal, he was really poor and didn’t really offer anything in attack.
The Portuguese lost the ball on multiple occasions, and his decision-making wasn’t great either. So, in the end, the goal was needed to redeem his performance a bit.
To be fair to him, this position as a striker doesn’t really play to his strengths, not against low-blocks anyway. He is great on the counter, where he has plenty of space to run and use his pace, but the reality is that he is not great in tight spaces and never has been.
As a result, he is not a great choice for these games where there are 10 players sitting deep, closing down the space. It will be interesting to see how Allegri rotates between Leao, Christian Pulisic, Christopher Nkunku and Fullkrug, now that he has more players available.
But the long-awaited duo of Pulisic and Leao was simply not good enough.
4. New year, same Fofana
Youssouf Fofana has been subject to criticism for quite a while now, pretty much since he joined the club. Sadly, he continues to justify the criticism with his dreadful displays.
The elephant in the room is the big chance he had, where he should’ve headed the ball into the back of the net. Instead, he slipped and completely missed the ball. Now, obviously, this can happen, but if these situations happen to the same player over and over again, then maybe the player is at fault.
The brutal reality is that the Frenchman is not good enough to start for the Rossoneri, and one could argue that he is not good enough to be in the squad at all.
Excluding the occasional good run, finished off with a bad shot or a wrong decision, the midfielder contributes little to nothing. Allegri does have other options in the middle, so hopefully Fofana will be on the bench against Fiorentina on the weekend.
5. Technically limited
The difficult truth is that the Diavolo sit 2nd in the league thanks the miraculous work of Allegri, getting the most out of, what essentially is, a technically limited squad.
Against Genoa, the lack of creativity was again highlighted with the attackers struggling to create chances. Yes, Milan did have almost 30 shots, but most of them were very poor and straight at the keeper.
Leao struggled to create anything other than his goal, and whilst Pulisic was a bit more involved, he too was poor on the night.
In the midfield, Luka Modric and Adrien Rabiot are usually good. With the Croatian sitting deeper, the creative tasks are offloaded to the other 2 midfielders, and whilst the Frenchman is a great midfielder he isn’t necessarily the most creative one.
This is not necessarily bad, but that means the third player in that midfield needs to offer something extra and Allegri does not have that type of player at his disposal.
Then, at the back, we already mentioned the lack of a top defender who can elevate the back line. However, that summarises what is actually a very limited squad that has improved a lot compared to last season.
Regardless of that, though, there is still a couple of missing pieces needed to actually compete.
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