After the defeat to Sassuolo, things at AC Milan are rather negative. Understandably so, really, but there are fears about next season.
If this season was big, next season is starting to look a lot bigger. What needed to be a season to settle, regroup and get back into the Champions League could fall at the final hurdle. Throughout the season, mediocre performances were somewhat excused to allow the team to return to Europe by any means necessary.
Now, things are starting to unfold and there is a chance that the Rossoneri will miss the Champions League. It may be slim for now, but by tomorrow morning, their chances could be significantly lower.
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Bubbling again
So, next season must show signs of clarity and confidence in the project. Everything must be bettered and the standard must be raised. It has been too low for too long.
In an editorial piece for MilanNews, Pietro Mazzara offered his assessment of the current moment and what comes next.
“AC Milan entered a crisis at the worst possible time, and will now face the next three weeks with the anxiety we’ve come to know so well in recent years. The anxiety of not making it, of playing in a tense and disheartening atmosphere (the usual San Siro marina won’t cut it on Sunday against Atalanta), as can be seen on the pitch from after the derby onwards.
“A shocking collapse , the result of multiple factors, primarily those that unfold at Milanello during training, because the players who should be applying what they’ve been working on during the week go on the pitch.
“There’s a deep offensive crisis that can be summed up in one figure: 727 days in total without a single AC Milan striker finding the back of the net.
“A disturbing number that unfolds as follows: Pulisic hasn’t scored in 127 days (December 28), Füllkrug since January 18 (106 days), Christopher Nkunku since 70 days (February 3), Rafael Leao since March 1 (64 days), while Santiago Gimenez is at 360 days and on Saturday will break the barrier of a calendar year without putting a ball past a goalkeeper in the league (even with the management of his ankle injury weighing heavily on this count).
“And the question arises: how can you be competitive at the highest levels, hoping to build something that will lead to victory (while others win and win again, but it seems that little matters within Casa Milan) with such a fleeting attack? There’s a major structural and quality problem.
“None of the current AC Milan forwards enjoy scoring goals. It’s obvious, and it’s also fair to ask what work is being done this week on the offensive side, or what has stalled in this area over the last two months.
“Obviously, the primary blame lies with the players, who take to the pitch and seem to be playing Subbuteo. Zero movement, zero danger, no coherent play, and no confident attack on the opponent’s goal. It feels like the offensive side of a team struggling to survive, one that lacks the talent of a big club rather than that of a top club.
“Attacking is the tool to achieve the ultimate goal of the game: scoring goals. But at Milan, this doesn’t seem to be fueled by the fire needed to make the difference. The tragedy is that this extends to the midfielders, who, with the exception of Rabiot, haven’t produced the goals needed for the 3-5-2.
“So the questions to ask Giorgio Furlani and Igli Tare are the following (in writing for now): what do we do in the summer? Do we invest or not? Do we always look for a €30 million striker or do we go for at least two who can change the face of this team, even if that means making significant sales up front?
“How will AC Milan play in attack in the 2026-27 season? With two or three strikers? The bonuses are over, the choices will have to be made based on that obsession called victory and not on fourth place, a losing objective if your name is AC Milan.
“And the rest of the squad will also need to be significantly improved, especially in terms of quality. Estupinan, Athekame, Jashari, Ricci, Odogu, and Nkunku are players not suited to a winning AC Milan. And the fear that the other teams will strengthen even further and that AC Milan, without a major transfer campaign, could end up behind, is growing.
“Don’t you dare skip the Champions League, because if we don’t, everyone will be subjected to a critical assessment of their performance and mandates. No one is excluded.”
They deserve harsher criticism. Theyre a bunch of clueless clowns who cant accept reality
I would certainly like our players had more of an cutthroat character fighting to the last drop of blood so criticism is fully valid but to be fair I believe the players should have been send in retiro a while ago even if that is rarely used nowadays. They should definitely also be able to take harsher criticism as they are all of them paid more than most people can ever dream of so all of the above should be expected of them as part of their profession.
Management obviously also deserves a reality check.
it’s not apple to apple if u said players paid more than most people,
compare them to another big clubs players,
just to remind, our board is highest paid board on the league & even higher than some another league winners,
they got rise even w/out achievement aka failure
Think you are missing my point here as I’m not talking about talent I’m talking about character and certain things should be expected of all professionals regardless of their tecnichal skills, especially showcasing a cutthroat personality as they should all take pride in winning and always give their utmost for example without sulking. I would expect that from all players regardless what league they play in.
In regard of what the board is paid I’m not exactly sure that is correct but I’ll take your word for it but from what I’ve previously seen I seem to recall that its not something exorbitant compared to other. They have nevertheless done a sh1tty job.
Clowns in Circus…
Haha and what even we go at Champions league?
Embarasing like Inter and Juve do? We will worst more
This team not good but we lucky because Seria A is disaster.
Can imagine that: all Seria A have only 2 good players and that is old players Modric and De brune.
Disaster No top players,no young players nothing only good is Armani 😂😂 and instagram football players
What BS. Leão and Pulisic don’t like scoring goal. Both 15 goal a year players plus assists. Pulisic was one of the top g/a players in Serie A. They just woke up when ‘he who shall not be named’ became manager. Who believes this tripe?
“Obviously the primary blame lies with the players ” Such bull#$!it Dixon ! Players are playing out of position ,Leao needs to play LW ,he needs the space to go 1v1.can t play in the middle of the pitch where its too tight for his technical skills (or lack of ). He is not a striker ! Pulisic on right to also go 1v1 to score goals & get assists like previous years . WRONG FORMATION ……..WRONG COACH …..
It doesn’t matter how much you invest, you will never get an attack firing or any off-the-ball movement with Allegri.
They should know better with this comment of yours
Pulisic and Leao has lesser number this season than their previous ones despite Milan finishing 8th last term, Allegri ball at play
I will fully blame Allegri if he had all the saying in the transfer market. He clearly stated that the team needed a classic striker. And who came? Nkunku with 37 mil ++ price tag. He needed a CB addition on the winter transfer. And no one came.
The one he really endorsed, Adrien, did great job. So, if the board keeps throwing players the coach didn’t need, while keep selling our best players, what do we expect?
He’s not even tried to work with what he has though. All he’s done is put 9 behind the ball, stuck to his favourites, and hoped for the best. It’s like he genuinely has no attacking acumen at all.
With these players I honestly think Allegri did a decent job. And I was never a fan of him. Remember where we were last year. And we all know how many chances were (unfortunately) wasted and missed by our attackers recently. Leao’s chance the last match the closest. Most of those chances could certainly change the dynamic of the game. And those misses were certainly not Allegri’s responsibility.
Allegri should take the biggest blame. How he has managed the team since march is beyond horrible. The tried one game and failed with 3 attackers. They’ve played multiple times and failed with Leao and Pulisic. When I see Milan I don’t understand how we’ve scored any goals at all this season. We should be dead last since nothing is created. 0-0 in 38 matches would secure the next season at least. Maybe that’s what Allegri is aiming for. But now we can’t even keep 0-0 and are loosing bad against Sassuolo and their attackers are looking like 60 million men. Ours look like depressed hobos. (Pulisic needs to shave)
This is obsession with making the champions league is why we have a poorly built team in the first place. Why not do a proper rebuild with young players and make the champions league when the team is actually good?