Going into the summer transfer window, fixing the midfield department was top of the to-do list for many AC Milan fans, and presumably the management too.
Milan’s defensive record was the big issue in 2023-24, but the feeling was that it partly stemmed from a team that was left far too open in transition due to a lack of balance in the midfield and the absence of a more defensive presence.
Thus, when planning for life under the new head coach Paulo Fonseca the talk of a ‘midfield rebuild’ no doubt reverberated around the walls of Casa Milan. There were many targets linked from day one of the summer, though on the flip side there were current squad members who were cast aside.
So, just where does Milan’s midfield stand now that the window is over, three games have been played and there has been some good and bad news since?
A monumental farce
We have to start with the most obvious talking point: Ismael Bennacer’s situation. Rewinding back to the start of the summer, there were doubts about his spot in Fonseca’s ‘new Milan’ because of reported interest from Saudi Arabia and the club’s desire to listen to some offers.
No bids were forthcoming and thus the former Empoli man headed out to the United States for the preseason tour. As the games went by and as the first match of the season approached, it actually seemed as though he was nailed on to stay.
Indeed, the Algerian midfielder ended up remaining with the Rossoneri and was even included in the UEFA squad list for the first part of the Champions League too, but all after an ending to the window that had everyone on edge.
In addition to the strong interest of a Saudi club that lasted practically the entire summer, Atletico Madrid and Marseille enquired about a loan on deadline day, but in the end an agreement was not reached as Milan wanted to sell him permanently.
He did not train for a few days at Milanello and it was not because of injury but rather because of the interest from other clubs. He did not even participate in the trip to face Lazio, officially due to gastroenteritis but he had trained the day before.
Milan’s management of Bennacer’s situation was such that Fonseca and the staff faced the task of having to re-motivate him from a psychological point of view, having dragged him back in from the scrapheap they put him on.
Nonetheless, there are many games to play in a crowded schedule and therefore it was in everyone’s interest to get the best version of Bennacer. Then, over the international break, Murphy’s law struck.
While on a training camp with his national team, Bennacer suffered a grade three calf injury that is expected to sideline him for at least two months. It could be even longer with tests yet to be conducted by Milan’s medical staff.
Since December 2020, the 26-year-old has missed over 400 days due to injuries, though admittedly a large part of that comes from the serious knee injury suffered in the Champions League against Inter which sidelined him for almost a year.
In that time, he has missed 65 matches for several different reasons. Twice he has had hamstring problems, ankle and abductor issues once each, and he has had two operations: one on his foot, and the other for his aforementioned hamstring injury.
Perhaps that injury record alone is enough to see why clubs didn’t come in with permanent bids, yet following the Bennacer saga throughout the summer offered strong suggestions that the management never really knew what they wanted to do with him.
An incomplete jigsaw
With the way that football is today and the constantly looming shadow of Financial Fair Play, directors can be judged just as much for the sales that they complete as the signings that they make, especially for Serie A clubs where player trading is so important.
As mentioned at the start of the article, Milan needed to offload some bodies in the midfield that were not deemed part of Fonseca’s plans, with two above all standing out: Tommaso Pobega and Yacine Adli.
Granted, it was not expected that half of Europe would be picking up the phone to ring Geoffrey Moncada and begin negotiations for either player, given each have struggled for regular minutes in the last two seasons and have shown their limitations.
However, the end result is far from ideal. Pobega ended up joining Bologna on loan with an option to buy, while Adli went to Fiorentina via the same formula and made an instant impact with an assist on his debut.
What this means is that the Rossoneri did indeed manage to ‘trim the fat’ off the midfield department and yet at the same time they have sent two players to clubs with European aspirations without getting any guaranteed cash in return. The Alexis Saelemaekers situation could therefore repeat itself.
Then there are the players that were spoken about that never arrived, and again it is two names that stood out above all of the rest in the newspaper columns: the French duo Manu Kone and Adrien Rabiot.
Kone is a player that Moncada is known to have been a fan on since at least 2021 when he was at Toulouse, and he made it known he wanted to leave Borussia Monchengladbach at the beginning of the summer so an opportunity presented itself.
Milan’s acceleration for the 23-year-old came right at the end of the mercato and was dependant on Bennacer’s exit. A one-in one-out policy is understandable when Youssouf Fofana had already arrived, yet there must also be question marks about whether signing Kone and figuring out the UEFA squad list issue on the fly was a better option because it may have forced other issues.
Then there is the Rabiot saga, which was confusing to say the least. The generally accepted version of events based on numerous reliable sources is that Milan began talks earlier in the summer when his exit from Juventus was confirmed, and then they tried again later on as we reported, again when Bennacer seemed more likely to leave.
The former PSG man remains a free agent and yet the Diavolo are no longer considered in the mix, all seemingly because they learned of his demands being too high. Was that not the case two months prior as well?
There are very few complains about the signing of Fofana, but all of the aforementioned has fans questioning if he is enough to address the balance alone. The evidence of the first three games (granted, he has only started one) suggests not.
The continued use of the double pivot and if anything the even more attacking deployment of the 4-2-3-1 with a pure playmaker has produced the same worrying signs: the various departments stretched a long way apart, plenty of counter-attacks conceded and the feeling that any time the ball is given away it could be fatal.
The chance to shine
Bennacer’s injury and Fonseca’s search for a winning formula in midfield could well present a massive opportunity to various players, starting with those who should quite obviously be considered like Yunus Musah.
The American was used in various different roles under Stefano Pioli which cannot have helped his search for consistency to aid his development. A potential gap in the double pivot is something that he should really be targeting, if he can learn a bit more positional discipline.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek has been used by Fonseca in the tandem in front of the defence already, before being shifted further forward to act as a ‘balancer’, just as Pioli did. He and Fofana could form a pairing which would guarantee a lot of muscle and the constant desire to advance the ball by pass or dribble.
What might the other solutions be? As strange as it might sound, the way to adapt to losing a midfielder might be to add another to the starting XI, and to try establish some balance by playing a three-man midfield rather than a double pivot.
Pundits and supporters far and wide have been crying out for Fonseca to add an extra body that can shield the defence. On paper, having Fofana deeper between two mezzala-type players such as Reijnders and Musah/Loftus-Cheek more resembles round pegs in round holes.
An attacking midfielder is not a luxury Milan can afford after six goals conceded in six games. Forget the change to a three-man midfield, there could even be an argument that adding an extra centre-back – as Pioli did to great effect in the crisis of early 23 – is required to stop the bleeding.
Then there are the ‘wild card’ solutions, starting with Silvano Vos. He was a €5m (including bonuses) summer signing from Ajax and made a very impressive debut for Milan Futuro, and at 19 years of age he already has nearly 20 senior games under his belt, including in European competitions.
Is ready for the jump after a good 45 minutes in Serie C? Logic says no, yet it is from emergencies that surprises can emerge. Vos is undoubtedly a talent with a big personality and this might be just the challenge he needs.
Kevin Zeroli is another player who seems to have the shoulders to potentially take on the task. He was the Primavera captain last season and has graduated to wear the armband for the Futuro, so he has leadership qualities, and after being on the cusp of the first team for a couple of years now this may well be the sliding doors moment.
There are some inherent risks with promoting teenagers though that do not need a detailed analysis, but essentially they entail an instant pressure to perform at a much higher level and also limited opportunities, presuming Bennacer wasn’t going to start much before his injury.
Where things stand
Like many issues at the club currently, there are more questions than answers regarding Milan’s midfield. Last season showed how important retooling the midfield would be, and that doesn’t just mean going out and signing five players, it is about making use of the resources present.
Yet, at present, Fonseca seems likely to persist with a 4-2-3-1 formation with Fofana being the only change in the middle. It feels a bit like ‘definition of insanity’ stuff, i.e. trying the same things repeatedly and expecting different outcomes.
It puts a lot of pressure on the Frenchman, while any change of heart regarding Rabiot could also be construed as panic, especially given that he now cannot be registered for the Champions League squad list. Thus, Milan are stuck with what they have and a long injury has taken some of that away.
Fonseca is in a position of having to experiment to find the right formula. The options are there, but finding that perfect alchemy could come at the expense of valuable time and points.
Got nothing to lose now. Alternate RLC/Musah/Vos in the middle next to Fofana and Reijnders. Who else are you gonna slot there??
Calabria
ngl Calabria in double-pivot could be better than RLC
Not sure if you are trolling but given all the inverting last year Calabria would be familiar with the position and we now he’s got the hussle and heart.
I’m a Musah fan, but I don’t think he is ready to start. Needs to come off th bench regularly and improve tactical awareness.
Calabria. It works as well as anything else.
not joking. I’d give him tapes of lahm and tell him you gotta do this. Tho expecting Calabria to play anywhere near Lahms lvls would be insane.
But who knows, maybe there is something in there to find.
At least Calabria is disciplined enought to stay in his role unlike most of our mids who just run all over
He has played that role before and did well.
Given the complete lack of logical planning by management, this is going to have to be an option
He did? I remember florenzi playing in pivot last season. But he played cm a lot in roma back then so that was a no brainer he’d be good at it..
Reinjders just scored again playing as the 10. Wake up Fonseca!
Another goal for Reijnders.
This time vs Germany.
Some people will have to look for another reason to hate on him, because after the goal and assist the previous game, they said it was vs lowly Bosnia. Let’s see what they come up with this time.
RLC and Bennacer should be sold in January. Sign Ferguson and Ricci. For the time being play Fofana, Reinjders, Zeroli/Vo in the midfield and give Reinjders the freedom to roam across the midfield like an attacking midfielder.
Fully agree, at least on theory, with the proposed deals too. Reijnders is playing well, it’s an intelligent fellow and can be the creative force behind this Milan squad.
All this media panicking and negative commentary only shows no one trusts our completely new 90 millions midfield.
Tonali and Krunic would be better with Adli and Pobega as backup LOL
LOL.
That midfield that you said would be better plus Bennacer finished 5th in serie A, while the current “bad” midfield without Bennacer finished 2nd.
LOL
“while the current “bad” midfield without Bennacer finished 2nd.”
With barely 4 more points against a much weaker Roma, Napoli and Lazio. A serie A where only Inter, Atalanta and Bologna were stronger than last season.
So much for comparison I guess
Barely or not Barely the new midfield had more points than the previous season midfield.
And that’s with best defenders being Injured most of the season.
Also, big difference between the 2 seasons is that Milan earned only 7 points of the last 7 games last season because they already had secured their spot in the UCL and more or less secured the 2nd spot.
While in the last 7 games of the 22/23 season Milan earned 14 points fighting to stay in top 5 and less than 10 points behind Juventus.
The 22/23 season wasn’t better than the 23/24 season. Napoli won the title in January just like inter last season.
So much for comparisons , I guess.
@Z You are correct, but don’t try to talk sense or facts with these haters. It won’t help, they just want to hate.
@Z:
“Also, big difference between the 2 seasons is that Milan earned only 7 points of the last 7 games last season because they already had secured their spot in the UCL and more or less secured the 2nd spot.
While in the last 7 games of the 22/23 season Milan earned 14 points fighting to stay in top 5 and less than 10 points behind Juventus.”
Conviently ignoring this point: “against a much weaker Roma, Napoli and Lazio. A serie A where only Inter, Atalanta and Bologna were stronger than last season.”
2022/23 did also see injuries (Maignan, Tomori, Florenzi,…).
Also in 2022/23, the “bad midfield” with players like Tonali, Krunic and Bennacer managed to get to the UCL semi-finals against the likes of Tottenham and Napoli.
In 2023/24, it took 2 red cards against Slavia Prague for the “improved midfield” to get to the quarter finals only to be kicked by AS Roma.
Also I’ve never said that 2022/23 was better than 2023/24
5 points more than a season before with one of the worst goals conceded statistics in history of the club. So much from 110 millions spent, I guess.
I was joking (sort of).
Hopefully things pick up soon. Unfortunately even if we find form we have no alternatives in midfield.
If we had the chance to play Tonali/Krunic v Liverpool I’d say the manager would do it, given they were a solid pair on the way to CL semis
“No bids were forthcoming and thus the former Empoli man headed out to the United States for the preseason tour.”
Following paragraph:
” In addition to the strong interest of a Saudi club that lasted practically the entire summer, Atletico Madrid and Marseille enquired about a loan on deadline day, but in the end an agreement was not reached as Milan wanted to sell him permanently.”
SO, No bids or strong interest? WHich is it? They tried to sell him and they had no takers, and we all know why. Because he’s always hurt, just like he is now. Who are we blaming for this?
They’re making it up as they go along. There was never any strong interest in Bennacer. He’s a low profile player, he doesn’t have the name to mean anything to that league. They mostly sign from the EPL for a reason, those players are household names.
“SO, No bids or strong interest? ”
You do realize that those two aren’t mutually exclusive? Strong interest doesn’t have to materialize into bids.
If there were no bids, there wasn’t that strong of an interest..
Thats exactly why it makes no sense to sell him now.
We need to get him fit first.
RLC should have been sold, his numbers last season masked his lack of quality. It was the perfect moment to sell him and buy Samardzic
Some cold facts about anyone who is still trying to push a false narrative that Milan midfield in 22/23 was better than the midfield in 23/24.
Milan in Serie A in 23/24 had more points, more wins, less losses, less draws, more goals ,much better goal difference than the team of 22/23.
The 23/24 team scored more goals than any Milan team in the last 10 years.
In 23/24 Milan scored 12 more goals in serie A, than in 22/23, even though their best offensive player had his worst season in 3 years. Leao in 23/24 had 9g/9a in serie A, going over 5 months without a goal. For comparison in 22/23 he had 15g, 10a, while in 21/22 he had 11g, 10a. So Leao in 23/24 had 7 less goal contributions compared to 22/23 and yet Milan scored 12 more goals.
The defense gave up 6 more goals but thru 34 games they had same goals given up, 39, like in 22/23. In the last 4 games of 22/23 Milan gave up only 4 goals, while in the last 4 games of 23/24, they gave up 10. Keep in mind in 22/23 last 4 games were meaningful while in 23/24 last 4 games were meaningless.
For the people that will bring up the UCL semi final. First Milan got embarrassed by their biggest rival, and you don’t get any trophies or qualifications for the next season UCL by getting to the semi-final.
Let’s compare Milan in UCL in 22/23 to 23/24.
In 22/23 Milan was in the easiest group. Played vs the worst Chelsea of the last 25 years and still got spanked twice . Vs possibly the youngest team in UCL Salzburg and one of the worst teams in UCL Dinamo Zagreb. Finished that group with 10 points.
In 23/24 Milan was in the group of death. Played vs PSG (semi-finalist), B. Dortmund(finalist) and Newcastle who finished top 4 in EPL the previous year. Milan finished the group with 8 points. Only 2 less than in 23/24 vs much better competition.
Outside of the game in Paris vs PSG, Milan, with a new midfield, was either playing on par or better than their opponent in all other 5 games. Beat PSG at home. Beat Newcastle on the road, dominated Newcastle at home but couldn’t score. Played even vs B. Dortmund in Dortmund, and was dominating Borussia at San Siro until Thiaw got injured and Krunic had to play in defense. The score at that point was 1-1 with Giroud missed penalty and Borussia scoring their goal thru a penalty.
If Pioli didn’t insist on playing Milan worst midfielder Bennacer in the Europa league, Milan probably beats Roma and maybe even reaches the final.
Milan team in 23/24 was much better than the team in 22/23, and if the team didn’t lose their top 3 CBs at the same time for extended period, Milan would have had even a better season than they did.
Great analysis, but it means nothing to these keyboard experts. Like parrots, they will repeat that Rejenders is bad, or the same as Krunic (🤣🤣🤣)
“Milan in Serie A in 23/24 had more points, more wins, less losses, less draws, more goals ,much better goal difference than the team of 22/23.”
Against a completely different Napoli, AS Roma and Lazio. Only Inter, Atalanta and Bologna were stronger (and we only managed to beat the later once). I don’t understand why people keep insisting on comparing points, wins, losses and draws against a completely different setup of teams.
“The 23/24 team scored more goals than any Milan team in the last 10 years.
In 23/24 Milan scored 12 more goals in serie A, than in 22/23, even though their best offensive player had his worst season in 3 years. Leao in 23/24 had 9g/9a in serie A, going over 5 months without a goal. For comparison in 22/23 he had 15g, 10a, while in 21/22 he had 11g, 10a. So Leao in 23/24 had 7 less goal contributions compared to 22/23 and yet Milan scored 12 more goals.”
In 2023/24, AC Milan got Pulisic, whose by far the best recrutement in 2 seasons or more. He, alone scored more than Messias, Diaz and Saelemakers combined. Even Chukwueze had as many assists as the later in serie A. Also in the attack, Jovic and Okafor scored a lot of goals. In 2022/23 we had no one to rotate with Giroud (Origi aside).
So I think it’s easy to conclude that the big improvement during the 2023/24 wasn’t the midfield but the forwards (and we did improve on that).
“The defense gave up 6 more goals but thru 34 games they had same goals given up, 39, like in 22/23. In the last 4 games of 22/23 Milan gave up only 4 goals, while in the last 4 games of 23/24, they gave up 10. Keep in mind in 22/23 last 4 games were meaningful while in 23/24 last 4 games were meaningless.”
True, but it doesn’t say much about either. In the end both defensive displays were bad. And in the second half of 2023/24 we had a slightly improved defense by the return of Gabbia, yet still conceided pretty much as much.
“In 22/23 Milan was in the easiest group. Played vs the worst Chelsea of the last 25 years and still got spanked twice . Vs possibly the youngest team in UCL Salzburg and one of the worst teams in UCL Dinamo Zagreb. Finished that group with 10 points.
In 23/24 Milan was in the group of death. Played vs PSG (semi-finalist), B. Dortmund(finalist) and Newcastle who finished top 4 in EPL the previous year. Milan finished the group with 8 points. Only 2 less than in 23/24 vs much better competition.”
That’s correct for the group stages, but at least in 2022/23, once out of the UCL group, we defeated Tottenham and Napoli, conceiding only 1 goal in 4 games (until inter….). What did we do in the UEL in 2023/24 ? We needed 2 red cards against Slavia Prague only to then get spanked by AS Roma who just got a new, inexperienced coach.
Also, it’s interesting that you mention that Newcastle was 4th in the season prior 2022/23 but that in 2023/24 (the season relevent for comparison) they were 7th with 11 less points. So much for a top 4 EPL team I guess ?
“Outside of the game in Paris vs PSG, Milan, with a new midfield, was either playing on par or better than their opponent in all other 5 games. Beat PSG at home. Beat Newcastle on the road, dominated Newcastle at home but couldn’t score. Played even vs B. Dortmund in Dortmund, and was dominating Borussia at San Siro until Thiaw got injured and Krunic had to play in defense. The score at that point was 1-1 with Giroud missed penalty and Borussia scoring their goal thru a penalty.”
We’ve already established that Newcastle was weaker than us and overrated overall. Most games we dominated where in San Siro and teams don’t always try to dominate and out-possess us in order to secure a win or a draw.
In the end if we don’t win, possession is irrelevant.
“If Pioli didn’t insist on playing Milan worst midfielder Bennacer in the Europa league, Milan probably beats Roma and maybe even reaches the final.”
That’s an “if”, not an argument. It ignores most of what happened in those 2 games and it’s you hating Bennacer tbh.
“Milan team in 23/24 was much better than the team in 22/23, and if the team didn’t lose their top 3 CBs at the same time for extended period, Milan would have had even a better season than they did.”
Milan did better in 2023/24 thanks to an overall better attack (Pulisic+Okafor+Jovic+Chukwueze were much better than Origi+De Ketelaere+Rebic+Diaz). The midfield was still unbalanced and was weaker on the defensive side. We brought players for a 4-3-3, only to revert back to a 4-2-3-1, used Krunic as a CDM only to then use Adli, tried Musah in every single position but goalkeeping,… but tbh that’s mostly on the coach.
Z is stating facts. You are making excuses and giving your opinion. Stick to facts.
None of the things I said are my opinions, they’re all easily verifiable facts if you bother to check.
Saying “If Pioli didn’t insist on playing Milan worst midfielder Bennacer in the Europa league, Milan probably beats Roma and maybe even reaches the final.” on the other hand isn’t a fact and not even an argument.
Now I’m not gonna bother with you a lot, since you do seem to have a problem with me (perhaps since that article few days ago when I found the quotes you said I made up).
You mean where I called you out for dishonestly putting quotation marks around things he never said… Yeah, that was me. Then you continued to do the same thing. He never said “winning is boring” or “we are not interested in trophies” like you claimed.
So you are either a really low IQ person or a very dishonest person.
Here it’s you being either dishonest or low IQ, I never put quotes marks about things either man said. Just putting ” ” doesn’t mean quoting someone, there is also a thing called paraphrasing.
As for the quotes I did provide them with the exact dates, quotes that were understood by many here as being lowly ambitious.
In any case, I’m done with you and this topic.
Don’t bother replying if you have nothing useful to say.
Yes, you did use quotation marks, and you did it on things he didn’t actually say. If you are paraphrasing, using your own words, you do not put quotation marks around it. it’s dishonest. You are trying to make it look like he said those words when they are actually your interpretation of what he said, which is completely wrong by the way. Even after I showed you his actual words where he said he wanted to win The Scudetto and Champions League every year. If you have to misrepresent what someone said to make your argument, you don’t have a very good argument.
Z , WELL SAID !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mr Fonseca have seen it now Loftus cheek is not an attacking midfield and should not be experimented as an attacking midfield he is a central midfield so let’s use Rejnder/ pulisic for attacking midfield then we use chukwueze/Okafor for right midfield then in the 80th minutes leao should substitute for zeroli for zeroli to improve in the attacking trend in the 4-2-3-1 is the best line up