AC Milan are on course for the worst title defence in modern Serie A history, but following a Scudetto-winning season with a disappointing campaign is nothing new for the Rossoneri.
Milan are heading into the current international break 23 points behind the current leaders Napoli having gone winless in the league during the month of March and after experiencing a terrible start to the year domestically.
However, the 1990s is living proof that the tricolore actually rarely brings a period of sustained dominance with Italy for Milan, despite having some of the best sides in Europe at the time.
Capello’s collapse
The season is 1994-95. Milan come into the campaign having won the league under Capello with 19 wins, 12 draws, 3 defeats in 1993-94. That team amassed 69 points – five more than eventual runners-up Juventus – and were led by the 11-goal scorer Daniele Massaro, five more than Juventus.
It was one of those season where Milan took the ascendancy and never really looked back, as barring a solitary blip in the 10th round they were top for every single matchday, and despite not winning in their final six games the title was a stroll.
However, the following year things never really got going under Capello as his side won only three of their first 10 games, and were 11th after 13 rounds of the season. They had a rampant run of 9 wins in 11 games to climb up to third that started at the end of February, but finished fourth with 60 points, 13 points behind leaders Juventus.
The problem for the main part is that the 1993-94 side benefitted from an incredible defensive record in which they conceded just 15 goals in 34 league games, and that worsened to 32 conceded the next year with only Marco Simone (17 goals) hitting double figures.
The transfer business done was largely viewed as disappointing, with the likes of Jean-Pierre Pain and Brian Laudrup leaving in the summer while signings like Gianluca Sordo and the return of Ruud Gullit did not really work out.
However, the decision to seemingly focus on the European campaign almost paid dividends as the Rossoneri made it all the way to the final in Vienna, losing 1-0 to Ajax. They also won the European Super Cup against Arsenal 2-0 in February.
At the same stage of the season, Capello’s team were 16 points off the leaders, making them the joint-second worst title defenders after 27 games in Serie A.
Tabárez and Sacchi suffer
Milan were still under the orders of Capello when they won the league in the 1995-96 season with 73 points. It was an impressive run of 21 wins, 10 draws and three defeats that saw the Diavolo finish eight points clear of Juventus, while they scored 60 goals and only let in 24. They were top from round four onwards, and never looked back.
However, Capello left Milan after five seasons to join Real Madrid, and the Uruguayan coach Óscar Tabárez was the gamble taken to replace him. It would not pay off, as Milan won seven of their first 17 games and by round 19 they were in 12th place.
The decision was made after 12 games to sack Tabárez and replace him with the legendary Arrigo Sacchi who had just left his post as head coach of the Italian national team, but overall the campaign would be a disaster.
Milan won only 11 of 34 games in the league that season, drawing 10 and losing 13. They scored only 43 goals and let in 45; only once since then have the Rossoneri had a negative goal difference. They would finish in 11th place, 22 points behind Juventus.
The new signings like Christophe Dugarry, Edgar Davids, Michael Reiziger, Pietro Vierchowod and Jesper Blomqvist (in January) were meant to add to a core of leaders like Franco Baresi, Dejan Savićević, Roberto Baggio, Mauro Tassotti, Sebastiano Rossi, Zvonimir Boban, George Weah, Paolo Maldini, Demetrio Albertini, Alessandro Costacurta and Marcel Desailly.
In truth though they didn’t inject the freshness required and the team really suffered in the absence of a decorated coach like Capello, going out in the group stages of the Champions League, being knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia and losing the Supercoppa final.
At the same stage in the season the Rossoneri were 16 points off leaders Juventus, the same as they were under Capello in 1994-95.
Zaccheroni’s false dawn
Milan had won the league the previous season (98-99) under the guidance of head coach Alberto Zaccheroni when many had written them out of the title race prior to a ball being kicked, but in truth the underperformance of traditional powerhouses Inter and Juventus (who finished 7th and 8th) meant it was a straight shootout with Lazio.
In the end the Rossoneri beat Lazio to the title in last game of season after winning their final seven games and taking advantage of a slip-up from Sven-Göran Eriksson’s side. Zaccheroni’s men finished with 70 points – 20 wins, 10 draws and 4 losses – and were led by Oliver Bierhoff’s 19 goals.
However, the follow-up season was yet again disappointing. Milan won two of their first six games and were outside the top four by the halfway stage of the season. They had a run of three defeats in five games which started in March and finished third, 11 points behind eventual champions Lazio.
The story of the season was the emergence of Andriy Shevchenko, who had joined from Dynamo Kyiv and would finish as top scorer in Serie A with 24 goals, eventually becoming a talisman for the next seven years.
However, the other arrivals such as Diego De Ascentis, José Antonio Chamot, José Mari and Taribo West all disappointed, but a young Gennaro Gattuso and Serginho would become part of the core for the future.
Virtually every other competition was a disaster too, with Milan crashing out of the Champions League group stage after one win in six games, losing over two legs to Inter in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals and also being defeated by Parma in the Supercoppa.
At the same stage in the season, the Diavolo were 10 points behind leaders Lazio who would go on to win their first league title since 1973/74 and avenge the previous year.
Present under Pioli
That brings us to the present day where everyone knows the situation, and there are plenty of similarities to draw from those title-winning sides in the 1990s.
The excellent defensive record saw only two goals conceded in the final 11 games like Capello’s squad in 1993-94, and the run of six wins to end the campaign was akin to the impressive run under Zaccheroni in 1998-99.
However, familiar mistakes have also been repeated such as the inability to address gaps in the squad during underwhelming transfer windows, as many blame the 2022 summer mercato for being one of the root causes of the current struggles.
Milan are on a good European run having reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League just like they did in 1994-95 but have done nothing to shout about in domestic competitions, again continuing a trend.
Going from having a consistently high-level defence to a team leaking goals is also a theme that has been replicated, with Milan having conceded more goals than only Cremonese and Salernitana in the league so far in 2023.
If there is a manual on how to defend the Scudetto, Milan’s name probably would not feature that much. Of course, there have been instances of successful eras such as the three league titles in a row from 1991-92 to 1993-94, but history shows that the Rossoneri tend to struggle to seize the moment and capitalise on their momentum.
