AC Milan have not had a good start to the 2024-25 season, and it is easier to pick out the things that have gone wrong rather than what has gone right.
As this morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes, Christian Pulisic, Matteo Gabbia and the victory in the derby against Inter are probably the only three things that can be classed as positive this season so far.
With the arrival of Paulo Fonseca as the head coach it was hoped that the situation could change compared to the second part of last season, but instead the team keep making the same mistakes, defensive and otherwise.
It is precisely the back line that is one of the problems of this Milan, given that the defence has proven to be (still) particularly unstable. The Portuguese coach has tried four different pairs of central defenders.
Not only that, we can also speak of a problem in attack given that Tammy Abraham and Alvaro Morata have scored only three goals combined. Pulisic had continued where he left off last season, but the rest of the forwards are struggling too.
Another situation to analyse is that of Theo Hernandez. The Frenchman is certainly not performing as well as he has accustomed us to in recent years, but it must be said that there is not even a suitable replacement. Filippo Terracciano has been taking his place, but he is not convincing.
This brings us to another problem, which is far from being underestimated, namely the lack of depth in the squad. In midfield Youssouf Fofana has practically never rested since he arrived and while Ismael Bennacer’s injury did not help, Yunus Musah and Ruben Loftus-Cheek do not appear to match the coach’s ideas.
Finally there is the ‘non saga’ connected to Leao, a vivid image of this disappointing start to the season for Milan. Since he has been at Milan (he joined in 2019) the Portuguese has never started a season so badly, and neither have the Rossoneri.
That’s so head scratching that when the coach is Paulo Fonseca who has no top past experience, the top players are suddenly regressing. Many thought that Pioli was a bad coach and yet he turned Théo and Leao into world class players. We can only imagine what they could be with a top coach, sadly it won’t happen with this management. After Maldini, Massara and Pioli, just blame the players now we didn’t try that yet. Meanwhile watch the steady fall of the team.
Maybe Pioli was a top coach given he won a Scudetto and all.
And maybe it was people thinking that Scudetto winning coaches are ten a penny that was the problem?
I mean this is how we’ve ended dismantling an actual Scudetto wining squad.
Because people convinced themselves that players from mid-table teams in other leagues were better than Scudetto winners playing for Milan.
Look at the overall acceptance that Calabria must go and now we’re stuck with Emerson Royal.
The Calabria critics deserve Emerson Royal.
Pioli is not at the level of Ancelotti, Conte or Guardiola, I think we can all agree on that. He has been tremendous to elevate the team and develop the players but for the next step an upgrade was needed. Maldini and Massara were reportedly looking to replace him as early as summer 2023. The ownership took the first of many bad decisions by choosing Pioli over the former management, wasting a year and finally ending up with a downgrade of Pioli.
I agree on Calabria and most fans. People react on a daily basis, it’s the culture of the instant. One day blame this, one day blame that. The only issue being an ownership who let incompetent people with few resources run the football team while the priority for top executives is to focus on growth.
Same shìt different season.. the coach aren’t even a problem at Milan. They work with what they got. And what they get is 💩
Coaches*
Pioli ‘worked with what he got’ and we won a Scudetto, and finished in the top 4 in the last 4 seasons, and the top 2 in 3 of those 4.
If that’s ‘what we got’ then maybe ‘what we got’ was pretty decent.
But instead people demanded something better. Better than Pioli. Better than the players who had won the Scudetto.
And so many people on here supported it.
Maybe not the manager or players we brought in, but the manager and players we forced out.
Maybe people need to be grateful for what they’ve got?
My point went totally over your head as always..
Pioli and what he has won in 4 years ( very little btw) has nothing to do with the bs the media keeps throwing out.
But if you wanna draw comparisons how pioli in 4 years had solid results and fonseca in 4 months hasn’t won a thing you’re very free to do it. Idk how anyone could win something in a couple of months but it’s not the biggest delusion you had
Pioli built a group from scratch and raised the expectations through unexpectedly fast results through the years, including the Scudetto and the UCL semifinals run. Fonseca already has a team with top players and he’s regressing. Or the plan is to build a group from scratch again but then you don’t want Fonseca for that as he never proved in his entire career that he can do so at lower levels of play.
It was a major stupidity to hire Fonseca in the first place and now the management is already late to assess that mistake and change things.
Fonseca is a disaster we need to get rid of him ASAP.