Milan leaned heavily on their defense on their way to their 19th Scudetto last season. Instead, it has displayed surprising creaks so far, even though its members are the same. The Rossoneri have kept just two clean sheets in nine matches and none in September, Goal reports.
The reigning champions have conceded eight goals in seven Serie A matches. They had allowed just 31 in 38 fixtures in 2020/2021. The average has gone up from 0.85 to 1.1. Things could have gone worse hadn’t Mike Maignan stopped a penalty kick versus Sassuolo or pulled off multiple great saves in the Derby.
Milan coach Stefano Pioli has started to re-introduce Simon Kjaer, but Pierre Kalulu and Fikayo Tomori have remained the go-to pair in the middle of the defense. It had shined down the stretch, surrendering mere 3 goals in the final 14 fixtures.
The Rossoneri paid the price for two individual errors in the Napoli clash. Sergino Dest was overeager to stop Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and tackled him in the box. Instead, Giovanni Simeone escaped Tomori’s marking for a header late in the match.
Stefano Pioli commented in the aftermath: “We lacked quality in the two boxes. Too many players focused on who had the ball.” Something similar happened in the opener versus Udinese too.
Our Take on the Milan Defense
Maignan and Tomori haven’t been their top self so far, if not in a couple of tits. Perhaps it’s just a matter of conditioning since the season is still young. However, the rearguard is mostly suffering because of the absence of somebody like Franck Kessié in the midfield. Sandro Tonali and Ismael Bennacer are great at what they do, but they can’t make up for the sheer physical dominance the Ivorian provided.
 |
Follow us on Google News for more updates on Serie A and Italian football |