AC Milan have found themselves eight points behind Napoli who are threatening to run away in the Serie A title race, with some key deficiencies holding the Rossoneri back so far.
This morning’s edition of Corriere della Sera (via PianetaMilan) writes that Milan have managed 30 points in their opening 14 games after 9 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats, and the hope is that they can beat Fiorentina while Napoli slip up against Udinese in order to reopen the Scudetto pursuit a bit.
But what is the difference between this Napoli and the current champions Napoli? Being able to count on more depth ‘makes all the difference in the world’ as per the paper, given Spalletti’s side won 2-0 against Empoli on Tuesday thanks to two substitutes, Hirving Lozano and Piotr Zieliński.
Milan on the other hand started Fodé Ballo-Touré and Divock Origi in place of the suspended Theo Hernández and Olivier Giroud, while the choice to start Rafael Leão on the bench did not pay off, with an obvious drop-off in quality seen.
The comparison between Milan and Napoli inevitably also involves what the two clubs did in the summer market. The Partenopei said goodbye to big names in Lorenzo Insigne and Dries Mertens, with sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli investing the €40m from the sale of Kalidou Koulibaly to Chelsea well.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has been a revelation while Kim Min-Jae, Mathías Olivera, Giacomo Raspadori, Giovanni Simeone, Frank-André Zambo Anguissa and Tanguy Ndombélé have all played their role. The sales totalled €80m, the signings totalled €68m, and yet the squad seems stronger.
What business did Milan do? Tommaso Pobega came back from a loan, and Malick Thiaw was signed from Schalke. Divock Origi joined on a free, Sergiño Dest and Aster Vranckx arrived on loan with option deals, and Yacine Adli came from Bordeaux after his year of loan there. The big investment – Charles De Ketelaere – has so far appeared to be struggling, a direct contrast to Kvaratskhelia.
The talent is there, but if Milan really want to have a chance to recover from the deficit, they will have to be able to count on the effective contribution of all squad members from after the World Cup.
Congratulations to Napoli for winning the league maybe next year after we sell Leao and Bennacer
As a Napoli fan for the last 20 years…. we haven’t won anything yet. Still waiting for the run of losses to Lecce/Cremonese/Verona/etc that we’ll manage to pull off to tank ourselves in March/April. If we’re still 7+ points ahead then… okay, maybe it’ll be time to start celebrating. Maybe we’ll get lucky and San Gennaro will smile on us this year!
Wow – well said. All I’ve heard from Napoli fans is that they’ve already won the league (and probably the CL too) but they always start the season all guns blazing before quietly dissolving into 3rd place.
Raspadori is on a 5 mil loan with an obligation to buy next year and knowing how sassuolo conducts their business i would be surprised if napoli wont have to fork up at minimum an additional 25 mil on top of that.
Simeone came on a 3.5 mil euros loan wth an obligation to buy if certain conditions are met but he has a a valuation of 17 mil according to transfermarkt so most likely they will have to fork up an additional 13-15 mil euros on top of the loan fee.
Ndombélé came on a 500k loan with an opton to buy next year (propably minimum 20 mil) but to my knowledge napoli is pretty much payng his full salary with them and he was earning around 10mil a year at spurs so not really a cheqap deal.
The conclusion here must be that napoli has already spend a great deal of their transfer funds from next summer,
Napoli are playing wonderful football but let’s see how they performance in Feb to march that’s where they run out of gas and still to play juve and inter who are starting to find their strides….it will be interesting to see how the final standing stand up but coming on milan we will find it very hard we need to end the first half break on high and winning against fiorentina is must….this team needs to re group
Roma went on an undefeated streak in 2013, collapsed after Christmas.
I’m confident Milan will shift into gear after christmas, though they do need signings in January.
If they get the right signings in January, they will be in for a good shout for winning the league.
The big thing will be player fatigue for all top teams after the world cup
The problem is Milan can’t sell their players with good price and letting them go for free. At least make a sacrifice to maintain our key players and sell them with the right price and go back to invest with good replacement.
I pray for Naples to be the champion. Just not Juventus or Shiter.
Milan did a great job in the summer Mercato. Thiaw is an excellent young defender. CDK is great potential. They need to pay money for a motivational speech for CDK.
Vranckx we do not know yet. And only Dest is very expensive.
Milan should focus on Leao’s contract. Maybe sell in winter or swap for Chelsea stars. And to change goals- to defend 1 of 4 top spots in Serie a. And next summer to invest more than 50 mil that the previous owner set. But invest quality.
Quote from elsewhere: “Milan have played 20 matches so far. In those matches, they have had 105 player absences. That is 105 player absences in 20 matches.”
Meanwhile, Napoli, who are still undefeated this season, have missed a few players to injuries such as Osimhen (6), Rrahmani (8), Zambo Anguissa (2), and now Kvaratskhelia (2) for a total of 18 matches missed, with very little overlap. Compare that to the 105 misses of Milan, and the fact that we are only eight points behind them is quite incredible.”
So… 108 missed matches due to injuries compared to Napoli’s 18. No wonder why Napoli sit on top of the table.
*105 missed matches. Not 108.