AC Milan and Inter were the favourites for the Scudetto before the start of the current campaign, but the Rossoneri have not exactly lived up to the expectations. Or rather, one tough period cost them a proper Scudetto race, as the stats show.
Stefano Pioli’s men had a very good start to the season with seven wins in the opening eight games, only losing the derby against Inter. Then came the ninth game, in which Juventus prevailed 1-0, and that was the start of a very poor period for Milan.
In those four games, the Rossoneri claimed just two out of a possible 12 points and Inter were able to create a great advantage in the standings. Taking a look at the results in 2024, however, the Nerazzurri have claimed just two more points (31 vs. 29, but with a game in hand) than their city rivals.
Had it not been for Milan’s tough period in October/November, therefore, we could have had a great Scudetto race on our hands. Instead, Inter are currently eleven points ahead and could make it 14 with a win tomorrow.
As was highlighted in the newspapers this morning, given that Milan have done so well lately, there are bound to be some regrets about the poor run of results last year. However, the Rossoneri can only afford to focus on the future.
Milan is on par with Inter in 2024, but the problem is that the season started late august 2023 not in january 2024.
“Had it not been for Milan’s tough period in October/November” but that period did in fact happen and it wasn’t the first time (see january/february 2023), we also still lost to Atalanta in coppa italia outside of that period. The humiliating derby and draw at home against Newcastle also happened prior to that.
The conclusion is, you can’t just cherrypick a month or two to show if you’re good or not, you need to be consistent over a long period in order to win titles.
I agree – excuses are lame.
Now: In the last scudetto year, we would be top of the table now. We had 66 then, 65 now and Napoli had 63 after 30 games.
Inter has been amazing this year.
Inter is overrated. Don’t get me wrong, they’re very good this year compared to previous years and perhaps even their scudetto year, their new players are doing very well and their coach knows what he is doing but far from “amazing” and certainly not a top 3 team in Europe.
Put the scudetto aside, what do you have ? They won a supercoppa against the weakest Napoli in more than 5 years, got eliminated early on from coppa Italia, they were second to Real Sociedad in the UCL group (who are 6th in la Liga) and got eliminated next round by Atletico Madrid (who are fifth in la Liga).
Now in the scudetto, they’re doing very well, but how many teams have improved compared to last year ? The only 2 teams who reinforced their squad are us and them. Napoli lost players and got much weaker, Lazio is a shell compared to what is was last season, Juve seemed to have improved but got worse in 2024 and Roma only recently improved since sacking Mourinho. The fact that Bologna, with their average squad are now fourth, tells you the current state of the serie A. And further proof, no italian team made it to the quarter finals in UCL and none of them were first in their groups.
But we play in Italy, they destroted us and we are a good team. Credit where its due.
This.
Milan is coming around. It would naturally take time with so many changes over the summer. New players scoring and contributing, subs scoring and contributing – all testament to the things Pioli is doing right this season.