AC Milan's Loss to Lyon Further Indication of Need for Defensive Reinforcements
After a few weeks of grueling training camps and a pair of friendlies against low-level opposition, AC Milan began their preseason preparations in earnest on Saturday with a 2-1 loss against Olympique Lyonnais at the Stade de Gerland.
It promised to be an interesting look at some of the players lower down on Milan's depth chart. Of the team's big-ticket acquisitions so far this summer, only Andrea Bertolacci made the squad for the game in France. Carlos Bacca and Luiz Adriano didn't make the trip, leaving Sinisa Mihajlovic a pared-down version of the attack he's going to have at his disposal during the season.
Mihajlovic likely rose a few eyebrows when he started Suso—normally an attacking midfielder—as M'Baye Niang's strike partner. He also slotted Giacomo Bonaventura into the trequartista role as Milan's switch from Filippo Inzaghi's 4-3-3 to his own 4-3-1-2 began in earnest.
But the focus of many fans, as it will likely be the entire preseason, was on the defense. The back line has been Milan's Achilles' heel for three seasons now, and the biggest question for the team this summer is whether the unit can improve.
The results were mixed. There were individual moments for individual players that were encouraging. Alex, as usual, was very good with the ball in front of him but struggled to catch up when players managed to get in behind. His partner in central defense, Rodrigo Ely, didn't do a whole lot to distinguish himself but didn't make any calamitous errors either.
The flanks were manned by youngsters. Mattia De Sciglio started on the left and was inconsistent. There were moments when he looked very good indeed, controlling a long, angled ball to him well and earning a throw-in in a good attacking position. Close to the half hour he made a strong intervention with the ball in the box that ended a probing Lyon attack.
But the De Sciglio of last season was still in there somewhere. In the 16th minute, he was mugged in his own half and had to rush to contest the subsequent shot, although he did force a rather weak shot. A minute later, he committed a hard and needless foul. In an official game, he probably would have been booked.
Across from him, young Davide Calabria gave a good account of himself. He made an important challenge on a cross minutes after Lyon opened the scoring that prevented the French club from taking a quick 2-0 lead.
Further afield, Milan's starting lineup had trouble making serious inroads in the attack. Bonaventura very often started dribbling rather than picking up his head and looking for a pass. Suso's inexperience as a striker showed, as he botched several interchanges with Niang.
Niang was something of a bright spot up front. He was easily the most dangerous man Milan had in the first half. He got close to a couple of through balls and nearly scored 20 minutes in but fired just wide of Anthony Lopes's far post.
But even with Niang, the good came with the bad. When Nabil Fekir opened the scoring in the 25th minute with a free kick, it was Niang who mistimed his jump with the rest of the wall, leaving the hole that the ball snuck through on its way to beating Diego Lopez. With five minutes left in the half, he smartly intercepted a pass from Lopes and passed to Bonaventura, only to make a complete hash of the return ball and waste a golden scoring opportunity.
As is usual in these preseason friendlies, the pace of the game was sluggish and the continuity was interrupted by the usual mess of substitutions.
Lyon had the better of the changes. As the subs began to settle in, OL started to dominate possession. Creative players like Keisuke Honda, Jose Mauri and Alessio Cerci were introduced, but they could barely do anything because they spent so much of their time in their own half defending.
That defending was shaky, especially when the second unit came on. Gabriel Paletta turned in a good shift, but Cristian Zaccardo was useless and Philippe Mexes, much to the chagrin of Milanisti, was his usual self—whistled for three fouls within seven minutes, one of which would have been good enough for a booking during the season.
Eventually, the offensive subs got one chance in the 75th minute and took it. Honda managed to break and feed Cerci, whose shot was blocked but ricocheted directly to Andrea Poli, who fired a 25-yard screamer into the bottom corner to tie the game.
It seemed like Milan was looking at spoils shared, but that defense came into play again.
Last season, the team displayed a distressing tendency to clump around the ball while allowing potential runners to get past them. That's exactly what happened in the 80th minute when Alexandre Lacazette, who had been knocked to the ground earlier in the move, got free. Clement Grenier managed to slip the ball past the gaggle of red-and-black shirts to his star striker, who easily fended off Zaccardo and tapped the ball into the net for the winner.
Besides the positive step forward for Niang and an impressive 20-minute cameo by 16-year-old goalkeeper-of-the-future Gianluigi Donnarumma—who could do nothing about Lacazette's goal—the lasting impression of Milan's first game against top-flight opposition this year is, just as it has been for the last three, that the defense must be improved.
ANSA reported (h/t Football Italia) on Thursday that Milan's top offer for Roma wantaway Alessio Romagnoli is €25 million, but if Roma still cannot be moved, they need to go the extra mile and get the Italy U21 international at any cost. The attack may have been reinforced so far this summer, but without defensive improvements Milan isn't going to have any hope of regaining a place in European competition next season.
.jpg?w=600 "Offseason Moves for Every Team 👉")
.png?w=600 "New NBA Mock Draft 📝")
