Davy & Chin Talk A.C Milan Weekly
Davy & Chin Talk A.C Milan Weekly
Chin Thinks The Season Is Over For AC Milan, Davy Still Believes In Pioli's Milan To Win Europa
With six games left in the league and Ac Milan in the quarterfinals of the Europa league,
Davy & Chin take you into the heart of the Rossoneri's camp, dissecting the pivotal moments and strategic decisions that shaped their season. From the bold firing of Maldini, we lay bare the internal tremors and their effects on star performers like Mike Mignan and Rafael Leão, Theo Hernandez. This episode is a treasure trove offering a rare glimpse into the complexities of rebuilding a legendary team Ac Milan this season.
Ever wondered about the delicate alchemy of integrating fresh talent with seasoned professionals? Join us as we explore the intricate dance of team dynamics, scrutinizing the integration of players such as Pulisic and the challenges they face in adapting to a new soccer culture. We unravel the conundrums facing coach Stefano Pioli, debating his tactical decisions and the team's struggles in unlocking robust defenses like that of Roma. This candid conversation peels back the layers of Milan's tactical playbook, offering predictions and suggestions that could very well dictate their destiny in the upcoming Europa League showdown.
The Rossoneri Renaissance is complete After 11 years. Once again, milan are the champions of Italy. It's they who wear the crown for the 2021-22 season. Hello everyone, this is Davion Chin. Talk Milan. We are back again. Wow, chin, what's up, man? How you been, man, it's been a couple of weeks, eh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been a while. How are you, dave? How are you on the new addition to your family?
Speaker 1:Oh no, you know we're doing it, we're having good fun, you're having good fun. Fioli's making me happy, so that's a good thing, you know.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's good, I'm happy for you Again. Once again, congratulations to you and your family. Thank you, man, and I'm glad that Pioli is making you very happy. It doesn't take a lot for you to be happy. Oh man, you can't stop being you, eh yeah.
Speaker 1:You're so easily excitable. That's good. Anyways, how's everything going? It's been a long, long time how happy I am regarding how Milan has been playing. I think, to be honest, with the way this season has been for a lot of teams in Europe in general, I think I'll really accept this because, again, this season is a total rebuild for Milan and with the way these guys are playing right now, I feel like if we get them to next season, which is the usual average time that we usually use to develop players, I think these guys are going to be at top level.
Speaker 1:And I'm talking about even players like when I see players like Moussa, for example, I mean how talented he is and what he needs to do to improve his game and be at that level that when I'm looking at him I've been thinking of Kessie and all those things right. I kind of feel like he's gonna like you know players, like they're gonna arrive next season. Same thing, you know, um, yeah, so I'm happy with where the team is. Obviously, challenges at top level is what really worships the team, right, and I kind of feel like games like roma at this stage of the season. You know, you know boogie games like um saswolo, for example. These are the games that again are challenges, that will test the mentality and, you know, the ability of these players at the top level so if we had this podcast like a week ago, right, or maybe eight days ago, you would have been so happy, because Milan I'm so happy.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, milan went on like this, some beating run and won a lot of games, right, but Milan went on this beating run and won a lot of games, right? But then you know, now we're in this situation where they lost to Roma and then they drew at Sao Paulo. Now they're going to play Roma in the next Europa League Cup. At the end of the day. To be honest with you yeah, I agree with you on something the players will be a little better next year. The only part that I don't agree is I don't know where they go from here in terms of what that looks like. Right, because I wanted to ask you what your expectation would be for this team, because you mentioned in the beginning, result is all that matters. It's not game result, it's result at the end of the season, right? So you go through the whole year. You come out maybe without Obviously, we have objectives right.
Speaker 1:For example, our objective is to qualify for the Champions League this season. Was that your objective? Yeah, that was the objective, yeah. And to reach the Champions League knockout stages, which we didn't. But at least we are still in the run for the Europa League win, because anything can happen. I still feel like this team has.
Speaker 2:So Milan in Italy? Yeah, we go into the season and our primary objective is, rather than winning the league, is to go and qualify for Champions League. Okay, Well, if you say so, Because I remember vividly well when Pioli, they were asking him about changing the objective of the season to just qualify for Champions League and his response is well, it's too early. That was a few months back, right. How could you be changing the objective for the season to be about qualifying for Champions League? Now, remember the time he said that, the one month period where Milan had a bad month, or two months, right, and he said that's the reason why Inter Milan is ahead of Milan by now. That was the period he said that, Like, oh, it's a little bit sad that we're changing the objective to Champions League. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:The point I was trying to get across here is that that was never the objective coming into the season. You and I know vividly well that, given the squad we have and I know you always say how, oh well, we're going to take time to integrate that's true, but there's a but. There Again, most of the core of this Milan team in terms of players, we have Mike Mian Tomori. You have what's his name Rafael Leal Teo Hernandez. Those guys were here before, right? So that's about five players, core players.
Speaker 2:Forget the fact that Kalulu got injured at some point. He was supposed to be one of those players. This guy, Amalik Teo, has been at Milan now for two years, so most of the the only new guys are maybe. You revamped your midfield and then you kind of added oh, Giroud, I didn't add Giroud to the list as well, so these guys were there. Ajuru to the list as well, so these guys were there. So you added a few guys on midfield. You redid your right wing, which typically, if you think about it from a starting XI perspective, you basically only change If you think of Milan's best starting XI today. You only literally added Pulisic and two midfielders right, which is three players potentially, Pulisic and two midfielders yeah, Tijani Reinders and Ruben Loftus-Chick.
Speaker 1:That's kind of.
Speaker 2:Well, no, no, sorry. What I mean is, if you take the best starting XI, like starting XI of Milan, right Today, you wouldn't start Moussa, would you? What's your point exactly? My point here is very simple. This is technically almost the same team from last year, with a few upgrades. We added 10 players we got rid of. Let me learn. Now we added 10 players. The core of Milan right, it's the same core. It's like looking at Liverpool, for instance, and then saying, well, liverpool rebute, liverpool didn't really rebute, they rebute their midfield. Right, they did. That's just like Milan did. But if you look it, if you have Mike Mian, you have Tomori, theo Hernandez, you have Thiel and Calabria, you still have Rafael Leal and Giroud. And who else was there? Benacer is still there, even though he was injured. So, technically speaking, the only thing that you actually added is just three core starters to the team. The rest are like squad players, which is usually what you, most teams, try to rotate. So what I'm getting across is simple.
Speaker 2:Your argument that the team is going to take a significant step next year is a little flawed, because, in my opinion, the guys that came in most of them are outperforming the guys that have been there for years, right? So typically you're talking about oh wow, the team has to what's it called blending and this and that. But look at Pulisic. He's probably Milan's best player this year. We would love to streak. With his goals, he's been showing that he can contribute to the team. Um, who else is the new guy Reinders? He hasn't scored as many goals, but I think he's also one of our better players this year.
Speaker 2:The long and short of the story is that your new guys were never your problem. Your problem is the cohesiveness, obviously, because it's a it's a few new players, but also the fact that your previous, your older guys or your more mature guys, have technically been very inconsistent this year. So well, if you're expecting a different result next year because, according to you, these guys will be better, I will guarantee you that it's not going to be the case. So that's just all I'm going to get across, because your problem has never been the fact that you added a lot of new guys. Your problem still remains and you yourself, you don't want to admit the problem. So if you don't want to admit the problem, we'll leave it, because, basically, you know, let me, just let me, let me chip in here.
Speaker 1:I've given you the floor to exactly express yourself and first of all, I want you to understand something there when the team is rebuilding, the team is rebuilding beyond the first 11 that you just mentioned. You center the entire command based on the first 11. You don't build the first 11 just to go and you know, challenge for titles in the top leagues, both in the Champions League and all this level. That doesn't work like that. First of all, when you want to go through a rebuild, let's even just track back a little bit to the end of last season and what happened after the season ended. Nobody was expecting it. You and I weren't even expecting it.
Speaker 1:We did a podcast to specifically talk about this issue of why Maldini got fired and what happened and what's going to happen to all this thing. We're even speculating about all these big players like Mike Mignan, rafael Liao, all these guys jumping ship because Maldini's already been, you know, being been axed out of Milan. So we talked about this whole thing. This thing is this, this detail that I'm giving out to you. They have huge, huge effect on how the season shapes itself, because these guys that's number one.
Speaker 1:Number two well, sorry, when Kada came and Fulani came, they have a different perspective, a different idea of how they want Milan team to play and how they want Milan team to be, how they want to manage their players and stuff like that, and you see what they did. All the old players that have been there that Pioli really rely heavily on I would name some Jonah Macias, all the Salamacas, all these guys, all this crew in the channel, you know all these names I'm mentioning these guys are what Pioli has heavily relied on, either in the way of backup or in the first 11. So for Milan to bring in 11 new players.
Speaker 2:Let me finish. I gave you the 11th.
Speaker 1:Milan brought in 11 new players into the team. The level of players they brought into the team is not just to fit into the first level. This is you building an entire squad, just the way Inter Milan is building their squad and all other teams are building their squad. So if you want to make criticism, you need to factor the fact that is being reshaped. This is the midfield that we had before. This is not the new midfield and we play differently now. We used to play 4-2-1-3. Let me finish we used to play 4-2-1-3. Now we only play 4-2-3 and we did different shape and different way of playing, which involved Loftus-Cheek, pulisic and all these guys Brand differently, and we know what happened to Milan in the beginning of the season with the whole injury issue and everything like that. So you cannot just say okay, because there's only a few guys being changing the first team. That should be enough to make any difference in our season.
Speaker 2:Okay. So this is why I'll say what I want to say, and you understand Maldini left, or got fired, for two reasons. Well, one of the reasons is because he wanted to get rid of what's his name, your boy, and also that wasn't the case. One of I didn't say it's the main reason, plus new management here. Management didn't agree and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then they got rid of a lot of players he said, purely relied on. So, indirectly, what you're telling me is that the Junior Messias of this world, the Salamacas of this world, were better off remaining at Milan, right?
Speaker 1:No, they weren't. They weren't.
Speaker 2:I never said they were better at Milan.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying that if you bring in 11 new players into a team. These guys came from a completely different league. They needed time to adapt into the system.
Speaker 2:They didn't need that much time because Pulisic started scoring goals from game one and he has never stopped.
Speaker 1:Not everyone is going to be Pulisic, Sorry. Who's the next to adapt? Not everyone is going to be Jani Reinders. Not everyone is going to be Ruben Loftus-Cheek. These guys have different ways of adapting. Guess what, Sorry. Who did you get? You and I were talking about Chukwuzi a few weeks ago, of how floppy he was right. No, no, no.
Speaker 2:Look at what happened now, dave, before you get.
Speaker 1:Chukwuzi is one of the he's one of Milan's most informed players at the moment.
Speaker 2:Okay, before you get into the other guys that hardly play. We're talking about Milan's squad, right? Usually most teams rely on the first, like the 15 guys. Usually the rest are like oh my God, something happened, and I give you this. Like the team had a lot of injuries, and the injuries we can also. I remember I used to tell you that part of it is lack of rotation of the players. That's how they got injured.
Speaker 2:But if we go step by step right, everybody that came into Milan this year, almost every single one of them, with the exception of Chukweze up until the last couple of weeks, to be honest with you have outperformed the previous people that were there, yes or no. So those people have outperformed, have they not? Yeah, like, yeah. So Pulisic, ruben Lozic, Reinders, even Jovic, even Okafor, like all Ruben Lovic, even Jovic, even Okafor, like all those people who never were there before, they are not even. It's not a competition and it's not like they just started out performing last week or last month. They've been that way, most of them, since the beginning of the season. The point I'm trying to make is Milan are better than this one.
Speaker 2:No, no, I disagree with you on that one, If majority of them were Okay.
Speaker 1:so the only people- that we're talking about Okafor being a flop. We're talking about Chukwuzi being a flop. At the beginning of the season, Jovic was rubbish. Yes, but there's Before he adapted.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm saying now, the core people that are always playing are the ones that have been showing up right. The rest the people you're calling are like bench players Even.
Speaker 1:Ruben Loftus-Chick at some point. Ruben Loftus-Chick, at some point also struggled. These are the things that happened. I've been telling you guys. I said these guys need time to adapt to the system. Look at the way Milan is playing now.
Speaker 2:Let me just tell you what I told you earlier. This is what I'll tell you. Milan upgraded the team. Milan needed time to adapt. Milan has adapted. Okay, now we're towards the end of the season. We're probably going to end up the season with no trophies. Well, guess what? Next year we have the same conversation, because already Giroud is leaving, some people are going to leave the team. You still make the same excuses that they brought in five new guys. As a result, the team has to adapt again. So, anyway, I don't know what to tell you, other than the fact that you don't want to address the elephant in the room. The team is a good team. This Milan's team should not be 16 points behind Inter Milan Never.
Speaker 1:What are you saying, man? We're talking about a team that's been rebuilt in summer Last summer.
Speaker 2:The team is not being rebuilt. Milan got upgraded.
Speaker 1:Those are different things. What upgrades are we talking about? How many goals did Chukwueze score last season in Villarreal? Why are you talking about?
Speaker 2:Chukwueze when Chukwueze only barely played like 10 minutes a game.
Speaker 1:Where did Okavo come from? Okay, good.
Speaker 2:Sorry. Okavo is literally Sorry. How many minutes have Okavo played for Milan this year? You questions, because the reality is that you have to go like for like. I'm telling you the starting 11 and the people you replaced Pulisic has performed Junior Messias, reinders and what's his name? Reinders and Lubrin Loftus-Chick have taken over Nally. And who was there before?
Speaker 1:So let me ask you a question now, pulisic, that you kept referencing about how was Pulisic last season at Chelsea compared to this season at Milan? How was Pulisic last season at Chelsea compared to this season at Milan? So what does that have to do with anything? Who improved him, who made him better this season? Pioli did, anyways, let's just quickly talk about Pioli improved him.
Speaker 2:Just like he has improved Chukwueze, but he didn't improve Chukwueze one month ago. Just like he has improved Calabria, but he did not improve Calabria before.
Speaker 1:That is the job of a coach. When a coach improves a player and the team plays better and the team keeps winning, yeah, so just the same way he has improved Malik, give him the equity he deserves.
Speaker 2:He improved Malik Teo, and then Malik Teo is no longer improved, he's now unimproved. He also improved bro, like. Come on, gabia went and came back. Pioli has improved Gabi After literally the guy came the same week he came, he started playing for Milan, but he hasn't been improved. Who else has been improved? Who do I, guy, like you have to realize something Ruben Loftus-Chick season. Oh yeah, he has been Sorry. Ruben Loftus-Chick has been improved.
Speaker 1:How is it? Yes, yes, I just want to ask you. I'm just asking you a question, ruben Loftus-Chick. See this season and the last two, three seasons. When you compare, how do they look?
Speaker 2:You do realise that you're talking about players that used to play in England and played in a very chaotic Chelsea team where they hardly ever played both of them, and then now they are Milan getting an opportunity to play Koopama.
Speaker 1:Fortes, Cole Palmer. Fortichino has improved Cole Palmer. Why do you think? Why do you think? Why do you think Loftus-Chick wasn't playing at Chelsea?
Speaker 2:Oh no because he didn't need improving. That's why, when he came to Milan, he came to Milan and he's not like a starter and playing like every single minute. That is how he got improved.
Speaker 1:So let's just quickly talk about Milan's. You know, last Europa League game against Roma.
Speaker 2:Well, that is improvement, you improved against Roma.
Speaker 1:Oh man, to be honest, though, like my problem is when they seeded Milan, you know, with Roma right, I had this sort of feeling that my biggest problem right is. I kind of feel like we kind of like struggle against Italian teams when we meet them in Europe. You know, the last maybe like few years, it's not been.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean oh yeah, so the last 3, 4, 5 years, maybe 4 years?
Speaker 1:3, 4 years, yeah, but anyways, I mean, yeah, we did Napoli good, for sure, that's a good yeah but do you remember how we beat Napoli?
Speaker 2:Milan packed like Milan, packed the bus Like Milan play the style of football that they usually don't play under purely, and that's exactly how you win those kind of games. The problem with Milan and Roma is that when I was watching that game last week, milan play the Milan style of football, which is just play right. Meanwhile, roma were very tactical in ensuring the cutoff passes to Rafael Leal. No adjustments were made to account for the fact that your best player, allegedly, is not involved in the game.
Speaker 1:They tried to use Pulisic too, and Pulisic, too, wasn't playing well.
Speaker 2:There you go. And then the coach left all of them on the field and then his excuse is that they are very experienced players. I trust them so much. I've seen the world's best coach, pep Guardiola, decide to bring out Kevin De Bruyne, who's one of the best players in the world, because, basically, the game is not going the way he expects. I've seen him take out Phil Foden in a very tight game because it's not going the way. I've seen him take out Jack Grealish, who maybe did marvellous the game before Like. My point is, your job as a coach is to adjust. It doesn't matter if the player has cured cancer in the past before. If you feel like it's not working out for him, you're not going to put him in position for it to work out. The only players that I think you should never bring out of a football field, in my own opinion, is Lionel Messi and probably even Ronaldo. But Lionel Messi for sure.
Speaker 1:But Lion, nmsi for sure. But regardless, regardless of how you see, there are some games too that some players at Manchester City will be very bad and Pep will still keep him on.
Speaker 2:It's not bad. It's not about bad. Like against Manchester, against Liverpool, kevin De Bruyne wasn't just bad, he was just maybe attempting passes and losing possession and Pep wanted possession. So he bring in coverage because he wanted to keep the ball Right. So my point I'm trying to get across is your job as a coach is to watch the game, instruct your players accordingly If you want to improve them so that they can take up positions. You know, sometimes you ask the guy to drop in the middle or go switch ring or drop deeper, whatever, just so that he can get the touch on the ball. Put him in position to be active. What the touch on the ball put him in position to be active. What's his name? De Rossi? Yeah, very young coach. It looked like he literally outclassed Milan's coach and I wouldn't be surprised that they're going to go play again this week and it might be the same result because the reality is that I don't think so.
Speaker 1:Chin, hold on. You're talking as if maybe Milan didn't have chances.
Speaker 2:I've told you before that you know, you always you, you always talk about milan's chances. There are chances, we had our chances, yeah look at the big one that jesus cornered yeah, yeah, let me explain.
Speaker 2:I think before you've asked me this question and I've explained it to you before, you said something like. Your question was more like why is it that milan players are missing so many chances? Oh, my god, like something like that, right, and I told you that there's a difference between okay, it's like do you remember the goal Jovic scored this past weekend? Even the goal Okafor scored this past weekend? Right, what's unique about those goals? Those goals were, like you know, goals that maybe, technically speaking, shouldn't in a way have happened. So, like Jovic was there, rafalea crossed the ball, the goalkeeper didn't push the ball right, right, and he ended up in his leg. Imagine if his body positioning wasn't right and he missed. Like Giroud actually had one of those chances again in that game. Yeah, yeah, good.
Speaker 2:So those chances that are not, you're not like preempting them. Does that make any sense? Like it's almost like you're reacting to them? So it just basically depends on your ability to react better and finish, rather than literally you're running through I'm just using that as an example running through on goal with the goalkeeper and then it's one-on-one, and then you do whatever right? Yeah, what I'm getting across is you're blaming people Like, even the goal you're talking about it's like rebounds and blah, blah, blah blah. And then someone just like you know no, but two quizzes pass to.
Speaker 1:Giroud wasn't a rebound, that was a sit-up. Again, he blew it like come on man.
Speaker 2:He was leaning back, he tried and he missed it. The point is to make it. Let me just ask you a question when you have those chances, don't blame the players Go ahead.
Speaker 1:So you're talking about, you know, purely leaving players like Giroud and all those big boys of Milan on when they're not playing well and stuff, and I understand your perspective. To be honest, Obviously, yes, In some instances you should be willing to. If you have that, you should be able to make those changes when it's necessary. But the thing is, for a situation like this, where you have obviously your best striker not playing well at this stage of the season, that you really need him to, you know, be at his top level Because, again, the moment Pioliki put in a lot of pressure on Rafael Leal to build him out of this situation. Okay, so let me I want to ask you a question.
Speaker 2:No, before you ask me, let me just conclude, sorry. Someone had a tweet that I wanted to share with you. I don't know if I ever sent it. I just read the tweet so that you understand something and then you can ask me a question. So this is a Milan fan. Someone forwarded it to me, so this is it. I'll just read it quickly, don't be offended.
Speaker 2:So, puyolist teams this is not Mio, remember. Puyolist teams don't know how to sustain pressure with intensity when they have the lion's share of the ball. This is after the Roma game, right. That is why we have lost or failed to win against most of the good teams we have played this season. Just tepid, sterile possession. And Isiala, by the grace of God, his major route to goal is to score from counter-attacks, which is largely determined by individual brilliance. So on a day when a good defensive team sits deep and our speed merchants have no space to run into, they see the kind of attacking performance we display tonight against Roma, right. A good time to also point out that we lack creativity attacking midfield, which is Ruben Loftus-Chicks carrying walks in transition and counterattacks. But what about when we really need to unlock deep blocks? Where will the key passes come from. So that's a good summary of Milan, like in general. But go ahead, that's what.
Speaker 1:I wanted to say. What you just read to me right now is just a number of critics of team playing high press game, To be honest. So all the things you said right now, I've seen teams like Manchester City struggle with teams like Spurs last season. Just sit back and wait and counter them, and this same team the same way that Pep was considering those spaces to counter attack.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but then the same Pep somehow ends up winning tribos and league titles after year, after year, after year. I guess, you cannot.
Speaker 1:but at the end of the day, you cannot be comparing the kind of resources that Pep has to what Puyol has Chin when you just but the expectations are a little different.
Speaker 2:But go ahead.
Speaker 1:Sorry, ask me your question. The question I'm asking right now is in question. The question I'm asking right now is, in a situation like this, with the way the milan team is right and knowing how, you know, jude is struggling with form right now and again, if the pressure keep going on rafa leo, at this stage of the season right, I know the kind of person he is in terms of his attitude right, he might just again switch and just fold again. You know what I mean. And like purely rested jude for almost like what, 60-70 minutes in Sassuolo's game, right, and he came on, had his big chance and he messed it up again. What do you think? Do you think Pioli should still start him against Roma? Or Pioli should just look at, maybe, jovic? What do you think?
Speaker 2:I'll tell you what Pioli will do. On Thursday at 1pm my time, milan will start the Europa League second quarterfinal or second round, whatever time, with Giroud as their starter. Like I'm telling you a guy that last week he literally told you that he did not change anything because his guys are very experienced, and blah, blah, blah. And then that's a guy that you want to look at Giroud and say, yeah, he's, or form Benchim. Come on man. Like what do you want to bet? You want to bet your mortgage, because I really need that.
Speaker 1:Like I can guarantee you that, but Chin going to Roma, right, let's be sincere. Going to Roma. If you were to start, like you know, your front three, who would you pick?
Speaker 2:If I'm purely Giroud Pulisic, what would happen? You're asking me who would you pick? Why does it matter? So it doesn't matter who I pick, and I'll tell you why. Because, at the end, of the day.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, who would you recommend? Who?
Speaker 2:would you recommend? No, what? Okay, if Firmwa is going to do exactly what he did last time, right, I'll try something different and I'll tell you why. What would you try different? Okay, so what I would try different is I would probably try what's his name now, pulisic, just in attacking midfielder, and then put in Chukweze and play right for layout, maybe Giroud, it doesn't matter if he starts Giroud, just to occupy people, right? But again, like I think the problem Milan has and has always had is the fact that we don't play a very. The form of football we play does not work against teams like what's it called? Roma. So watch in two weeks.
Speaker 1:What do you mean? Doesn't work against a team like Roma. Who puts Roma like how many times?
Speaker 2:No, no, but that was the Reno-Roma. This is not the Roma. After this Roma, this Roma is informed Roma. This Roma is Roma that have sense, not the one that wants to fight ref all the time. A Roma, so wait until Milan. Wait until Milan play in Tamilan, right?
Speaker 1:The thing is, you see, what you just said right now, right To me, honestly speaking, you're seeing the potential in terms of the attacking you know, attacking threat, that this sort of thrill of Pulisic playing behind Giroud and Rafael Leal and Chukwuzi right, but the thing is you're playing against midfielders like Paradise. These guys are very physical, they will bully you. Pulisic doesn't have that physicality to be able to party these guys in midfield. And if you look at our other two midfielders, obviously he's going to be playing Tijan Rendes with Amishman Benassi right. Again, I feel like that's physically. That may feel very weak for me. I wouldn't start it against Roma in Rome, to be honest.
Speaker 2:Okay, well then play Ruben Loftus-Chick and Sina, because again the same thing that happened last time will happen again. So at the end of the day, like the job, just the lack of adaptability, right. Like I think you guys use the line that he's stubborn, I think sometimes it's not stubbornness, I think purely his weakness. In my own opinion, one of his greatest weakness is his inability to adjust when the game is going different in his presence. Like you can see that in like a lot of all the meltdowns that has happened this year Remember the Napoli meltdown, the Roma, the same Roma, most of the same Roma. They've come back from 2-0 down, like five minutes ago or whatever.
Speaker 2:There was a period where Milan were confused. Do you remember those days where we didn't know what to do without the defense and the attack? That that's the job of the coach, like half the time. Anybody. Leo will always joke that he can coach Milan if he's just to put starting XI together. Right, but you know me and I actually put the starting XI from here. You're asking me now what would I do for starting XI? I can put up a starting XI, but the problem is when the game is going left, can Chin adjust? And the answer is no, then guess what If your coach cannot also adjust? What's the difference between?
Speaker 1:me and your coach. What's your prediction for Roma next time?
Speaker 2:I think Roma is going to win, like you know, the reason I say that is because the atmosphere at home is going to be incredible for them. They are not, like I told you that this is in form Roma right, and they're not in the mood of fighting with the refs. And they are quite solid defensively if you look at them, which is interesting given that moreno has always been the defensive guy in quotes, but this roman team has not. Uh, they're not too shabby, right, and now it's still very evenly balanced. It's just one, nothing.
Speaker 2:It's not the end of the world, but the big problem elan has going in is just that if the person they have as a head coach, he's not going to make any adjustment because of stubbornness, he's going to hope that his players will step up. Now, that's what I think players we saw this past weekend, right. So, yeah, um, I believe, like you know, one person is coming with the playing, playing chess, the other guy is playing checkers. So, in my own opinion, yeah, it looks like one person is outsmarting the other guy, like it's not because roman has better players at milan, it's just because they just literally look like they know what they're doing versus Milan. It just feels sometimes that Milan just goes on the field and they just want to play. Does that make sense? Like let's just play?
Speaker 1:I don't think that was the case. I don't think that was the case. I just feel like the energy that we used to start the game wasn't really that strong enough. And then the referee error on the offside that should have been called back instead of, like you know, the ball going to a corner, I think, kind of like that first goal, the manner that we considered the first goal was just kind of like you know downing. To be honest, do you know one?
Speaker 2:thing let me tell you personally, right, when I watch ac milan's games, I'm not looking, watching, because I, I want to learn anything tactically. Like I'm being frank, I, if I want to learn some anything tactically, you know what I do. I go watch things like aston villa, arsenal, you know, like man city, those people like they know, you know, even by a liver cousin, like if I watch by a liver cousin, even if it's for five minutes, I could, could just see some nice you know what I mean Things happening Milan.
Speaker 1:I just watch, you know. I hope that Then I don't think you're watching.
Speaker 2:well, oh yeah, no, I watch, I know you share some things.
Speaker 2:You know what you share. You share basic football. To me, like you say oh, this is what he should be doing. Tactically, it's like that. We're talking about football, that people because those guys are all good footballers Like even all their lives have been coached right. So you have to take them to the next level and that's the issue. But regardless of that, let's not make this just about the coach. I'll tell you this the season is over, in my own mind, for Milan. First, we're not winning the league. Secondly, we might end up losing to Roma. If we don't lose to Roma, we'll go and lose to the next people afterwards. Right, it doesn't matter when we lose the Europa League. We were out of the Coppa.
Speaker 1:Italia. So let's just wait, I will remind you of this podcast.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, but sorry what are you hoping for in this season? Like that Milan will go and win the Coppa Superca Europa League.
Speaker 1:I will remind you of this podcast.
Speaker 2:So, even if you remind me, let's say mistakenly, milan, which I'll be very happy with. So tell me what will happen. So at the end of May I will remind you. We're going to play Bavaria-Leverkusen right, I will remind you of this podcast. Dave, let me tell you Milan will win Europa League. That's how you reminded me two years ago, a year ago, that we win Champions League. And we're here now, we have another Champions League trophy and we made it to the semi-finals last year and that's how.
Speaker 2:That's how you also reminded me this year that Milan will still catch in time because they will sleep. They have a new goalkeeper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's still hope we're still hoping, but anyways, one thing I just want you to know is, at the end of the day, right if you look at how this team started this season and where they are right now, it's quite obvious that they've improved a lot and they will get better.
Speaker 2:You're actually lying to yourself. You know what I'm saying. I'll tell you why I say you're lying to yourself. So you're lying to yourself because Milan started the season right. Milan started the season and we won the first three games of the season. Then we ended up losing to Inter. Milan. We drew to Newcastle, then we won three next games of the season. So basically, out of potentially seven Serie A games, milan had won six of them and only lost to Inter, and actually no seven and then you know what happened.
Speaker 1:So, chin, whenever you make this, whenever I talk about this moment, right as to why did we stop? Well, if you know these guys are adapting and stuff like that, I want you to know something that this season, and the level of competition, right, that you play at the top level has a huge impact on the way Milan's season has shaped this season. Because, for the fact that we actually got drawn into the group of death and we had to play, like high level, six games technically, at top level, you know that has a huge impact on that team already. And you can see, during that period, after Milan had this, you know, winning streak and then went into this international break and came back and started struggling and then injury started piling up and stuff like that, it was because of the workload. And that it was because of the workload and again it was because of the fact that, again, these guys are not yet fully ready, adapting. There's a process of like integrating these guys into the system.
Speaker 2:It doesn't just go in right away, but anyways your group of sorry, your group of death that you're talking about. Dortmund are fifth in Bundesliga, and then Newcastle United are, like, seventh in the Premier League.
Speaker 1:And Dortmund is still where dot, dot, dot and psg are still in the champions league. They're still in the champions league.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because wait, wait, wait, hold on, hold on dot monday.
Speaker 1:Psg are the weakest teams, probably one of the two weakest teams but they are still in the quarterfinal of the champions league, which shows how good they are yeah, no, fair enough, I'll give you that part.
Speaker 2:They are so great because they they beat what's it called. They beat PSG, and what's it called? Psg beat Real Sociedad. Oh my God, they're incredible. Wait until they both get knocked out, and then your so-called group of death is now dead. So let me tell you something.
Speaker 1:Sorry, who kicked Inter out of the Champions League?
Speaker 2:It wasn't it.
Speaker 1:It wasn't, it was Atletico Madrid, atletico Madrid. Where is Atletico Madrid on the league table in?
Speaker 2:the league. Atletico Madrid are like third or fourth in their league man that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So they're not even top on the league table, right?
Speaker 2:no, I'm telling you, atletico Madrid are fourth on the table. They're fourth on the table. Yeah, so sorry, what do you want to imply? Because your Inter Milan, that you're using as your example, are like 16 points ahead of you. So what exactly is the argument? They will win the league.
Speaker 1:The argument is the fact that Inter Milan got kicked out. They got knocked out in the second round of the Champions League. Are you and Inter Milan on the same level? I don't see Port calling.
Speaker 2:Keto Black or Keto calling Port Black. I'm telling you about Milan, you're telling me about Inter Milan, inter.
Speaker 1:Milan are better than your team today and you're comparing yourself to them.
Speaker 2:Please predict your score for Thursday. I think Thursday to end 2-1 in favour of Roma, or maybe a draw like a 2-2 draw, 1-1 draw, wow, milan will win 2. Oh wow, I'm surprised he didn't throw one in there, because you know, too new, we're not giving anything.
Speaker 1:It's too new, you see. Anyways, Chin, it's been a pleasure talking to you.
Speaker 2:Well, I hope we still have something to talk about when we come back, eh, so hopefully they don't kick them out of the Europa League, because your boy, pioli, will probably have to pack his bag and leave. Anyways, we're out, we. Anyways we're now. We'll talk soon. Yeah, take care. Ciao, fusa Bilano. Yeah, all the best, take care, bye-bye, bye.
