AC Milan battled to a 1-0 win over Torino at San Siro on Tuesday night, as the Rossoneri temporarily move clear at the top of the Serie A table.
Stefano Pioli will have been delighted with the resolve and result in midweek, as we made it nine wins in our first 10 league games of the season to extend what has been an impressive start.
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While it wasn’t entirely convincing, the key factor is that we managed to prevail and find a way to win despite not being at our best, and it’s hoped that winning habit continues to develop as the campaign goes on as we go in search of a Scudetto this year.
Giroud delivering for Milan
That’s now four goals in six Serie A appearances for the French stalwart, as he continues to make his mark and play a key role in this squad.
While he hasn’t been as influential in our overall play as perhaps expected, his decisive contributions are certainly making up for that and becoming an important factor in our season.
It’s hoped that run of goals continues, and as he settles further with his teammates, his influence grows as the campaign goes on.
First clean sheet in over a month
While Milan have continued to win games, we’ve had to wait for a clean sheet with the last coming on September 22 against Venezia in a 2-0 win at San Siro.
In that time since, we’ve played six games across all competitions and while we’ve won four and lost two, scoring 13 goals in the process, we’ve also conceded 10.
If we want to reach the top level and consistently challenge for major honours moving forward, we need to be much more solid at the back and so it was great to see that come back in midweek.
Tonali shines again
On his 50th appearance for Milan, Sandro Tonali produced another fine display as he continues to show real growth and maturity this season.
The 21-year-old clearly worked hard over the summer to improve and develop his game, and it’s showing on the pitch week in and week out thus far.
From his grit and determination when battling in duels to the technical quality that he shows in possession, it’s great to see him evolve before our eyes.
Pioli has developed winning habit
While it might not be pretty at all times, Pioli has clearly instilled a winning habit in this squad now as we’ve won nine out of 10 to start the season.
Ideally, we’d all love to see Milan play scintillating football every week, but realistically that’s almost impossible, particularly when you assess the limitations of this squad.
In turn, it’s important that we learn to grind out wins too and that’s something we’ve seen plenty of so far this season as we deal with key absentees.
Important to get back key players
As mentioned above, Milan are not only missing a number of individuals, they’re also key players who make a significant difference to the quality level of our play.
Theo Hernandez returned in this game, while it’s hoped Brahim Diaz isn’t too far away after the club’s statement on Tuesday noted that he had now tested negative for COVID.
There are still several others who are ruled out entirely right now, including Ante Rebic, or working towards full fitness, and so while we still hope to turn our Champions League campaign around, it’s important we’ve got enough quality depth to cope.