Gimenez joins duo despite attacking struggles: All the key stats from AC Milan vs. Verona | OneFootball

Thanks to a narrow win against Hellas Verona, AC Milan were able to close in on the top-four positions last night. However, the Rossoneri still have many things to work on and the stats from the game prove that.

A late Santiago Gimenez header was needed to break the deadlock, more specifically in the 75th minute, and before that Milan really struggled to make things happen. Of course, as highlighted by Mike Maignan and his teammates last night, the win is all that matters.

Possession dominance with little output

Taking a look at the overall stats for the game, it’s clear that Milan dominated the affair, or at least the possession with 74% versus Verona’s 26%. The away side only played for counter-attacks and while they had some opportunities, they never threatened Maignan in goal.

The Rossoneri had an xG of 2.09, which we have to assume comes from Yunus Musah’s big chance in the first half and, of course, Gimenez’s goal. Leao also had some chances in the box, and there were a few efforts on the edge of the box from others too.

Gimenez the missing piece

Based on his first two league games, it’s clear that he was the missing piece in this Milan side. Not to suggest that the team is now complete on all fronts, because it isn’t, but as far as mid-season reinforcements go we have to be able to call him the missing piece.

He has played four games for the team, two from start, and already has two goals as well as an assist. The movement displayed last night was impressive and as highlighted by Gazzetta dello Sport, it’s just a shame that Milan didn’t try to find him more often.

Thanks to the goal last night, Gimenez also became the third player to score in each of his first two league games with Milan after Christian Pulisic and Andriy Shevchenko. This is based on data in te three-points-per-win era.

Struggles against the worst defence

We mentioned it in our preview for the game, Verona comfortably have the worst defence in the league with 54 goals conceded in total, including last night’s goal. The fact that Milan struggled to create good chances is thus a bit worrying.

Of course, Paolo Zanetti’s side were more defensive than they usually are in a game, practically sitting back with all of their men for large parts of it. Still, with so much attacking calibre, Milan are clearly lacking ideas and attacking structures to break down defences.

Conceicao knows it and improvements will be needed as soon as possible. And having to field the ‘Fantastic Four’ every time just to make something happen is far from ideal. After all, you want healthy rotation so the players can get some rest in these hectic times.