AC Milan have a stronger squad compared to last season but have seen their Scudetto hopes fade largely due to the injury crisis late last year, a journalist has claimed.
Milan are on a good run in the league having won seven of their last nine games, but the problem in that Inter and Juventus are continuing at a very fast pace and so the wide gap remains.
Of course title ambitions should remain until it becomes near enough mathematically impossible, but some fans have taken aim at Stefano Pioli and the squad because they believe that not being right in the fight constitutes and under-achievement.
Antonio Vitiello has written a column for MilanNews which talks about the plans to strengthen the squad further, but in it he addresses the notion that the current team are weaker than last year’s.
“There is a strange narrative around Milan. Some people want to make people believe that the Rossoneri squad is poor,” he begins.
“But compared to last year this team has many more solutions, the market has been effective because it has extended the staff. The real problem was the injuries.
“Without the disaster between October and December, Milan would have had those extra points necessary to continue in the title race together with Juve and Inter.
“And maybe they would also be in the Champions League, after all, one more point was enough to stay there. A real shame, the biggest regret is precisely this.”
On the topic of signings, of the easiest ways to measure the impact of new additions is through the amount of goals that they contribute to, and the data is certainly positive for Milan.
Injuries had nothing to do with the champions league failure. That was coaching, he didn’t put the players in a killer mindset. They missed maaannny chances, pulisc and leao both included. The injuries haven’t made it easy and the squad is talented but lets be real, it’s the coaching. The end.
I would also argue we had almost our entire first choice 11 for CL games, bar Bennacer (who we all knew was out until Jan).
Our injuries at that time were back up players.
Also Newcastle had a possibly worse injury crisis, PSG had a bunch of new players to integrate and Dortmund had lost the likes of Bellingham etc.
No excuses really.
We missed out on last 16 due to not beating Newcastle on day 1, a very very wasteful display
Disagree.
Milan lost the UCL knock out stage qualification in the return game vs Dortmund at home and the reason for that were absolutely the injuries.
Kjaer and Kalulu were injured and then Thiaw got injured during the game.
The result was 1-1 with Giroud missing a penalty when Thiaw got injured and with no other healthy CB , Krunic had to play in defense and Dortmund took advantage of that.
Yeah that certainly didn’t help, though I thought Dortmund were deserved winners.
Incidence like Thiaw coming off happen in football, that’s why when things are in your favour like the 1st match v Newcastle, you MUST take advantage and get the win
I mean, sure, but this game is irrelevant if we have 6 points from our first two games, in which we were the better team and had the best chances. One can always blame the last bad result when falling just short, but what about all of the other dropped points? If you lose in the last round of Serie A and lost the title by a point, was it that last game or was it all of the other losses and draws throughout the season? It’s like a psychological trick.
Or if we want to push the responsibility elsewhere, it was the crooked referee that gifted the penalty to PSG that dropped Milan out of the last 16. If it had happened in the other end, would the ref have blown his whistle? Nope. Corruption. 🙂
Yeah that was 100% “UEFAlona” becoming “UEFSG”.
Not beating Newcastle on Day 1, and not beating Dortmund on Day 2. We were the better team in that match as well.
Sure… players missing chances is all on Pioli. Is nothing that happens on the pitch ever the players fault? Or does that depeds on the narrative that the facts need to fit into?
yeah, its on him. its his job to train them so they dont miss.
No professional coach in this world can guaranteed their players not to missed a single chance in front of the goal. They’re coaching human here, NOT ROBOTS.
So you’re not making any sense here turtle.
untrue. Im not saying anything about -not to missed a single chance-. All im saying is a coach has to drill his players to hit the target.
And yes they are robots, if you are a top lvl athlete you are closer to a robot then a human, when its about your field of “work”.
People always need a scapegoat
Shut up
We keep talking about this injury disaster as if it’s something unlucky, or that it’s just another phase that will somehow be over once the injured players come back.
This injury crisis is not unlucky. Between the athletic team, the medical team and the way players play and are rotated, something bad is really going on and this something is putting a lot of stress on the players.
At this point, one or more players can sustain an injury that will rob them of their best football days, Bennacer already seem far behind his level in 2020 and 2021.
The main culprit (for now) seem to be Matteo Osti, the head of the physical team, who started working about the time this crisis started in 2021. He is working with Pioli for a long time and I’ve heard rumors that Pioli doens’t want him to get fired.
Untrue. During oct-dec we had a healthy squad.
Juve game, only Theo was missing duo to yellow cards.
Napoli game, Thiaw was missing because he got a red card vs juve and we lost after a real sh*t second half.
Udine game, im not even gonna say anything, that loss was 100% on pioli
Lecce game, again a sh*t second half, Puli was missng there but Chuck got an assist so no biggie.
So overall we didnt lose points because of injuries but mostly duo to sh*t game managment, which boils down to the one and only Bold Bald Eagle Pioli
Lol, yep. But peehole might earn himself a reprieve if he finishes strong. I can see a scenario where they keep him for the final contract year and then see what the team’s doing around December. If we’re in first or second he might even get an extension.
Could be. I still think we should go all in on Motta in the summer. Need fresh blood, new ideas. This Milan has become stale. If he stays its gonna be more of the same next season.
Pioli has reached his ceiling, it was great, while it lasted but its over and we are never getting that back
Agree 100%. Pioli was good, he gave us stability, some identity, got us a Scudetto and a UCL semis. He put us on the right path, We were in a black hole before his time. I will be forever grateful but yes, he reached his ceiling and his cycle is over.
The only point i will concede to the article is that Inter and Juve are also on fire. Compared to our scudetto year and with last year, we actually have more points at this stage. Seria A wise we are better than even our scudetto year. Inter is on fire and it makes us all look terrible.
Everything else, we missed our chances. We had many chances in the UCL and we couldnt do it. Simple as that. Being manager set up or Leao trying to score with a heel touch or Giroud missing the penalty or Thiaw getting injured at a critical time etc. UCL and big games are games of inches and moments. I’m not going to say we have a terrible team, nor say we have an amazing team. What we do have is a freaking inconsistent team.
100% truth. And the people that want to make believe that the squad is poor or weaker than last season are the guys that are upset that Maldini was sacked and want to hate on the new management and ownership because of it. The team is objectively stronger and deeper than last season.
I dislike management and thought Maldini had a better plan. Our current squad is better on paper than last year. However my belief is it doesn’t matter who you give Pioli, he’s not that dynamic of a coach and we’d be in the same position.
Also, if you gave the transfer budget minus Tonali to Maldini and brought in a different coach, I think we’d be better off.
I don’t think we would be better off. Maldini said he would not have sold Tonali, so we would not have nearly the transfer budget. Then factor in that Tonali is out the entire season and we don’t have the depth to cover for that…We would be in a lot worse shape.
Not to mention that the reason we finished in 5th place last season was because of the terrible summer signings of Maldini. Origi, CDK, Vranckx, throw in Bakayoko and Ballo-Toure. The squad had been getting weaker and a change was needed.
The coach did not help the players prepare mentally and psychologically. We always seemed weaker in the head and so much less determined compared to previous seasons. A good display of this weak mentality is Leao, it is now end of January and he is still in summer mood.
The squad isn’t poor per se. But the decisions that came were our undoing. We were ok until Inter smacked us back into reality and we never looked the same. Afterwards injuries came to pile on the misery but really and truly it’s a combination of many things. Chronologically it started in the summer losing key senior and stabilizing figures in Ibra and Maldini, then with overhauling the midfield and change of formation/tactics. These changes were too much. Then a poor transfer campaign which didn’t bring key players for the new formation/tactics. So we headed into the new season hoping we’d be ok and we weren’t prepared to face proper teams. The injuries came after. Plus it takes time to gel. The quicker everyone realizes this is a transition year the better off we’d be. We’re solidly in third, hoping Juve and Inter slip up. It’s not bad. Not great either. But could be worse.