AC Milan had a very positive year in 2022 as the Scudetto drought ended and Champions League knockout stage football was secured, but 2023 ‘risks being a year of shattered dreams’.
MilanNews writes how the first wish on the list was to defend the Scudetto and get a second star before rivals Inter but instead the tricolore will be heading to Napoli after more than thirty years of waiting.
Milan were eliminated in the second round of the Coppa Italia by a Torino side who played 50 minutes with one less man, and in the Supercoppa Italiana the Rossoneri travelled to the Middle East only to badly lose against Inter.
The transfer market, the mentality of the team and the formation have all been subjects of intense debate after the January crisis, yet in February it seemed that the worst was over and Milan had come out of the tunnel.
However, it seems like the capitulation against Roma on January 8 meant the team lost the strength to believe in the Scudetto which has only fuelled further problems that have worsened since many of the most experienced players at that precise moment were unavailable such at Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Mike Maignan, Simon Kjaer and Alessandro Florenzi.
The squad looked fragile mentally and then had players like Olivier Giroud, Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao who returned a bit exhausted from the World Cup in Qatar. This only made the ‘metaphorical snowball’ gather more momentum.
Despite this, in the Champions League the team seem to have motivation and plays to the best of its ability, yet in the league instead it fails to overcome its limits and the top four has become an objective where just falling over the line somehow in some way would be treated as a relief.
