AC Milan’s defence has been their Achilles heel this season with far too many goals having been let in, and this could reportedly lead to a summer overhaul.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport report, the injuries only partially explain what has been a disastrous season for Milan when it comes to their defensive record. They have just the seventh-best rearguard in Serie A in terms of goals conceded, and the 15th-best when looking at away games.
Nobody untouchable
It is an individual and departmental failure from Milan’s defence, which let them down in the decisive moments of the season such as in the Champions League group stages and key stretches in the league.
It is in this context, therefore, that evaluations are and will be made in view of the next season. Unlike other departments, where some untouchables players are present like Tijjani Reijnders, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic, for example – there are no players with that status in defence.
This obviously does not mean the elimination of the entire department. The opposite is equally likely, i.e. that no one moves, but any offers deemed appropriate will be evaluated by the club.
New additions
Some new players will arrive to bolster the rearguard. Simon Kjaer’s exit leaves a void, while Mattia Caldara will depart but he was never used by Pioli.
Paradoxically, the player most sage was the last to arrive: Matteo Gabbia was recalled from his loan at Villarreal six months early and he has since gone on to make over 20 appearances. The six months in Spain have helped him grow, and all signs point towards him staying.
Fikayo Tomori is an interesting case (33 appearances, 30 as a starter). He has not had the most positive campaign but the two months spent in the treatment room due to a muscle injury right in the heart of the season did not help.
The need to bounce back
Malick Thiaw took a step backwards after a positive emergence in 2022-23, but again a major physical problem (myotendinous injury) kept him out of action for two and a half months. When he returned, however, there were plenty of mistakes.
Staying on the subject of players whose inadequate performance was due to physical problems, we also find Pierre Kalulu. He was massacred by injuries: first a five-week stoppage, then four months and finally a month. It is difficult, in these conditions, to find consistency.
Theo Hernandez’s stay is anything but a given (45 appearances, 44 as a starter). Of the big players in the squad, he would appear to be the most likely to say goodbye if Milan were to decide to make a Tonali-esque sale.
Finally Davide Calabria, Alessandro Florenzi and Filippo Terracciano: the latter could leave on loan, for the first two it is difficult to imagine any exit movements. The concept remains valid for the entire department: nobody is safe.
If milan management do not sell RL Cheek, Magnan,Tomori and Calabria right now they are not SMART.
RLC AND MAGNAN WILL BE LIKE KRUNIC
Sell thiaw and kalulu, loan out gabbia
Sign Buongiorno and scalvini
Buongiorno and Scalvini are likely to cost 40-50M each or more.
That’s 100M spent on 2 CBs and we already have plenty and didn’t even adress the issues with CDM and ST. We simply cannot do that financially and it won’t be reasonable.
We can, with Maignan-Tomori sales, we can feed our CB & DM budget
By getting rid of Leao & RLC we can fix the striker and winger issue
Though as I stated Gerry don’t give a damn about sporting ambitions
Your plan is essentially to get “rid” of 2 of our best players in certains positions so we can bring new players who might or might not succeed.
Let’s suppose we get “rid” of Leao, a player with more than 25 G+A for 3 seasons now, who do we bring instead ? Any new winger is going to cost north of 100M alone.
There is no need to “revamp” the squad. The squad needs 3 or 4 additional quality players depending on the new tactics which include a striker, a defensive midfielder (or a midfielder with a more defensive mindset) and perhaps a defender or midfielder, and that’s it. We might add a goalkeeper if Mike is sold and that’s it.
I think the club should be open to big offers for players like Thiaw, Bennacer or Adli if those offers come, but don’t push them out.
Leao, Theo and Tomori are untouchable.
We should consider loaning again or even selling players like Pellegrino, Romero and loan some of our youth products.
Finally, we should find a way to offload Origi, Messias, Ballo Touré among others.
Yes let’s sell Tomori, Thiaw, Gabbia, Kalulu, Theo, Calabria, and Mike. Revamp the whole squad just like in video games 😀