AC Milan were among the most active sides during the winter transfer window and they sent a strong message in the process: top four is the minimum aim.
Calciomercato.com begin a report by recalling what Zlatan Ibrahimovic said at Santiago Gimenez’s presentation: “We are not happy with our position, we have made five signings and five sales. This is the team that must change the situation. What we have done is more or less what we had set ourselves.”
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RedBird Capital and the management have understood the difficulties and have intervened, investing €48.5m (without bonuses, the tenth-most of any club in the world for spending in the winter), so now it’s up to the team. Sergio Conceicao and the players are called to do more to save a season that has been below expectations so far.
The Supercoppa Italiana is in the bag already, but for a club like Milan it cannot be enough. In the league, having said goodbye to the Scudetto too early, the priority is fourth place, or the last spot to qualify for the next Champions League (which could be fifth).
The minimum objective is to finish in the UCL places, and not getting there risks being extremely damaging for the accounts, The chances for today remain live: Milan re currently eighth in the table with 35 points, seven points behind fourth-placed Lazio, but with one game less played.
Reversing the trend is the imperative, but it is clear that Milan must try to go all the way in the other two competitions: the Coppa Italia and the Champions League. February, in this regard, will be a fundamental month: it starts tonight, with the quarter-final against Roma, then there is the play-off versus Feyenoord.
Perhaps an extra midfielder was needed to make the January mercato a perfect one, but the squad is now functional and up to the task of doing well right away. Adding Joao Felix, Santiago Gimenez and Kyle Walker to a core with the likes of Mike Maignan, Rafael Leao, Tijjani Reijnders and Christian Pulisic brings with it an obligation to dream big.
I fear (I truly hope I am proved wrong) that the ship of the 4th place has sailed. Possibly we can get the 5th and still qualify for UCL depending how Italian teams perform in Europe.
Good winter mercato, but it may be too optimistic to expect instant results and cover so much lost ground especially when ACM still doesn’t play as a team.
Strengthening the team should have been addressed last summer, but, oh well, management opted for Fonseca…
I can see why they went with Fonseca. They wanted possession-based football, but after a good performance, they didn’t achieve any consistency. The same thing is happening now with a different coach.
This is an attitude problem, and unfortunately, those who are the culprits are the guys who are the seniors in this team. This was clear ever since that Atalanta game.
I knew it the second I saw Morata, Abraham and even Fofana making forward movements and getting frustrated because the rest of the midfield wasn’t passing the ball to their feet. This makes me even question Rijnders and his mental attitude. I believe he is also the reason for this inconsistency.
I agree that attitude is an issue in this squad, and my feeling is that many of the January departed players (and some who we tried to get rid of but couldn’t), are culprits. Theo and Leao survive, because you can’t really replace them in January/too many moves (we’d be changing like 5-6 starters). My guess is Theo is gone in the summer. He’ll have a year left on contract and if we get 40M for him we’ll be lucky. It will probably be closer to 30M. I think Leao is 50/50. He can clearly beat almost anyone under the right conditions, but that’s the thing with Leao. The conditions have to be right. He has to be motivated for that game, and he needs space in front of him. If he’s not motivated of if the opposition is in a low block, he disappears. But what will determine if he stays will be his attitude in this second part of the season, particularly if/when we go 4-4-2, when he will have increased defensive duties. If he fails at this (and IF Conceicao stays) I can see him being sold too. I can see the summer window project as being the revamp of the left side of the squad plus a DM.
So far Conceicao is 5-2-2, which is fine, but he’s only kept one clean sheet. Fonseca had the 5th best defense in the league and four clean sheets in his last six games when he left. He likes players that run, like Pavlovic, Tomori and Musah, over players that are perhaps more technical or positionally more intelligent, like Thiaw, Gabbia and Bennacer. It seems like we’re going to have to outscore the opposition, which is bizarre considering the issues we’ve had scoring this season, and also explains all the transfers in the attacking department. Time will tell on all of this.
“He likes players that run” referring to Conceicao, if it wasn’t clear.
“I fear (I truly hope I am proved wrong) that the ship of the 4th place has sailed.”
Look at the current forms for teams placed 3.-6. – we certainly have a good chance. Even Atalanta has started to crumble into pieces and if they continue like that, they could lose their 3rd spot.
Juve might be the scariest of the 4-7th placed teams but even they have only won two matches in the last ~35 days. Not that scary, eh?
I agree with you, 2 years ago second to 10th place changed quite a bit from the first half of the season. If we can remain optimistic and stand by the team, the team can do the same. Forza Milan
Juve is the scariest. They just needed to figure out how to score and now they have Kolo Muani who has 2 goals in 3 games after being 2 weeks with the team, and they’re still hard to beat.
Don’t sleep on Fio and Lazio. Baroni is good (and might have been a gusty call for us to hire in the summer instead of Fonseca), and Fio has already been on a 9 game winning streak this season.
Meanwhile, I calculate that we need about 38pts out of our last 16 games. That’s something like 12-2-2, 11-5-0 or 13-0-3, which is a huge ask. I’m hoping Serie A pick up a 5th CL spot as insurance, because I think we’ll need it.
I can only agree with @dimi comment. Fonseca was totally wrong decisions. With Emerson Royal as first missed arrival.
After they choose not to invest in Zirkzee, Morata as option was not good enough.
With some previous singings and many other game flops, Milan is deservedly in 8th spot. If anything is going to changed is question mark. I would predict hardly this season. Maybe next season if some flops leaves this club but again new arrivals must be good guess.
Impossible is nothing; not with a team like this. If we could face Inter with the players we had available on Sunday, then, I dare to dream with this lot. Serie A, here we come!
Very positive bro…totally agree.
Even Simone Inzaghi getting angry, with Milan performance when against Inter.
Dont care if people said Inter are better in last sunday game. But the fact this season we are unbeaten by Inter, with the squad before new purchasements, that are so good.
And with these newcomers, I think we can gain more consistency, and more winning ahead.
This job surely for the coach. I couldn’t agree more, but do not disturb him with soap opera from the director or advisor. Let the coach do his magic.
Forza Milan
Redbird out
Time for the coach and the players to step up. Accountability please.
4th place at mimimum would be a big miracle for a team that doesn’t have consistency.
And now the management added another 5 new players who doesn’t know their team mates and what Conceicau wants to quickly blend in with the team, plays consistently, and keeps winning to reach 4th place?!
Just show how the management is fking clueless.
Whine, whine, whine… Buuuhuuu… You are such a happy person, aren’t you? 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Have you EVER wrote anything even remotely positive about anything?
Do not want to sound as if i am always grumbling and am never happy – milan management did a very, repeat very, good job in january – thanks and very well done. But if we had done this shopping spree last summer, would it not have been much better???!!!