Davy & Chin Talk A.C Milan Weekly
Davy & Chin Talk A.C Milan Weekly
Davy & Chin Preview Upcoming UCL Against Bayern Leverkusen and Examines AC Milan's Tactical Resurgence and Key Players Performance
Davy & Chin recounts their epic journey, from crucial victories over Inter Milan and Venezia to Liverpool's heartbreaking Champions League loss. Join us as we dissect the tactical genius of coach Fonseca, especially in set-piece situations, and see how his strategies have redefined Milan's game. We compare the Premier League's set-piece tactics, particularly Liverpool’s prowess, for a comprehensive look at what makes a champion.
In this episode, we delve into the heart of Milan's tactical evolution with a deep analysis of key players and formation shifts. We spotlight the remarkable performances of Christian Pulisic and discuss how the focus on technical skills in Serie A has allowed him to shine. Discover why balanced wing play has been crucial to Milan’s resurgence and how these strategic elements have fortified the team's morale and performance.
We conclude with a critical look at Milan's work ethic and physical attributes, highlighting the relentless energy of Alvaro Morata against the untapped potential of Rafael Leao. Praises are sung for Theo Hernandez's leadership, while Emerson Royal's enthusiastic but unpredictable style is put under the microscope. With a comprehensive analysis of Milan’s defensive lineup and attacking strategies, we express both concerns and optimism for their upcoming match in the Champions League against Bayern Leverkusen. Please tune in to grasp the complete picture of AC Milan's renaissance and tactical brilliance that has brought them back to the pinnacle of Italian football.
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 Dave Inch and Talk Milan. We are back again. Chin. What's up? Man? How you doing? I'm doing good, dave. How are you? It feels like we're never going to get a time to pod man. I'm happy that we actually link up tonight, man, because it's been a minute. Man, what's going on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you love your sleep too much. That's the problem. Well, you know what? How are you, Dave?
Speaker 1:I'll take that because lately I've received the benefit of it, so that's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the same person that told me your doctor said you needed what? At least seven hours of sleep.
Speaker 1:I thought that was what the doctors tell everyone.
Speaker 2:But you, a special guy, you thought you could survive on three, four hours of sleep.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm glad at least Milan is giving me some sleep these days, so that's a good thing too eh yeah, you're very easy to appease.
Speaker 2:All you need is as far as Milan wins, you're okay.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter, Even if At the end of the day, we all wait for the team to win, right? So, regardless of maybe it's a glass half full or glass half empty, to me, as long as we're seeing the results on the table, right, that's the key to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with your 2-1 predictions. If they leave you, you predict 2-1, 2-1, 2-1, and then Milan will win. Milan will win 38 games in a season and win the league 2-1.
Speaker 1:Look at the end of the day, I kind of feel like, like I said you know, initially, when we started this season right and this whole struggle, you know we're going through all this, you know this difficult moments and stuff. I said I said I'm going to give Fonseca five games, you know, and after five games I'll be able to judge which judge. Or maybe you see someone that fits, you know that's fit for the job or not.
Speaker 2:And again, in the most difficult you know moment, he's able to, you know, create something, even though I can see, yeah, Just to give people, like just to give you know backstory, Since the last time Davey and I spoke, AC Milan had Fonseca and Milan and his boys, Fonseca and them boys. They've gone on to defeat Inter Milan in the in the derby oh, yeah, yeah, I think.
Speaker 1:I think the last podcast was after the Liverpool game, right, yeah, after, was it after the?
Speaker 2:Liverpool game no after it was before the Liverpool game. Yeah, well, yeah, the Lazio game after the Lazio game, where Rafael Leal and Theo Hernandez were having bad attitude.
Speaker 1:Exactly yeah, but since then we've been able to bounce back right. We beat Venezia, we beat Venezia for nothing. Then we lost.
Speaker 2:Liverpool Got trounced by Liverpool. Lost makes it sound like it was just a loss. It was a trance Like they beat Milan black and blue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I think that game right, that Liverpool game in the Champions League kind of like even like create more chaos. You know, in terms of Fonseca's choices, and you know his decisions and his ability to.
Speaker 2:But then again, because you know you don't do historical context or so, for you it was the worst game Milan has ever played. I mean as a Milan fan that has seen Milan play the same Liverpool multiple times in the past and also lost in recent memory, also the same Liverpool that came from losing. I think they lost in the league the weekend before, so they were pissed off. And then they see Milan won 4-0. And Milan, even though they won 4-0 against Venezia, I didn't feel like they actually had everything in order right, so it still felt like they were not especially defensively. They are not or were not defensively solid Even we'll talk more about it as we go down the road. But Chin.
Speaker 1:you know honestly, though you know honestly, that game right, that Liverpool game, you know honestly, we didn't play After the first 10 minutes or 20 minutes immediately the police scored that goal right, we just switched off. All of a sudden they were committing stupid mistakes and again, I think, when those set pieces that were considered right, they were just horrible. So, to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:One of the things that I've learned a lot this year in the Premier League is a lot of teams are good with set pieces in England, so they hire set piece coaches that dedicate their whole day, their whole life, coaching people on how to, on how to you know how to do those routines right. Yeah, and like Arsenal, is one of those things, liverpool. Even this weekend Liverpool scored another you know crossing and heading goal right. So a lot of teams in England they work a lot, they spend a lot of money on things like that because they know those are what you consider to be competitive advantage, and it's a shame that Milan considered you know two goals from that situation.
Speaker 1:But then again, go ahead, let me just tell you something you know when you look at it too right, you see how they also score a lot of goals from set pieces, which kind of makes me like what's going on with this?
Speaker 2:team? Is it Liverpool? I'm telling you that the teams in England are working on it like it's not just Liverpool, it's Arsenal, it's a lot of the teams, it's Aston Villa, like they are very good with set pieces and it's the coaching that they get, not their head coach per se. All these teams have dedicated. Liverpool is one of the teams I remember they used to have a throwing coach. Yeah, yeah, a throwing coach. I remember that. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly how much.
Speaker 2:So, to be honest with you, for you to get to that level where you're not signing coaches specifically for certain tasks or certain routines, that means you have enough money now to pay regular people talk less of a specific coach for for set pieces, a team goes through the year. They score how many goals on set pieces? Typical, maybe six, ten. Now if you score 10 goals the whole year on set pieces, like I mean you know you're a really good team. But these guys are figuring that even if they get consistently 10 to 15 goals from set pieces I'm talking of all, all of them like free kicks, corner kicks, whatever like then that's money well spent, right? It's like signing. It's like signing a, a striker that gives you singles.
Speaker 1:It's it goes you know, see you know, say again from that horrible Liverpool game, right, I know, to be honest, I'm not gonna say, like you know, we are, we're on par with Liverpool, let's be real. But at the end of the day, right, I still feel like we needed to. We should have done better in that game, but again.
Speaker 2:Well, what does? Better look like like I think they just played poorly overall and that's to be honest with you for a fragile a team that was fragile and emotional and fragile.
Speaker 1:That's expected, but then, honestly speaking, if we would skip the Liverpool game, which was horrible, then, a few days later, they went and played in Tamil Nadu, and again we met in Tamil Nadu. Right, in all honesty, right, I was going to ask you what was your thought before the game, though.
Speaker 2:Well, I thought in Tamil Nadu I was going to beat Milan black and blue because that same black and blue was intentional. Just so you know that same in Tamil.
Speaker 2:Nadu. Was I supposed to say red and black? No, I thought they were going to beat Milan. Black and blue, that's it. Inter Milan, right, they had played a very good game. Everyone was talking about how well they played against Manchester City a few days earlier. Right, and you know. But I think, to be honest with you, man City, inter Milan, they kind of line up well against man City. For some weird reason, they did that in the Champions League final and again in that midweek Champions League game. They did well, and you know, milan was not informed. Milan were shipping in goals. They were the ones shouting how many goals they've considered in the first few games of the season.
Speaker 2:Then Liverpool when Liverpool played Milan, it was too easy for Liverpool to carve through. It wasn't even the set pieces when they played Milan, it was all the chances they had on counter-attack, and sometimes not even necessarily counter-attack, and the defensive errors right All over the place. But I think one of the very low-key moves that you know, if I had said it before, you know, the thing with you is that sometimes you always feel like you don't like to listen to me. You are so big on Pavlovich right, and I remember, and I told you one one time I said, the amount of recoveries that he makes right, he tells me usually that you're out of position.
Speaker 2:You cannot be making. I don't know. In my whole life watching football, right, I didn't notice a lot of all those milan defenders in the past making this many recovery tackles. They were very far in between right. But when your defender is almost always behind chasing people and recovery and making good side tackles, it looks like he's doing a great job defensively, but that usually tells you that he's out of position. Now, why am I bringing this up? Because you watch the Liverpool game. You realise that, apart from the headed goals, it was almost like the defenders were almost always out of position.
Speaker 1:But you can't blame just on the defenders, though.
Speaker 2:No, no, but again okay, no, no, but again okay. Let me put it this way One thing Liverpool is good at is that press. They press so well that they cut off all the passing lanes for your centre-backs that they can't go to the midfield.
Speaker 1:The midfielders for Milan were not doing enough to open up and beat the press right To help the team that's beside the point, but then now all passes because some teams also press well, but the difference is you can catch them, but when Mosala is running down the line and all those guys are running down the line, they are fast. Luizinho, yeah, go ahead. What do you think this guy did? Well?
Speaker 2:against Sinta. Well, the thing he did well is changing the formation, so he got away from the stupid idea of playing Ruben Loftus-Chick as an attacking midfielder. So it's funny because today I was listening to Gabanjo's talk about Milan and one of the things they said is, yeah, he stopped using Ruben Loftus' cheek as an attacking midfielder because when it comes to pressing, he doesn't help you press. And when it comes to, you know what I mean, and that was exactly what I keep saying when it comes to pressing, he literally slows your gameplay down. Attacking-wise, he slows everything down. Pressing when you're off the ball he doesn't help you, neither does your boy, leao, help you. But you cannot have Leao on Loftus' cheek not pressing. And then guess what happens. And then all of a sudden, everything just looks so open in the middle. So when he played Morata and Tabi Abraham, those two guys are actually quite what's it called very active as strikers, right? So if you notice, it was Morata that always dropped in the middle to occupy that middle space like as an attacking midfielder and then help with the press.
Speaker 2:So Milan were actually pressing Inter Milan in that game with four actual forwards. It wasn't even like an idea of where one person would drop into midfield, and you know what I mean. It was legit four forwards and that threw Inter Milan off. Because I don't think they were. I don't think I've even seen a team that comes out with legit 4-2-4. And I'm saying legit 4-2-4 where it wasn't like fake 4-2-4, where you do it on paper but then in reality someone drops in right or someone doesn't really fully press or someone doesn't really fully press. This was a legit 4-4. And to your point, you made the comment about Fofana in the group. The good thing about Fofana is that he has the energy level to keep up with the demands of the midfield demands when you actually go with that kind of formation. Right, because, honestly speaking, you can't do that with someone like a Benacer or the Adelies of this world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I kind of think that also like the physical level too, against, you know, before the game.
Speaker 2:you know I said it, I said this is the closest that we've been against Inter in terms of, you know, players, quality level, but we've never played Inter Milan 4-4 before, though, because I can tell you that if Milan played in time in the normal formation that we usually play, we would have still gotten our asses handed to us, and, honestly speaking, even the game you can see, inter had chances. It wasn't like it was just one-sided game. Milan had way more chances than Inter, but I could still remember Lautaro, with a few chances here and there, right, and that switched to Di Marco. Whenever what's his name? Edem Azeo-Roy, whenever what's his name? Ed Masey Royale runs out of position, right.
Speaker 2:So, again, that was an excellent performance, because he threw them off with that formation change, right, yeah, yeah, and that was to be honest. That was very, very well needed, because I think if Milan had lost to Inter Milan for the seventh time, no one would have remembered that one person lost six straight times. They would have fired the guy that also lost only once, and he would have been at home asking his wife what did I do? I only lost one straight time and they fired me One guy lost six.
Speaker 1:One guy lost six straight times and they didn't fire him. In all honesty, the way we played in that game even if you had lost against Inter, you know that at least the confidence level is there. We really wanted to like, we showed something, that we wanted to win the game, but I'm just happy that at least we won, you know. And again that's a big confidence boost for the team in general, because now we followed up again against Lecce right, and again they only slid like with 3-0.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can call it confidence boost. I just call it like morale boosting, right Like people. Right like people just felt good, because all all I even be hearing around that squad was negative, negative press. Because, funny enough, this is the issue with teams like milan is that when they lose one or two games, it feels like the whole world is crumbling, and then they start asking the coach stupid questions and then everybody has an analysis as to why the team is not doing so well. Right, so just beating into milan, almost like made everyone just take a deep breath no go ahead.
Speaker 1:I feel like, again, another key part of this you know, success or resurgence that I'll call it is the fact that, by the way, it's only two games.
Speaker 1:Just so you know, I know, I know, but again, it's two games, but like the way they've been, like this, is it here, right, this team? I'm just imagining if we had gone to that game without a player like Pulisic, against Sainte-Anne, and the way Liao is playing right now. He's not in good form, he's struggling. And if we had gone to that game with a player like Truquizzi, for example, without Pulisic, I think we would have been a big, big big problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but Pulisic played for the last. I think he played with Milan, the last three or four Milan derbies and lost them, oh no no, no, no, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:What I'm saying right now is the fact that we have our left and right wing in such a balance that you cannot expect both of them, or maybe, if one is not really functioning properly, they can rely on the other. Pulisic this season has been exceptional, like, let's just be real, and I just want to salute him because this is a player that, before coming to Milan, right, I kind of feel like, you know, because of the injury recording at Chelsea, right, I thought I was probably going to be playing less game here, but, bro, this guy is busting games Like, this guy is a big game player, even against Liverpool that we lost. Like, the goal is scored.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean like. So, dave, you know it's good that we're praising bullies, right. The good the thing is that what makes him good is also what. What is his detriment at times? I'll tell you so.
Speaker 2:When he was at chelsea, he was always taking a lot of touches right, and then that led to him almost always getting hit or fouled and then getting injured. And he's also that kind of guy that is always active. You know what I mean by always active. He's like an energizer bunny player. You know those kind of situations. You're always injured, right, because you're always moving and never stopping. But he didn't have the body Like. His body type is not like your Ronaldo's of this world, that is that beauty-like machine that can withstand all those things, right. So, or Ronaldo's of this world, that is that build-like machine that can withstand all those things, right.
Speaker 2:So the difference is then, to be honest with Milan, is that he has actually I haven't seen him taking a lot of fouls, except maybe when he ends up playing in that attacking midfield role, right. A lot of times he actually leaves, gets the ball out of his leg to get it back quicker, and then Serie A, generally speaking, is not like England it's a lot of tactical movements, less physical strain on your body, like Passe. Even guys like Ruben Loftus-Chick all of a sudden are no longer that injury-prone, right? Because the league is not that physically demanding. And I can say that because I watch Serie A and I watch England. In England, if you can't run on a straight line and run with all your life and your mind, you know you are not, you know you're not playing. You're not playing the right style of football.
Speaker 2:But in italy that's not really what they actually kind of put as premium. What they put as premium is the technical ability, and kristen pulisic is actually quite technically gifted. That has never been a problem right from his dot mondays. That was never his issue. His issue was being fit enough and allowing the game to come to him. I just think England England in a way was never like his kind of ideal, like he was good in Dortmund and that was. If he goes to Spain, I think he will also be good in Spain. You know, like those kind of yeah.
Speaker 1:Bro, the way this guy, like when I watch that goal against Inter, I'm like I can't imagine someone who just has that sort of confidence, who's just like you know what? A Chemi Bastoni, like all these guys, pavard, I'm going to run through you, all three of you, and you do nothing to me. You know what I mean. And he just walked like he literally just sliced through their hearts. I'm like man, like if I don't, the only person I know that has that sort of confidence to do that kind of thing is only Liao right. And again, that game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the difference between him and Liao. He's actually more clinical of a finisher than Liao.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2:Liao will do the same run, reach there and shoot the ball some weirdly and goalkeeper will catch the ball, but Pulisic, somehow he always moves to positions where, for some reason, he will get rebounds, or he might actually find himself right in the 18-yard box. That's the thing that I feel like Leal needs to take his game to the next level, which is he cannot. Okay, so, pulisic, I will be frank, he reminds me a lot about Mo Salah in a way. I say this in the sense that Mo Salah somehow always finds himself in position where the ball ends up in the 18-yard box. Leal is not like that.
Speaker 2:How many goals do you remember Lafayette, leal tapping in on the far end or just barely like you know what I mean Just somewhere in the middle of the field, like a rebound. You see, pulisic, you score all those goals where the keeper punches the ball out and he's the guy finishing the ball or everyone is doing like they are struggling and then he ends up poking it in Because he's always somehow he's very smart and that's the thing you get with those kids that come up from Dortmund. Is that the football philosophy is about? Like it's just that it's football sense, right, and a lot of them are very smart players. Rafael Leal, he's a very talented guy, but sometimes like not sometimes, most times he's really frustrating. I see him and I'm wondering are you not watching like other people? Like doesn't he watch police each in training? Or does he look at him and go down because I guess that's not my business. You can do what you can do, all you want to do. That's not my business, right, anyways?
Speaker 1:yeah, I don't think I want to talk about his murata man. Like you know, like when he joined right, are you surprised to see the way he plays?
Speaker 2:yeah, the only issue I have with him is that I worry that he's going to be injured a lot. It looks like that, like it feels like that. It feels like the player. You know those players that they are young in age but they are not young on body because of mileage, because of all the football they've played. Right, that's kind of Morata level where I've known him for years. But then he's one of those guys that every time he plays he's always giving his all for the team, which means that he's actually he has a lot of mileage on him like I didn't know like you could really get involved in plays like that.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Like, yeah, that involved. Oh, even better than jeru, right, you see?
Speaker 2:how. You see how sweet it is to have a striker that helps and helps the team, not the one that sits and waits for penalties. And then you tell me OG, og. Are you seeing it? No nonsense, you Even Tammy Abraham. You see how much pressing and running around.
Speaker 1:I know, I know he does a lot. Tammy Abraham does a lot Off the ball, he does a lot and he's the kind of player that, like you, just want to have him up front, right, Even though you know that sometimes it could be wasteful too, right. But again, he's a player that I know that at least off the ball he has something to give you.
Speaker 2:Well, it's funny because now, all of a sudden, of all the Milan forwards, it's looking very obvious now that Lea is the laziest of all of them, because everybody else is running around he is Even in this 4-2-4 formation too.
Speaker 1:let's be real, it doesn't help them sometimes. He exposed them sometimes. You know what I mean, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So when they go press in an ideal world, right, when everybody presses, I look at Tammy. Sometimes he gets a little pissed off because you notice layout doesn't cover his guy Exactly, yeah, and then the pass would just go through there and it's like why are you? What are you doing? Like sometimes I just stubbornness or foolishness.
Speaker 2:It's just like a layout, because trust me if that guy just put in the same like, put this in the same intensity that Pulisic is putting in, he will not be stopped. The guy has so much talent, in my own opinion, that if he was just as half as motivated you cannot. He becomes unstoppable. Because what are you going to do about it? He's going to bully you off the ball if he wants to, and he's faster than you. Meanwhile, maybe maybe that's how this world works, right?
Speaker 2:People like police, they can't understand that maybe they need to work extra hard to make up for what they lack. And then leo is like I don't need to because I'm, you know, I'm that guy, I don't know man. Sometimes it's frustrating because I wish he could just see, you know, see it and see that all he needs to do, even Teo Hernandez, right, teo, very talented, but he's never lazy. Teo is always working. You know what I mean. Like he's always trying to be involved. If he stops playing, he's probably busy causing trouble. See what I mean. Like he just cannot stop, right, but Leao, I can see him walking on the field pulling his pants down half the time, Like right, but Leao, I can see him walking on the field pulling his pants down half the time, like you know what I mean. Walking on like that is Mumulezi walk, then pull pants down and then form as though like somebody's looking at him from the sky.
Speaker 1:Like you know, honestly, right, even among all the four, I think he's still the one that has that lot of help right with the team.
Speaker 2:So what he needs to do is, you know, like if Leao was smart enough he would use those other guys to score so many more goals. But apparently, like I don't think his brain has made that connection that he could actually be close to Vini, like Vini-level dangerous on the field. But no, but I heard that he's working extra sessions with the coach to work on his defensive game and so on. If Leao just stood in the right spot half the time when we press, he could win. Yeah, I cannot leave Leao because it's my problem.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about some things. Let's talk about your boy, your boy Emerson Royale.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's actually. To be honest, he's been good. The only problem is Emerson Royale is very erratic, but then I don't know, I don't know exactly. Leave this guy alone. What's your problem? No, no, he's quite. No, he's quite erratic, but then he's always smiling right. He's always giving you that like vibe of yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm enjoying this thing so much.
Speaker 1:But sometimes I'm like, can you just in all honesty, right, for the first time in a while, I kind of feel so much, you know, at ease with that right back after watching Emerson.
Speaker 1:Well, keep feeling at ease since the inter game right to be honest, like and it's because his involvement in the game, going forward, even defending too, he knows what he's doing. Defending like I thought, maybe, like you said, I thought it was erratic. You know honesty, but with him, if you, if you ask me to pick one between between him and Calabria, right, I think I'll pick him as a real no, no, no.
Speaker 2:No. You, I know you love Calabria and that's a lot coming from you and I appreciate that. But yeah, it was never a contest too, because for me, for me, like, like, both of them are the same. The only difference is that Royale had more. He has more attacking flair. There was a cross, a few crosses he made against Inter Milan where he puts his leg through the ball right when it's by a line and then shifts it back out. That's Afelaya. There was one he did. Afelaya headed the ball and the keeper saved it. That cross I don't the Theo kind of crosses that you you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So he has the technical ability to do those things, his body is more flexible too yeah. Calabria is too, I don't know, like rigid. No, he's more rigid. He's your boy.
Speaker 2:He's in sync. So the only issue with Marcelo Royale is just that that he gets to carry. His lack of concentration sometimes means that he's out of position, even like the goal they scored Inter Milan scored. He went and pressed when he shouldn't have pressed up too high, to you know what I mean. And then all of a sudden Di Marco running behind and then when he got there, before he recovered to this guy Martinez, he put the ball through his leg. So anyway, but he's doing good. I think he's done a good job the last couple of games.
Speaker 1:At least we're back in the most ever place on Ligue 2.
Speaker 2:Oh, so Milan are now tied to contenders, all of a sudden.
Speaker 1:Oh well, I mean, that's what we want, right. So we're happy we're back on track now. And I'm happy for Fonseca, to be honest, because he doesn't deserve to be fired. Let's be real, because if you watch Milan in the preseason, right, you know that this guy really did a lot of work, but unfortunately, because of the fact that most of these big boys and this late signing that we had right, he didn't really have time to work with them, so he got them late. But again, I'm happy we're back on track, even though, let's be real, there are some moments in these games that we actually kind of switch off. I'm not sure if you really observe it right. We just switch off all of a sudden. Then we start defending and we start putting pressure on all of a sudden. That really happened against Liverpool and we paid. We paid daily for it right. Again, against Inter, we also had those moments, but we were able to survive against Lecce even against Lecce we had exactly I'm not sure why, what's happening but those women.
Speaker 1:if we can really survive and improve on it, that would be good. But now we're going to face Leverkusen tomorrow, like in the Champions League. We lost our first game, chin. What should we be expecting from this team tomorrow? To?
Speaker 2:be honest, like I think you know the thing, milan, they are going to struggle. What you just said, those moments where you have a moment of lapse, right, leverkusen is a very like they are like Liverpool in a way. They are very technically gifted players that will take advantage, right. So you won't get away with those moments of lapses, like that's the thing In Serie A. If you do those things against Lecce's of this one, venezia's of this one, you know they. You know they will miss the chances. But when you do it against top teams in Europe, they will not. Yeah, so same with Bayer Leverkusen, right. But I think they are also beatable, because I think they did too.
Speaker 2:Unlike last year, even last year they are not like a defensive, stalwart team that will shut you out and dominate you, right? You know Liverpool, honestly speaking, the presence of Virgil van Dijk alone just kind of cancels out the lot for people. But with Bayer, you get your chances. It's going to be one of those like you know how Milan played Dortmund where you get chances and they give you back and you give back. It's a matter of who's going to score more goals, and that's why sometimes I get frustrated with people like Lea, because they'll get one-on-one and they'll miss it, but that's beside the point, so it's going to be an open game tomorrow. I saw I read something where Fonseca was apparently frustrated because Xavier Alonso said Italian teams like to defend. He was trying to his anger is that that is not this Milan team and if people have watched they would have known that, even though this Milan team tried to defend they. They pretend like they defend, but they are not really. I know we've kept a couple of Go ahead.
Speaker 1:This might be mind games or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's mind games. It's the same thing. It's like Pep coming out and telling you that your style of football is not good for football, all this kind of stuff, but it doesn't matter For a second. Now he's saying well, milan wants to impose themselves and have an identity, which is true. He's not lying, because he himself is not that coach that would tell you go and park the bus, right, he takes high risk and which sometimes backfires Go ahead.
Speaker 1:Hold on, let's be real. Probable lineup for tomorrow Mike Minyan, pavlovich, gabia David, Calabria and Teo Hernandez. What do you think? That back four? What's your thought on it? So sorry, repeat it again. So Pavlovich, gabia Calabria and Teo Hernandez. That's the probability I know for tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, so tomorrow he's not there, right?
Speaker 1:Sheffy, I thought you said my boy is not there.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. I just want to know why he's not there, because when I tell you, you know never mind. So all of a sudden, now Gabi is the most stable defender in the Milan team, right, this guy man?
Speaker 1:So your voice could change like this no, I wasn't worried.
Speaker 2:I'm only telling you now that the coach, in one of the bigger games, decided that he's going to bench the top five defender in the world, like think about that you know what?
Speaker 1:I think there's Idris Ke, of course.
Speaker 2:They almost stopped him against Lecce, right, and if Fonseca could have that confidence, right my only concern in those the thing you just mentioned is the fact that Marcel Royale is not playing and it I know I was expecting the lineup. Calabria is the absolute worst. You know when they define worst you can put against a team like Bayer Leverkusen because they have kind of speedy wingers. And then you know what, if I were this guy what's his name? Jabir Alonso I would just tell Boniface to go. You know how Zapata bullies Calabria, exactly.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine Like Vito is Calabria Exactly. Can you imagine Like Vitor Boniface, for example, tomorrow, like Calabria is the last person you want to be sending to Go Max or that kind of player?
Speaker 2:Very interesting day. Let me see, Like, oh, wow, Wow, wow, wow. Has he actually considered? Like you know, can't play all his full backs, all his centre-backs, at once, right, Like you know, because he could actually in a way. No, but he doesn't do those things where you put three centre-backs and then rotate in a way where Teo pushes up.
Speaker 1:The thing is right. I don't have any problem with Pavlovic and Gabriel. No, me, I don't. My problem is with Calabria. With Calabria, exactly. Yeah, again, because if Calabria is not playing well, it's going to affect us in the back, no matter how, Because someone will have to come and start running to support you. You know what I mean, but, in all honesty, what's your prediction for tomorrow's game?
Speaker 2:Chin. I think, honestly, because it's away and it's in Leverkusen, I feel like it's one of those tight games that you know it's either going to end in a high scoring draw or Leverkusen will, just, you know, narrowly win the game. I say narrowly because, honestly, they are like defending champions in Germany. They're a good team. They played better than this past weekend and we're also missing.
Speaker 1:don't forget, we're also missing some players too, right Apart from Morata. Morata is also missing. Right Loftus-Cheek is going to come in tomorrow, God God.
Speaker 2:I hope not. Please God no.
Speaker 1:Like it's worse. This is my thought about it. I'm thinking like I like the way this guy sets up right, but there's other options. Let's be real. Like I feel like Okafor to me is a way, much more better option for what he's playing right Compared to Loftus-Cheek, because Okafor is very good on the ball, he's a good passer, he's a good dribbler and, again, he's someone that is very mobile. If you ask him to track back, he will track back. I don't know why he decided to go with Loftus-Cheek. To be honest, I like Loftus-Cheek. Like to me. Well, maybe you just feel like maybe Okafor was in. He's not in good form or whatever. What's your thought?
Speaker 2:I personally believe that if I was Milan coach, I would not put Loftus-Chicken anywhere near the team until Milan are winning the game and you just need him to help you hold up, play. The guy does not help. I don't think you understand. He doesn't press, he doesn't help move the ball quick enough right for your attack. He throws annoying, but hey, who knows, like I don't know the coach, they see something in him that makes them like Like something must be going on Because the team we're playing tomorrow right, I've seen them. They are very quick on transition. Oh yeah, they are Very speedy wingers. And then Granjaka is excellent on long balls so they can shoot from distance like you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Good, and then this guy. You now put this guy that cannot even close up somebody literally in the middle. But let's see, yeah, I think at the end of the day, right like it's a little unfortunate that there's no, there's no Morata, because I would have loved for them to continue the whole 4-4. Like to your point, I don't know why you can't do 4-4 with Okafor, okafor at least yeah. Yeah, okafor, and just let him be your Morata right, because at least he's very agile enough to press and he can be.
Speaker 1:And he used him. He used him in that same formation. I remember. Yeah, he was at the field. He's not in the field in the preseason.
Speaker 2:Yeah, preseason, yes, but he brings. He brings him in for Liao, I don't know man, I will not play Loftus-Cheek. Like, in fact, for me, like, if you want to win matches consistently, just put Loftus-Cheek like down, down down the pecking order in Milan, like let him come in when everybody's like done and the game is almost, almost over and you're like, okay, let me just give people minutes. The same way we took a phone and not careful right just through, when everyone is like, okay, let's just get minutes for people, and so on, I would not bring in like in regular, regular minutes or something like that.
Speaker 1:But yeah, talking about. To be honest, I think I think I've been too harsh on him and you have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I've been too harsh well, I think to, I think, to be honest, he runs hard, he works hard, yeah, like he's a hard worker, right, and I kind of realized that.
Speaker 1:I think his problem is the fact that he's still trying to understand how, to you know, play in the Italian league.
Speaker 2:I thought you were going to say speak Italian, for sure, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:Even this guy said the same thing too. Fonseca said it too, like you know, in Italy, like they sit too deep, so it's too difficult for him to, you know, dribble through that kind of defense, right, compared to, like you know, spanish League or maybe EPL, that, like they, basically, like you know what I mean. So it's a good thing. My thing is, though, like this group, like it's, I don't like the way this year's Champions League has been.
Speaker 2:you know, it's been done yeah, it makes it, it takes the edge off of it, right? Yeah, yeah, it's kind of nice it's just me.
Speaker 1:I'm already disliking it, to be honest, because now I'm like I don't get to play Liverpool again, right?
Speaker 1:Sometimes you play some teams, like at the early stage of the Champions League, in the first group match, right, and you lose to them. But again, you know, go into that sort of rhythm. Then they get to play them when the result really matters, right, maybe like what? A month later then you see, like there's more intensity, there's more this thing in it. You know what I mean and I think that's what, to me, that's what I'm missing in this, because now we're going to go play Leverkusen, we're going to go play in Leverkusen, but we To me, I'm not really feeling that vibe to me, to be honest. I agree.
Speaker 2:I think I don't like the formula, I don't like it also.
Speaker 1:And the fact that I don't even know what's our fate in this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a change, but let's see how it goes. Let's just go tomorrow, have a good outing against Leverkusen. I think it's going to be a good game. Leverkusen are one of those teams you know. Remember it's never over until it's over. But I think it's going to be a very entertaining game, regardless, because Fonseca does not like to pack the boss. Neither does.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like it's going to be a high-scoring match, but I would tip Milan to win by three goals to two.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, so you increased your goals by one Instead of two to nine. You said three to Instead of two to one. Right, I said three to.
Speaker 1:I'm impressed again, it's because of the fact that I'm not really convinced enough of the defence to be able to handle this yeah, no, defensively, we're not there, we're not there and these guys are not going to do it, but yeah but the good thing is though. The good thing, I think, to me is just the mobility in our midfield, at least for now will really help, that guy is a baller bro.
Speaker 2:I just wish, I just wish the coach can stop putting people like Ruben Loftus-Chick near him, so that he can stop spoiling him and spoiling his ball.
Speaker 1:But hey, I'm not the coach, but why can't even these guys knock someone through?
Speaker 2:Musa Musa can play like yeah well, musa, there's like a lot of people, like a lot of people before you get to.
Speaker 1:I know he has his own advantages too, right, he's a very physical guy. What?
Speaker 2:physical. What is he physically? He's physical. What is he physically Physical? You know who's physical Profan Aiz, not Rilof Sishig. He's only physical when he has the ball and people foul him.
Speaker 2:But the truth is that actually spoils your attack, because you don't want people to be fouling you. Ideally, you want to get past people right, not to be fouled, because when they foul you it's a good thing. Especially, it's not a foul that gives yellow cards right when you say oh yeah, I'm collecting yellow cards. You know, like Hazard, hazard has those yellow card fouls. Or Kaka, kaka always does those where they foul him a lot.
Speaker 2:But it used to be because and those are yellow cards Ruben Loftus-Chico, he will not be holding you like he's wearing a bada right, like opening his hand wide, and then, and then you come and push him over, and then you fall, and then, but before he gets up, everybody has gone back to position, and then Milan attack is over, and then we start afresh again. That's exactly what it is, but it's okay. Hopefully we'll catch up after the game tomorrow. Then, yeah, nice, catching up too, and all the best, dave and Forza. Milan, I'm happy Milan is back on track, at least a bit in time. Milan. That's what matters to me, so thank you guys, thanks guys have a good one take care.
Speaker 2:Forza Milan take care guys.
