When AC Milan upset the odds to win Serie A last season, for once there was no longing among Rossoneri fans for the days of Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini and George Weah.
A modern Milan team had finally given supporters new heroes and an unlikely first Scudetto in 11 years.
But soon after Stefano Pioli’s side were crowned champions, their swagger dissipated and they quickly fell behind this season’s runaway leaders Napoli.
Since the World Cup, Milan have crumbled further still. They have slipped to fifth place in Serie A, 18 points behind Napoli with their season unravelling ahead of the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie with Tottenham at the San Siro today.
“Every player has been in terrible form in 2023,” Carlo Garganese from The Italian Football Podcast tells Standard Sport. “They had a poor transfer market last summer. All of their signings have been failures, weakening the squad if anything. No one saw them plummeting as they have done this year. They went on their worst run for five years before beating Torino on Friday.”
Milan suffered five defeats and managed only two draws in that run between January 8 and February 5. That included a 3-0 battering against city rivals Inter in the Supercoppa Italiana, which was immediately followed by a 4-0 drubbing by Lazio and a 5-2 home loss to lowly Sassuolo.
Italian journalist Alessandro Schiavone covers Milan and pinpoints a turning point when their season started to unravel.
“During the World Cup, Milan were still in with a shout of catching Napoli,” he tells Standard Sport. “They won the first game in January, then were leading 2-0 against Roma, but Roma scored twice from dead balls to make it 2-2. That draw was a shock to the system that triggered the decline.”
They did not taste victory again until they scraped past Torino 1-0 on Friday night, and confidence is fragile. Their seven summer signings have all failed to inspire, including highly-rated midfielder Charles De Ketelaere. They are also missing midfielder Franck Kessie, who left for Barcelona last summer.
“They changed their playing style,” says Schiavone. “Pioli ditched the 4-2-3-1 which won the league in favour of a more defensive style. All his good work has gone to waste. They’ve gone back to playing on the counter but teams know how to defend them.”
Former Chelsea defender Fikayo Tomori starred last season but he has struggled this term, and was sent off when the Blues visited the San Siro in the group stage in October.
“With the exception of Brahim Diaz and Olivier Giroud, most players are really struggling,” says Schiavone. “Giroud has missed a lot of chances but he’s still one of the least bad players.”
The absence of injured goalkeeper Mike Maignan has also been glaring, with 37-year-old stand-in Ciprian Tatarusanu struggling behind a defence that has little confidence in him.
“Maignan has been absent for five months now,” says Schiavone. “He’s a cornerstone of last season’s Scudetto triumph.
“It’s not going well for Pioli, but his job is not on the line even if Milan go out to Spurs. Things can only get better from here. They couldn’t get any worse.”
