It’s amazing how quickly fortunes can change in football.
Barely 18 months ago, AC Milan were the kings of Serie A – celebrating a first league title in more than a decade.
Now, the Rossoneri find themselves nine points behind leaders Inter after 15 rounds of games, as well as out of the Champions League without progressing beyond the group phase.
Stefano Piolo, the mastermind behind their Serie A triumph in 2021/22, is clinging on by his fingernails…
Uphill Battle
The scale of AC Milan’s slump is confirmed in the odds for those who place bets on football: Inter are already as short as -300 to lift the Serie A trophy, while Piolo’s men are out to +1300 – Juventus are the meat in the sandwich at +300.
All of which will leave a bitter taste in the mouth for those from the red-and-black half of the city. Many football forecast providers and analysts had predicted that Inter would become champions this term, but they are streaking ahead of AC Milan in a fashion that will not please the club’s hierarchy.
It’s the nature of the beautiful game to find scapegoats for a team’s ills, and in this case the burden of responsibility will have to be shouldered by Piolo, who green-lit a summer spending spree of some €116 million in a bid to revamp his title-winning squad.
But the jury remains out on many of the ten signings that he brought into the camp, and it’s telling that only three of them have played 1,000 minutes or more for the Rossoneri in the Serie A so far – Piolo jettisoning them for his old favorites like Olivier Giroud, Davide Calabria and Fikayo Tomori.
It’s a situation that only serves to weaken the manager’s position, given that he gave the nod for these players to be signed, and with elite head coaches like Antonio Conte still waiting for the right opportunity to come along, an instant improvement will be needed from AC in 2024 to save Piolo’s job.
Reasons to Be Cheerful?
On the face of it, December has been a month to forget so far for Milan.
A 3-1 victory over Frosinone was expected, before a defeat at Atalanta and that premature Champions League exit did nothing but increase the pressure faced by Piolo.
But his side went down fighting at Atalanta, which is always a difficult place to secure a result, with a 95th-minute winner from Luis Muriel a cruel end to the 2-3 loss.
Piolo would have been pleased with what he saw from his players in the 2-1 win over Newcastle United – an excellent result, which at least meant they signed off on their Champions League campaign on a positive note.
To improve the head coach’s mood yet further, two of his summer signings were on the scoresheet in England – vindication at last for his expensive outlay.
If they can start strongly in 2024, finish second or third in Serie A, and have a deep run in the Europa League, there’s a chance that Pioli could save his job. Reasons to be cheerful, then, in an otherwise forgettable campaign so far.
