Back in 2010/11, under the management of Max Allegri, AC Milan won the Scudetto with a very strong team. In fact, the Rossoneri had so many world-class players that they didn’t work on tactics.
Milan lost just four games that season and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was a key in the Scudetto last season, was the star back then as well. With 14 goals and 12 assists, he won over the Rossoneri fans with ease.
Antonio Cassano was also part of that team and although he joined mid-way through the season, he had an important impact with eight goals and nine assists. In a recent interview with La Repubblica (via MilanNews), he revealed an interesting thing.
“We had Abbiati in goal, Zambrotta, Jankulovksi as the full-backs, Thiago Silva and Nesta in the centre, Pirlo or Van Bommel in between, Gattuso, Seedorf and Ambrosini. Cassano behind Ibrahimovic and Robinho.
“Do you understand? We didn’t do tactics. Tuesday we ran a bit, Wednesday at the gym, Thursday practice match, Friday was optional and on Saturday we took two penalties and two corners. The team went on its own,” he stated.
Of course, with so many world-class players it’s easy to understand why Allegri decided to focus on keeping them in the best of condition, rather than working too much on tactics. The main reason for the eventual downfall was the departure of these players.
Well at least now we know why Milan lost the title the following season, which started Juventus domination and Milan banter Era.
Milan had no business losing the title in 2012 when you have prime Zlatan on your team, surrounded with Thiago silva, Pato, Robinho, Cassano, Boateng, Seedorf and still some of the old guard besides Pirlo.
Alegri should have been fired after that season.
Now Zlatan stupidity also played role in it because I think he got suspended 3 or 5 games for slapping a Napoli player along with the Muntari goal, but still Milan had much better squad than Juventus
There’s no such thing as the banter era, it’s a stupid expression that was popular with Londoners. It means nothing to the vast majority of the fanbase.
Did you forget the Muntari ghost goal?
It’s in the comment
Banter era? How old are you, 11?
I’ve always said that THAT Milan team would have won the scudetto even without a manager (which happened to be Allegri). Once the stars were sold Allegri started turning Milan into a midtable team.