Journalist Franco Ordine has published an impassioned reflection on the current state of the AC Milan team and, in particular, on the last summer transfer window.
It was a difficult start to 2023 for Milan, as they lost in the first game of the year against Salernitana at the Stadio Arechi, only winning 2-1 in a game where they should have scored five or six goals.
Then the Rossoneri blew a two-goal lead in the last five minutes of the game against Roma at the weekend, and last night Milan were knocked out of the Coppa Italia in the Round of 16 for the first time since 2008 by a Torino side. who played 20 minutes plus overtime with 10 men.
Ordine wrote his weekly column for MilanNews after the defeat against Torino last night, which ended the Coppa Italia campaign after one game, and we have translated your comments before.
“The censures expressed after Salerno and the criticism regarding the 2-2 with Roma were not signs to be underestimated. On a par with the yield so far from the summer market. The third clue came against Torino in the Coppa Italia and it is a clue that leads to a negative judgment,” he said.
“You know almost everything about the game. You know that Toro defended themselves, in a very orderly way, with 10 players in the middle of the second half and in both overtimes. He also knows that in attack, despite the arrival of reinforcements from the bench (Leão, Messias, Giroud), Milan did not show much in terms of precision, lucidity and dangerousness.
“Granata’s passage to the quarter-finals is a deserved success, achieved the old-fashioned way, with a 45-metre-long counterattack. It is pointless to drag him too far: he is not the Milan of the last month and a half of last season, when the Scudetto journey was successful with a healthy squad.
“Now, and not just because of Maignan’s absence, cracks have opened up in the defense that seemed to be forged in steel, in attack you can’t always ask Giroud and Leão to make the difference. And, in particular, the large number of injuries prevented Pioli from achieving that rotation that perhaps would have allowed a group to present themselves in the cup with better energy.
“But even more important than the cup elimination is what Paolo Maldini said before the match. There were two fundamental concepts: the market closed with the arrival of Vasquez, no goalkeeper and no striker pursued, despite internal rumors having raised the hypothesis of an intervention in the opposite direction.
“Better this way: at least there is clear guidance and clear accountability. The orientation is to go ahead with the strength at your disposal, believing that time will prove that the options in the technical area were right, starting with CDK who dropped out discreetly last night, hit the post, and then from a distance he looked a little lost when has this happened to him when he spends time away from the game.
“Maldini’s reference to the sustainable football model does not call into question the club’s guidelines because Paolo makes them his own and certainly does not exempt him from the performance of the summer transfer market that has been disappointing so far, nor from the exaggerated number of absences due to injury. . Starting with the Maignan case, which is a real accusation against everyone, coaches, physiotherapists, technicians.
“The second piece of news given by Maldini concerns the two ongoing renovations. Bennacer’s is already considered obvious, the announcement is only expected within a few hours, they are working hard on it for Leão and there is the declared optimism of the maximum manager of the technical area in serving as a guarantee.
“On the subject, by the way, Maldini ended his interview with a precious reflection. He said verbatim: ‘Whoever wants to stay, in the end stays’. In short, to say that Donnarumma, plus Calhanoglu and Kessiè showed no intention of wanting to stay since the beginning of the negotiation. More clarity is needed.”
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