Ordine believes Pioli has lost ‘the magic touch’ as he picks apart Milan’s failings

By Oliver Fisher -

Journalist Franco Ordine believes that the break for the World Cup could have actually had a negative effect on AC Milan, who are now also feeling the impact of a sub-part summer window in his opinion.

Milan’s last win was back in the first game of 2023 when the Rossoneri won 2-1 away against Salernitana on 4 January, but since then they have failed to emerge victorious in any of the last four games, tying the longest winless run under Pioli’s tenure.

Pioli’s men were 2-0 up against Roma in the game that followed but threw it away and drew 2-2, they were knocked out of the Coppa Italia by Torino despite having a man advantage from the 70th minute and they drew 2-2 against Lecce after what was a dreadful first half where they could have been out of sight.

Ordine wrote his weekly column for MilanNews immediately after the 3-0 defeat against Inter in Saudi Arabia, and he did not hold back in questioning various different aspects of the club.

“This was reported in advance by Mario Ielpo who is a very acute and well-informed observer of Milan’s events. ‘The stop took energy away from Milan,’ he explained. The Riyadh derby said much more: the stop erased all the qualities of the Scudetto AC and brought out, in a sensational way, the limits of the individuals and collectives that had been hidden by the ferocious attention and tension shown in the months of April and May 2022,” Ordine began.

“If it is necessary to draw a first balance of the season, an alarming deficit must be declared: 1) eliminated from the Coppa Italia; 2) lost the Supercoppa Italiana, perhaps the only available trophy of the season; 3) struggling in the league with Juve and Inter just one point behind. And since it is right to do the analysis here is mine.

“Let’s start with the summer market which should have added something for the Rossoneri and the coach, instead it subtracted a lot because Kessiè’s departure has never been replaced thus depleting the midfield and depleting the spare parts for the usual two, Tonali and Bennacer forced to sing and carry the cross. The arrivals of Origi and CDK have so far contributed zero.

“Will we have to wait for them as Paolo Maldini invites? Ok, but until when? Second annotation: the defensive phase has lost, with the same interpreters, aggressiveness and precision. Oddly enough, the two below their past performance are Kalulu and Tomori who also did not participate in the World Cup: it is as if they have not managed to plug back in.

“The decline of Theo Hernandez who returned from Qatar tired from the World Cup is more understandable. We close with Stefano Pioli: he is a convinced businessman and this has guaranteed him the trust of the owners as well as the recognition of the technical area.

“He did a great job and never complained about the transfer market. On the other hand, he cannot fail to complain about the injuries (9 at the beginning of January) because they are his responsibility. The choice in Riyadh to leave with Kjaer, who is not yet the same as the pre-injury match in Genoa, didn’t help him. A sign that he has lost the magic touch.

“Milan have lost their game, the enamel, the determination and couldn’t recover after a horrible half in Lecce, certainly not against Inter who also put them down physically, another alarming fact already glimpsed during the December 2022 friendlies. They don’t even run like the team used to!”

Tags AC Milan

8 Comments

  1. I agree with most of it, but not when he says that the stop for the World Cup took energy from Milan. Milan didn’t look good since the start of the season.
    Do we forget that Sampdoria gane where we barely won because of penalty against the worst team in the league, how about the Empoli game where we won in stoppages, Verona game, Spezia game another game another stoppage time goal, Fiorentina game where we got saved by an own goal. Not to mention cremonese 0-0 and Torino loss.
    I will say it again, you can’t allow your best players to leave for free because you lose the funds needed to properly replace them. We lost 4 important players, and with Maignan injury basically we haven’t replaced either one of them.
    Maldini fans will get upset, but just like the many injuries are Pioli’s responsibility, purchases ,sales, and contract negotiations are Maldini’s responsibility. Don’t care about excuses. He neither extended those players nor he was capable of selling them. It’s a FAILURE

  2. He sounds like the comments section after a game 😂😂😂😂😂
    Seriously though yes we’re struggling but we also struggled our way to second place in the series A this season so far. So glass half full

    1. “SO FAR!”.
      Maybe this guy, just like the people in the comments section, can actually see in which way this ship is headed.
      Inter and Juventus are only a point behind, and they will be getting some big-name players back. Brozovic, Lukaku, Pogba, Chiesa, Vlahovic. Who are we getting back, Zlatan and Maignan? no sooner than March .
      Roma, Atalanta, and Lazio are only 4 points behind us, and we are playing Lazio next.
      We are 9 points off 1st place and only 4 from being out of Europe.
      Our squad, more or less, is on the same level as Lazio, Roma, and Atalanta. This can get really bad

      1. Relax. Everyone’s 9 or more points off first place too, no?
        One thing I agree with is our squad is of the level of Lazio and Atalanta. Roma imo has a much better squad than us in terms of depth. It’s been fine margins this season. A few results that should have gone our way would have mean a 3 pt gap instead of 9. We’re just going through a bad patch. That’s all. Be calm and carry on 😁

        1. A few results could go the other way, and we might be 15 or more points behind.
          Fiorentina scored an own goal in the 95th minute.
          Vs Spezia in 90th minute.
          Vs Empoli in 93th minute ballo Toure
          Not to mention the Sampdoria game where we won because of a microscope needed penalty to see a handball that no one on the field saw , not even our players.

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