Should AC Milan opt for stability or throw themselves into a revolution in the summer? It’s a question that sounds very familiar for the Rossoneri, taking us back to the end of the 2019-20 season.
The 2024-25 season has been a huge failure for Milan, crashing out of the Champions League and missing out on qualification for next season. Meanwhile, they are currently 9th in the league and the only silverware – aside from the Supercoppa – left is the Coppa Italia.
As such, the Rossoneri have been linked with several managers and sporting directors in the last few months, expected to undergo a revolution of sorts in the summer. However, more so when it comes to the head coach position, what is really the right decision?
Pioli precedent in 2019-20
If we rewind the tape five years, Milan found themselves in a similar position when Stefano Pioli was in charge of the team. He had replaced Marco Giampaolo in October of 2019, but failed to turn things around immediately and before the pandemic lockdown, the Rossoneri were in 7th place.
At the time, a managerial change after the season seemed almost inevitable and Ralf Rangnick was the man in pole position, having carried out talks with the CEO Ivan Gazidis. In addition to becoming the head coach, it was also expected that he would get a lot of power within the management.
However, as the summer rolled around and Milan returned to the pitch for the final games of the 2019-20 season, the results started coming in and Pioli’s renewal was then announced. The Rossoneri had changed course completely, with Paolo Maldini pushing for this outcome, and it laid the foundation for a great 2020-21 season (finished in second place).
The season after that, well, Milan won the Scudetto after a tremendous second half of the season with almost no errors. In that case, very clearly, opting for consistency and stability ended up benefiting the Rossoneri massively, rather than hiring the aforementioned German to make significant changes to the club.
While a sporting director is still set to be hired this summer, seeing as it’s necessary, the 2019-20 precedent still has parallels with the current season. Because some fans are now talking about giving Sergio Conceicao the chance to stay.
Conceicao needs a strong finale
Most journalists, as well as outlets, have already reported that Conceicao has virtually zero chance of remaining at Milan. Just this morning, Daniele Longo stated that the manager ‘will pay’ for not finding the right solution until April (referring to the formation against Udinese last night).
That being said, some fans are now suggesting that keeping the Portuguese manager might not be such a bad thing after all. The differences with his potential replacements are not as major as we saw in 2019-20 (i.e. Italian vs. German), as Milan have realised they need someone with Serie A experience, but change is still change.
The question, therefore, becomes whether the Rossoneri might be better off relying on Conceicao while bringing in a competent sporting director. Everything will clearly depend on the season finale, as winning almost all (if not all) remaining games in the league and securing the Coppa Italia trophy would be quite the statement.
On the other hand, Conceicao has shown quite a few flaws since joining the Rossoneri and that will have to be factored in as well. The Yunus Musah treatment, starting him twice only to bring him off early, comes to mind in that sense.
In any case, important evaluations await the Milan management as having three managers in the space of a year is far from acceptable. It might be necessary, but it must be seen for what it is: a huge failure.
Journalists are stupid, they love chaos so they can sell more stories
there is no reason to sack Conceicao if he manages to find a solution to this team even this late in the season.
if sergio can find the solution i really hope the new sd can be able to see that
If Conceição wins the Coppa Italia and the remaining games then he should stay. But if not then Milan should ONLY replace him with Conte.
If Milan cannot secure Antonio Conte for next season then there’s no need to replace Conceição with anyone else.
Especially since Conceição has now switched to a 343 formation which is the best formation for the players we currently have in the team and only Conte have won with this formation at Chelsea.
Having 3 coaches in 2 season will never be good for the team.
I’m all for stability.
With more time both the coach and the players will be more understanding towards each other.
Milan have only won against udinese with new formation.
There are still games to test it out.
If Milan can win the copa italy then Milan should give conceicao another chance and also players that suit his system.
He is a fraud that needs to go. Pioli inherited a banter era Milan, while Shoutceciao inherited a better Milan squad. Drop the terrible comparison
Our strikers under Pioli was Ibrahimović and Leão/Rebić were sometimes used as strikers. Currently we have Abraham, Jović and Giménez. Ibrahimović was clearly the best player here scoring 11 goals in half a season.
Our current wingers are Leão, Pulišić, Chukwueze and Sottil. Under Pioli it was Rebić, Saelemakers and Castillejo. Here clear advantage for Conceição.
Under Pioli in 2019/20, we had Bonaventura, Bennacer, Kessié, Çalhanoğlu, Krunić and Paquetá while we currently have Reijnders, Fofana, Musah, Loftus-Cheek (for like 10 minutes) and Terracciano. Outside of Reijnders, all the others won’t even be allowed in the stands, let alone in the bench.
Both men relied on the same left-back while in the right back it was mostly a young and fresh Calabria for Pioli and Emerson (?) then Walker for the Portuguese coach.
Gabbia didn’t play a lot in 2020 and right now Conceição has to find a formula with him, Tomori, Thiaw and Pavlović while Pioli enjoyed having Romagnoli and Kjaer, who in his prime was the best defender among all of those I named.
2021/22 Maignan was my favourite goalkeeper, but currently he is wose than whatever Donnarumma was with us.
So overall I’m not so sure that Conceição inherited a better squad than Pioli.
In 2019/20, we had good promising players, it was just that Marco Giampaolo was so bad that we ended up losing more often and it took Pioli a total break than the COVID outbreak to actually figure out a system.
Pioli’s Milan did a great 2nd part of the season, playing excellent football and winning multiple games in a row. I don’t see any of it under Conceicao.
i really hope he can find the results that allow him to stay. memory of italian ‘journalists’ and keyboard warriors are short. Pioli knew it last season, thats why he always said they needed to finish strong (which they unfortunately didnt). Sergio needs to win all games in may. therefore it unfortunately could be bad for him to win the Coppa Semifinal.
Yes he should just go
I am all in for Concecaio’s 3-4-3… Our problem is a disconnect between midfield and defence especially when we loose the ball.
3-4-3 puts more bodies in the midfield for. It worked because we had Jimenez who really played well yesterday. This may not be the case with Walker or Emerson Royale.
It’s only one game so far, let’s see what happens in the remaining games.
#ForzaMilan
This article means nothing to me. Different players, manager team, context of the rival team , etc.
Let say, if we has an Arabian fund as owner in summer, if we can deal with Conte (or Pep, Inzaghi, Alonso), if …. then we can have a lot more good choices. But if the others stay the same, it could be a disaster for us in next year without UCL and poor income from this year plus coming economic recession. Then there is no choice to think but just support Conceicao as much possible.
The better considerable thing to choose for me is to change the manager team include the owner.