Milan is a sad news: first game without scoring

A good match for the lost property office. The players – many, too many – are lost in the infirmary, the victory is lost, the goals are lost, the delicious opportunity to dig a good gap between themselves, Atalanta and Napoli has been lost. At the end of the match, Pioli does everything possible to revitalize a disheartened and also decidedly angry environment, and he is probably right in saying that he is not a Milan with a lack of muscle and breath. The team ran until the end (the canceled draw arrived in the 90th minute), if anything it did not do it with clarity and the first explanation that comes to mind is trivial: when you leave four-five owners in the infirmary, the quality drops and the race is no longer enough against a direct competitor for the Scudetto.

So it’s tough

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In fact, Pioli focused precisely on the concept of quality. Something that has failed in recent weeks and that, in short, is quite disturbing because there in front of someone who may slow down (Atalanta), there is always someone else running (Inter). Quality is that quality that, quite simply, sends you into goals. To score a goal you need to shoot, otherwise it becomes very hard. Here, Milan have shot in the mirror of the Neapolitan goal twice in 94 minutes. Then, of course, Ibra and Florenzi grazed the post, Messias raised his aim a little. But inside those poles the ball ended up only on two occasions. There is a fact that particularly nails the performance of the Devil: in this championship the Rossoneri had never finished a match without scoring. Seventeen games always on the net, even when the victory had not arrived.

How many troubles

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Yes, of course, this is also unsettling because, beyond the absences, Pioli in the second half made use of all the offensive potential available. We refer above all to the entry of Giroud – 18 minute of the second half -, which changed the game system, passing from 4-2-3-1 to that 4-4-2 which at the beginning of the season seemed a tasty and exciting and that instead has to deal with a thousand problems. Physicists, above all. Ibra comes from a non-stop period – starting in eight of the Rossoneri’s last eleven games, six of which for the entire 90 ‘- which is at odds with what should be a sensible management of his body. Giroud had been on hiatus for a month due to a muscle injury and the minutes that could be held were what they were. And then there are all the others out there, suffering on the doctor’s bed. Leao, Rebic, Theo. Players capable of creating numerical superiority and worthily assisting Zlatan or Olivier. No, the two strikers are not needed, Ibra seems to be separated at home with San Siro (first and only goal at Meazza on 12 September …), Diaz hasn’t scored in a lifetime. Result: immaculate match report for the first time and the misery of two shots in the mirror. Pioli rightly says that the league titles are not won in December. But you have to be careful not to lose them.