As is now to be expected, Zvonimir Boban did not hold back in his criticism of AC Milan both before and after the defeat against Feyenoord last night.
There is still 90 minutes of the tie to go, but Milan must show a big improvement if they are to overturn the deficit at San Siro and beat Feyenoord after they lost 1-0 in the first leg last night.
The tone was set when Milan gifted the Rotterdam club a goal after three minutes to make the stadium explode, with Mike Maignan making a blunder on a shot he should have kept out.
Boban was covering the game at De Kuip as a pundit for Sky and he had several interesting things to say, starting with criticism for the decision to let Ismael Bennacer depart in January. MilanNews transcribed his comments.
“I would have preferred to keep Ismael Bennacer, a serious mistake to let him go. A super underrated player, of a very high level in both phases. He could have given a hand to Fofana, together with Reijnders. But let’s hope that it can go well anyway.”
After the game, the former midfielder made it clear that in his eyes Milan have not shown themselves to be a consistent team all season, lacking in style of play, and also mentioned how Conceicao hasn’t found his best side yet.
“Milan haven’t been understood since the beginning of the season. They continue to be a team without identity, ideas and how to interpret a tough match against a well-organised opponent.
“Milan must control the match especially if you play so offensively. Almost never having the ball, waiting to counter-attack, Milan put them at ease. It was a good thing that the first half ended only 1-0.
“Milan must find a regular team. Every Milan fan, I hear many people, many fans, who talk and believe that this team was badly conceived, badly built, that it couldn’t get results. Good.
“Now things are picking up a bit with the signings and they are rightly plugging things, and we also complimented them on the signings. But since the beginning of the season I don’t think Milan have played twice in a row with the same team. With so many new players.
“That is, if you have 15, 20 players who have been working well for years, they understand each other, they know each other. It’s true, you play with them in training, it’s not that you put them there and they work.
“It’s not that in Empoli you put Musah over there, that other one over there, it’s obvious that in the first half they didn’t work. In the second half then with so much quality Milan rightly won.
“You have to choose a typical team, a typical formation, and then in any case with slight changes every now and then compared to the opponent, obviously.”
