The year of 2023 was very mixed for many AC Milan fans as the team had some great highs, but was also left feeling there should be more to come from this group of players.
The early part of the year was tough, as Milan found themselves in poor domestic form and fell away from the top of the table. Defensive injuries and poor form meant Stefano Pioli had to tinker with his squad and system regularly to ensure results.
At the same time, the team was able to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League which was a tremendous sporting achievement, and a big financial boost. Unfortunately, it ended in a defeat over two legs against Inter.
After ending the Serie A season in fourth, Milan had secured a place in the Champions League. The summer saw many new players arrive and the 2023/24 Serie A season started excellently, with Milan racing to the top of the table and looking on a par with Inter.
In the latter part of the year, the form has deteriorated and Milan are more likely in a battle for the top four rather than the Scudetto, whilst finishing third in a tough Champions League group means that there is Europa League football to come.
As collated by Milan News, here are the combined stats for Milan across 2023 in each competition.
Serie A
- Matches: 41
- Goals scored: 67
- Goals conceded: 48
- Wins: 21
- Draws: 10
- Defeats: 10
- Points: 73
Coppa Italia
- Matches: 1
- Defeats: 1
- Goals scored: 0
- Goals conceded: 1
Supercoppa Italiana
- Matches: 1
- Defeats: 1
- Goals scored: 0
- Goals conceded: 3
Champions League
- Matches: 12
- Goals scored: 8
- Goals conceded: 12
- Wins: 4
- Draws: 4
- Defeats: 4
- Points: 16
Total for 2023
- Matches: 54
- Goals scored: 79
- Goals conceded: 64
- Wins: 25
- Draws: 14
- Defeats: 16
It’s interesting to see that pioli always excuses his defeats by saying that we dominated and got many chances but we didn’t score, while the biggest issue we seem to have is conceiding too many goals. This season we conceided more goals than Monza and Torino.
We scored in all but 5 games this season, we don’t have a “huge” scoring problem, we do but it’s not huge. We did, however, either draw and lose in 6 games in which we scored, and in some of them we were up 1-0 or even 2-0.
So I think it’s clear that pioli failed to realize that we have a problem in the defense and defensive midfield departement, whether because of the lack of adequate players (because of transfer and injuries), and tactics (relying to often on pressing and highline).
Totally agreed Giga. I said something similar last year when I noticed our goals scored was around top 5 in the league (for that season and prior seasons) which made me also think there isn’t a goal scoring issue. Its definitely defence especially after we’ve never replaced what Kessies did.
Agreed, defense is a problem, but not “replacing” Kessie is but a small part of the equation. More often than not, we concede goals on counters and set pieces. The losses against sides like Spezia and Udinese in the last couple of seasons (and other similar teams) highlight this. It is bad coaching. This season one could point to the injury crisis, but is a trend that has transpired over the last three seasons (including the scudetto season when we had Kessie and Tonali) with different sets of players. What has been the constant, the common denominator, throughout this period? Pioli.
The over pressing is also probably an issue as well. When we do so too many players are caught upfield leading to said counters. Kessie was usually one of the first to run back from midfield but right now we HOPE one of our guys runs back. And he’d do this in the 88th minute too that’s the difference. He allowed the team to play the suicide press by masking alot of defensive deficiencies in the team. When we played vs Sassuolo we didn’t do the over press. We kept it neat. We should play like that but with a quicker build up