GdS: The main reasons Milan’s Scudetto defence bid has gone so badly wrong

By Oliver Fisher -

Today’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport has focused on the three biggest teams in Serie A – AC Milan, Inter and Juventus – and how each have failed miserably in their Scudetto bid.

This season marks the first time in a very long time that Milan, Inter and Juventus are out of the Scudetto fight with six rounds to go, with different reasons contributing to the success of each side.

Looking at the Rossoneri, a different summer mercato would certainly have made their life easier given that Dest, Adli and Vranckx have been ‘ghosts’ while Origi and De Ketelaere have also struggles.

Only Thiaw has shown his qualities consistently, but that came when Pioli switched to a more defensive tactical system that in turn seemed to hurt the amount that Theo Hernandez and Leao were able to impact the game.

Maignan’s five-month absence due to injury was a big blow and while it is not easy to quantify the points lost that would have been gained, the Frenchman is a player that can decide games on his own like Leao.

In some key roles there was a lack of credible alternatives, especially at the centre of an attack led by a 36-year-old Giroud. The worst moment was in January, when it seemed that Milan were imploding as they lost 3-0 to Inter in the Supercoppa, 4-0 to Lazio and 5-2 to Sassuolo in the league.

Both Milan and Inter must secure qualification for the next edition of the Champions League with a top four finish before dreaming of European glory this time around, and the Rossoneri have just two wins in their last eight games.

Tags AC Milan

10 Comments

  1. Dest, Adli and Vranckx have been ‘ghosts’ while Origi and De Ketelaere have also struggles.

    A nightmare from management point of view for a scudetto team. Also afraid that 80mio Lautaro will make the difference next week

  2. All Maldini had to do was sign Botman for 35m instead of CDK and sign Dybala and Belotti on frees, ok this may not have guaranteed the Scudetto but I reckon we would be much closer to Napoli me thinks.

    1. Is Botman that much better than Thiaw? Dybala has spent 40% of his time in the treatment room, as he does. He’s currently injured as a matter of fact. He’s good, but at his age and salary Milan’s project demands something else. BELOTTI? Really? People are still calling for this guy? 26 appearances, NO GOALS. Origi has 2 goals and 1 assists in about the same amount of playing time. Not great, but still better than Belotti ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

    2. Our CB department is quite good. Our 5th choice Gabbia is quite dependable. While I agree on Belotti, I can’t for the life of me once again try to explain that Dybala is too expensive. Free doesn’t mean he’s not costly. His wages in Roma is 8mil.per year plus 3 mil bonuses for a total.of 11m plus. Far greater than our salary cap and what current team gets. We would not have been able to renegotiate contracts if there’s a player in our team making that much. Plus there’s the dressing room

  3. Belotti was sat there waiting for the phone to ring according to reports. Milan fan would have run though brick walls for the shirt!! Are you seriously saying Thiaw is better than Botman??? Are you kidding me fella!!?? Damn lol I take your point about Dybala but he is a game changer when fully fit and for free too.

  4. Our CB department is quite good. Our 5th choice Gabbia is quite dependable. While I agree on Belotti, I can’t for the life of me once again try to explain that Dybala is too expensive. Free doesn’t mean he’s not costly. His wages in Roma is 8mil.per year plus 3 mil bonuses for a total.of 11m plus. Far greater than our salary cap and what current team gets. We would not have been able to renegotiate contracts if there’s a player in our team making that much. Plus there’s the dressing room

    1. Our CB’s are fine, and Gabbia is underrated as a depth player. Thiaw should only improve from here too. For Belotti, he would have been much better that Origi because he is a milanista and has much much better work rate, pace, and link-up play than Origi who does nothing but lose the ball and score a random pointless goal a few times in the season. As for Dybala, 100% we should have gone for him. doesn’t matter about his salary. he’s worth it and deserves a top salary. Also free does matter.. if Juve offered us Dybala at a wage like we usually have for our best players 4-5m and say they wanted a transfer fee of 10-15m it would have been a good deal still. For free so no transfer fee and a 8m salary it would be less expensive overall or at least similar. We messed up, it was dumb. I agree with the above posted that getting dybala and belotti would have been better than cdk and origi, not even close. plus we wouldn’t have wasted 35m on cdk and could save it for a striker or RW.

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