Davy & Chin Talk A.C Milan Weekly
Davy & Chin Talk A.C Milan Weekly
AC Milan's Rollercoaster: From Supercopa Triumph to League Struggles
Can Milan's resurgence under Sergio Conceica signal a new era for the Italian giants, or do the ghosts of past challenges still haunt them? Join us as we explore the thrilling highs and frustrating lows of AC Milan's current form, starting with their momentous Supercopa victory that had fans dreaming of glory all over again. Yet, despite this morale boost, league performances tell a different story with draws against Cagliari, tight wins over Como, and a tough loss to Juventus revealing a complex journey ahead.
We dig deep into the dynamics of Milan's midfield, assessing how squad changes and tactical shifts are shaping their play, particularly after their recent setback. Key players like Isma Bennacer, Fofana, and Tijani Reinders come under the spotlight, as we debate the strategies that could either make or break their season. As Milan braces for the Champions League and Coppa Italia challenges, the potential return of Pulisic could add a creative spark to the midfield, helping to balance grit with flair and keeping fans hopeful for a turnaround.
Finally, we tackle Milan's transfer strategies and player performances, questioning the rationale behind potential signings like Kyle Walker, and analyzing the impact of injuries on key players like Ismaël Bennacer. With praise for Mike Maignan and Gabbia, and critiques on players who faltered against Juventus, we reflect on Milan's path to Champions League qualification. Will their performance against Girona set the tone for the rest of the season? Find out as we dissect Milan's prospects and anticipate the twists and turns of their journey ahead.
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 Davian Chin. Talk Milan, and we are back again. It's a Sunday night in Toronto. From my side here, chin, what's up, man? How you doing, bro? I'm doing good, dave, how are you Cold?
Speaker 2:Cold, it's very cold. This is one of those weeks where, you know, the past couple of days have been extremely cold. We're talking about minus 35 degrees Celsius. That feels like minus 40 something. So we've been indoor most of the time and, yeah, it's cold. So good to see you again.
Speaker 1:Anyways, yes, anyways, audience, we're back again. It's so funny because we did a podcast and you blew it. I know, I know I messed up. We did a podcast after we won the Supercopa, right, it was exciting, it was exciting, it was exciting. It was an exciting moment for us, in all honesty, because at least we've not really had that opportunity to actually be happy for something for Milan in the past, like 12 months now basically 12 months.
Speaker 2:It feels like it's been a while since we last felt good as Milan fans, right up until like two weeks ago, so yeah, it was good the. Super Cup win was very good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, In all honesty, I didn't really bring much meaning to the Cup, in all honesty, but at least it's a good silverware to keep in a closet. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:Well, I think for me the most important part of the Cup was to actually like Constance Sao taking over as Milan coach. Right, which is good, because what you want as a new coach is that spark that you get the guys all going. Now, unfortunately, I don't know, things have happened since the spark that we now look at Milan and we're thinking, okay, did the Supercoppa win actually really help them come out of their league funk or what? But yeah, but regardless, at least you know milan is still in this cup of italia. We talk about winning trophies ultimately I know I think I said this during that podcast as well that did not get posted that milan are no longer obviously in a league title contention place.
Speaker 2:Now we're just looking for what you call like morale victories as the season goes, and what's the bigger morale victory than winning that supercoppa?
Speaker 2:And then, hopefully, maybe you can go make a run in the coppa italia and make it maybe a little bit of a run in the champions league, and then all of a sudden, the completion of your season doesn't look as bad as coming out empty-handed and then finishing, you know, maybe fifth or fourth or whatever in the league. Right, so it's a good, it's one thing in the bag. There's only about if you're in Italy. There's about what three or four trophies that you compete for, and however you want to slice and dice it, milan has one in the bag. So then now we have to aim to kind of look at the other two out of the remaining three, or maybe one more, and then you have an okay season, right. So I think it's a very big win for the team. It felt good. The manner of the victories also was impressive, because coming back against Juventus and as well as Inter Milan in almost three days span, that's really impressive. It shows a lot of resilience, shows a lot of guts, right.
Speaker 1:And also, let's keep in mind, from a team that has been screwing up in knockout stages in our competition since what? Since how long now?
Speaker 2:Well, honestly, that's a purely problem, but yeah, I know what you're saying.
Speaker 1:Well, obviously it's supposed to be a mentality. You know it's still mental on this player regardless, right, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's good to get past Juventus the way they did, even though it was a little lucky, and then to get past Inter Milan the way they did. So Inter Milan was a big deal. Milan has beaten Inter Milan twice this year and they're the only Italian team to beat Inter Milan to beat Inter Milan, I think, the whole year, if I'm not mistaken, and they've done it twice in Italy. So it's impressive. We got it and we proceeded to, you know. So it's impressive, we got it. Then we proceeded to. You know, after the Saudi whole thing, we came back home to the league and we struggled, we struggled a little bit First off.
Speaker 1:We drew Kaleri. Right, we drew Kaleri, then we drew sorry, we won.
Speaker 2:Barely Fucking, barely yeah.
Speaker 1:It wasn't in Monza, como, como. Yeah, you see, this is here because I know we're gonna go into the details of these games, you know, in in just in very, very shortly, right? But yeah, we drew, we drew calorie we, we beat como, and then we lost to juventus. Basically so, contest house first three games drew one, lost, lost one and won one. How would you rate his performance so far, though, since he's taken over Milan?
Speaker 2:What do you think has changed? Honestly speaking, not much in the league. I like the fighting spirit in the Supercopa games, but when we went back to the league, I don't think anything significantly has changed. If you ask me. You can see, maybe a few players feel more relaxed and better engaged, like teo hernandez, maybe rafael leal, but, honestly speaking, the same issues that existed there did not all of a sudden disappear.
Speaker 1:That's what I mean. Well, you, you can go ahead and give your no, no, no. I think the way we attack has really changed. Let's start with that first. Attacking has changed seriously because under Fonseca, fonseca really killed these guys' morals and then, kind of like pulled them in such a way that they I don't know I really couldn't understand how the team was functioning under Fonseca, because we talked about this a lot, right, when Fonseca was there, we just switch off on games and we just struggle and then we don't really and we end up conceding goals and losing games or dropping points and stuff, right?
Speaker 2:Okay. So what's the difference between that and what just happened against Juventus, where there was like a period of like 10 minutes or so? You can't compare Juventus with other teams. Let me explain.
Speaker 1:If you look at how we played against Cagliari and Como. Como is a different game in that I can understand that one, and I'm not saying that there's a whole lot that has changed since Consal came on. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is I can see the element of good football. We begin to regain the entertaining football that we used to play under the previous coach. There's this element of excitement in the way we attack and the way we play. I can see that sort of freedom with players like Theo Hernandez, for example. You know being able to go forward and not being, you know, put in shackles, and you know being held back and not being able to express himself. The same thing goes with Rafael Leal as well, and some other players right. However, though. However, I'm going to say that our style of play has changed as well, because we're now more attacking, high-press, high-on-the-pitch kind of style now, which is what we used to play before, and the way Fonseca has structured his midfield, I don't think it's going to be easy for Conce Sarr to be able to tune this midfield back to that level where he wants them to play. I'm not sure if you noticed that in our midfield recently, like even in Como's game. Let's talk about Como, for example. I watch the Como game and I'm like why is Milan pressing like this? Why is our pressing so wrong? Like we're not pressing with coercion. We press, then we leave some gaps in the middle, or we press, we don't press properly and then we just get beaten again. And when Komu invades our press, the entire midfield is just left open Time and time and time again. Now Juventus' game is a completely different thing entirely. It's not just the pressing. That was the issue. We were giving away the ball. We were giving away the ball, we were giving away balls easily. And again, I can see the fatigue in, for example, for Fana and TJ, tj Narendra, right, they can see that the fatigue is showing in their games. So I wouldn't say we're not really. There's not been a big change since Conceição came on. There's been changes. There's that freedom of play. Now I mean tomorrow is back in the team, which I think I'm very happy anyways, because if it was for Fonseca, if it was Fonseca and Steve with Milan, I'm quite sure tomorrow we'd be wearing Juventus jersey.
Speaker 1:So there's so many things that I think needs to be fixed. Honestly speaking, there's so many things that need to be fixed and it's not going to be done within two. Two games in supercopa, then coming to the league and start winning everybody. I don't think it's not good. It's going to work like that. It's a process that I feel like console needs to to address and, you know, do a nitty-gritty, you know approach to it and find how we can, you know, make this team a winning team again. That's how I see it. Now I want to ask you one question, shane what was lacking in this Juventus game? Did you get a chance to watch the Juventus game?
Speaker 2:Yes, I watched it. I watched almost every single minute of that game. So what do you think was lacking in that game, though? So I think there's two things right. I always say this part that it is not easy to play a team like in close proximity, right and beat that team multiple times, especially if that team is actually not a bad team, right? So Juventus felt like they played like a team that were under pressure because they drew. They draw a lot of games, even though they haven't lost this season I don't think they've won at home in this year so far. So they were under a lot of games, even though they haven't lost this season I don't think they've won at home in this year so far. So they were under a lot of pressure to win this game.
Speaker 2:Seems like Milan, on the other hand, did not. I think I said this to you when, again in that podcast, we did not post that finishing in top four is probably Milan's priority now, but it would be so hard for them to even make it to top four, and you said they were going to finish third or second position. I said top four. So Milan plays like a team that somehow doesn't look like. Obviously, league is so much like it's that much important to them anymore? They're just you know what I mean. They're just, they're not at it and going. Okay, we really need to prove a point here. Like, if you watch, when I watch the Napoli play Atalanta, it's the same level, like those guys are intense because they are in a league fight. They are fighting for the league title. Inter Milan goes about their league games like they are fighting for a league title. So the point I'm trying to make is the level of intensity Milan needed to win.
Speaker 2:That game was not there, and then they were also missing some key players and I think the coach also made some very strange decisions. So I don't know what Yunus Musa does in training that makes everyone believe that somehow he's OK to play on the right wing. So playing Musa on the right wing, right to me, indicates a lack of what I call intent to win the game. It sounds so strange to say, but Pulisic was not there, and then you play Moussa on the right wing and then you play Benassi and Reinders and Fofana. That's a good, that's an okay midfield. You don't have to toss in Moussa there again. For what? For what purpose?
Speaker 1:Who was going to play in place of?
Speaker 2:Puskara. Well then, what did he do? He ended up bringing Jimenez right, Alex Jimenez.
Speaker 1:Look the thing.
Speaker 2:The point I'm trying to make is that, like the team, they felt like the team wasn't really that interested in going out there and winning the game. And then now this is the other, then that whole period that you talked about, where Milan loses concentration. For like a period of time it felt that way. The goals that Juventus scored, they scored all those goals within a period of when Milan it felt like somehow, I don't know if the energy level.
Speaker 2:We gave away the ball repeatedly for like so many times yeah, yes, in one short period of time, and then they eventually scored two goals out of it and that was the game. Game, right. At that point the game was over. Juventus don't concede much. So, to be frank with you, to answer your question, level of intensity wasn't there. Juventus came out quite intense and then some formational tweaks, like man, in my own opinion, anyway, emerson Royale struggled, both goals were from his wing and it looked like, somehow, if I'm playing against, if I'm a guy like those guys, when they play against Royale, they are actually quite excited to go against him. Well, I'm just saying, like you can clearly see that he can't wait.
Speaker 2:He never liked them Well because he's not a good player Like. I don't know what you guys see, but he's not a good player Like. If he was basically Milan, a lot of teams would not be getting rid of him right. So the point I'm trying to make is Milan, some weird things were done and the result is the result and we ended up losing. So what does that mean for us? Not much, even though they had won the game, maybe it would have made people feel a little better, but in terms of momentum and direction of the team, but not much.
Speaker 2:To be frank with you, I'm looking forward to things like the Champions League see whether you know whether they can get a good draw in the quarterfinals and then you know, maybe they might make it second round. And then I'm looking forward to Coppa Italia, because we're still in that. When the semifinals, I think or quarterfinals there's hope or there's a chance, I'm sure between Inter Milan and Napoli, one of them will end up winning the league. Atalanta will finish third and then one team will finish fourth Milan might finish fifth if they try. That's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I kind of feel like I think I'm on the same boat with you, though, on this one, but at the end of the day, I still kind of feel like it's too early to kind of throw away the league like that, regardless of whatever position we are at the moment, to be honest, because, if you ask me, I think this is the period where our management really need to bolster the squad a little bit in terms of personnels in the midfield, in the attack, and I don't think they're doing enough right now. You know what I mean, because if you look at it, first of all let's look at the midfield. I think when I had a discussion about Isma Benassi right being back in the team and then him being able to play with Fofana and Tijan Durandes, right, I'm not sure if it's the fatigue that's really telling or the lack of full fitness of Benassi that's really affecting him as well, but I don't see three of them, you know, playing together and making that sort of progress that we expected them to make, or am I wrong?
Speaker 2:I think the problem is that when I was watching these three of them last on Saturday against Juventus, right, like I don't know, somehow Benacer was so high up the guy, very high up person For fun I was now the guy dropping deep and playing deeper, right? Yeah, honestly speaking, I would have flipped it the other way around, where Benacer is more deep and then Fofana, because I've seen Pioli try this before. Where they push Benacer high up, it's like I don't know what people see that make them believe that he's that guy. That can be. He's not Okay. He's not when he's playing in front of his whatever, but or when he has to make defensive recoveries, but pressing the ball high up, that's not, that's a Tonali specialty, that's not his strength, right? Exactly. So the point.
Speaker 2:The point is I think that's where I was saying that, based on whatever instructions that were given to them, it felt like Constance Sa was too experimental and trying to figure things out. If you ask me, you play Benassi in the middle and then you play these two guys on his side and you're fine, you're totally fine and just leave it that way. Right, that's it. Play Reinders right next to play Reinders right next to what's it called, on the right side or the left side. He can feed passes to guys like Leao or Pulisic, depending on whatever, and then you have a balanced midfield, but then you can't ask Benassi to be present. Do you know where Benassi was present? I saw him present from the other time, like almost at the top of the 18-yard box of Juventus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's so funny because, honestly speaking, that's what I had in mind as well Benassi just being a CDM and playing in front of the defense, right, but again I don't think it's working. I'm not sure if this has to do with fitness and fatigue, but I will see what Conte Salle parades in the Champions League, to be honest, because again, it's going to be against Girona, so it's a different team entirely. So we'll see how that goes. But regardless, even in that Juventus game, right aside the hunger that was in there and the obvious fatigue that was showing, I still feel like there's some one or two things that need to be corrected in that team. This is not just and this has to do with tactical right, because if you look at the way he set up this in the game, with Moussa playing on the right and, you know, packing the midfield, with Benassi, fofana and Tijani Reinders, right. Whenever we have a midfielder like Moussa playing on the right flank even though I know that maybe Kostas didn't have a choice this time because of the fact that maybe the injured players right, whenever I see him play in the right wing I feel like we lose creativity from that side, and if there's no creativity on that side. It's a burden for us. To me, it's a big burden for us. And then you have Emerson Royale just running up and down the right flank, which to me doesn't make any sense at all. You know what I mean. So the key thing is, in all honesty, the key thing is finding that sort of balance in that midfield to even start with, if you want to, if he wants to make anything out of this season right now, with the way things have been so far for this season, there has to be this sort of balance in that midfield, because the midfield wins games.
Speaker 1:When we don't have a strong midfield, you get run over easily. Juventus is not the easy thing. Midfield you get run over easily. Juventus is not the easy thing. Juventus is a very complicated team to play against. Even when we play them in the Super Cup, you can see what happens, like they barely give away chances.
Speaker 1:Now, when we go back to Serie A right against Cagliari, I look at the way things are going. I'm not sure if you noticed the same struggle that we had in the past right with Stefano Pioli, where, where you have teams sit back and just defend all through and then we don't have a breakthrough, then they just counter us and score us one goal and then we find ourselves in trouble and stuff. Do you see? Because I can tell now that Constanzeau is an attacking coach and it's very, very clear what his identity is. This is how he wants to play, he wants to attack, he wants to high-press, he wants to be on the front foot right, which is more is why, immediately he came in tossing Fikai Otomori right away, because Fikai Otomori actually fits the way he wants to play, with either Malik Thiao or Gabi or any other defender coming in. Now I want to ask you a playing question, chin. Do you like Nsissan?
Speaker 2:I haven't seen enough to say yes or no. So honestly, right now, I haven't.
Speaker 1:That's why I thought I had won you a cup.
Speaker 2:No, because even the cup, you see the cup, right, like Milan played with more. I think I said that we played with more passion than it wasn't like. I think I said that in that podcast again that we did not post, that we played with passion, but it wasn't like there was any tactical change, right, that we saw that said, oh wow, big change. No, we just played with more energy and played with more intensity than they played the previous few games against under what's his name? Fonseca, right? So to your point, you do need a solid midfield, you do need a solid midfield base. But then I was thinking about Milan today, because Manchester United came to my mind. You know, one of the commentary about Manchester United is how, against big teams that tend to possess the ball and can come at them, right, they seem to actually do quite well, right? What does that mean? You can sit back and then hit them on counter-attack, or they will give you opportunity, right, because those teams are not there to park the boss and then ask you to break them down. But park the bus and then ask you to break them down. But the unfortunate thing is when they go play against certain teams like teams that are going to sit back, park the bus and expect them to break them down. They don't, actually, they can't. So that's actually Milan. That's what I thought about.
Speaker 2:Maybe I could be wrong, you can correct me. I just believe that when we play good teams right, it seems like we can hold you know it is acceptable, right. Hold, you know it is acceptable right To be more structured, more defensively organized and coordinated right, and then hit on counter-attack or hit when your chances arise or whatever. Don't want to be too open because it'll punish you. You are like when we watch those games against Inter Milan, juventus or whatever, the tension, the level of intensity, it's like, okay, yeah, no, that I know you, that's fine, they should do that Against Madrid, oh yeah, I know they should be coordinated and you know, very compact.
Speaker 2:But when Milan goes to play Como or Cagliari or whatever, you're not sitting down there thinking, oh, that's fine, it's fine to sit back and allow those guys to press you right. Even the players know that they can't do that, but the unfortunate thing is that they don't have that creativity, form, the TIT flow of how they should be creating enormous chances against these teams to convert those chances, and that's no different than under Pioli and under Fonseca. It's the same thing. So, to your point, it might be the way the Milan team is currently constituted or structured. We talk a lot about that attacking midfielder guy. Right that we're missing that piece, and I still believe that we are. The commentator was talking this weekend about do they miss Morata? Probably, probably. They miss Morata, but they also miss Pulisic, because in the absence of Pulisic and then a Morata that can actually be more involved in the play than your typical Abraham.
Speaker 2:Tammy Abraham then you actually miss a little bit more control of the ball and creativity on the ball. But ideally you want an attacking midfielder, you want someone in the midfield that you know I'm not, reinders is not an attacking midfielder, no, you need an attacking midfielder and that's what Milan, in my own opinion, has been missing for the past maybe two and a half, three years now is an attacking midfielder that can actually help drive attack forward, help create some open chances for people like. I seem to remember when we played, like Napoli. You know the year that Milan went to the Champions League semi-final yeah, when you can, brahim Diaz, yeah, brahim Diaz. And then the year before, the two years before, when Hakan was there, you can see like somehow Rafaela was almost always running wide open, free, because people you drag, you dribble past one guy or you make one move and then you're opening the middle and then now all of a sudden guess what you can give a pass into space for Rafael.
Speaker 1:But those kind of plays I don't, I barely see them anymore, it's like it's funny, because this is what happened again In that situation don't forget that Sidiqi right To come fill up the attacking midfielder and then walk out, and again Madrid ended up taking back Bram Diaz. So, in all honesty, this is my, this is what I'm going to say about regarding this midfield. I feel like we need an attacking midfielder. Best thing we can do is, do you support, like bringing Fofana back to the CDM role, like proper CDM role? Because I don't, I don't, this is here. I don't say Fofana, fofana.
Speaker 2:I believe he's a box to box midfielder. Fofana should not be there. Fofana should be like you know how Popogba used to be those days where you put him on the right side of midfielder. He defense is that Pogba was more creative on the ball, but Fofana is more energetic on the ball, off the ball, so that's it. So you do that with Fofana on literally on the right-hand side, let's say, and then his job is to just charge people, and then you keep Benacer there, and then on the other side you put Reinders. At least that way you have a little bit of a. You have the what's it called midfield trio, where one is energetic. Box to box Reinders is somewhat that, but the only difference is that he's tired and he's also not that physical in terms of his defensive abilities right Now. Then there's Benacer, who can actually help you coordinate everything and bring it together, and he's also, quite, you know, physical in terms of winning the ball back when it gets to the front of the post at 18. So I don't think so.
Speaker 2:The problem for Fana is that he's not disciplined enough to just stay there. He doesn't. You know what I mean. Like his brain tells him you have to run and go forward or do whatever, go join the attack, and then he's I told you this before he then starts chasing back. Then he's running behind. When you want to be that pivot, the pivot cannot, you know, be further ahead than certain players on the team. Right, Like your goals will always come from. Maybe if your team is pressing, not pressing high, holding possession high up, then maybe there's a rebound on top of the box. Then you score. That's those kind of goals you score right.
Speaker 2:I always think about or even Fabinho when he was there. You can't be the guy that makes the late run from whatever and then run into the box late. That cannot be you, because what will happen is once your team, especially a team that has certain players like Rafael Leal, that likes to do some moves that are unexpected when they lose the ball, then now you're out of position. Now you have to start chasing people back, and once you're out of position at that level, there's no coming back. And once you're at a position at that level, there's no coming back. You're going to be at a position. So what you need is some form of progression that allows people to like the team to progress in a manner where you know where your CDM is not at a position, and that guy is not Fofana, that's just me, and he's not around us either. The closest person we have right now on the team is Benacer, in my own opinion, I agree with you again, but we have to wait for Benacer to come for fitness.
Speaker 1:I don't think he's really fully fit now. He just got back from a lengthy injury and people it's so funny when I see Milan's fans, you know, tweeting about Benacer being washed up or, like you know, his time is over, and all those negative I'm like yo, this guy's been out for like almost a year, man. He got back again and went back to injury Again for like a few months, so he's not really been available. He's not been healthy, like you know, recently, so they need to be patient with him for him to get back to full fitness. To be honest, I have a question, shane.
Speaker 2:Okay. But to be honest, to play devil's advocate, you do know usually what happens or athletes. What happens to them is their body betrays them, right? So when you say your body betrays you, sometimes you see someone has an ACL injury and they're out for eight, nine months and they come back and they're never the same person, right? So the point I'm trying to make is people might be right. Ben Ase might never be the same guy ever again, just simply because he has been injured for so many years that before he picks back up, he might then be 30 years old and at that point it's like, okay, you know what I mean. It's not like he's like 21 years old that he will come back and he has another two, three years he'll pick from again. No, sometimes that's how people's career ends and then, before you know it, belen Seyed retires at the age of 31 because he can't keep up, because he can't.
Speaker 1:Shane, let's just quickly round up our conversation about this particular game. Who are your tops and flops In?
Speaker 2:the game against Juventus. Yeah Well, I kind of mentioned my flop. My flop was in my own opinion anyway. Emerson Royale, like I thought he struggled. Again in my own opinion. Again, tomori, tomori. For some reason I don't know if I talk, you say I said I think Tomori is not having a great season, I think he's struggling and I think he's not doing a great job.
Speaker 1:But that is the same game though.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I'm just telling you. You asked me, I'm telling you my flops, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I also think.
Speaker 2:I think Benassi in any way shape or form. So those are them, but if, in terms, if you want top three, it will be Emerson Royale I will leave to Murray, so that we don't argue about him Ben Ase and Sami Abraham. What I'm telling you? I don't know what you watch, but you always watch the recoveries. Who are your positives? I don't know Mike Mian. So thing is. I know there was a day that Mike Minya made a mistake I think it's the game against Cagliari, right, and they said it cost Milan the game.
Speaker 1:But he did the same thing against the following game against Como.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what was it again against Como?
Speaker 1:It was beaten in his near post.
Speaker 2:I can't remember the Como goal, but that one doesn't matter now because we won the game, right. No, no, no. So sometimes let's not talk about the near post, no, near post. The point I'm trying to make is he did a lot of saves against Juventus, right? So Mike Meah saves Milan a lot.
Speaker 2:I always, like every time I watch him, I feel like we're lucky to have him as a goalkeeper, because a lot of teams would definitely kill to have him as a goalkeeper. I agree, no different than, let's say, I guess into your point Rafael Leal Like, okay, we should be happy that we have a player of that caliber at the team. Now, obviously, when he's consistently having issues, we should call him out. But Mike has one issue every now and then he's not consistently having issues Against Juventus. He was saving us left and right and then eventually they scored a couple of goals that were kind of lucky One deflection and the other one was a shot that he couldn't react. But the point I'm trying to make is he was a positive for me. I don't think I remember Gabi putting a foot wrong in that game, but other than that, there's not a lot of positivity coming out of that Juventus game. It just felt like a boring game from Milan's perspective, and Juventus were more up for it, so that was it.
Speaker 1:That's my yeah, from my perspective. In all honesty, I think I have to call out Fofana yeah, his fatigue, yeah, ball Giving away the ball like back to back, like he did it against Como and again it happened again yesterday against.
Speaker 2:Juventus. He also did it against Cagliari, the goal that everybody blames Mike Mignan for. Like, for fun, I literally gave away the ball and just decided that he was not going to chase back and was complaining Exactly so to me.
Speaker 1:That's my number one flop. Number two, I think Benassi, but again I would cut him a slack for the fact that he is just getting back from injury and again, the amount of workload that's been put upon him, I think his body is really not able to carry it, which is the more reason why he's struggling.
Speaker 2:Can I also give the ref? Can I give the ref a flop? Like Italian refs are kind of annoying too, like I don't know about you, but can we rate the ref Because the ref was annoying in that game. There were a few times where there was the one where they tackled Teo Hernandez Gatsy. He did not even get the ball at all, the guy did not get it, but he just cleared Teo and he said no penalty. I'm thinking like what do you have to do to get a penalty?
Speaker 1:If it was Yadari Ram, they didn't even go to the monitor to go check. No was happening, or he didn't get any, any, any call or any, any, any notification from his, from his, from his other guys in the var room, that, hey, you want to stop and check this and you know there's nothing. They just brush it up again. This is one of the reasons why I don't I'm kind of like, you know, I don't really read too much to tell our refs because they are who they are, like they always officiate within this sort of spectrum of home, home away or home advantage and all those kinds of things, which is more reason why I didn't really read much of that, to be honest. Anyways, yeah, my last flop is Tammy Abraham, in all honesty, which kind of brings us to the conversation of the transfer window. Ching, I said it in our last pod that we didn't post right. I said we need a striker. We need a striker.
Speaker 2:And I asked you to come and do what.
Speaker 1:Exactly If you see a striker like Tammy Abraham, for example, who is very good in terms of his movement.
Speaker 2:No, I thought you said Milan should sign him for life.
Speaker 1:Hold on, listen. Now Let me finish. He has a lot of good qualities. The only problem I have with him is just finishing. And again, if you look at the Juventus game right, he was being battered anyways With Demgati and all those guys. They're a very physical guy. Kalulu, too, did a really good dirty job on him. So, yeah, but again, to me, I feel like we still need one quality striker that will say yes, you can bank on us. This is a guy that will give us at least 15 to 16 goals, no matter how bad the season is. That's how I feel. Now, talking about the transfer window Kyle Walker Chin. What's your opinion on Kyle Walker?
Speaker 2:Milan should not be buying players like Kyle Walker. He's expensive and he's not going to bring you that much value, especially this season. This isn't the worst season to go and start spending big money on a player Because, frankly speaking, what are you going to accomplish this season? You can accomplish that with the exact same set of players you have today. You're complaining that you need a striker. If Arsenal say they need a striker, I understand, because they are fighting for the league.
Speaker 2:What is Milan going to use an extra striker for? So that they can come and be fighting? Jovich came on this week, so now you're watching him. Well, you have jovich, morata and uh, what's his name? Tamir. All of them combined might have like five goals this year. But regardless, what are you going to do? So you go spend, spend it. Which? Which striker is out there? Milan calibre, that you can go get that. Let me say milan calibre, meaning that isn't going to go to one of the top teams in Europe top, top teams like I'm talking about people that have money to pay them and then we'll come to Milan and change your whole outlook this year. It's not like there's any young Italian striker right now that you can go and grab, you're not getting Rategi because he just, yeah, he just moved to Atalanta, right. So the point I'm trying to make is let's just manage the season out, let's aim for top four, and then let's try and win one or two things, and then in summer.
Speaker 1:But, Chin, you need striker for the top four. You need striker to score goals for you to reach top four. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, guess what? So, Dave, who's on your mind?
Speaker 1:Just give. We need a striker in Italian League, for example. This guy look, this, is it here? First of all, I feel like the model that Zlatan is using to approach this market. I don't like it in all honesty. You're right, there could be a whole lot of guys that would be better than Kawaka in Italian League in terms of contributing to the current situation we have. And looking at the age of Kawaka and the amount of money they're going to spend on him versus what he's bringing to Milan, like they said, they claim, obviously, his leadership. You know he's going to bring this sort of leadership role to the dressing room and again, I'm like yo, like we need someone that will come in the field and play. But do you see, my question to you is Chin. Do you think, do you think Kawaka will really have an impact in Milan in terms of play, not just in terms of like playing?
Speaker 2:So Kawaka would never put. I never signed Kawaka. So if Kawaka was still the same guy, man City would not be letting him go. So I can't believe that Milan is going to spend all that money to get the guy only temporarily, for a couple of like one year, maybe one and a half years to do what it's not like. You're barely. You're about to go win something big and you need him to help you get you over the hump.
Speaker 2:Talk about leadership, leadership. What leadership are you talking about? Milan should be spending money buying a right back for the future. Real is not your right back for the future, so you should be spending money buying players for the future that will help you, Because eventually, guys like Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leal will move on from Milan. It will happen within the next two years, right, in some way. So the point I'm trying to make is you have to start thinking of okay, how are you going to help this team? You're building Milan as though you're like Conte in Inter Milan that needs to win now because he's basically he has a good enough squad that he can go and fight for the league. We're not doing that, based on whatever Fonseca has done to the team. We're not there. So let's use this year as a year to figure out which players are still good and not good.
Speaker 2:Last season, we brought in Morata and what's his name, and Tammy Abraham. Is that the market strategy we're doing? I'm actually getting confused because it's beginning to feel like the banter era back in those days, that Milan would just bring any name player and there's no plan. When Maldini was there, we all knew what the plan was Young players that nobody knew, and then they would blow them into something big. That's how we got all the guys. In fact, if we were patient with CDK, he would still be there and be considered one of those guys. That was what Milan was doing before Tonali became Tonali. Milan would buy before okay. So the point I'm trying to get across is there's no strategy right now. The strategy is bring any to finish top six in the league. That's not sustainable. That's not economically sustainable as well. That's just it.
Speaker 1:Anyways, Tim, before you go, one last question Champions League on Wednesday. What are you expecting from Milan?
Speaker 2:Well, we've done well in the Champions League. I think Girona is not the Girona of last season. So I think Milan would probably find a way to beat Girona. They always turn up in the big games. So they always turn up in the big games, so they win the game, which I think will automatically seal their place in the next round. Now they have to aim to finish in that round, where you don't have to play another round, you just automatically qualify, right? So I think Milan should be able to beat Girona Not saying it should be an easy game, but I think they will barely beat Girona and they will squeak in. I think Pulisic should be back, should be back, which will help them. And yeah, and then the other thing too that we didn't talk about in Juventus' game is that there's a Champions League coming, so Milan should be able to beat Girona.
Speaker 1:Anyways, Shane, it's been a pleasure talking to you about Milan. Let's link up after the Girona game on Wednesday and talk more about it. Thank you so much, guys.
Speaker 2:Thank you very, bye, poza Milano, bye.
