AC Milan have dropped into the Europa League and while many would consider them among the favourites to go on and win it, there is no shortage of obstacles to overcome.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes this morning that participating in the Europa League affects the league, sometimes in a positive way but often negative, and that is what Milan must be wary of.
Looking at examples from the last three seasons, considering the Italian team that have gone the furthest, there are some worrying precedents. In 2022-23, Roma reached the final by eliminating Salzburg, Real Sociedad, Feyenoord and Bayer Leverkusen. A path that was anything but simple, starting on February 16th and finishing on May 31st.
Looking at the league table, in mid-February Roma were third together with Milan and Atalanta, in the Champions League places, at the end of the year they finished sixth and seven points behind Milan. Along the way they also lost points to Cremonese, Sassuolo, Monza, Bologna and Salernitana.
A year earlier, the best Italian team were Atalanta, who reached the quarter-finals of the EL. In the league, the same problems: in February they were fifth, -1 from fourth place, at the end of the year, eighth, -11 from fourth place.
Same script in 2020-21. Roma, still the same but with Fonseca, reached the semi-final, collapsing along the way: they were fourth at +3 on fifth place, they finished seventh at -16 from fourth place. A crash.
Side note: that year Pioli’s Milan reached the round of 16, losing to Manchester United, and left a championship on the way. In February they were first at +1 over Inter, in May second with 12 points less.
The Europa League takes you around Europe and, above all, brings you home on the night between Thursday and Friday, if not on Friday during the day, so it’s hard to prepare for Sunday’s match (or Monday’s match, much more rarely).
Milan will discover their play-off opponent on Monday and already know that, after those two matches, they will have an away game in Monza and a home match against Atalanta. Far from two walks in the park.
Another strong theme is injuries, because playing a lot increases the risk of issues and having many problems increases the risks for the few players who are fine but cannot rest or have their workloads managed. Milan know the problem better than anyone because in the autumn they had physical problems like no one else and they paid for it by dropping points.
Until February, there will be one game a week, with some exceptions. The Serie A midweek matches will disappear, while Coppa Italia will be introduced gradually. From mid-February, the Europa League will increase everyone’s pace and Milan’s more because they must play in the play-off round.
In 100 days, between 5 February and 26 May, Milan hope to play 26 matches: 14 in the league, 9 in the Europa League, three in the Coppa Italia. Getting to the bottom of all the competitions would mean playing every four days.
Always two games a week, with an international break in March and the European Championship to follow. It makes you feel tired just thinking about it. This is why the injury situation is fundamental: from February, Milan will need to reduce the unavailable players as much as possible.
Milan dont have the depth and the smart coach to win europa league. Out captain also make fools of himself pretty often
We need to change coach and strengthen the squad if we want to run deep in europa league and keep 3rd spots
Us, fans, can cry ‘nooo europa league is not our habitat’, yes, but we play exactly at EL level
And we haven’t won it either. We lost to the broken Man-U couple seasons ago. This could be pioLOL’s last try to convince management if we win any single trophy this season
There’s a reason we haven’t won Europa league or (Uefa cup or whatever). It’s because it a title for mid table teams. If we get our injuries sorted, it would be a good place to give the second team (e.g Pobega, Kalulu) some extra minutes, but in no way or form should it come before serie a. That’s the bread and butter.
Lol you realize the manager is still Pioli right?
Maybe Pioli needs to field the Primavera and admirably crash out at the next round. “But hey, I gave our youth a chance…”
Milan don’t need EL. We have injury crisis and need to recover our players to fix our domestic campaign.
Playing every Thursday for peanuts is an awful idea, especially when you have only two days to recover and okay again on Sunday.