Continuing the unbeaten streak in a nice fashion has lead to suggestions that AC Milan could actually be higher achievers than the Champions League.
Throughout this season, Massimiliano Allegri has constantly stated that Milan are aiming for a Champions League place this season. Of course, there have been suggestions that they can aim higher.
In fact, Allegri has suggested that the team can see where they are in May. However, the baseline for this team is a return to Europe at a minimum.
Capello’s Scudetto claim
Had they lost against Bologna, the gap to Inter at the top of the league would’ve been eight points. Nevertheless, three goals equalled three points and the gap remains at five points, which is still a large mountain to overcome.
With that said, though, they are not out of the Scudetto fight. There is another Derby della Madonnina to play, and the Nerazzurri still have a packed calendar. Stranger things have certainly happened, and Fabio Capello is not ruling out the Rossoneri, as he stated in his editorial piece for Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Rather than a “short nose”… This time, in Bologna, Milan allowed itself a winning evening by a “long snout”. Dall’Ara’s 3-0 showed a team that played with great personality, without problems in defense and immune to any opportunity from Bologna.
“The Rossoneri showed off an obvious tranquillity that sometimes also seemed sufficient for a result that could also be wider, given the dominance of the game.
“Last night I was impressed by the ease with which the Rossoneri managed to go to the goal, certainly in the face of an opposing defence that was too messy and easy to beat. And I also seem to see a certain conviction in the plays, which must be emphasised.
“The series of 22 games in Serie A without defeat, then, means that the defence knows how to do its job, that the goalkeeper directs well – we know how great Maignan is – and that Milan also has excellent management in midfield.
“In this regard, I liked the beautiful dialogue that I glimpsed on a couple of occasions between Rabiot and Modric: it is no coincidence that they are so important to this group. When they turn, the whole team turns.
“Allegri will continue to say that it is important to get to the four who qualify for the Champions League, and I agree with him, but seeing how the Rossoneri’s results are maturing… Inter is ahead, of course, but why not aim for first place?
“It is still possible to have as a goal the qualification in the Champions League, knowing, however, that there is also something higher: it would be foolish not to consider it. All the more so taking into account the fact that there is only the championship in the Rossoneri calendar.
“Until the results arrive… Inter has the strength of a great squad, and it is more difficult for them to have significant drops, it is true, but in Allegri’s group, the desire and determination are there.
“Just over the middle of the season, this team reached a certain maturity: yesterday, they defended the lead by turning the ball and never allowing the danger to grow.
“It means that there is a certain mentality and a winning way of thinking. The first half, in particular, last night was overwhelming. Bologna started well, but it was really too elementary. He allowed Milan to pass the half of the field and go to the goal every time they got possession of the ball: already before the advantage, the Rossoneri had managed to get in front of the goal three times.
“And then an absolutely inconsistent and unbalanced defence for the Rossoblù, with too elementary ideas forward. They tried to spin the ball, but never a dribble and always little weight in the area.
“A completely different story is Milan, which has always found the possibility of making itself dangerous even finding itself in numerical superiority on some occasions. On paper it wasn’t a very easy game for Allegri to pack, but if Maignan never had to make a save for the whole first half…
“Max has deployed a team convinced of what it does and able to use the bands intelligently, a symptom of excellent preparation.”
Didn’t Capello himself say Milan didn’t have enough for the scudetto last week?
yes, but that was LAST week.
this week, things look very different. 🙂
Bologna looked awful – a Serie B-level defense.
Capello’s comments were a bit of a nothingburger (corto burgo?) – of course Milan wants more than the Champions League, but Allegri is setting reasonable expectations.
Yes these former “greats” have completely lost it. Costacurta first saying the guy who’s averaging the highest gp90 in the league needs to do more offensively now Capello the fool continues his weekly contradictions.
Glad we’ve got Nelli here with his superb credentials and reputation as the Footballing Wizard who knows better than any of the Milan-legends. 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Capello is scum, a multiple different times in his career this dude tried blocking multiple players from attending the birth of their children because it would make them miss practice. What a POS
Bs. first of all what he said in regard of Pulisic was said in the context that he hasn’t scored or even assisted since December 28 basically emphasizing his importance to the team, Nothing wrong in that.
What Capello says here is basically in the context that we can compete for the Scudetto if we play up to our best which we clearly hasn’t done lately before tonights match, Nothing wrong there either.
How about you stop badmouthing our former greats and club legends and even more so when you are completely wrong in your assessments.
No, he’s a bad person, factual. He’s a cheater, I don’t believe for a second he was ignorant of what Moggi was up to factual. I hate that man because he’s trash, if his achievements can be celebrated his failures as a person and coach can also be brought up. Also Martin your “context” defense is pretty poor because he literally said those things in the context of Pulisic needs to do more. So you agree with Capello who’s basically if Pulisic goes more than 2 games without a goal then he’s not doing enough. You can argue semantics all you want but he said what he said. How about you support the current best player on the squad and stop defending this Juventino pos
Sounds awfully much as your mere opinion. Again seems like mere opinion, why would Juventus management include him in their cheating as it would put themselves in a dangerous position if they were to sack Capello, simply wouldn’t make any sense.
But he does need to do more so yeah I absolutely agree with him but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t done great earlier in the season either. In fact he hasn’t scored or assisted since December 28 so that is 5 matches with no output in g/a’s. 7 of the 12 g/a’s contributions came from the start of the season until October 5th. I do commend him though for his work ethics in both phases of the game.
I actually support and like Pulisic a lot but that doesn’t mean that he or anyone else is above fair critique but certainly not on the level you put forward above that is baseless slander.
I like Allegri’s approach, one game at a time and respect your opponents.
Yeah for sure.
have to ask yourself how did management pass on Conte and Allegri to hire who we did last year. Both were available so clearly we settled on lesser for other reasons than the good of the team.
I think they were trying too hard to be smarter than everyone else. I still don’t think conte was the right hire, obviously would have been better than Fonseca but Conte hasn’t really shown he can do anything other than win the league. Which Allegri has also shown…
Because they didn’t have a sporting director, period.
The “sporting director” was Moncada, a scout. We had Furlani, the banker, the CEO & Ibrahimović who, to put it nicely, didn’t have a clearly defined role. And no one really knows how the decision making went really between all of them + Cardinale.
In march-april, we finally got Tare, an actual sporting director who answers only and directly to Furlani and who got Allegri, Moncada was back to being a scout. Cardinale seems to dissapear from the decision making and Ibrahimović who seems have completely dissapeared. So, while there is still a lot left to be desired, the decision making process seems clearer now.
Ibrahimovic is nothing more than a mascot at this point.
He does nothing but make commercials for UCL, a competition his club isn’t even in, and for the Milan Olympics.
All the better actually, don’t let him anywhere near making a sporting decision. Leave that to the professionals in Allegri and Tare.
Personally, I think the management were simply trying to reproduce a new style of football that is exciting. Like Como. Unfortunately they were naive about some hurdles that are not easy to overcome in the Seria style of play. What they did at the end of the summer was to redefine their goals and how best to achieve it.
I love how the narrative all of a sudden changes after a win VS struggling Bologna from Capello HIMSELF. LOL!!!