Last season, AC Milan were defined by their injury list, but for the most part this season, it has not been the case. However, injury problems have begun to crop up again.
By all accounts, last season was ruined by Milan’s injury problems. Across the pitch, the consistent injuries massively derailed the season, and the lack of depth only further hurt the squad. Whilst the depth issue arguably remains, the injuries have not been so frequent.
But, in recent weeks, absences have piled up slightly, and we can define the season in two eras really.
Before the end of November, the Rossoneri were having quite a quiet season on the injury front, definitely so compared to last season. However, Paulo Fonseca then said that things had been very positive in the medical room this season, and then, they quickly weren’t.
So, let’s look at the bigger picture using the stats from Transfermarkt.
Pre-Fonseca’s words
November 29, Fonseca’s press conference stated things were fine, and this was before the game against Empoli. In pre-season, the Diavolo walked away with only two injuries – a season-defining injury to Alessandro Florenzi and a hand injury for Marco Sportiello.
Once the season began, Fonseca had to deal with a few defensive injuries: Davide Calabria, Malick Thiaw and Matteo Gabbia. With Emerson Royal’s occasional struggles, there has been a noticeable lack of another option, but Fonseca coped.
Centrally, it was a different story, with the Portuguese trialling several different partnerships to no avail.
Ismael Bennacer suffered a long-term injury at the start of the season and has only just returned, aside from him, Ruben Loftus-Cheek has also spent periods sidelined.
On the front line, Noah Okafor, Tammy Abraham, Alvaro Morata and Luka Jovic have all struggled with injury issues so far, which has highlighted the issues with the No.9 options.
Post-Fonseca’s words
Since the Empoli game, things have faltered back to last season, with the Rossoneri struggling with injuries and absences.
Yunus Musah and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have recently been sidelined, which has left things short in midfield – an unfortunately reminiscent trend of last season.
On the front line, Milan have also had to deal with injuries to Noah Okafor, Rafael Leao, Christian Pulisic and Alvaro Morata, whilst Samuel Chukwueze got injured against Roma – which looked quite serious at the time.
Luka Jovic is yet to return from his period of extended absence, and whether he will feature again for the Diavolo is yet to be seen.
Certainly, a difficult situation for Sergio Conceicao to walk into, but the new head coach will not be allowing any excuses to be made, as he stated in his first interview.
To think Pioli finished 2nd after:
– the management had caused a huge amount of disruption with the previous summer’s transfers which left us without a midfield; and
– an injury ravaged season.
He did well agreed, but well is not good enough for AC Milan.
It was evident that with Pioli we would be another Lazio, Napoli or Atalanta. Is that what we want?
Lets stop crying and look forward. Change is good
2nd is more than well and if you can’t understand that then we’re going nowhere.
It’s precisely that attitude that has us in 8th.
There’s no appreciation. Without appreciation we have nothing.
Agreed, he did great things but change is needed for greatness and hopefully Milan banta era ended 2024 and Greater Milan is about to be launched in January
What ‘greatness’?
We’re 8th.
The only thing ‘greater’ than 2nd is 1st, and 1st was secured by a rampant/cheating Inter.
Clubs can’t go around sacking managers who finish 2nd or else we’ll just experience never ending chaos like in the 8 years we spent out of Europe.
It’s not appreciation, it’s just inadequate replacement.
If we weren’t happy with being 2nd 20 points away from first place and winning no title (I wasn’t happy with that), that means we needed a coach and players that could provide an upgrade over that.
Going for Fonseca, a coach who after more than 15 years of coaching never won a league outside of Ukraine, doesn’t speak ambition and willingless to improve. Spending 15M€ on Emerson Royal and 18M€ Pavlovic doesn’t speak good scouting and understanding of how to improve a team.
Appreciation allows one to take stock of what one has which is essential to work out what one needs.
Otherwise one ends up with a scatter gun approach and change for change sake.
A lack of appreciation for Pioli lead us to Fonseca because we failed to appreciate that the only way to improve on Pioli was to hire someone like Klopp.
A lack of appreciation for Calabria lead us to Emerson Royal because we failed to appreciate that the only way to improve on Calabria was to sign someone like….
A lack of appreciation full stop means people around here actually play down the successes over the last few years because they don’t quite reach the levels of their imaginations.
Pioli was a good coach and was never appreciated ,he was under rated and I pray we get someone of similar attitude and belief