Bournemouth 3-0 AC Milan: Five things we learned – Fatal mistakes and strange priorities
AC Milan failed to make it three consecutive wins on Thursday evening, instead shattering their confidence with a big defeat against Bournemouth. Needless to say, we learned a lot of things.
After the wins against Salzburg and Atalanta, Milan had the chance to build proper momentum in the run-up to the derby against Inter. However, due to some fatal individual mistakes, Bournemouth were able to come away with all three points.
There are several takeaways from the game, as you would expect after such a poor result, and we have highlighted five of these below.
Short version
1. Silly mistakes prove costly: It doesn’t matter if Milan had played as well as Barcelona. With such major mistakes at the back, they likely would have lost anyway.
2. Europa League importance unclear: How Milan have treated the competition so far leaves us wondering what their objective actually is. Right now, top 8 is in great doubt and rotation is being made in each game.
3. Opportunity squandered by everyone: Thursday’s clash was a great opportunity for several players but none of them made the most of it. In fact, all players were rated below 6 in our player ratings.
4. Cisse and Camarda questions: Amorim has always made it clear that Camarda is and must feel like the deputy striker, yet he opted for Cisse in the Bournemouth clash. The youngster’s role is now far from clear.
5. Wing-back indications: With Chukwueze and Saelemaekers injured, Amorim opted to field Moreira on the right at Vitality Stadium, even if everyone thought he would be on the left. We should probably get used to seeing him on the right more.
1. Fatal and silly mistakes
Milan could have played as well as Barcelona for all I care, but when you make such major individual mistakes, then you are almost always going to lose the game anyway. There were obviously other flaws, but that was my main reaction last night.
I criticised Koni De Winter for his defending in my player ratings, simply because it should be defending 101 not to extend your arm like that inside the box. Especially not if you are actively trying to reach the ball. You are just asking for trouble and as we saw, trouble did indeed arrive.
Of course, as that would probably be categorised as clumsiness or a lack of skill more than anything, it’s nothing compared to Mike Maignan. He knew exactly what he was doing in the moment and the referee did well to act immediately.
Could you argue that it was a soft penalty? Probably, but the fact that the goalkeeper put both hands in the opponent’s face and pushed means the referee didn’t exactly have a choice. And if he hadn’t given it himself, VAR most likely would have stepped in to recommend the red card anyway.
It’s just incredibly silly and there is no good reason for doing that, no matter how you frame the situation. As the captain of the team, he should be the one encouraging others to avoid making those mistakes.
It was always going to be near-impossible to come back from two penalties and a red card, but it didn’t help that Strahinja Pavlovic made a mockery of Lorenzo Torriani’s free-kick wall. He jumped away from it and the Bournemouth player capitalised on the gap, scoring the third.
In short, three fatal mistakes in one game. Not that Milan were looking brilliant anyway, but they didn’t even give themselves a chance.
2. What is the Europa League?
I have been racking my brain since the win against Salzburg, which also included a lot of rotation in the starting eleven. What is the Europa League to Milan this season? A path to an important trophy, a way to cash in more money, or a nonessential commitment?
The schedule is very hectic right now, so the rotation perhaps makes somewhat sense, but it’s starting to feel like Milan don’t prioritise the competition at all. Three games in and they only have one win, now far away from the top 8 finish that supposedly was the goal at the start.
Last night, Amorim left the likes of Mario Gila, Luka Modric, Adrien Rabiot and Christian Pulisic on the bench for an away game that he knew was going to be difficult. If you ask me, regardless of the game, at least one of them has to play to guarantee some consistency.
The irony is that Amorim is citing the packed schedule for his rotation, but if Milan finish outside the top 8, then they will have an additional two games to play at the start of next year. They will also get less money, so it’s bad on multiple fronts.
We can also use the old excuse “It’s only the Europa League, who cares”, but the reality is the games still get a lot of eyeballs. Especially the one against Bournemouth, so Milan could have used it as a way to boost their image and confidence.
Instead, they once again proved how far away they are from returning to the upper echelons of the football world.
3. Subpar by everyone
It was a poor performance from a collective point of view, no two ways about it, but the players also failed to perform at their usual standard. Excluding Torriani, Gazzetta dello Sport didn’t rate a single player at 6 or above and not even the goalkeeper got a 6 in our ratings.
It’s a shame because it was a very good opportunity for most of the players on the pitch, such as Yunus Musah, Ardon Jashari, and Diego Moreira. The two midfielders really failed to control the tempo and possession of the game, leaving Milan in an inferior position from the get-go.
They just couldn’t keep up the intensity to carry Milan’s usual style of play, while Moreira and the other technical players (like Omai Hutchinson) failed in most of their 1v1s. That could have helped put Bournemouth on the back foot, so without it, possession kept shifting back to the home side.
Of course, the individual mistakes by De Winter and especially Maignan didn’t help anyone, but Milan probably wouldn’t have won even without those mistakes. The player just didn’t want it enough and were incredibly sloppy in their duties, from poor defending to poor passing.
If Amorim is going to continue down the heavy-rotation path, then a few reinforcements will be needed in January. Most of these players just aren’t good enough, as much as we would like Jashari to blossom (to name one example).
4. Camarda vs. Cisse raises questions
In Goncalo Ramos’ absence, many expected Francesco Camarda to be given the opportunity. His start to the season has been far from brilliant, in fact it’s been poor, but Amorim made it very clear in the summer and a few weeks ago that he’s the second choice.
That was even one of the reasons why Milan didn’t sign a striker according to Amorim, as Camarda needs to be and feel like the second choice. As such, it was strange to see him name Cisse as the No.9 in the starting eleven.
Cisse has obviously been performing really well, scoring a hat-trick against Salzburg, but it felt like a proper slap in the face to Camarda. Amorim stressed before the game that he analysed the opponents and made the decision based on that.
“They [Cisse and Camarda] have different characteristics. I analysed Bournemouth’s centre-backs and I believe Cisse has the right qualities to break them down,” the manager said.
Again, I don’t think Camarda has been good when given the chance, but it’s also hard for a youngster to perform at the highest level if the playing time is so sporadic. Even more so if you feel that you don’t have a clear-cut role in the team.
Amorim’s words about the style of the opponents don’t really matter; Camarda was promised the deputy role and the head coach has already gone back on his word. Let’s see if it happens again and what the reaction will be, because one game can be swept under the rug.
5. Wing-back picture clears up
I’m going to end on a slightly more positive note, or I guess neutral is a better way of putting it, because we did get some important indications from the team selection. Before the game, it was believed that Moreira would play on the left with Hutchinson on the right.
However, as the game kicked off, it was immediately clear that Moreira was the right wing-back, while Loftus-Cheek was out on the left and Hutchinson was in the centre. Clearly, this is a response to the wing-back crisis that Stefano discussed a few days ago.
We can probably expect to see more of Moreira on the right, but given what we have seen so far, that hurts a little. The Belgian has been so much better on the left and while yesterday’s performance could have proved us wrong on that front, it really didn’t.
There’s not much Amorim can do until Samuel Chukwueze and Alexs Saelemaekers are back though, especially since the left wing-back spot is covered by Davide Bartesaghi and Pervis Estupinan. I say covered, but it’s not like the latter has been good this season.
It will probably change a little based on the opponent as Hutchinson can also play on the right, which would allow Moreira to move to the left. It will be very interesting to see what Amorim will do in the derby, which is now just a week away.
