Morata-less AC Milan unable to make profligate Parma pay as Crociati record memorable Serie A win
STADIO ENNIO TARDINI (Parma): An Alvaro Morata-less AC Milan struggled to get anywhere near a rampant Parma for much of their Serie A Matchday 2 meeting on a muggy Emilian evening, and the Rossoneri were only spared further humiliation by yet more profligacy from the Crociati when in on goal. Parma, in the end, ran out 2-1 winners but, in truth, their victory should have come far more comfortably.
Having been so guilty of passing up chance after chance only to throw away a one-goal lead on their top-flight return against Fiorentina a week earlier, it was a real case of deja vu for the majority of the 21,808 in attendance at the Tardini. Man, after opening the scoring with the game's first attempt inside two minutes, was again guilty of not taking chances that he really should have, and the only player on the pitch perhaps more at fault was his countryman Valentin Mihaila.
With each miss, there was a growing feeling that a story seen too many times before was playing out again. Confirmation of that came just five minutes into the second half when Mihaila refused to pull the trigger when in on goal, leaving Milan to go straight down the other end only for Rafael Leao to blaze way over the crossbar and into the 3,500 (officially) travelling fans behind the goal.
Although Parma looked to have gone two goals to the good through Ange-Yoan Bonny on the end of some sublime work from the tireless Adrian Bernabe, the offside flag cut his celebrations short and, within a matter of minutes, Man missed another huge opportunity and seconds later Leao teed up Christian Pulisic under Zion Suzuki's crossbar to tap in the leveller.
With Man and Mihaila off and new signing Matteo Cancellieri on, the newcomer was in the right place at the right time to turn home a second for the Gialloblu beneath the Curva Nord with about 10 minutes of the 90 to play.
Milan minus Morata poses Paulo problems
Parma scoring so early in the game made it hard to really judge the Rossoneri's approach from the start. But once behind, their forward line was seriously wanting and Morata's absence - or their lack of a player to take on the role of a target man - was felt.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Noah Okafor, Pulisic, and Leao struggled to make any kind of impact on the game, and Strahinja Pavlovic was a defensive disaster. With Olivier Giroud having departed and Luka Jovic simply not having the same strengths as the Frenchman and Morata, there was no option for Milan to go a little more direct when the game was calling out for it.
Left wanting in attack, a mess at the back
Few Serie A fans would have expected Milan to have found themselves 2-0 behind against Torino in their opening-day fixture, but the late fight they showed to claw back two goals and snatch a point came as encouragement that Paulo Fonseca is working with something at the Stadio San Siro.
Against Parma, though, Milan were a disaster from back to front. Though they were toothless in attack, the biggest concern for Fonseca's Rossoneri will be what he saw defensively. Pavlovic was all over the place, and Fikayo Tomori didn't do much to help him at the heart of the defence.
With too many of the attack-minded players not carrying their weight and doing their defensive work, Parma were presented with countless chances to kill the game off. The Crociati couldn't punish Milan to the extent that their overall play warranted, but it's clear early on that Fonseca has deeper issues to resolve than many might have thought.