There are a few reasons why AC Milan boss Stefano Pioli will not be 100% happy with the start to the season that his side have had, with work to do over the break.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (via PianetaMilan) have taken stock of Milan’s title defence so far up to the break for the World Cup in Qatar, with 33 points racked up after 15 games. If the draw against Cremonese had been a win, then they would be exactly level with the 35 points amassed after 15 games last season.
Pioli’s Milan are traveling at almost Scudetto pace but the trouble is that Napoli were one point ahead last year but this time Luciano Spalletti’s side seem unstoppable and have an advantage of eight points.
There are two ways that Milan can get fully back into their groove and resume the Scudetto battle, starting with the recovery of the injured players such as goalkeeper Mike Maignan, right-backs Davide Calabria and Alessandro Florenzi, winger Alexis Saelemaekers and striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The injuries had a knock-on effect as they forced Pierre Kalulu to leave his centre-back role, where he had found an excellent understanding with Fikayo Tomori, to play on the right side of the defence. Saelemaekers is also valuable with his energy and giving a hand to Sandro Tonali and Ismaël Bennacer, and the impact of Zlatan needs little explanation.
Looking at the summer recruits, Malick Thiaw, Yacine Adli and Aster Vranckx are all very young, as is the big summer signing Charles De Ketelaere. Divock Origi on the other hand has experience in the biggest games and the management expect
Spalletti’s Napoli often scored goals from the bench, but for the Rossoneri a mission that has only been successful a few times, so establishing effective depth is critical.
