Milan are two weeks from their first competitive match and, on the evidence of three friendlies under Ruben Amorim, the list of unresolved problems is long, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.
The Portuguese arrived to install a new identity, but the heavy defeat to Chelsea exposed how far off that vision remains. Gazzetta describe a side caught with a squad to trim, reinforcements still to find and a playing philosophy that has yet to take hold, all with the Torino opener closing in fast.
The pressing is the clearest illustration of the gap between intention and execution. Amorim wants a higher line than the one Allegri used in 2025-26, with the team set up to win the ball back in the opponent's half, and the opening 20 minutes against Inter showed what that can look like. Against Chelsea it fell apart. The press looked disjointed and then disappeared entirely, and even in the first half, against a side Gazzetta rate as unremarkable in possession, Milan could not push up and trouble the Blues.
The attack offered even less. The Rossoneri failed to register a single shot on target and could not find Francesco Camarda in the first half, with little improvement after Christopher Nkunku and Gonçalo Ramos came on. The team was more stretched than it had been in the derby and slower on the ball, and the attacking midfielders created nothing.
Defensively, Gazzetta invoke the worst of last season, the tragic closing weeks and the earlier spells under Fonseca and Conceiçao. Milan kept conceding through their own doing: individual mistakes, poor positioning, badly timed runs. Anyone attacking this back line, the paper argues, has a strong chance of manufacturing a chance.
The flanks are a structural issue rather than a bad night. Amorim's system leans heavily on the wings, and the current squad does not have the players to fill them. Alexis Saelemaekers is described as the only option who offers quality in both phases. Samuel Chukwueze is showing the difficulties many expected, Zachary Athekame was not even considered, Pervis Estupiñan repeated his familiar defensive shortcomings, and Davide Bartesaghi lacks the pace Amorim wants to run in behind.
The mentality is the point that will worry supporters most. Milan had responded to setbacks in the previous friendlies, recovering from 0-2 to 2-2 against Celtic and from 0-1 to 1-1 in the derby. Against Chelsea there was nothing. The first goal arrived in first-half stoppage time and five more followed after the break, with the team never mounting a comeback, or, as Gazzetta put it, never capable of one.
A friendly scoreline in August rarely means much on its own, but the wing problem is the one that cannot be coached away before Torino. From here, it falls to the mercato to give Amorim the players his system needs.