AC Milan, barring any miracles, will not be in the Champions League next season, but this may be a good thing for the new head coach to refine their style.
Another new head coach will arrive at Milan this summer, and the club will also see a bit of a reshuffling with a new sporting director also set to change things. In turn, this could mean that the way the Rossoneri play will likely change.
Both head Portuguese coaches this season have spoken about dominating the game, but neither has completely followed through with these ideologies, with Sergio Conceicao relying on come-backs, which definitely does not define a ‘dominant’ game. Whereas Paulo Fonseca’s system was a bit too jagged to be dominating.
Today, Fabio Capello has been rather critical of Italian football as a whole, stating that the nation struggles tactically when speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport, and Milan News have relayed his criticisms.
“Speed: I will be repetitive but I insist, in Serie A we play at too slow a pace. And the many referee breaks certainly don’t help. It is no coincidence that when we cross the borders of our league, we often get into trouble.”
He is right. Hence why I don’t think Milan needs an Italian coach. We need somebody who can carry the club fully into the new era of football, bit just tactically, but in a philosophical level. Personally, I would love to see a German sportind director leading Milan, and then maybe we could get Klopp as head coach later on. Fast, attacking football with high press would be straight up Milan’s alley as a football club, ad well as giving sone of our young teenagers a few minutes here and there. But Italian coaches do not have the courage to to either if these things. It’s a cultural thing that takes centuries to change. We need more courage, and it needs to come from the top. Falkenberg would be a good place to start, but I am not sure if he would want to be part of the project with Redbird…
I totally agree, Italian football in general too slow when compared to UK, Gemany and Spain. A coach like Klopp will surely be the right way to go but we have to be sure he will suffer for a season the least to manage the team against defensive Italian clubs, but this is the only way if we need to win the CL again. We still have Inter in the CL this season and although it is a strong team, he does not have a chance against Barcelona, Arsenal, Real or Bayern. let us wait and see.
This is proof that Milan does not need an Italian coach. In Italy, the game is too slow, and in the league of 20 coaches, 18 are Italian??? Milan need Klopp.
It’s probably one of the things that Pioli got right during his tenure. We play fast football under him especially post lockdown. But eventually the league got used to it. And we got a ton of injuries due to that demanding style. I understand what Don Fabio is saying but I think the rhythm of Serie A makes it difficult with the constant refereeing interference and the pragmatism of Italian coaches. They love to frustrate that style of play. In Europe where there is different officiating and less protection for dark arts the Italian teams struggle then as the European game is faster and aggressive..
Thats the problem with fast attacking football. It is demanding and you need to have a squad turnover in almost every position except a few every 3-4 years. I am sorry but AC Milan do not have that kind of money. For instance Bennacer should have been let go of the year after winning the league. His body was broken from the system. The same with Calabria. The same is happening to Theo as well. The coaches that has come after Pioli are more flexible and that’s a good thing because there is more of a chance in keeping your investments a year or two longer.
Isn’t that exactly what Conceicao is trying to do. Pressing and all those things but the players don’t want to. So change of coach wouldn’t change anything
The recent UCL game between Real and Athletico was scary to watch. Specifically speaking to Capello’s point, incredibly fast paced. Those teams just don’t allow you to settle on the ball…something to contend with for other leagues.
i respect Capello but.. our fastest defenders is our worst (Tomo & Theo), we’re struggling w/ injury even play w/ that “not too fast” way it’ll worse if it’s faster,
we need quality/ intellegent players, fast & strong isn’t enough
One of the problems within ACM is a lack of Italian identity.
Here we go again with all these Italian mentality 😏
We might have our shortcomings but how do we explain these “failures” in Europe…is it due to lack of speed across the borders? Most of the big 5 leagues would love to have our recent record in EU.
Conf League final 2022: Italian winner in the final (Roma)
CL semi finals 2023: 2 Italian teams of 4 (Inter, Milan)
CL final 2023: Italian team in the final (Inter)
Europa League semi finals 2023: 2 Italian teams of 4 (Juve, Roma)
Europa League final 2023: Italian team in the final (Roma)
Conf league 2023: Italian team in the final (Fiore)
Europa League semi finals 2024: 2 Italian teams of 4 (Atalanta, Roma)
Europa League final 2024: Italian winner in the final (Atalanta)
Conf league 2024: Italian team in the final (Fiore)
Can you please answer this Don Fabio?
Slow and dull football is a problem of the modern game in all the leagues. Once leagues and coaches started adapting the “short passing possession” style of football the game has slowed down a lot. 90s and 00s football was more direct and fast tempo. The Italian league with its emphasis on defensive game had a more fluid style of football.
The “stay close together” style is a low skill type of football system.