Journalist Luca Serafini believes that there has once again been an overreacted after AC Milan endured a tough last three games, but acknowledged that injuries killed the chance of a revival in Naples.
Milan are now winless in their last three games, though that doesn’t tell the full story. They lost 1-0 to Juventus at San Siro, then 3-0 against Paris Saint-Germain in the French capital before drawing 2-2 against Napoli after being 2-0 up.
This has led to what many believe is the first crisis point of the season, something which has been intensified by the constant injury problems that Stefano Pioli and his side are having to deal with as key players keep missing spells.
Serafini spoke during his weekly column for MilanNews and provided his thoughts on the current rocky patch that the team are going through and about the injury crisis that is decimating the depth again.
“There is nothing that works anymore, the cycle is over, the dream is broken: it was beautiful, thank you for everything everyone and see you again,” he began.
“They all break down (and this is a fact that drags on), the central defenders are exhausted, Theo is Maldini’s orphan, Maignan is struggling, Leao abandoned by his entourage and is also distracted and not very incisive, Giroud is nervous, the mercato is unsatisfactory, the style of play isn’t there, Pioli (#Out) has exhausted his cycle, he needs the nurse Ibra. The coach gets the substitutions wrong, the formations wrong, the mentality wrong.
“Ravana in the slime, some precious object happens to be found. Even sifting through the sand in the evening, on the beach. What is certain is that in the most delicate week of this start of the season, Juve, PSG and Napoli in sequence, Milan showed up without two suspended players and the usual string of injured players.
“In my opinion, it remains the crucial point of every discussion, the most complex problem that must still be addressed and possibly resolved. I have already underlined several times how I have no tool to establish whether these are causes due to the fields, the methods, the preparation or something else. I really don’t know, but this is the most invasive variable in the team’s ups and downs.
“Theo has presented himself in these first two months a little involuted and more nervous: we should ask him if it’s the formation or some other melancholy. In Naples he was playing – in my opinion – the best match from August to today, then the team was turned inside out.
“That’s right: Kalulu out at the Maradona, Pellegrino on, the two central defenders swapped, Musah moved, Hernandez dropped back, Pulisic lost during the interval, if Pobega comes in it’s a sign of giving up, if Romero comes in he’s not up to the task, Musah couldn’t have been moved to the outside for the change I already mentioned.
“The fact is that the perfect machine of the first half had to be dismantled, forgetting about that ball as beautiful as the sun that Reijnders shot high. Of course, I wouldn’t ignore Giroud and Leao in the final either, but the tombstones are full of hindsight (Jovic was responsible for Calabria’s header which almost made it 2-3, but these are completely random details).
“However, it is clear that Pellegrino, Romero and Jovic are not up to the task and Okafor and Chukwueze have been in our sights for some time, waiting hungrily at the gate.
“This club changed management again at the beginning of the season: after Gazidis, there are no longer even Maldini and Massara for Furlani, Furlani and Furlani with the chief scout Moncada at his side.
“Now they are looking for an authoritative figure in Ibrahimovic who will take care of the sporting area, preventing Furlani from doubling and tripling himself, but he is instead seen as the inevitable hiring of a nanny for Pioli and for the orphaned, widowed, sad and abandoned players.
“Ibra will, should, deal with all these problems with a role not as a team manager and not as a lighthouse keeper, but as a manager. A higher and more authoritative choice than the sentry, the mental coach, the motivator. It seems that there are barricades in Milanello.
“It is strange that a team immersed in such chaos, buried by such an avalanche of problems, is only three points behind the league leaders against whom – as usual – they lost to in the direct match, and it is strange that it is still in the running for the qualification in CL, unless proven otherwise.
“It’s strange that they returned, in CL, that they achieved a second place and a Scudetto, a semi-final in Europe: it’s all so strange… Maybe, who knows, by fixing a couple of things we can go back to dreaming and having fun.
“Beyond the irony, something certainly needs to be fixed, but at the moment I don’t think a revolution is needed. The calendar becomes more affordable while for the others it will be harder in the coming weeks.
“Exploit the situation to get out of this dead end, find the team praised until before the break for having won all the matches except the derby, having played 2 sumptuous games in Champions League, having conceded only 2 goals in 8 games, could still be possible. By chance, of course.”
#MaldiniBack
🤮
In all of these, the legend has not uttered a single word.
I see the urge to bring Ibra as a band-aid. Now, the management thinks the team needs a former player, a legend around. Milan is not your run-of-the-mill football club. Milan has history.
Yes Baresi is there, but he doesn’t relate with the players. Maldini did.
Perhaps Ibra can do what Maldini did. Two different legends. Two different champions. Two different temperament.
Interestingly, Maldini identified Ibra as a need for the team in the hour of need then, and brought him back against the wishes of Elliott who just wanted youngins.
He also brought Giroud who finally broke the number 9 curse and helped to win the scudetto.
But one ‘failed’ mercato, and one uncouth, ungrateful cretin here calls him Faildini.
Yet, the legendary number 3 says nothing.
“the mercato is unsatisfactory”, “there are no longer even Maldini and Massara for Furlani, Furlani and Furlani with the chief scout Moncada at his side”
This made me chuckle. Where was this right after the summer transfer window which was deemed the best in a decade? Alot of these journalists are cowards. They should know better. Easy to talk now about the ills of the team when things are going bad, it’s more brave to talk about it when youre seemingly up. First from the sacking which was unwarranted and then the spending which looked good in Fifa and football manager but not in real life. We simply replaced players and upgraded the RW imo. That’s basically it ..an upgraded RW. Maybe with some more patience we’ll realize team is ok for top 4 and fix the other areas next year instead of overhyping the summer which this whole thing really is about. But journalists right now should be praising the squad in difficult times