2 hours ago
2
AC Milan were held to a 2-2 draw against Parma on Saturday evening, missing a good opportunity at the top of the standings. As always, we have picked out five takeaways from the disappointing game.
Massimiliano Allegri and his men had a good week of training, following the win against Roma, and were also handed a boost by some injury returns (including Christian Pulisic). In spite of this, the game against Parma ended up being a disappointing one.
A two-goal lead was squandered by the Rossoneri who, instead of asserting themselves at top, showed exactly why people don’t believe in them in the Scudetto race. Below are the five things that we learned from the game.
1. Duo prove costly
There has been a bit of a theme in terms of Milan’s flops in games this season, and this time out, the usual two suspects stepped up in a negative way.
The first is Pervis Estupinan, who could and should have cleared the ball on the first goal. Instead, he decided to go into a duel that he lost in a very comical way. It proved very costly for his side as Parma scored the first goal and got great momentum from it.
The Ecuadorian was recently injured, so some could point to that as an excuse, but we would argue that a brain fart like that has nothing with his fitness. Instead, it’s more to do with poor judgement and the rest of the game was also a disastrous one for the left-back.
Then, the second culprit is Youssouf Fofana, who fell asleep on the second goal as he didn’t follow Delprato’s run. This resulted in Milan collecting just a single point from game in which they were leading 2-0.
2. De Winter struggles continue
The Belgian has been enjoying playing time as of late, given Fikayo Tomori’s knee issues, but sadly there have been some question marks regarding his place as a starter. And if he’s not good enough, then Milan have just three centre-backs to rely on at the back, which is nowhere near enough.
There were some good indications from the Genoa man, don’t get us wrong, but he looked rather insecure with his positioning at the back once again. Perhaps he will improve with time, and with more moulding from Allegri, but that is no guarantee.
Fortunately, Milan are still close to the top and should they continue in this fashion, then the management could act during the January window to strengthen the defence.
3. Modric and Maignan help Milan avoid defeat
Parma didn’t have many chances in the majority of the first half, up until the first goal they scored, but in the second half they were much more dangerous and Mike Maignan stepped up with a couple of crucial saves. In combination with Luka Modric’s work rate, this helped the Rossoneri make sure they at least got a point.
The duo really led their team and managed to help Milan stay in the game, which resulted in opportunities to even win it despite the poor performance. However, the forwards let Milan down with their lack of composure in the final third.
4. Mixed bag from Leao and Saelemaekers
Saelemaekers started the game in amazing fashion, scoring the opener and winning a penalty that was converted by Leao. However, the second half was the exact opposite and fans havce been rather critical of him despite the goal contributions.
The Beglain had the chance to score what probably would have been the winner deep into the second half, but he failed to hit the target despite rounding the goalkeeper. Such a big miss obviously puts a huge stain on his overall performance, despite the strong first half.
Leao, meanwhile, scored the penalty as said and should have had an assist for Pulisic, but the No.11 missed. That said, the feeling is perhaps that he still doesn’t make the most of Milan’s chances, or rather the counter-attacks.
There were a few of them in the second half when it looked like Milan could really create something good. Obviously, the individual errors of others were more costly, but the reality is that Milan should be scoring more goals and Leao plays a part in that too.
5. Questionable choices from Allegri
The manager opted for Estupinan over Davide Bartesaghi, even though the youngster has been solid in recent weeks and, truth be told, has looked even better than the Ecuadorian.
Estupinan then proceeded to be the flop of the game, and one could only wonder if the result would have been different if Allegri had started Bartesaghi instead, given his positive momentum.
Another questionable decision was to leave Fofana on as he, again, was one of the culprits on the second goal and has been playing poorly for months now. Allegri subbed off Ricci instead, even if the former Torino man was also struggling a bit.
Allegri didn’t really have much to work with either, it should be said, so we can’t really blame him for errors such as Estupinan’s on the first goal. However, the feeling is that Bartesaghi deserved to start again.
English (US) ·