Have you ever seen the prank where people put plastic wrap
over the toilet but under the toilet seat? It keeps everything out of the
toilet and can be very messy for the unwitting person, or so I’m told. That was
like Sassuolo's net in this match, and Consigli was the plastic wrap keeping the ball
out of it. With 22 shots and eight on target, we should have absolutely taken
more from this match. And while we had some great shots and Consigli had some
even better saves to stop them, we could have done better. Perhaps Gattuso
should define clinical.
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| So many missed opportunities |
To say that Consigli faced an onslaught of shots from Milan
would be an understatement. It started in the first minute and just kept going.
Well it was interrupted briefly when Romagnoli pulled up and had to be subbed
off in the third minute. Ouch, that injury hurts a lot. Not only for this match
but for potential matches in the future. However Musacchio did a great job
deputizing, especially after playing so little this season. Despite his injury
breaking up the frantic pace at which Milan started, Consigli faced great shots from Kessie,
Calhanoglu, Suso, Bonaventura, Cutrone, and even Bonucci. My commentators said
at the 35 minute mark that he had already tallied seven saves by that point.
That is more than double the average most keepers save in an entire game.
So was it Consigli that kept us off the scoreboard so many
times? Or was it Milan players not being clinical? Arguably, Consigli had one
of the games of his career. And some of our best shots on goal that should have
gone in were miraculously saved by him. But the game is always played with a keeper,
and even against the best of keepers an attacker needs to be able to score.
Even the biggest keepers can only cover a fraction of the net, the rest is wide
open for the taking, one just has to be clinical in their shooting, even under pressure. And while Sassuolo defended like their Serie A lives
depended on it (because they kind of did,) Milan can and should have been more
clinical.
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| It was like a defensive ballet... with shirt pulling |
To be fair, we kept Berardi off the scoresheet. Not that he
was a hundred percent, though. One of the more comical moments for me was in
the 51st. Berardi went down and was acting injured and looking for the call and not
getting it and staying down and still not getting the call… Gigio and Bonucci
went over and just stood him up and sent him on his way. Which was ironic
because Bonucci took an elbow to the face from Peluso in the first half and
didn’t get the call, and it was not reviewable because it was just outside the
box. (translation: Peluso should have been sent off, but there was no call.) But
he will always be more of a man than Berardi anyway.
Gattuso was limited on his subs, but trying to be
attack-minded. So in the 55th he pulled Abate off and brought Silva on. That switched
us to a three man back line. He had one sub left, and it looked like he was
waiting to see if it worked. It forced Bonucci to switch sides, too, and one of
the three hadn’t played most of the season. He apparently thought it was
working, despite Sassuolo getting more possession and taking more chances and
Milan’s defense looking increasingly fragile. So he put all of his eggs in one
basket and brought on Kalinic for a 3-3-4 formation, something they’d never
played in a game before. And it worked… for Sassuolo. In the 75th Politano
scored on Milan at the San Siro against a defense that looked more like the
three stooges than a three man backline. 1-0 Sassuolo.
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| Finally. |
Gattuso said afterwards that it was a gamble that they had to
take to try to get Champions League, but instead, they basically threw away our
Champions League chances. Inter and Roma had both dropped points ahead of the
match, giving us a golden opportunity. But with the mad scientist defense, we
threw that opportunity out the door. It almost cost us all three points, too,
but for some Kalinic heroics. Despite a number of his usual wild, off target shots,
he managed to get one past Consigli in the 86th, assisted ironically by
Musacchio. 1-1 all. Bonucci also got the dreaded yellow card, so will miss the
Napoli match for card accumulation. Which was really stupid, because it wasn’t even for a foul, it was for his mouth. That is 100% preventable.
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| Fallen from grace |
Sassuolo defended really well. And they were clinical,
scoring a goal with only eight shots, three on target. They only had 23%
possession, too, and they nearly took all three points from us. I know Gattuso
likes to make the team run and work really hard, but perhaps, since scoring
goals has been a problem for us all season long, he should spend some more time
in training on shooting practice and building offensive partnerships and such.
He gambled our Champions League hopes away, our chances are slimmer than ever
now. Maybe it’s time he addresses the biggest problem we’ve had in this squad:
scoring. But for that, he would need to define clinical.
This post inspired by the music of
Garbage
Our next match is
Serie A Week 33
Milan vs. Napoli
Sunday, April 15 •
15:00 CEST (9am EDT)