AC Milan lost again last night, and with it, all hopes of a Champions League place have gone out of the window. A depressing sentence, which does not feel like the final blow either.
In a season where Milan have consistently fallen below the standard, the game against Bologna was yet another chance to redeem themselves. However, as has been the case for the majority of the season, it was not taken.
Throughout the year, the club have been offered countless opportunities to get back on track, but that opportunity has never been taken, so now the Rossoneri are left to wallow in their own self-inflicted sadness.
Gazzetta dello Sport reports that five problems must be solved if there is to be any chance of redemption this season, and the punches have not been pulled.
Things start on the pitch, where again, the Diavolo struggled going forward. Opportunities arise, but there is no consistency to how they arrive, which is a real issue. Rather than the ideas being patterns, it just seems like opportunities, which is really damaging, as we saw with Bologna’s structured ideas.
Following that, the team seemingly has a huge concentration issue – which Gazzetta states has been a theme of the season. Individually, the errors keep coming, positioning is poor, and players just seem ‘different’. In fact, the paper states that the situation, at least in regards to this, is ‘disastrous’.
Number three does not concern patterns or an area, instead, it focuses on Joao Felix. Since arriving from Chelsea, the feeling about the Portuguese has dropped massively, yet Sergio Conceicao always looks to the attacker, even when he is playing badly.
Against Bologna, he was again invisible, and the warnings before his arrival are starting to be shown now.
Conceicao also seems settled on his two central defenders – Malick Thiaw and Strahinja Pavlovic – but there have to be questions asked about their abilities. Both ‘make too many mistakes’ to play in an inviting system, leaving the report to question why Fikayo Tomori is not given a chance, let alone Matteo Gabbia.
Finally, the problems end upstairs, where the Diavolo are left in a strange place. At present, Milan are looking for a new structure to their management, as things right now do not work. From top to bottom, a definition is needed, and with large-scale changes expected, can the trust be placed in them to make the right calls? After all, history is showing that they might not be able to based on this season.
“Against Bologna, he was again invisible, and the warnings before his arrival are starting to be shown now.”
Felix invisible? Not really. I remember at least a dozen easy turnovers and miss-placed passes from him. He was absolutely catastrophic but invisible he was not.
Exiting Pioli was crucial for this year result.
Ok, Milan finally won against Inter, and that’s thank to 2 new coaches. But we forgot to win against Juventus.
We conceded less goals than with Pioli but we forgot to win against small teams.
We can agree that Pavlovic was decent singing this year together with Fofana.
Fofana needs help in midfield so new defensive midfielder someone like Ricci is necessary. When in attack Reijnders should play no 10. Pulisic is still our best player and Gimenez can be more useful than Morata Felix And Abraham.
That story continue to next season. Our 2 central defender can’t be Gabbia and Thiaw. They are decent back up. We need much stronger player than Tomori.
Theo can stay and Walker is decent right back.
So we can see the list of players that must go next year: Tomori, Emerson Royal, Florenzi, Abraham, Morata, Bennacer, Chukwueze, Ruben Loftu Okafor. All these players cost Milan in total more than 70 million in terms of gross wage plus ammortisation and they don’t even play. Or when they play then they fuc* up.
I would gladly have back ups like Saelemaekers, Adli, Pobega, and Kalulu, with Jovic and Colomobo. 6 players who are very cheap and can be only back up. With money difference I would buy expensive central back and someone like Ricci. If it possible new winger or no10.
So as long as we solve management, defence, attack, midfield, goalkeeping and mentality, we’ll be good again. Good to know.
Hhaaha that’s what i read as well. Perhaps even a new city, a different shirt?
Some people think we need to fix the coaching as well. Maybe the fitness issues need to be solved too. Too many injuries.
There’s one constant throughout Milan’s recent struggles. The fans.
Maybe instead of it being this player or that player, this director or that one… there’s a bigger issue here.
Namely expectations.
Last year, we finished second. On the league’s fourth biggest payroll. And yet, for many people, Pioli had ‘failed’ and wasn’t good enough. Just swap out Pioli and we’ll have a title challenge…
So the club listened and did. Out with the old (including Giroud and Kjaer), in with Fonseca, a project coach who’s got a track record of always taking time to implement his ways and develop players often at a cost of results, and some younger players.
Before the season, all the talk from directors, management was how we were going to take on Inter this year. Anything less than a title challenge was a failure. We, the fans, demanded this (speaking on average).
Management bought some players, mainly up and coming ones and one veteran off the back of a full (winning) Euros campaign. No time for anyone to bond, off we go.
Despite having good underlying xG numbers pointing to how the team was playing, we struggled to convert chances.
The fans are grumpy about ticket prices and allocations and refuse to support the team.
But it’s a results business, the fans aren’t happy. So out with the new, in with the even newer. Manager and players, now some even more expensive ones outside of the budget including a natural finisher, but demanded by the fans. Die rolled.
And still, things get worse.
Fonseca’s former team Lille continue their rise. Teams like Atalanta, Bournemouth and Athletic Club (Bilbao) continue to show how to compete without spending money.
At what point to do we need to update our expectations and say it’s time for a reset. Plan for a season out of Europe and think about what’s the long-term plan. Can we have a coach who’s allowed to lose some games and implement a system? Can we give this Futuro project a chance to develop some players? Can we, the fans, have patience to step back for a couple of years and lower our expectations to something more reasonable?
How do we pivot away from being a smaller-scale Inter Milan trying to spend our way out of a mess, but with less money?
How do we get to feel like a club again?
I’m not sure we can. At the moment, it feels like everyone in the team is burdened by history rather than encouraged by it. We ask Thiaw to be Nesta, Theo to be Maldini and Jovic to be Inzaghi. Overlooking that those were the best paid players of their generation (and part of a media mogul’s soft power project).
It needs patience. But it seems the cupboard is bare.
“At what point to do we need to update our expectations and say it’s time for a reset. Plan for a season out of Europe and think about what’s the long-term plan”
Here’s the thing, we did exactly that about 5 or so years ago. We had a plan and a budget and stuck to it. And eventually we won the Scudetto ahead of time and had Europe on notice once more with a UCL semi showing. The foundations was there. The very thing you’re mentioning now, we had up until two years ago. And it got dismantled in only two years but not for the better. We shouldn’t at the point be looking for a rebuild but here we are.
Thank you for this.
He shouldn’t have been asking that question.
All he wanted was outplayed by one man whose name is not to be mentioned.