Week 29: Milan - Sampdoria April 3 12:30

[honsano]

My issue is that Theo is that he acts like one of our main offensive sources. He attacks when he wants and leaves gaps. The fact that we have to choose the LW based on who covers him best is no good at this point in the season. He needs to pick and choose his forays forward as now he is dispossessed a lot and leads to counters. The goal was just a terrible mistake. However his play hampers our attack.

I’ve only watched Hauge with Milan. When he plays here he is largely isolated on the wing. He has slow feet and he can’t reliably beat a defender like Leao can. However, he plays better in the middle with quick passes and obviously has a great shot. He needs to play more tucked in in my opinion.

I didn’t think I’d say this, but if Pioli misses out on CL I can’t see him as manager next year. The players seem to love him and consistency with a manger is important. I just would have a hard time believing missing out on CL after this start could be acceptable.

Btw Donna, a couple of good saves but again shows he is not the complete superstar he is asking to be paid like.

[honsano]

Btw, anyone else get the sneaking suspicion that the fourth CL spot will come down to our final game against Atalanta?

[devoted_dm]

Btw, anyone else get the sneaking suspicion that the fourth CL spot will come down to our final game against Atalanta?

I really hope not. They are definitely a bogey team for us. It looks like it's going to be tight, but I think we'll make it. There are so many direct matches left to play between the contenders for the CL places though, these matches will probably be decisive. In no particular order:

Lazio - Milan
Juventus - Milan
Atalanta - Milan
Juventus - Napoli
Atalanta - Juventus
Juventus - Inter
Roma - Atalanta
Napoli - Inter
Napoli - Lazio
Roma - Lazio
Inter - Roma

The rest of our big games are all away. That might seem bad, but we're actually better away this year, so I'm ok with it. It's for sure going to be a nail-biter though. Statistically it's also unlikely we won't make it. We would be the first team in history to not make the CL after having accumulated as many points as we had at the half-way stage of the season.

[devoted_dm]

It's interesting to look at fivethirtyeight.com's predictions as well. They currently have us in third place at the end of the season, behind Atalanta, but ahead of Juve, with a 73% chance of qualifying for the CL: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soc...s/serie-a/

[Ryo]

We are fighting for that CL spot, no two ways about it.
Scudetto dream should be shelved until next year unless Inter suffer a mad collapse.
The team and Pioli need to be looking at one game at a time now, specially given we're already out of all other competitions.
Focus on taking maximum points off ALL your opponents.
And yes I agree Hauge's body probably was changing up in the middle of this year to add to the fact that he arrived having played most of a Norwegian season. I still see the talent in him. We'd be dumb to give up on him for a period where EVERYONE underperformed.

The only thing that pleases me this week is that we still can't be caught in 2nd place, even if Juv win their game in hand against Napoli.

[Rossonero21]

Scudetto chances have gone after the three home defeats against Atalanta, Juventus and Inter. Our aim has been and still is a CL spot. The team is not mature enough and have no enough depth and quality to get the championship. 

Yesterday we saw again our team to underestimate an inferior team and to kick away 80 minutes of the game. We fought only for 15 minutes and had the chance to get 3 points. We saw also that players such as Castillejo and Krunic have neither the quality nor the mentality to play for a team like ours..
And this Donnarumma and Calhanoglu saga has impact on their performance..that’s my opinion seeing them playing against inferior opponents.
 Another matter is Theo and his awful defensive play..since January is very weak in his defensive play and is allowing everything on his side. Either we have to play him on the left wing or he has to be careful as a LWB..

There is something positive after this disaster: Hauge..this guy has an enormous versatility and is very talented. It has been a mistake to leave him out of EL list..this matter affected him.. he has to be trusted because he has  potential to be WC..and of course much better than „Castillejos“..
Let’s fight for our CL spot! Forza Milan!

[devoted_dm]

There is something positive after this disaster: Hauge..this guy has an enormous versatility and is very talented. It has been a mistake to leave him out of EL list..this matter affected him.. he has to be trusted because he has  potential to be WC..and of course much better than „Castillejos“..
Let’s fight for our CL spot! Forza Milan!

And there is another positive here as well that we shouldn't forget: We didn't lose. Two years ago we would for sure have lost this game, but once again this season we somehow pulled something out of the bag right at the end, this time securing us a point. It's like Hauge said yesterday, "we wanted to win, but one point is better than zero".
Obviously one point in this match still isn't good enough though, but not losing when you're behind with 5 minutes to go is still always positive.

[Rossonero21]

And there is another positive here as well that we shouldn't forget: We didn't lose. Two years ago we would for sure have lost this game, but once again this season we somehow pulled something out of the bag right at the end, this time securing us a point. It's like Hauge said yesterday, "we wanted to win, but one point is better than zero".
Obviously one point in this match still isn't good enough though, but not losing when you're behind with 5 minutes to go is still always positive.

I agree with you. And therefore we were a team destined for places 6-8. But if we want to compete for scudetto these games must bring us a „+3“...this season is a very good one, if we get a CL spot and in order to see which players can create the main core for another great AC Milan generation. And in these players has to be invested...