AC Milan failed to complete a turnaround in the second leg of the Europa League quarter-final against Roma. Instead, they were rather embarrassed as the home side played better despite being a man down from 30 minutes onwards.
Indeed, it was yet another bleak performance by the Rossoneri and despite dominating possession, they had a very hard creating anything of value. Matteo Gabbia ended up on the scoresheet with a nice header, but it was too little too late.
Several players scored 5 or below in our player ratings and Stefano Pioli got his fair share of criticism as well. We could highlight several things from the game, in truth, but below are the five key things we learned from the disastrous performance.
1. Big game struggles and poor tactics
Both in the first and second leg, it was painfully obvious that Roma were tactically superior, controlling the tie pretty much from start to finish. This became even more evident after the red card last night, as the Giallorossi still managed to defend comfortably and even attack.
Heading into the second leg, one would have expected Pioli to come up with some new tactics but instead, it looked pretty much the same. There are just so many question marks from last night’s game and the manager doesn’t do a very good job of answering these.
For example, the decision to start Yunus Musah was understandable on paper. However, his position in the team was to facilitate Davide Calabria’s inverting – a position where the Italian is largely untested, and when he has played there, he has not shone. Pioli’s stubbornness to continue with this failed experiment certainly highlights his incompetence.
In addition to the poor performances that these tactics result in, the main worry is the decline of the stars in the team. Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao, even if the latter got an assist, were never at their best in the tie and one can only feel for them.
The same goes for Christian Pulisic, and many other players, as the tactics just don’t seem to elevate the key figures in the team. Roma did a perfect job of neutralising Milan, but it’s also clear that Pioli’s tactics left a lot, and we truly mean a lot, to be desired.
2. Giroud is officially done
The Frenchman helped win Milan the Scudetto in 2021-22 and considering the money paid to get him, it was a great signing. However, his era has come to an end and yesterday’s performance was just further proof of that.
He lost most of the duels against the Roma defence and whenever he got on the ball, he always made the wrong decision. There is one video making the round on social media of him receiving a ball from Luka Jovic, which he then proceeded to kick high up in the sky.
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