More question marks are being asked about AC Milan’s summer window after their failure to deliver in recent outings.
MilanNews report that the squad left to return to Italy this morning and they did so with many more question marks surrounding their squad compared to what they arrived with. Another target has slipped away with the 2-0 Supercoppa Italiana defeat to Napoli, and they speak of a ‘€90m collapse’.
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If you look closely, the backbone of the starting lineup chosen by Massimiliano Allegri last night represents the podium of the three transfers that Milan paid the most between July and August: Koni De Winter (€18m), Ardon Jashari (€35m) and Christopher Nkunku (€37m).
Adding those together results in €90m on the pitch spread across all three roles. While it’s true that figures do not take to the field, it’s equally true that these expenses need to be justified and, at the moment, they are not proving to be worth the investment.
Tests failed
The decision to replace Malick Thiaw with De Winter looks worse with each passing week. The former Genoa player hasn’t played a single match without technical errors that have cost Milan in some way.
In his last two games alone, the Belgian has been at least partly responsible for Sassuolo’s equaliser (where he didn’t intervene on Pinamonti, who then set up Laurienté) and for Napoli’s two goals last night, where he was bullied by Hojlund.
As Gabbia’s replacement, he’s not performing well, which is why Allegri wants another central defender (Thiago Silva above all). Besides, in an ideal Milan, De Winter should be Fikayo Tomori’s back-up, not the first substitution for all three central defenders.
Last night’s big news was Jashari starting in place of Luka Modric. A courageous choice by Allegri, who not only rested the Croatian (who had looked dull in recent matches) but rightly wanted to give the former Brugge player his first test in a big game.
It was a timid outing with more horizontal movement of the ball and very little vertical, making Milan’s play seem sterile and predictable. He lacks match rhythm in his legs and mind which is understandable, but for now it means Modric must work overtime or there is a drop-off.
Nkunku meanwhile is the symbol of what Milan are lacking up front. He sent a shot at the roof of the stand wasting Milan’s biggest counter-attacking opportunity last night, even if the pass from Alexis Saelemaekers wasn’t the best.
The feeling of resignation reached a fever pitch, almost as if we are now accustomed to seeing certain mistakes. On the other side, Hojlund condemned Milan to elimination, having been strongly linked in the summer.
Jashari and nkunku were ok not good but ok
Totally worth 40 and 50m….
These players cannot be judged none of them have even played 5 games in a row….media looking for crumbs.
Milan squad was better last season, but the team is better this season, if that makes sense to any one but me.
Napoli found it easy against us as we had no forwards to trouble them and Pulisic had to come to deep and Nkunku is not a physical player, how we could have done with Chuk, we had so many attacking options and now we have none.
We are so overachieving in seria a, it is scary, we need a reference striker, another number 10, preferably M Keane as the minimum going forward, letting Chick and Jovic go has hurt us this season in the cup games, we are not built for cup competitions at present.
In all honesty the Supercoppa is a waste of time nice to complete the set if you win seria a etc, but we won it last season and I thought and what!, rather have 3 points in seria a
yes de winter sucks along with gimenez, when are we fans going to stop acting like these guys are decent. we should expect more, we are MILAN…..not parma
Milan have too much garbage player i we list den first is nkuku 2 d winter 3 is jiminez 3 is lotus cheek
There was a time that statement would be an insult to Parma
We really need to improve the sporting department. It looks as if Tare is not enough.
We should give Jashari and Ricci time, but the others:
Gimenz, Estupian, De Vinter, Nkonku…
Not to speak that we are lucky nobody activated the buyout for Salamakers loans, like Juve did for Kalulu.
So Ricci and Jashari deserve to be given time while the others don’t?
Why is that?
IMO, all of them deserve some time to some extent, but they’re not performing equally good (or bad).
While he wasn’t really impressive, but Ricci wasn’t really bad and his Torino game was actually good.
Jashari is barely on his second game with us but you can see some potentiel in there. Wether he fully develop into a good player remains to be seen.
Estupiñán isn’t bad and around the same level as Bartesaghi.
De Winter and Nkunku were bad so far, so they have a higher hill to climb to prove their worth.
Giménez played with us last season, so even less of an excuse, but now with this injury, he is probably gonna take even more time to get going.
All of them besides Ricci have dealt with injuries.
All of them besides Ricci came from another league and need to be given time to adapt.
We can criticize management for signing Nkunku but he gets way too much criticism for a player who is being played in a position that he doesn’t possess the technical or physical characteristics to play. He is way too small to play as a 9, and he also has had no consistency in playing next to the same forward. Gimenez, Pulisic and Leao have been in and out of the lineup.
To my observation Estupinan and gimenez will still improve. They need little time also
Koni de winter is worst Milan player I have seen recently
Jashari needs more time, he’s really only just getting back into his stride after a bad injury. Nkunku is improving (slowly) – if Milan can get a decent conventional CF, I think he will blossom. De Winter – I dunno….
Remember in the summer how the majority opinion of this forum was that Hojlund was terrible? Well he looked pretty good yesterday.
Either way, it’s a friendly competition that I don’t care for and I’m behind these players – up to them and Max to make it work but certainly not the worst players we’ve had in my time watching Milan. All put a shift in despite their faults and plenty to support and hopefully a couple of them adapt to the league and the team in 2026.
Before the game starts we need to line up the midfielders and point them towards the oppositions goal and tell them to make passes in this direction when possible. With all these midfielders, part of the problem is the ball rarly reaches the forwards. The second problem is Allegri ball. There are rarely enough players forward to play a quick attack. You have a false 9 against two or three centerbacks and one of the wingbacks sits back covering the wide forward. The attack depends on a player making a great play and not a system that quickly finds lanes and overloads.
Jashari needs time but the rest look just terrible. De winter doesn’t look much better as an outside CB. Letting Thiaw go looks pretty bad now. Hell, letting Columbo and Camarda out on loan looks terrible compared to spending 40 million on Nkunku. I guess that one is more of a hindsight is 20/20 but Nkunku was coming off two major leg injuries so that was still a gamble.
The negative comments about Jashari are harsh. He’s coming off a two month injury and even then he needs to adjust to Serie A. Been watching this league a long time and sometimes it takes a full season for players to adjust. I’m less sure about Nkunku, but the same applies. That said, he’s already played in a high level (higher level in fact) league like the PL, so there are red flags here. De Winter definitely has red flags. He’s not new to Serie A and was starting for Genoa. Not sure what is going on as he did well enough for them. Maybe playing in the heart of the 3 man back line is too much for him and he’s better outside.
This January we definitely need a striker and a veteran CB who can play in the middle of a back 3. Is that Silva? Maybe, but then I think about Kyle Walker. I don’t know, but we need a CB and a striker who guarantees goals.
And also… Was Jashari supposed to do everything by himself? He dropped deep to get the ball and passed it up well to teammates. Was he supposed to be in the attacking zone to receive the ball and create the scoring chances too? And probably finish them too?
People are asking for the moon from this guy. He played a decent match – especially considering the crumples he has been given so far this season. We surely didn’t lose the match because of him.
I disagree with Jashari’s comments on this article. I thought he was actually our best player yesterday (not so difficult since most players performed poorly) and wasn’t just doing lateral passes. He was highly accurate in his passes and produced a few but very good vertical ones. He is coming back from MAJOR injury, a broken leg no less, and is slowly coming back to form. I’m confident that he is a good player.
De Winter on the other hand, even if he is young and people tend to discount errors by young players in the hope that they will grow and learn, I think is a full disaster and I don’t think youth is an excuse for very poor skills and very poor football IQ. His positioning is atrocious and he just can’t defend against good forwards. He is so much worse than Gabbia, it feels like a joke that he is Gabbia’s deputy instead of a better one. Gabbia deserves a better deputy. Like the article says, every single game De Winter played for us, he was detrimental and made us drop points. I don’t see him with potential for improvement, despite his youth. Not all young players improve; some are just not good and won’t ever improve. I’d like to see him shipped out, hopefully sold, or if not, at least loaned out; we need a better full back, and it is truly a pity that we lost Thiaw and got this De Winter instead. I know that Thiaw asked to leave but I do blame the managers for not upgrading his contract and convincing him to stay.
As for Nkunku, sorry, but that’s a bust. That’s Origi 2.0, and I don’t want to hear that he is playing out of position and out of his strengths. Sorry as he seems to be a nice guy but for me he is a has-been, washed out, and will NOT improve. His career is in steep decline and there is a reason why his former club got rid of him. We overpaid 37 M Euro for a player who is clearly a bust at this point. Does he need more time to adapt to a new league, etc? No, he needs to be sold. Period.
Luigi 💯 you are correct
Hear hear!
“We overpaid 37 M Euro for a player who is clearly a bust at this point. Does he need more time to adapt to a new league, etc? No, he needs to be sold. Period.”
But… Who would buy him? No one. Absolutely no one. What we can hope for is someone to loan him but even then I wouldn’t even dare to dream about an option to buy. He has been so awful… Dreadful.
I don’t know, maybe there is a silly club out there, in Turkey or Serbia or wherever. They would have to be really incompetent to still want Nkunku but one can dream. My point is, if ANY offer arrives, we should cut our losses and sell or at least loan. Most likely it would be for a loss; we’ll never recover the 37 M but these are sunk costs. Persisting with him because we overpaid will just increase the problem. It doesn’t help out top 4 chances, to keep a bust, a has-been, washed out player who disappears on the pitch. With him, it’s like we had a player expelled and we are playing 10 versus 11. By his sheer presence, we waste attacking opportunities. We have fewer attacking opportunities than we’d have with just anybody there but Nkunku.
100%
“still don’t know why we sold Malick Thiaw”
Because he wanted to leave (for Newcastle). Now you know.