Heading into the summer transfer window, the AC Milan management knew they had a lot to do. And a lot they did…
The three months that followed the arrival of the Igli Tare-Massimiliano Allegri duo as the new sporting director and head coach were among the busiest in recent memory. Between 35 and 40 operations were completed, depending on who you want to count.
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This is a good time to remember what Giorgio Furlani said, when foreshadowing what was to come. The CEO spoke alongside Tare at a press conference held at Casa Milan on June 25, and his words have now become infamous.
“There will be no need for a total revolution, but we will add some pieces to the squad to be ready for the new season. Our objective, on a sporting level, is the same as before: we must be competitive to win trophies,” he declared.
A revolution was to follow, by pretty much every definition of the word. The biggest upheaval was in the midfield department and it was mostly forced by the sale of Tijjani Reijnders to Manchester City, the first divisive move of a chaotic 12 weeks.
With criticism to come, praise must also be fairly given out. Tare and co. did a good job of rebuilding the midfield: a world-class player in Luka Modric arrived, while Adrien Rabiot would bookend the business as another experienced name.
Yunus Musah departed for Atalanta in an operation most seemed in favour of given his San Siro struggles, especially after Samuele Ricci and Ardon Jashari had joined from Torino and Club Brugge, respectively, to inject some youthful energy and (hopefully) some technical quality to the department.
With the middle part of the jigsaw teasing a beautiful picture, just how did the rest of the puzzle get so scrambled? Despite record proceeds from sales, things would go drastically wrong in terms of squad construction.
Centre-back catastrophe
Going from back to front, many expected Milan to do very little (relative to the rest of the squad) in the centre-back area. If anything, it was presumed that a sale would result in a replacement, and that would be the extent of the business.
In a broad sense, that’s how it went. The issue is the specifics. Milan made the decision to sell Malick Thiaw to Newcastle United three weeks before the end of the window, which – while not ideal from a timing point of view – was enough time to put the €40m to good use.
The necessity became very simple with that amount of money in hand: Tare, Giorgio Furlani and the rest of the directors had to satisfy Allegri’s request: sign an experienced, starter-level centre-back. In essence, they sold for €40m, so they had to buy for €40m.
Instead, they chose to sign Koni De Winter for half the money from Genoa. De Winter is not a bad player; he knows the coach from their time at Juventus, and he has been solid in Serie A so far. So, the issue is not necessarily him specifically as a player. It was the missed opportunity to make a splash.
Realising that Allegri wanted to use a three-man defence and that the central area was light on cover, Milan scrambled as late as they possibly could to try and get another player in to give five centre-back options. Manuel Akanji or Joe Gomez would have satiated the clamour, yet neither arrived.
When news spread early on deadline day that the 19-year-old David Odogu was jetting in for a medical, pundits and fans began to realise the magnitude of the desperation. That is not meant as a slight on Odogu – who, as we highlighted, is an interesting talent to develop – but rather what he represents: another huge gamble, not an instant fix.
It was widely documented by reliable sources that Allegri wanted a leader for the back, and we don’t see one. The oldest player is Fikayo Tomori at 27, and he is coming off three seasons of very patchy form. Matteo Gabbia is 25 and has rightly been made the bedrock of the back line, but Strahinja Pavlovic at 24 is still incredibly raw, and the two new additions are 23 and 19, as mentioned.
Age is not the only determining factor of leadership, of course, because someone like Akanji would have raised the technical level and would have provided a different kind of experience, having played for years under a world-class coach in a world-class team.
So, he could have helped set standards, but now he is doing so for the Rossoneri’s fiercest rivals in what was an embarrassing saga that almost requires a separate discussion. Even the Gomez pursuit was handled badly: hanging on for another operation to be complete (Marc Guehi to Liverpool) with hours of the window left was a risk they could not afford to take.
What should have been done differently? The supporter base at large seemed conflicted on whether spending €40m on Giovanni Leoni was a good idea or not. If Milan had paid the money, then they would have secured a crystalline gem for the future, and his addition would have generated a real buzz given the hype around his talent.
For those who doubt that, Liverpool did not. And they are in a far better state defensively than Milan are. Pietro Comuzzo of Fiorentina was a solid alternative target, but it seems no concrete attempt was made. Since the window has closed, their sporting director has suggested €35m would have got the deal done.
Thus, Milan went into the summer with a need to address, sold a player for €40m, recruited fourth and fifth-choice options as replacements and kept €10m in change. Consider the centre of defence unimproved, and potentially weakened.
Full-back foolishness
Perhaps the flanks were strengthened to improve the health of the defensive unit after all? Sadly, this is an area that the management got even more horribly wrong, despite having almost a blank canvas to work with.
Theo Hernandez was sold to Al-Hilal for €25m to bring a six-year era to an end, so a starter was needed for the left side. One of the mitigating circumstances mentioned for Theo’s decline was the lack of a backup, resulting in him being overworked, so one could make a strong case that two left-backs were needed.
On the right flank, there had been almost a systematic clear-out in recent months. Davide Calabria departed, Alessandro Florenzi’s contract expired, Kyle Walker’s loan was not made permanent, and Emerson Royal was sold. This left a grand total of zero natural right-backs in the squad.
Admittedly, the decision to use a 3-5-2 formation and subsequently go with wing-backs moved the goalposts a touch. All of a sudden, Alexis Saelemaekers – returning from his loan spell at Roma – and Alex Jimenez looked like candidates for both positions.
The first new face through the door was Pervis Estupinan from Brighton – risk number one. Why? Injuries have been a big problem for Estupinan in the past couple of seasons, as we highlighted in our player analysis.
Since the start of 2023-24, as per Transfermarkt, the defender has missed 43 games for club and country combined due to various issues. Three of the four long-term absences (30 days or more) are listed as ‘muscle injuries’, while he had an ankle problem that kept Jim out from April to the end of August in 2024, which was 140 days in total.
Staying fit is the first battle, before performance levels come into things. With the latter, a period of adaptation to Serie A is needed, and having to fly out to meet his new team-mates mid-tour was far from ideal.
Estupinan could turn out to be a very astute signing for less than €20m, and if he gives Milan 35+ games per season, he probably will be. Yet, to go from links with Destiny Udogie, Andrea Cambiaso and even Miguel Gutierrez to such a seismic gamble follows a theme that was to be repeated.
Not only that, but the Ecuadorian does not have a natural back-up either, with Davide Bartesaghi the deputy on paper at present. More to come on why that is. The Milan academy product is not only deeply inexperienced, but he seems to be more of a full-back or outside centre-back and certainly not a wing-back.
Did Milan at least ‘balance’ things a bit by signing a right-back with proven quality? You already know the answer. Zachary Athekame was the only signing from Young Boys in Switzerland, and he very much fits into the Odogu ‘wait and see what he becomes’ mould, rather than an instant contributor.
His zero minutes so far prove this, and there are question marks about his role because it appears as though a natural full-back has been signed for a system without any. Once again, that is not to say that the Swiss can not and will not develop into a very functional player in time, but he needs that time, and the Diavolo do not have it.
There have been comparisons drawn with signings such as Pierre Kalulu and Malick Thiaw, but where it falls short is that the defensive department, when they arrived, had become a strength, so they were complementary pieces at best. Instead, Odogu and Athekame arrived instead of what should have come.
Then we come to the seemingly rash decision to let Alex Jimenez go. There was speculation about attitude issues, including arriving late to training, yet waiting until the mercato finale to offload him feels counter-productive. There is a time to get rid of a bad egg when they are important, and that is not with hours to replace them.
Jimenez was not unanimously regarded as a starting quality wide man by any means. However, he covered a lot of ground, had technical quality and most importantly, versatility. Any Milanista who says they would not feel more comfortable with the Spaniard as the back-up wing-back on both sides rather than Bartesaghi and Athekame is lying.
Of course, there was a saga, too. The chaos that erupted surrounding then-Gent defender Archie Brown on the night of July 11 brings back nightmares for many as Milan battled to snatch him from Fenerbahce but ultimately lost. How is Archie doing, you ask? Five goal contributions in seven games.
The same as with the centre-back situation, the money was there to do the job properly. In terms of attainable alternatives, Gutierrez or Maxim De Cuyper would have been better for the left; Marc Pubill (who the Rossoneri turned away from before Atletico Madrid decided he was good), Arnau Martinez, or Givairo Read would have given more guarantees on the right.
Midfield mystery
In the introduction, the work done to reconstruct the midfield was praised, so hypocrisy now would be remiss, and this section will be a bit shorter. That being said, for as much as quality has come into the side, there are arguably more question marks than in any other area.
Modric, Rabiot, Jashari, Ricci, Loftus-Cheek, Fofana. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Or at the very least, more than enough to get through a season with only one main competition to focus on, given the lack of European football. So what’s the issue?
Well, as of September 11, we are left with no idea which two or three players Allegri wants to play. It starts from a simple basis: Modric is undroppable, but not in the role that we all thought he would be, which is as a box-to-box mezzala. Instead, the Croatian has made his home as a deep-lying playmaker – a regista – and has effectively been given the keys to the control room.
There is no issue with Modric playing anywhere – the technical level he has and what he has achieved in the game means he commands the right to have input on that, though it moves the other pieces around in an awkward way.
What it means is that Samuele Ricci is now facing a battle to get starts or even regular minutes, given that he was also brought in to be that screen in front of the defence. As the first piece of the midfield rebuild, that is far from ideal.
Jashari’s injury could not be legislated for by anyone, though it does provide Allegri with an early headache. Presuming he persists with using a three-man midfield, he has Loftus-Cheek, Fofana and Rabiot to call upon at present for the two box-to-box roles.
The latter has just arrived, so by process of elimination, the coach has found himself having to rely upon the inconsistent Loftus-Cheek and Fofana in the early part of the season. After all of the business is done, such an eventuality seems problematic, to put it nicely.
Allegri said rather worryingly in a press conference that he wants the Englishman and the Frenchman to combine for 15 goals; i.e. the total that Reijnders scored last season. It drew a few laughs, but we suspect it might have been a media ploy to try to highlight what he feels that he is missing.
Rabiot’s late addition may go under the radar, but the end product that he gives might be crucial in filling that void. Given his relationship with the coach from their time at Juve, it feels like a starting spot has been nailed on for him.
That will leave four players for one place, though having an abundance feels like a nice problem to have after years of not having enough. Over to you, Max, to find the magic combinations.
Frontline farce
During his press conference with journalists at Casa Milan, Milan’s sporting director Tare boldly declared that the club are looking for a striker who can provide competition but above all something different skills compared to Santiago Gimenez.
“We are evaluating both in Italy and outside Italy: it is a question of characteristics, and for our team’s game, it is fundamental. He must be a player with completely different characteristics to those of Gimenez, who is not a centre-forward like Giroud: we must be good at completing these two things together,” he said.
Did a striker arrive? No, they did not. Many will view this as the great failure of the 2025 summer transfer window, because of what the hierarchy publicly stated they wished to do and the wild goose chase that then began.
First and foremost, the striker pursuit itself was handled dreadfully. From the hopeless hanging on for Dusan Vlahovic to the Victor Boniface debacle and the Conrad Harder confusion, Milan got right to the finish line several times but never crossed it.
The solution, again right at the end of the window, was to invest heavily in Christopher Nkunku of Chelsea. While a quality signing on paper, his best numbers have come as an attacking midfielder or a second striker, so he is certainly not the new number nine to lead the line.
Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic were used as the front two throughout preseason, which again felt like a message from Allegri to the management regarding what he was working with. They did, however, look quite bright in the split striker roles.
The one to suffer massively from the centre-forward chaos is Santiago Gimenez. From Tare’s announcement onwards, there has been no shortage of speculation about him being unwanted just a few months into his time at Milan, and it continued until deadline day, when there was talk of a swap deal with Roma for Artem Dovbyk.
We have already written another lengthy column about the mis-profiling and mis-treatment of the Mexican, but things might have been forgotten had Milan managed to sign a striker that got everyone excited and satisfied Allegri.
The end result is that Milan essentially have three natural wingers and one unwanted striker for a two-man attack. Max must choose two to miss out on who will believe they should start. Yet, if the manager wants to use three forwards, then the issue becomes even more critical.
The sale of Noah Okafor was one that the majority of the fanbase did not argue with, given the guaranteed receipt of €20m for a hit-and-miss player, but then to let Samuel Chukwueze leave in the finale has taken away more depth.
As Leao’s absence over the past three weeks has shown, Milan are now one injury away from being in real trouble because they have so little to bring off the bench. Look at the upcoming Bologna game as an example: Leao out, Nkunku not fit yet, then Pulisic and Gimenez returning on Wednesday after over 15,000km travelled.
Trimming down the squad was necessary with no European football, as was offloading players Allegri didn’t see a use for. Despite this, we think that a forward had to arrive with Okafor and Chukwueze let go, because the end product is painfully thin forward depth and the potential for quite a predictable attack.
The hope to be wrong
There is no doubting that some of you will read this and feel that it is a negative and cynical assessment of how things have gone over the summer, and perhaps it is. With writing this comes a genuine hope that it all turns out to be incorrect and the window appears a masterstroke with time.
However, even the most ardent defender of the work done must admit that there is quite a lot of luck required for things to turn out right. The centre-back, full-back and attacking departments must remain injury-free, and Allegri must find the right concoctions across the park.
Admittedly, the mercato has thousands of dynamics that never make it as easy as ‘recoup money then spend it’. Otherwise, everyone would be an expert. That said, it does feel like other clubs are better at reacting to said dynamics, being proactive with business rather than reactive.
Another mitigating circumstance is that Milan do not have the appeal of Champions League football this season, and that this could merely have been a stripping back mission before a more expensive window in a year, hopefully with a ticket stamped for the top club competition and higher revenues on the cards.
For now, though, we are left to reflect on what feels like a missed opportunity.
ST like Vlahovic/Dovbyk, quality CB instead of Odogu (Lucumi/Alexsandro/Balerdi), and a wingback was all that we needed to have a great mercato.
3.5 months later we can try again. new financial year would give us more spending power. we still haven’t used any loan deals yet… could be an option for Dovbyk for instance
one game does not a season make but this piece was obviously written b4 the Bologna match. I wasted almost 5 min of my life reading this drivel:
1. ‘Midfield mystery’? We may well have strongest midfield in Serie A. The Modric-Rabiot-Ricci 3-some is as good as it gets. Fofana’s not a bad sub.
2. With a stronger midfield, the backline will be stronger. Theo was responsible last year for at least a half-dozen goals. We do miss Thiaw. But Bologna only had 1 shot on goal.
The front line won’t be farcical when Leao returns, Nkunku starts in place of Gimenez, and Pulisic jumps over RLC. Having to choose 2 to start from Leao, Nkunku and Puli is a nice problem to have.
SempreMilan – please pull this article from the website. Not sure of the reason why it was published.
What an absurdly ridiculous article. “Nightmare”, “Catastrophy”. Totally hyperbolic click-bait to get all the haters blood boiling.
As if you can even make any kind of judgement about any of the signings 2 games into the season.
The midfield is far stronger than it was last season even with Allegri foolishly playing Modric out of position.
The defense may be better but there is certainly no indication that it is worse. Just the absence of Theo makes the defense stronger. De winter may end up being a great signing if Max has the courage to give him a chance.
The only real complaint to be made is the striker position. That was a failure of this mercato.
Sempre Milan continues to be the most toxic site. All negative all the time. It seems to be a site for people who actually hate the team.
Uh oh I feel like I’m about to be censored and banned again.
So the only complaint is the striker and we have had one of the worst Serie A defences last 2 seasons? That staying about the same is great. What every real Milan fan like you dreams of.
How has it stayed the same? Emerson out, Calabria out, Theo, Thiaw out, Jimenez out.
Estupian In, De Winter In, Athekame In, Odogu In. Are you willing to make judgements on these players already? You may end up looking very foolish.
Besides 90% of our defensive problems were a result of Theo having no interest in playing defense and our Midfield getting run over. Theo is now gone and we have a much stronger midfield depending on how Allegri wants to use it. That alone solves a lot of our problems defensively.
This. 100%. Agree on everything above.
TL/DR: I do think it was a terrible transfer window
I have to disagree on almost everything you said – the article just lays out the harsh reality our beloved club is experiencing right now.
About Theo… Yes, he was utter garbage last season and even my grandma could have defended better than him. That being said, have you watched the games this season and seen Estupiñan being better than him defensively? I surely didn’t get that impression – same nightmare in defense while being mostly useless upfront.
I agree that our midfield is stronger, but to much money was spent there with other necessities not being addressed. And apparently Modric asked to be played as the deep lying playmaker so I wouldn’t blame that on Allegri – even though I despise his “idea” of football.
Also agree on De Winter, but the experienced centre back we needed wasn’t signed…
Regarding the “missing” striker, we should have kept Colombo as backup and use the Nkunku money for centre back. Santi is a very good striker if served properly. And Nkunku is great, but if Leao is a (second) striker for Allegri he isn’t necessary. A proper CF backup would have made much more sense – someone like Giroud, as said by Tare before the transfer window… Now we’ll have to bench one of the available four attackers, causing them to lose morale/formself esteem(choose the term you see most appropriate). The one being benched as it looks now will be Pulisic, who displayed the most stable performances of the bunch.
Overall we’re worse in depth in all positions but the midfield and the squad is not built well enough for neither a 3 man defense, nor a man one. I don’t think calling that a nightmare is overstated. After the scudetto winning season I never would’ve thought we would go back to another banter era this fast…
PS: On top of this our captain will probably leave on a free and instead of trusting a very promising Torriani we’ll sign another goalie and stifle Torriani’s growth before losing him on a free transfer. And Pulisic will be on his way out as well if he doesn’t get enough playing time “thanks” to the acquisition of Nkunku
Well said
Better just because Theo left? Your logic does not make sense, all we did for defence this season is add more questions than answers. We need quick solutions not players who will take a few years to get to the level required. Fans and probably Allegri too were fine with De Winter cause we thought a more experienced cb was coming in but if we had to choose most fans would get rid him and Odugu for a proper experienced cb
Negative? I think it is critical. Most fans are very critical of our management who have managed to run the team into the ground.
This summer is the perfect example of their ineptitude and lack of any plan/project.
Who are our wingbacks?
Are we going to bench Ricci, Jashari, Nkunke 100m worth of players?
It’s an utter mess of a squad, that has rightly recieved critiscism from all sectors.
It is not the club people hate, it is the owners
“Uh oh I feel like I’m about to be censored and banned again”
We all know it’s you, K, lol 😂 we were just humouring you haha.
How about having proper discourse instead of throwing personal insults or belittling others’ posts when someone has a different opinion than yours or even worse, when they present facts that go against your claims and you aggressively dismiss them. Also, along with that, you tend to deflect, pivot away and detract from points within a convo or you get so much into the weeds you lose the major point of what people are trying to say. Not even going to get into constant mischaracterisation of people’s posts or opinions. Start there first and then maybe you won’t get banned…again.
PS: if it’s a toxic site for you then you can go elsewhere. No one is forcing you to comment here. Go to Reddit, it’s way nicer there (hint: that’s sarcasm).
Another fake, dishonest comment from IKWYDLS. What a shock>
Show me the personal insults. I can show thousands directed at me from people like yourself and others. DIdn’t you just call me a douche yesterday? I made no such personal insult towards you.
When you make a completely ignorant and untrue comment and I point out that it’s ignorant and untrue, that is not a personal insult.
Like when you said the Yankees haven’t made the playoffs since they joined up with Cardinale and I pointed out that in fact they were in the World Series last year and made the playoffs 7 of the last 8 years. You may not like , but it’s not an insult.
People say the most vile things on here about other commenters, about management and ownership, that’s all perfectly fine. Criticize the writers or their articles and that will get you censored and banned.
Trying to help you out here buddy but it’s like you’re literally proving my point in real time.
When you say stuff like ppl are being fake, dishonest, plus other backhanded jabs like oh your comment looks like it’s written by a child, while not exactly direct, do understand it is insulting and it does rub people the wrong way from the get go. An accumulation of such comments is probably the reason why you get back some in return, but then cry wolf. Firstly, because of the nature of it and secondly because it doesn’t further discourse.
Apart from that, and again, just as a bit of advice here, you get detracted from the main point of the gist of an argument more often than not. Like in the example on the Yankees, never took it as an insult (because that’s not a good example of one you’ve made) and I’ve already clarified what I meant which is actually in agreement with another post u had made, then proceeded to even agree and add your take to the point I was making. That’s called proper discourse, point of clarification accepted and then a rebuttal that included your info while steering it back to the point at hand. It actually helped me to stratify the point even further. You seem to have failed to mention that here but maybe you haven’t read it as yet. The point was never about playoffs on the face value, it was about sporting ambition and the comparison between two owners, both American but different ambitions.
When you are here claiming Saelemaekers score only 2 goals per season as a blanket statement (ie when you leave out the Milan-only part), we all know it’s a misleading stat but we let it slide because we get the gist of what you’re trying to say….he doesn’t have a stellar record of goal scoring over a period of time, let’s say, to borrow your logic. Kool no probs. He may have had a good season last year at Roma which improves that statistic considerably but over a longer time frame the point, can be argued, still sort of stands on its own. But we don’t get into why it should be more than 2. You dig? It’s not worth it. So sometimes it’s beneficial to not get into minutae, because believe me we can 😁 and it’s also better to just keep it high level. It seems you’re fascinated with trying to prove things wrong or incorrect (I’ll raise my hand for being guilty at that too) at the expense of keeping on track, rather than seek out common ground (the place where I like to be).
We know you were previously K and all the comments/insults attributed to that username prior. So it’s not like we don’t know, that’s easy to pull up. I don’t have a history of insulting here (in fact it’s probably only you that managed to p!ss me off to that level lol ..so congrats on that…and MH after his Como nonsense)
While I’m not a fan of how this transfer window was handled, particularly later on, I still think we have to wait to judge the overall quality of the players.
That’s the complaint of the fans though we needed certain guarantees in some positions not potential fixes. A proper cb and striker is something we have been missing since giroud and Kjaer, Kjaer more for his leadership
Good article.
I’ve never seen Estupiñán play before Milan signed him so i judge him only on how he plays for Milan, and his injuries has been a problem but Udogie has been much more injury prone and has missed much more time during the same period ( start of 23/24 season) than Estupiñán. Matter fact, he is currently injured again.
Andrea Cambiaso has always been my favorite for that role but Juventus was never going to sell him for what Milan wants to pay.
I liked Jimenez talent but if the stories that came out about his discipline and tardiness were true, they were right to get him out of the locker room. I wish they did that last summer with Hernández.
Okafor sale was the best piece of business. To get 20 million for a player that can’t stay healthy for 2 games in a row was a great job.
Musah loan is a mistake. Useful player who can cover several positions in roles where you lack players could have cane in handy.
Dumb not to sign De Cuyper, especially for the money he got sold.
Not signing a striker, not signing Xhaka and not selling Maignan, and dumb moves.
I trust Allegri to fix the defense. I think defensively with time, Milan will get better and better as a team. That’s Allegri’s M.O. so i am not worried about the defense.
The midfield, especially if something happens to Modric, is a bigger issue.
The attack will be good on the counter bu will struggle vs. teams that sit back. Hopefully, Nkunku will change that.
Milan will play ugly football, but they will win a lot of games. I don’t doubt the top 4 finish. Allegri achieved that in every season with weaker teams in his 2nd stint at Juventus.
With some luck, especially health wise, playing once a week while their top competitors play every 3 days, Milan can repeat what Napoli did last year and win the scudetto.
I am not worried about any team in the league.
Inter has the same issues from last year and have a rookie coach.
Conte will show his true colors once he has to prepare for a different team and different competition every 3 days.
Same goes with Juventus and Tudor.
Atalanta run is over. Lost Gasperini, Retegui and their best player wants out.
I’m intrigued by Roma and Gasperini, but there are already rumblings about Gasperini and Massara tensions.
Its going to be interesting season.
Reality. Since Pulisic is going to spend a lot of time on the bench you should have been honest with him and sold him. Because he will leave in the summer. Right now is the most you could have gotten for him. Take that money and invest in a striker. Keep Chuck and with Saleamaeker, they are Leão’s backup.
“Reality. Since Pulisic is going to spend a lot of time on the bench”
LOL. WTF are people smoking here??? Seems like one out of 5 thinks Allegri will bench his best player… FFS… 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
It’s a real possibility
So is FK Bodø/Glimt winning the UCL. I mean, they’re there so it’s a real possibility.
Or Musah winning the Golden Boot and Ballon d’Or.
Ok I’ll take the bait
Allegri wants to play 2 upfront – yes
Leao is our most valuable asset – yes
Allegri likes Leao – yes
Leao has done well as striker in preseason – yes
So outside of Leao we have
Pulisic – best on the wing
Nkunku – best behind the striker
Santi – striker
It would seem the 2 most likely pairs are
Leao playing off Santi
or
Nkunku playing behind Leao
Of course Pulisic can play off Santi or behind Leao but it seems less likely for Allegri’s style. It also means benching our record signing and the only striker we have.
It is a real possibility.
This is no judgement on Pulisic.
I’d like to see us with 3 upfront, Santi as striker with Leao, Nkunku, Pulisic rotating for the 2 other slots
“benching our record signing”
The one the coach didn’t even want? He wanted Vlahovic. And also, coaches should never ever choose their starting 11 based on the player wages or transfer prices etc. I’m sure Allegri won’t make such a rookie mistake.
Sheesh, thats what you take from my comment?
The point being, that it is no forgone conclusion and yes there are reasons it is hard to bench any 4 of them. You just seem to be resistant to the fact Pulisic is one of those 4
The lack of a senior CB is concerning. Seem light on for cover of Gabbia and Pavlovic.
The FB/WB situation is more concerning. Even less depth. We will be raiding the Futuro side in hope if there are any injuries.
The forward line is the biggest concern. Again no depth. No true number 9. Just one CF that the club wanted to offload. And 3 top class wingers but playing a formation that has no wingers.
I’m fine with a few gambles on young players. But we have created a situation where these must work just to have a suitable sized squad.
There will have to be some sink or swim on these young players. All it takes is one injury outside of midfield.
Milan is cheap!!
I’d say they improved midfield at least in terms of player’s characteristics.
I am disappointed with acquisition of fullbacks where we are still short and I am disappointed with central defense. Pavlović and Tomori stayed while Thiaw left. It should be the other way around with Gabbia and Thiaw starting, De Winter and one Italian as their backup (Coppola, Leoni).
I’m also disappointed with the choice of system as we clearly lack more proper players for 352 than 433/4231 and we all know how stubborn Allegri is.
Still, I’m behind the lads and hope they get us back to CL this seasons.
I’d say devil’s advocate would be saying that we had a good transfer window. Imo, most can agree it’s not been good; we’ve seen it in fan sentiment using data, within comments here and forums elsewhere.
It was a very confusing window. Especially the end result. What started off looking good ended up being a dog’s breakfast. From the setup we played during preseason and the first games of the season (352) to the players we have now …there’s a massive disconnect. We have only one striker for two striker positions (even if you include Leao and Nkunku, it’s still not enough and they are both not pure strikers. Then we also don’t have adequate wingbacks and backups for said position; another huge flaw….again for the formation we’ve been playing up until now.
Then we have to talk about the SD going against the coach and talking about formation, nevermind publicly stating player swaps in a presset. It’s just unprofessional and amateur.
Even if you do want to play another formation, we still don’t have the players…for any. So this squad, once more, has not been built correctly. For like the third year in a row now. And at this point it’s frustrating for fans.
Well made and fair point. Some people wan to argue black is white. Unfortunately as per your reasoning above the squad is a mess again!
Remember last year when we were going to win the league?
I would also add that losing Tiji and Theo in terms of their goals and assists will eventually be obvious to everyone
Comment for swallowed somehow.
But yea Tiji and Theo accounted for like 20 percent of our goal contributions last year (not to mention did we really need to sell them?). That’s not small. And they would have fit really well into the 352 🤷♂️. The only way I can see around it is by winning low scoring games.
I’ll go with Giga above on this one too, we’ll have to wait and see how it goes. Can’t really tell at this stage how things will unfold but let’s say I don’t harbour great hope. There’s just too many holes from personnel to structure and quality
I’d give the window a 2/10 for being worse off than we were last season and hiring the world’s worst manager. But happily have bumped it up to a 4 or even 5 if they’d just kept Jimenez and Okafor – not world beaters but those two alone could cover like 7 positions.
I know it’s hard to judge on Youtube too but I like the look of Athekame, safe to say though with Allegri he’ll get about as much playing time as Didac Villa.