Week 13: Milan - Fiorentina November 25 2023 20:45

[SkyEdge]

The 2nd half.. we got so utterly dominated by Fiorentina that we made them look like Man City.. they bypassed our midfield and defence so easily..

[nefremo]

lucky and undeserved win.

Lucky, maybe. Undeserved,  i'm not so sure. We scored and they didn't. There have been many games where we "deserved" to win, but didn't. Such is football I guess. 

But, I will say, there is great cause for concern. 
1) We can't manage games that we are leading. We panic and become frenetic (Pioli's favorite word there)
2) We allow way too many scoring opportunities. The midfield doesn't seem to protect the backline no matter who plays. But it's not all on the midfield. We simply commit mistakes in our own half. 
3) We don't create many opportunities and we are a different team without Leao. I have criticized Leao many times but that's out of frustration. Because he can be SO much more than he is. But regardless, it's very clear how toothless this team is without him. We can't create with passing and movement, and we can't create 1v1 either (without Leao). 
4) even those chances that we create, we don't finish (for the most part). Jist look at the Jovic chance. That ahs to be a goal. I have NO sympathy foe shit like that. A professional player, 1v1 with the GK, with loads of time to pick and choose what to do, and does that? I' glad Pioli took him off for a 15 yr old right after that. Maybe that was the only good thing he did.
5) We lack dangerous movement in the attacking third. We are stagnant and the players "stay in their lane". 
-I mentioned during rhe game...why did Jovic not run in behind Fiorentina's defense even once??? Why is it always checking to the ball and asking for it to his feet? Giroud does the same thing. I understand these guys are not quick enough to eun in behind all the time....but even if they don't get the ball, they will stretch the field and cause Fiorentina to back up and defend facing their own goal. 
-Chukwueze is glued to the right side. 
-Pulisic came inside in the beginning if the game, but then also stayed out wide for long periods of time. 
-The midfielders all seem to move in 1 line. They attack in a line and they defend in a line. When the ball goes forward, they all watch the ball and go vertical. Not a single one of them showed awareness to look at the other two and realize that they need to hold back and create some depth in the spacing. Allow to be a drop option but also be a safety net and prevent a counter. I can't even remember the amount of times Fiorentina ran at our backline with the CMs nowhere to be found. 

I think no matter what happens this season, Pioli is over. He is done. I just hope that they don't let him ruin our season as well....which at this point is really just top 4.

[honsano]

We don’t have a player on the field that can make that pass in the final third. Reijnders does better in the middle third. When we play Pobega, Krunic, Musah, or RLC in advanced rules, these aren’t players to make that pass. It’s for a player like Adli, maybe even Bennacer.

We get dominated as Pioli holds subs until the last absolute minute when everyone is dead tired. Also, we don’t ever make reasonable subs to put teams under pressure so they keep pushing us further back. When Okafor was available or Chuck (when Pulisic was starting) they got little time. Pioli has his favorites and sticks with them.

The mystery of Pioli continuing remains to be seen. His teams begin to collapse sooner and sooner in the season. We look without a plan.