CorSport: A ‘crippled team’ – Milan’s two biggest limitations exposed in Lazio defeat

AC Milan’s Coppa Italia defeat to Lazio highlighted the truly irreplaceable member of the starting line-up: Luka Modric.

As Corriere dello Sport report, there are obvious question marks about where Lazio might be had they not been hit with a transfer ban, preventing them from making three or four new signings to raise the level of the team and the squad.

They played a ‘great match’ last night, and were on top for all the game barring the start of the second half. Zaccagni, Guendouzi, Gila and Isaksen were the best, but Romagnoli also did some good things to limit Milan.

Milan’s issues

The paper asks: ‘what is Milan without Modric , nor a central striker worthy of playing such a crucial role?’ They were a ‘crippled team’, forced to attack with two playmakers accustomed to exploiting other spaces, in this case Rafael Leão and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, with Pulisic only playing at the end.

Photo by AC Milan

This combination of ‘limitations, subtractions and suspensions’ resulted in a match that offered no thrills in the first half: just a lot of effort and a lot of running. It improved significantly after the break, as Milan persistently pressed for the lead, but with little effectiveness.

Sarri is starting to make sense of the season, while Allegri has exited one of the three competitions his side are competing in. Neither Elliott nor RedBird Capital seem willing to risk more money in January to try and move closer to a complete squad, which could generate further issues.