Davy & Chin Talk A.C Milan Weekly
Davy & Chin Talk A.C Milan Weekly
Cremonese Shock: Davy & Chin Analyze Max Allegri's Milan Opening Day Stumble
Max Allegri's return to the Milan bench has started with an unwelcome surprise as the Rossoneri fell 2-1 to relegation candidates Cremonese at a packed San Siro. This defeat immediately exposes vulnerabilities that plagued Milan throughout the previous campaign – specifically, an inability to convert chances against defensive opponents and a fragile mentality that seems to persist despite the coaching change.
The 3-5-2 formation employed by Allegri raises significant tactical questions. With a midfield trio of Fofana, Loftus-Cheek, and 40-year-old Modric, Milan lacked the creativity and progressive passing needed to break down Cremonese's organized defence. Despite generating 24 shots, the quality of chances remained poor, with only six finding the target and an xG of just 1.88. Most concerning was seeing veteran Modric emerge as Milan's standout performer, suggesting deeper issues within the squad.
Without the injured Rafael Leão, Milan's attack appeared one-dimensional and predictable. Santiago Gimenez struggled as a lone striker, often isolated and unable to create space for himself against physical defenders. Pulisic and Saelemaekers, while industrious, couldn't provide the spark of unpredictability needed to unlock a stubborn defence. The search for a clinical striker continues to be urgent, with names like Haaland being discussed as potential solutions to Milan's finishing problems.
Defensively, the back three of Tomori, Gabbia, and Pavlovic failed to provide the solidity expected from an Allegri team. The absence of a commanding center-back comfortable in possession further complicated Milan's build-up play. With rivals securing opening weekend victories, Milan already find themselves playing catch-up in what promises to be a competitive Serie A season.
Friday's match against Lecce now takes on added importance as Allegri searches for the right balance and formation to get his team back on track. Will he persist with the 3-5-2 or return to the 4-2-3-1 that served Milan well in recent seasons? The potential return of Leão could provide a much-needed spark, but fundamental questions about midfield balance and defensive organization remain. Join us as we continue to follow Milan's journey under Allegri's second tenure.
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.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone. This is Davian Chin Talk Milan, and we are back again, chin. What's up, man? How you doing bro.
Speaker 1:I was good. I was good until yesterday, but overall I'm doing okay. But Milan started the season poorly, so I guess that's what we're here to talk about.
Speaker 2:Anyways, ladies and gentlemen, thanks again for joining with us. We're back from the first game of the season against Cremonese at the San Siro. A packed San Siro, sold out San Siro. Unfortunately, on Saturday evening we lost to Cremonese by two goes to one. Not the dream start that we all expected, not the kind of start that we wanted from Allegra and his boys. But hey, here we are. So it is what it is, I guess, chin.
Speaker 2:You see, the thing is, I had a feeling that this was going to be a little bit difficult game for us, not because of the fact that Criminosis is one good team or whatever. I just knew that this kind of team. Look, we've not beaten Criminosis since 2017. We lost two games before yesterday, before the Saturday game. Right, and they just know. They know how to play Milan. They sit back and patiently wait for the opportunity to come and take advantage of it. But, in all honesty, though, I expected us to do better. You know what I mean. I expected us to do better in that game, but we're kind of passive to start with. I'm not sure if it's the retention in the stadium that usually gets these players, or maybe it's just the fact that it was the first game of the season and there's still a lot of new players, if I will say, but hey, we lost.
Speaker 1:Well, all those new players. Most of them did not start the game right.
Speaker 1:So, I'll tell you this Whenever Milan struggles in the league, it's because we always struggle against all these small teams, right Like there are certain teams that I feel like whether you're good if Milan takes the second XI to play Criminosi, they should be able to beat them at home nonetheless, yeah. So to me, like yeah to me's, it's inexcusable to lose to criminals the difference between losing to one of your top contenders I get that one to lose to these teams. You just threw away three points, three valuable points that would come in very handy when, because we drop points against the tough teams, we shouldn't be dropping points against teams that are fighting relegation exactly at home yeah, yeah, I agree with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so to me. You see, this is here. I know you watched the Barry game right and we had a lot of chances. It's so funny because after the game, I think Justin's coach that actually fielded him for a link because of his red card right Kind of made a comment that there was too many chances and we didn't convert it right. And I feel like I could see the same thing yesterday as well. We had 24 shots, bro, only one goal. Is this a bad luck or just poor finishing? What would you sum it up as?
Speaker 1:Well, it would be. Again, I keep talking about chances. There are chances, and then there's quality of chances. Right, if you're making certain okay, great players, very good players, can convert, you know very low SG chances and make them into actual goals, right. But not very good players. They need easy chances, right, they need convertible chances. So there was a period where Jimenez got a couple of chances where if he was a much better player, those would have probably been a goal right, but he took too many touches in the box and tried to get the ball out of his feet and then he missed those chances.
Speaker 1:So what I'm trying to say is that it's all about the quality of the chances. So that's why the fact that it looks like Milan are attempting many shots right, they are trying so many things but if it's not good quality chances, then you're not going to actually be able to convert right. Of the 24 shots you're talking about, six were on target SG was 1.88. So, again, that's not. You know what I mean. Now, to be honest with you, we're also a little unfortunate with the quality of the goals that Cremignosi had, exactly. But it's just Milan. They need to be more clinical and that's why I still believe that we need a striker. We need a striker that can just take all those low SG chances and convert them into goals. Right yeah, and I'm sure we're going to talk about that at some point.
Speaker 1:But that was what Milan, to me, was missing yesterday. It was that striker that, just you know, even when everything else is not going well, they can always just make a way. You remember when Allegri was at Milan the first time? Yeah, he had those kind of players where, even though the team was not going to play very well, but a little chance they'll convert it into a goal. Right yeah, in fact, they can even create something from nothing. Without Rafael Leal, yesterday, it felt like they couldn't really create anything, and that was the issue. They couldn't create. There was no dynamism. Jimenez is not that guy. Jimenez is not the guy.
Speaker 2:True to be told, though, like I think, if you look at Allegri's history, right, he's always having, he's, he's, he's always, you know, having he has. He has this history of having a slow start right of the season. It's very common with him. However, though, like again this team, this Milan team, like you always say, like he's an emotional team.
Speaker 1:Like, do just no, it's not a bigger problem, it's just that, you know, at least it gives him. So the only issue I have with all these first games and it's just this, right is the fact that um, um, we end up. We end up with this situation where there's a sad feeling around the team until they go and prove a point next time, right, um, usually, like I, I feel like when you, when you have easy teams at the beginning of the season, it's your, it's your time to rack up points so that you have momentum going in when, so that you meet the big teams, then it doesn't really hamper you that much. Milan lost, napoli won, entice probably going to win tomorrow. All of a sudden, you're now like finding yourself in the bottom half of the table and then heaven forbid, next week you go draw. You've just dropped five points in the first six points, right, and that's how you end up having a bad season. I told you last year the issue started with Torino when they came to San Siro and, you know, outplayed Milan and got a point right Against against Fonseca's Milan, riminuzi, right, even though, like to your point, we had a lot of shots, not a lot of shots on target, but a lot of shots, yet they lost. They lost a team that they should not be losing to at home in the first game of the season. So that just changes the mood of the squad. And then now they have to look for a way to win a game, and win convincingly, in order for them to actually feel like, okay, we're back on this thing.
Speaker 1:Right, and that's the biggest issue is, you start on the back foot, and you don't want to start on the back foot, especially when you're not the favorite going into the season to win. Like I've seen, teams like Bologna and other teams use like early momentum, right Early season momentum, to carry them to big things. And Milan, on the other hand, we start off poorly momentum-wise and then we try to build up steam. Even the year we won Scudetto with Pioli, it was the same thing. It wasn't like Milan were killing it, it was towards the end of the season that they kind of turned it on. You know what I mean. So to me, that's just the thing we have to start off great. And we didn't start off great. So now the question is what are we going to do from here?
Speaker 2:I know that's the next question, chin, knowing Allegri as a pragmatist right, he's the kind of person that is much more into tactics and the positioning and everything like that. How do you think this will affect the flair of Milan going forward?
Speaker 1:The reality is that, again, if you have great players, they're always going to have flair or they're always going to make things happen. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, but the issue is that Allegri is not the kind of person that is in the business of creating triangles all over the field and trying to get you to do tiki-taka or make the ball look nice, right, all he wants is effectiveness, right, you go from point A to point B, you get some goals, you defend. I think the biggest part that he will be disappointed is just the lack of strength by the defense. I told you that Milan's defense, the fact that Tomori is your best defender, to me, a loon, I keep saying he's already a problem, right, and you can see yesterday, like the first goal, the big guy, just it was. Just. There's no competition, right, like we feel sometimes that they are soft from a defensive perspective. And I also knew now that he's asking for a center back, a striker and a midfielder. I don't know if his problem was midfield, because he had all his options yesterday and yet he started Ruben Loftus-Chick, right, he started Ruben Loftus-Chick, fofana and Modric.
Speaker 1:So my question is, where did he think the leg and creativity will come from. Like, those were the three people when it comes to Milan-Midfield that you do not. To me they don't, because in as much as I like Modric, he's a little older, right? So if you ever want to play Modric, you want to play him with a guy like Richie, so? But then the funny thing is, I think the both of them might be seen as playing in the same position, which is a little bit sad, right? And then if you want to play what's it called I, I can't play Ruben Loftus-Chikam for Fana. You know why? To me, they are similar profile players.
Speaker 2:But the question, though, is, if you look at the game yesterday, right, I think, when you have players like Salamakas, right, and you have players like Pulisic, you expect the creativity, you know, or the flair going forward to be coming from those, from those angles, right from those particular players. But looking at watching that game, like every time, I see police getting the ball from the left flank, the usual thing that you expect like players like rafael layout to do, which is, like you know, busting space and try to cut in the middle. You know, same thing with salamakas. I didn't see that happen. Salamakas passed the ball way too many, too many times, but that's his game, though, salamakas is not the guy to take people on right.
Speaker 1:He's not too much Like, I think, the goal we scored. He was involved in that goal, but that's not his thing to do people 1v1. He's the guy that would actually do that pass. So I think that's the issue. The other thing, too, that bothers me too is I think he has to start thinking more. We always say he's a pragmatic coach, right? He has to start asking himself like he has to have more formations in his cupboard right in his drawer than this whole 3-5-2 formation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, talking about the formation Chin. Let's really just talk about the formation, actually, because my question is, though like how comfortable are you with this formation, this 352?
Speaker 1:well, I can be comfortable with any formation if the formation, if he has the players to play that formation, you get. When you're forcing someone like police, it should be your to be a strike, a forward like at or not forward right, and you know what I mean. And then you have salamacas, who barely ever takes anybody on right one-on-one per se, and then now you have a Estupinan. Wasn't too much of a problem, I think, based on the players Milan have. If you ask me, milan should be playing a four at the back. Estupinan is not your, uh your. He can try, but he's not a tail. That would, you know, bomb all the way forward and help out and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1:Now, even with this three uh three five formation, even when Rafael comes back, he will try to shoehorn him. I know we talked about it that it might be good for him to be as an outstriker, but you're going to be games where he won't have the experience that a true number nine would have to go against certain good centre-backs, right. So the reality is that he has to have options. He has to have options. He has to have options. He can start. This way, he can also rotate the game so that it kind of goes around right Like Dimitri. I dislike this, dimitri. I feel like you can't put Fofana, ruben Loftus-Chick and Modric all in one the same game, because he's he's a bad player. It's just like he's old, he's too old. Then you have Ruben Loftus-Chiglian, who likes to carry the ball. Fofana in his own way is not like you need. You need your, your Reinders, or your I'm calling Reinders, but your guys that like the short, small small passes right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so funny You're actually making a good point because, again, if you noticed yesterday, right on Saturday, sorry, most of the chances actually kind of fell into Fofana right, and it was just skyrocketing the ball. I'm like he's getting himself in the right pocket, the right position, but his end product was just very horrible, very, very horrible. Like product was just very horrible, very, very horrible. Like, to me, fofana actually contributed to our loss in that game. You know, honestly, because, again, defensive-wise, actually, if he had tracked back properly and you know be much more focused on his players around him, he should have picked up Bonazzoli way early before the guy scored that beautiful goal. By the way, the thing is, if you look at everything as it is right now and again the 3-5-2, I think it's kind of isolating the striker, which I do not like. Jimenez was isolated all through the game.
Speaker 1:Well, that's because you have these guys. You have Ruben, loftus-chick and Forfana. If you want to do those things, you you need to have. Okay, you know how, when he, if you play 3-5-2, you always have that box-to-box, but the box-to-box player has to have, has to be more geared towards attacking, right, supporting, being that late runner. So I'll use an example, like if Milan had when Makisio used to do his job, right?
Speaker 2:Makisio is a perfect player for something like this.
Speaker 1:I remember yeah, where know what I mean. Like he wasn't your guy, that would come and make a lot of tackles for you, but he would always be in the box when needed. Reinders would be good for that position as well, where he would always come in late because you need that person. Otherwise, to your point, you're just playing with two guys up to support. Then it's not going to work In Tamil Nadu. How can they actually get away with it? Because they have all this. They have Barella and Hakan, and those guys can just, you know, join the play. You know what I mean. They can always. They have the leg to join the play. You need that leg. And the issue with Fofana and Ruben Loftus-Chikor and he doesn't sprint, he jogs right. And the same with Fofana. Those guys are like, they're not the people. So hopefully next game my hope is that next game that he will actually realize his mistake I think his mistake was in midfield for me and then go ahead.
Speaker 2:Let me ask you one question, Chin. If you had to pick your three midfielders for the next game, who would you pick?
Speaker 1:Well, I haven't seen Jazari play at Milan, right, but I would actually play Ricky there. Why? Because he's the only one that seems to be a good combination of you know like he can move the ball right. Keep the ball moving, because I always value midfielders that don't like to carry the ball. Necessarily, the issue with carrying the ball is that if your pace is more than everybody's pace, then you're basically going by yourself on the fast break, aka Ruben Loftus trick. If your pace is slower than everybody else, then that means you know what I mean. Then you're just waiting for the defenders or that team to come back.
Speaker 1:I like people that value moving the ball, like from their leg to space, right, you keep talking about like. What makes Rafael Leael good is the fact that he can get ball to space, or even police, which you want to isolate players 1v1. But when you have players that don't understand the concept of you get the ball, there's room to pass the ball out of your leg so that someone else can take advantage quickly. They want to run with the ball instead. That's where you end up with problems, because then the other team will recover and then they will set up and then now you'll be forced to create difficult chances.
Speaker 1:Then now you say, oh okay, you had so many shots, but the shots I did not, I do are not actually high, high quality chance shots, right, yeah, so if you ask me, I always have to have rich in dimitri, always because I think he's he's our best midfielder right now in my own opinion. Right, have him there and then you figure the rest out. Just try not to play with Loftus-Chick, in my opinion, for me, I can always see Loftus-Chick and Fofana replacing each other right, and then you can say between Richie, modric and Jazari, you can always have those three right Among themselves, because I haven't seen Jazari play and I'm wondering is he ever going to play If he switches to?
Speaker 2:4-2-1-3, our usual formation. Do you think Richie and Modric can be a good partner in the midfield?
Speaker 1:So 4-2-1-3? Well, if he's going to do that, I'll be surprised. If he plays Richie and Modric there, he'll probably want to play Modric as a one, yeah, and then play richie, play richie and for fana, or something like that right, or is he usually like when purely plays the fourth one through?
Speaker 2:I usually have like, um, what do you call it for, fana?
Speaker 2:and either for fun and bennett say we'll try for fun, and bennett at that time and having tijan ryan has to play in front of them yeah you know what I'm saying which gives Tijan Norenda that freedom to play as a free-roaming midfielder, which I think Jashari will probably be a better fit if he wants to play for if he goes back for a game. But my question is, if I look at the central defence right and I'm going to see this in all honesty I love our back three, but my question is we still need a very solid centre-back.
Speaker 1:I also don't think he should be playing all his centre-backs at the same time. I don't understand this one. Milano have that many centre-backs. There's literally only four of them in the whole team Although, maybe because he doesn't have any other competition to play, he thinks he can play everybody at the same time.
Speaker 2:Chin, let me ask you one question how confident are you with Gabi being in the centre of the back three?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I don't know Because the reality, okay, I'm telling you I don't know, because usually for me I always say the guy in the middle of the back three is a very good passer of the ball. But that's not something that I actually like. When I think of best good passer of the ball, I think of it. That's why I keep bringing back Marichal, that I'm actually surprised that he got rid of him, because one thing he's good at is passing the ball. So you need someone who can pass the ball Now. Maybe the winter can go step in there and start, because you need.
Speaker 1:You know how Bonici used to do it, like he was in the middle there. That was. You can, and then what's it called? You can distribute your wingbacks and then that should allow you to take advantage of the space. But the reality is that we don't have that player right now and that's why maybe the best thing for Milan is to play with four defenders. Play with four defenders. I don't know if it's because he doesn't have a right back, but then he bought that young kid. When is he going to play the guy right back? But then he bought that young kid. When is he going to play the guy At the camera. Yeah, yeah, like again Allegri, stubborn guy. So we'll see what he does.
Speaker 2:I can make a case for Allegri. In this case, though, because of the fact that the period that these guys are arriving right I don't think it's really it gives him that much time to be able to, you know, just throw these guys in the game. You know, allegri is always a serious guy. I don't think he's the kind of person that would just throw in any player just like that. He really wants to have that sort of confidence in them before he starts playing them. So why did he buy them? Well, I mean again, I think he needs time, yeah but he bought.
Speaker 2:Modric, come on, come on. And to be honest, I just find it very, I think. I think it's more of an insult for Modric to actually be the best player in that game.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm just telling you, like a 40-year-old man is, milan is the best player, like again, but we'll see. We'll see what. I wish that Allegri would be more flexible. He has to now. The good thing about him is he's very flexible because he's not stuck on a particular thing. Yeah, so he will be able to. He will be able to move things around to get the result he needs. I was just really disappointed with the result that we with that, with that first game of the season, because you come in, we're all hoping, we all had this big high hopes prediction, uh, that milan, you know we're going to compete for the league and guess what happens? You come into the first game of the season against a relegation team and just like that, just like that, like you know what I mean yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about the striker. I know everybody was so hyped on Victor Boniface, right, johnny Miller, and then all of a sudden he filled Benico's. If you had to make a wish now, chin, who do you think is going to be the perfect I shouldn't say perfect, but who do you think is going to be the right striker that I think will fit into Alex Blanc.
Speaker 1:So the reality is that the best option we have at this moment is Hoyland. I say Hoyland because every there's not a lot of strikers available for, there's not a lot of strikers available for you to buy right. A lot of clubs, a lot of clubs, right, if they have strikers, they're not going to just give it to you right, because there's a shortage of strikers in world football today. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So the fact that we're actually looking at a player like Hoyland and a player like Blauvic tells me that there's a problem with those guys. Even Boniface that is there. It tells me there's a problem with them. I say there's a problem with them because their team cannot just be giving them away for free. Yeah right, but they are trying to give them away.
Speaker 1:So even if holland comes to milan, I'm not going to actually hold my breath because the realities are probably die right, hoping that he'll do something. It's a spectacular, but at least it gives us an out-and-out striker that we can actually rely on. Like I thought jimenez was going to be that guy, but when I watch him I realized, okay, and I told you when they bought him that my fear with people like him is that you know how they say class is permanent, form is temporary. He might have just had form right for a year or two and then we just take it and you know what I mean like the, the way he, he grew from, he was which is almost nobody, to just one day becoming, oh, a guy. You know what I mean A guy with so many goals in Europe. It might just be what's it called A purple patch and Milan went and bought a purple patch and then now the guy can't even find space in the box to shoot ball.
Speaker 2:But it's not that bad, though, come on Chin, he's not that bad.
Speaker 1:No, he's not that bad, but it's just that when I think of a guy that will take you there, he's not that guy, right?
Speaker 2:My problem with Jimenez is just, probably just his level of consistency. Again, and I think again he's still setting in Serie A. People always think Serie A is it's a different ball game when it comes to Italian league, because the defenders are wild, like again, you have to, like you know, have that sort of extra grit to be able to, like you know, make the best out of opportunities that's been given to you. And if you look at, if you look at the way Milan is set up right now, I think Jimenez is going to have to work twice as hard as he was to be able to at least, you know, be at the level that all the fans are expecting him to be Again if Rafael comes back.
Speaker 1:That's what I was going to say. If Rafael comes back from his injury, where would he play Jimenez?
Speaker 2:If you ask me, I feel like if Rafael comes back, he should go back to the left-hand side, which is where Pulisic is currently playing, and have what's his name, salamaka. Have Pulichi go back to the right wing that he's usually used to, but my question is would Pulichi be able to track back like Salamaka does? Again, we always underestimate Salamaka's work ethics. That guy is a hard worker. Who's the guy?
Speaker 1:Who's we, who's we? You know work ethics. That guy is who's we, who's we? Call your name, what do you mean? That's the only reason why I always say I, every single time.
Speaker 1:I say alexis, he's a very hard worker. The only problem is his finishing is significantly poor. Right, he's so bad and his final product is not the best, right. But but over the last few whatever he's actually improved, right, you know what I mean. Over since he went on loan a few times, he's actually gotten better, but still there's a lot of work to be done. His one-on-one taking people on is not really the best, right, that's not one of the things he excels at. Again, again, there's a lot of work to be done.
Speaker 1:But now when you say Pulisic there, I told you you can play Pulisic there if you're playing against Criminosi, but then I will play Criminosi. Guess what happened? We ended up losing. So the question is when do you get to play Pulisic on the right side? I'm asking Because there are certain teams you can just look at and say, ok, I'm going to play Pulisic, or you know what I mean on the right side, for more creativity.
Speaker 1:Because if you play him against certain teams like Inter Milan or this world, then he will need to work so hard that he might not even do anything going forward. Right? So that's the issue. If we start the season up against a team like Camino de Zoua, you want to have your best players playing in certain situations and then we lose, right lose, and then all of a sudden and you lose like it's not even like we lost. Milan lost the last minute, the goal was scored, we still had like 30 minutes to find a goal, but we couldn't find a goal yeah, and it's so funny because in the game right he took off.
Speaker 2:I think he took off tomori. Yeah, he took off tomori and tried to switch to back four, which still didn't produce any sort of result. That I mean, we didn't really create enough in that game. You know, after, after switching to back four, and I think, again this, this may have a lot to do with the player's mentality too right, because again, when you're down in san siro, like the pressure and everything is all gonna be on you and you try to, like you know, create and stuff like that to, to me I feel like Allegri has a big, big, big problem, puzzles to solve, if you ask me.
Speaker 1:And again, I'm talking about how I can tune in. It's not the same players that Milan sent away on loan. Half of the Cremonese players are Milan players. You know what I was saying? The same thing when I watching. Exactly Half of the players are Milan players on loan, or they are from like Napoli on loan, or whatever on loan Like Terrasiano. Like you know, Bondo your boy, Bondo that you said was they are all on loan from other players and those are the people that you have the intention to play against. Oh man, Okay.
Speaker 1:This is the question I have for you how confident are you in allegory? I have faith in allegory because of his. Again, he's the winningest coach in syria, right, he's won the most league titles. And, again, I trust the guy. I trust that he will find a way. If not, he will burn down the whole place, right, so that's good. Uh, he's already ahead. He's already started talking to management about wanting more players. Hopefully they can find him people between the next week and then. That should allow him to.
Speaker 1:You know, try to do some stuff, and it's also going to take a little bit of time, because reality is that Milan players do not have that mentality, the winning mentality. They are fragile, right, they are still a fragile group. Just because we have a new coach doesn't mean that automatically that the players will end up just becoming good right, you know what I mean or start believing that they are winners. You know how he always talks about juventus and says they have to be winners, right, like winning at all costs. Milan is not there yet, right? Milan is not there yet and to me, psychologically, like he, that's where he has to do a lot of his work and when he's done with that, maybe a few games into decision, he might actually be able to get them believing and he might take one game where they were, where they are probably losing, or you know, they'll come back and they they find that belief right, but they don't have it.
Speaker 1:This is the same. If I think about it, 99 of the players I play today, apart from Modric and Estupina, were from last season. Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So to me, exactly so to me, there's no difference. It's the same people. I said that he changed coach, which we did twice last year, so it doesn't matter. So this guy has to figure out a way to build imbibe confidence in these players to make them believe, to build imbibe confidence in these players to make them believe, believe that they actually can do, can do what his previous Juventus teams used to do, which is it doesn't matter if it's 1-0 or 0.5-0, find a way to win right, and that's the key. So I'm still confident in him. Just because of his winning Again, it doesn't mean that I like him as a coach, but I'm still confident in him, and I told you, we're going to just have a boring one year with him and see how it goes. Now, if he wins the league this year, then again all Milan fans will make him I'm sure you'll forget about Pioli, finally and make him your new love, right?
Speaker 2:Well, like, in all honesty, I love Allegri, like, even like before he died, of course you love Allegri. Again, there's a reason, like if I feel like this team needs someone that will put, someone that will put the entire team in order, including the management as well, and I feel like Allegri is the right person to do it. My concern again is that I just want him to look, looking to some other options. If the 3-5-2 is not working for him, he should just switch to the back four and find a solution and give these players the opportunity, like the flair or the freedom they want and again, also giving that in the process of doing that, also give them that sort of self-discipline and discipline as a team in defending, because, again, that's one of our biggest problems when we switch back four, we always have that, this huge gap in midfield that always, you know, end up coming to bite us again for final needs to step up. Step up his game this season, not just you know where is he stepping it up to?
Speaker 1:where's he stepping it up to? Because you have to ask yourself, like the player, does he have what you're asking? Because you have to remember too right it you know sometimes. So, like, for instance, if Modric came into Milan and we're like Modric is struggling, he has to step up. We know that we have seen him at his peak before right, I'm just assuming here and he's good when he's good. But what did you see for Fandana? Like, since he has been at Milan, I have had the same concerns. Nothing has changed. So where is he stepping up to? If you say Rafael Leal should step up his game, I understand, because we've seen Rafael Leal be dominant and unplayable, right, exactly. So that's how you kind of judge people is, by what they've shown you in the past. And since Fafana has been at Milan I don't know about you I haven't really seen him have any peak.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he had this moment when he was playing alongside Reinders, don't forget. Right Again. Okay, this is it here. Was it him or was it Reinders? Making him step up his game Itchin we're playing Lecce in our next game on Friday. Yes, another surprise. Don't forget that we're facing Kamada, our young talent that will lose Lecce, another loan.
Speaker 1:So Milan, all Milan players. So the funny thing is, I wonder how when Milan loans players, they become good, but when they add Milan they are bad.
Speaker 2:Well, we'll see how that goes on Friday. Right Now, the thing is, what are your expectations in this game though, in this particular game against Lecce?
Speaker 1:Do you think are you expecting, expected Allegri to make any sort of switch in terms of personnels, or you just think maybe he might, just no, I think he'll make an adjustment in midfield and then he might actually bench the striker, depending if Rafael Leal makes it back then.
Speaker 2:I doubt if Rafael Leal will be ready by then.
Speaker 1:If so, the only change you can see is probably in the midfield, because this guy, first of all, I'll tell you, allegri, he's probably in the midfield Because this guy, first of all, I'll tell you, I'll agree, he's one of those people that will probably tell you that the problem is not his formation. The problem is the players did not execute right, and then he will try again. But I think he will make an adjustment, because having two heavy-duty midfielders out of your three, it's hard. And I know why he probably did it right. He was thinking he's going to give what's his name a mud ridge protection by making sure he has enough muscle in the middle, because you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:But the reality is that we're playing criminosis. For Christ's sake, yeah, like, you are playing criminality. Like. Muscle is not your problem. Your problem is flair and creativity, because those people probably park the bus and wait for you to break them down. Yeah, then you can't put there. So, yeah, like, I think that's the difference.
Speaker 1:So it's going to be similar game as criminality as well, where it will be them hoping that milan will break them down. The only difference is that they are going to be home. So most of the Italian I don't know if you haven't noticed it a lot of Serie A teams, the small ones, once they play Milan at home, somehow there's like special powers they end up having where they are allowed to just create so many chances. Right, yeah, you get. Oh yeah, they all just want to attack, attack, attack, attack. They just turn into like prime. I don't even know what to even call it. So the reality is we're going to have similar challenge that we just had with Firminozi against Lecce. I hope he changes the midfield up a little bit and I hope he plays Richie. What's your prediction, dave? The last time we predicted, what did it get us? Let me be like you. I'll predict 2-1. Milan wins, right, yeah, well, do you have a choice? No, but we have to beat Lecce If not if you don't beat Lecce then it's going to be catastrophic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we have to beat Lecce, and I think we're probably going to find a way to beat. Now let's really just talk about the other teams in Italy. Based on the first round of games that you've watched so far, which team really stands out to you?
Speaker 1:Well, the interesting thing is that Scott Mitomine and Kevin De Bruyne scored from Napoli, right. Last year Scott Mitomine was a standard player for me. He was a standard new player in Syria, right, and this year he's continued that same form that he found or he found I think he was that guy that used to score at Manchester United, sometimes right, yeah, yeah, like running in late and KDB started off great, right, and he has a goal, and then they are saying, okay, give him time, He'll get there, right, you get what I'm saying? Yeah, so now we are still to watch Inter Milan. You know like play, right, I didn't see the Inter Milan game Atalanta drew, so that one we kind of expected because….
Speaker 2:And Roma won.
Speaker 1:Roma narrowly won, right Gasperini. Yeah, so Juve won as well, and the unfortunate thing is now Milan is at the bottom of the table somewhere. And then these teams are now like three points ahead, and Como, apparently, is playing beautiful football, and that's expected. I say that because they have a lot of good, technically good players, and then they have part owner, part coach, which is Fabregas. You know, he probably is the kind of guy that would try to give you the elegant Barcelona-style football, right. Yeah, so you get my point. Yeah, so the thing is Serie A is going to be interesting this year. Como surprisingly beating Lazio, big surprise, no, sorry. Now they beat Sarri. Yeah, so it's going. They beat Sarri. Yeah, so it's going to be an interesting weekend. So hopefully Inter Milan gets a drop point against Torino, and then Milan doesn't feel that bad, you know. But overall, I think so far, what I've seen is Como is the one, the team that I'm a little surprised about, and Napoli is going to be a tough nut to crack.
Speaker 2:Yeah, To be honest, the fact that we got humbled at the San Siro in our first game, I think it's really. It's a bittersweet, you know feeling for me because now we get to, like you know, grab the situation with all with both arms and focus on getting all the games, and you know being serious in all the games, and you know being serious in all these games. And there's no red carpet way to scoot it or to talk for us now we have to fight to the nil every game to win this, to get to where we want to be this season. Anyways, chin, thank you so much, man. It's been a pleasure, you know, having a quick chat with you about this game. I want to say big thanks to our listeners. Thank you so much for all the downloads that we actually had last week. You know, after, like you know, a long absence, we're back again. We're happy. Thank you so much for all the support. Shin, do you have anything to say for our listeners?
Speaker 1:No, nothing more than what you said. We do appreciate the care and the support. I know Milan started the season poorly. You know it made some people very happy and a lot of people very sad. But there's still hope. There's still 37 games to go and a long season to go. It just sucks a little bit, but you know it also gives us at least something to complain about, Don't worry, Don't worry Chin, I'll say Fosard-Milan, but right now maybe it's more Foza patients.
Speaker 1:Yeah, foza patients, no, but Foza Milan, and hopefully they can get back on track. And yeah, we'll try, between yourself and myself, we'll try to be more consistent with the delivery of the podcast and to keep our loyal fans glued. And thank you very much for always supporting us and for downloading. Thank you, we look forward to your feedback and your comments.
Speaker 2:Thank, you very much. Thank you everyone. Have a wonderful Fosa Milano. Bye for now. Fosa Milano, Thank you.
