With a surprising 5-2 loss at residence to Sassuolo on Sunday, AC Milan and coach Stefano Pioli are going through essentially the most troublesome second since he took cost of the Italian membership again in October 2019. The Rossoneri are nonetheless within the race for a Champions League spot, however because the new 12 months began, they’ve gained solely the primary match in opposition to Salernitana away, drew two matches in opposition to Lecce and AS Roma and misplaced 4 occasions. Adding to that, AC Milan have been knocked out of the Coppa Italia in opposition to Torino and misplaced the Supercoppa Italiana 3-0 in opposition to Inter Milan. The numbers are worrying, because the Rossoneri conceded 18 targets in seven matches, greater than every other staff within the prime 5 European leagues as of Sunday morning. In the final two video games, AC Milan misplaced 4-0 in opposition to Lazio earlier than the 5-2 defeat at residence in opposition to Sassuolo. Those two defeats put extra stress on the place of Pioli.
Pioli was one of many secrets and techniques as to why AC Milan managed to win their first Scudetto in eleven years in the course of the previous season, however plainly he has now misplaced a little bit of management within the dressing room. The outcomes are clearly displaying that one thing has damaged, and he had by no means led AC Milan to 6 video games and not using a win, and the final time it occurred was in April 2019. The final time they conceded 5 targets at residence was in opposition to Juventus in 1997 (6-1), they usually simply allowed 4 targets in back-to-back league video games for the primary time of their historical past.
Chances are that Piolo continues to be secure for now although. AC Milan’s important challenge is that protection. Pioli began off the present 2022-23 season after dropping former membership captain Alessio Romagnoli as a free agent. The membership determined to not spend money on skilled gamers to switch him, additionally contemplating the comeback of Simon Kjaer after his knee damage. Pioli at present has 5 heart backs on the roster: Fikayo Tomori, Kjaer, Matteo Gabbia, Pierre Kalulu and Malick Thiaw, who was signed final summer season from Schalke 04. Last season, AC Milan based mostly their league success on the protection and particularly on the person performances of Kalulu and Tomori. Their good mixture and defensive work have been the the explanation why the Rossoneri conceded solely 31 targets in 38 matches. This season, the story is totally different and the identical key gamers are underperforming and usually are not supported by the midfielders and the wingers.
Also, the nice efficiency of goalkeeper Mike Maignan was one more reason for his or her success, however the French participant has been injured for a lot of video games, and his alternative, Ciprian Tatarusanu, did not ship. That noticed the membership signal Marco Sportiello as a free agent in the summertime. The much-awaited comeback of Maignan will certainly assist AC Milan to enhance their defensive report, however they may most likely want one other beginning heart again. Last summer season, the membership determined in opposition to signing Sven Botman and Newcastle signed him as an alternative. If we glance again at that call, it was most likely a mistake contemplating his kind in England.
Adding to this, the strikers do not appear to work a lot better. Club stars Rafael Leao and Olivier Giroud usually are not creating as a lot as earlier than, and the large signing, Charles De Ketelaere, continues to be a thriller, having had no actual influence. He’s positively not the explanation why issues usually are not working effectively, however everyone anticipated one thing totally different regardless of his younger age, 21, after he arrived in the summertime of 2022.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was by no means out there this season and his potential comeback continues to be unknown on account of his knee restoration. It’s troublesome to foretell if Pioli will be capable of overturn the occasions within the coming video games, however the membership will certainly proceed to help him as they did earlier than the primary COVID outbreak. In that case, he was capable of present to the membership and the followers that he was the precise man to guide AC Milan, regardless of former membership CEO Ivan Gazidis already having an settlement with Ralf Rangnick for the next years.
In a number of weeks, every thing modified for Pioli and for the membership and he proved to be the proper coach for the membership, as he gained the league a 12 months later. The hope of the supervisor is that he can repeat one thing comparable now, beginning subsequent week when they may face Inter Milan on Sunday, two weeks after dropping the Supercoppa in opposition to the identical metropolis rivals. But very first thing is first, and that is discovering a technique to elevate the morale of the staff earlier than trying to rediscover the defensive kind that received them to the summit of Italy not too way back.
