Former AC Milan boss Alberto Zaccheroni believes that the Rossoneri should not give up on the title this season, declaring that they play the best football in the league.
Zaccheroni was hired from Udinese and introduced Milan to a 3–4–3 formation that hadn’t been seen at the club before, and later it switched to a 3–4–1–2 in which Bierhoff was a perfect centre forward, scoring 20 goals in the league.
It looked as though the Scudetto was not a possibility after 17 rounds of action but Milan had an excellent second half of the season, competing for the title with Lazio and Fiorentina, and after seven straight wins to end the season the Rossoneri won the league.
Zaccheroni gave an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport during which he discussed the Scudetto win in 1999 during which Milan almost came out of nowhere to win it.
“That 3-2 win against Sampdoria at San Siro [towards the end of the 1998-99 season] was devoid of any logic. Schemes, coverage: they forget everything because the victory was also useful for them who were fighting to save themselves. We played from the heart and we won. In Florence I saw the same spirit, but the group seems a little less sure than in the past months. It must not: in Serie A no one is so compact, no one plays better,” he said (via Calciomercato.com).
“I never talked about the Scudetto, I thought from game to game. But I realised that things had changed on the eve of the away match in Udine: the night before Lazio had lost 3-1 at home to Juve, my players had another look. I said to Galliani: ‘Adriano, I don’t know how it will end but we win them all’.
“This team [the current one] is the opposite of mine. I coached Maldini, Costacurta, Boban, Weah, people who had won everything and seemed to be at the end of their cycle. Milan today is young, they have a unique opportunity: almost no one has ever won anything in the squad.”
Zaccheroni went on to discuss Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has made the headlines again over the past couple of weeks with his decision to return to the Swedish national team.
“When I coached abroad and they asked me for predictions for the Scudetto, I replied: ‘Tell me where Ibra plays and I’ll tell you who wins’. Here, Inter are far away but Milan have Zlatan. Bennacer will raise the level. Tomori has already done it. I look forward to Mandzukic: he has won everywhere.”
“This title can only be lost by Inter, which obliges Milan to stay there, ready to take advantage of it, if Inter should make the mistake of wanting to manage like Lazio in ’99…”
