Stefano Pioli has mentioned a couple of times recently that AC Milan are travelling at the same pace as Inter in terms of points accrued, and the numbers suggest he isn’t wrong.
La Gazzetta dello Sport write how the win against Napoli was another step forward for Milan, something that Pioli acknowledged: “We are almost at Inter’s level. They are having an incredible campaign, let’s see what we can do.”
The Rossoneri head coach isn’t wrong: Milan have changed gear in the league for almost three months. The starting point comes from looking at recent seasons, and this is the best return after 24 games under Pioli.
With 52 points obtained, this Milan have a better total than the 2019-20 season (35), 2022-23 (47) and they have equaled the tally of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, with the latter of course ending with a Scudetto.
In the three points per win era, Milan’s points haul is only inferior to that of 1995-96 (53 points) and 2003-04 (61 points, also a league title win).
The reality says that Milan left several points on the table in a dark October, but also that from the end of November there was a turning point and a clear change of pace.
Since the 13th round, Pioli’s team have so far amassed the same points as Inter (29) with one game more played, plus five more than Juventus (who have to play tonight) and seven more than Atalanta (also with a game in hand).
From the 1-0 against Fiorentina last November 25th to the 1-0 against Napoli last night, the Diavolo scored the most goals (27 goals) but also conceded more than all the other Champions League teams (13, against six conceded by Inter, seven by the Bianconeri and 12 by La Dea).
After the success at San Siro, Pioli recognised the positive moment but underlined the work to be done in the immediate future. The key word for keeping this pace is balance, with consistency of course as well.
Same pattern every season, Pioli knows how to keep his job
If milan end up as runners up in the league, have a good campaign in europa, and keep pioli leao theo and maignan, some fans here and journalists can kill themselves or they will fall into depression 🤣🤣🤣 not saying that this will happen though, but we should all know that nobody knows the future, and noone can control whats gonna happen in future except the owners of the club, them also dont know how the season will end, as a fan, i would just watch, learn and enjoy like i have been doing since ’98
Since the end of November the UCL games stopped and we were pretty much eliminated (so less games on Tuesday and Wednesday).
Also, since December the 2nd, the teams we faced in serie A were:
Frosinone (currently 14th): W
Atalanta (currently 4th): L
Monza (currently 11th): W
Salernitana (currently 20th): D
Sassuolo (currently 16th): W
Empoli (currently 15th): W
AS Roma (currently 6th): W
Udinese (currently 17th): W
Bologna (currently 5th): D
Frosinone again: W
Napoli (currently 9th): W
Basically we had only 3 games against teams ranked in a European spot and against them we had a loss, a draw and a win. The win was against Roma who since getting Mourinho suited us very well and who was sacked by then and Roma won 3 games in a row.
So perhaps we did improve a little, but we’re still in this position were we lose/draw against the best teams we face (Atalanta beat us also in Coppa Italia in San Siro), so I’ll wait and see the next games against Inter, Juve, Atalanta and perhaps Fiorentina before considering that we improved.
Facts.
Wait, the popular opinion is that Milan is terrible this season and pioli doesn’t know what he’s doing… but we’re as goos as when we won the Scudetto…?
How can that possibly be….. The peanut gallery never gets it wrong I thought… OH SNAP!
FORZA MILAN ⚫️🔴
*good – before the spelling brigade chimes in…
If you wanna continue getting embarrassed in the derby then Pioli knows what he is doing.
If you don’t wanna win any trophies year after year Pioli knows what he is doing.
If you want to have the most injuries in Europe, Pioli knows what he is doing.
If you wanna coach for one tournament only, Pioli knows what he is doing.
If you want a coach that does just enough to keep his job, Pioli knows what he is doing.
If you want more than that PIOLI is terrible and doesn’t know what he is doing.
We have the same points that we had during the scudetto season after 24 games but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
You can’t compare the points in 2 differents seasons without taking into context how much the other teams have changed.
There is currently 18 points between Inter (first) and Atalanta (4th). In 21/22, there was 14 points between Inter (first at 53) and Roma (sixth at 39 points) !!
It’s clear when you look at them that many teams who used to compete for European spots (Roma, Lazio, Napoli and Fiorentina) got weaker.
I’d say the only 2 teams who are stronger now than in 21/22 are Inter and Juve.
Fiorentina had Vlahovic in 21/22.
Lazio was a force to be reckon with and hand Savic and got a win against Inter.
Napoli was at some point first in 21/22 and managed to finish 3rd.
Heck Atalanta who had around the same points as well in 21/22 was then fifth and ended up 8th at the end of the season !
When you have a more competitive league, top teams will end up with less points, since lower teams can beat them more often.
So back to this season, I don’t really think we are as strong as the scudetto season, it’s just that most teams that used to be competitive with us got much weaker. The only teams that have improved defeated us or got a draw.
But keep in mind this is a season with many new players and tons of injuries. And still Pioli has this tan firmly in third. Or starting CB’s are on the road to recovery so I don’t see how this team doesn’t improve from here on.
I mean for crying out loud we have been defending with Kjaer and even Theo as CB and we are third. That’s outstanding in my book.
Sure maybe Pioli isn’t a tactical pinnacle but HE. HAS. DONE. WELL. with what he had. I mean look at Napoli. Seriously?!
There is a certain element on here that were and still are hoping for Milan do poorly this season. They can’t get over that Maldini was sacked and Tonali was sold, and the team is better for it. They were hoping for the new ownership to fail, and the new signings to do bad. They can’t accept that the team and Pioli is actually doing pretty well this season.
“They can’t accept that the team and Pioli is actually doing pretty well this season.”
Is being eliminated from the group phase in UCL (please don’t give me the group of death excuse), being out of serie A race since November and being out of Coppa Italia a good season according to you ?
This is a good season for a small club, if your aim is a big club (which AC Milan should be), you must be more ambitious than that.
First of all, they are not totally out of the Scudetto race even tho it is not very likely , but that’s only because Inter is having an amazing season and is arguably one of the top 3 teams in the world right now.
You can say don’t use the group of death excuse, but it was what most people considered to be the most difficult draw, and still they finished tied with PSG in points in that group. And really played well enough to get out of that group if they got the win in the first game when they dominated Newcastle. If they had the same group they had last year, they would have made it out.
Milan is always out of the Coppa Italia. Last season they got knocked out by 10 man Torino side. Remember that?
They are building something. Last years team had no depth at any position. Yes they had a lucky run in Champions League, but the team was not stronger and finished 5th in points in Serie A.
This years team has much more depth in the attacking department and midfield, a lot of the new signings have really helped out and despite an unprecedented injury crisis, they are on pace to finish much better than last season and the same as when they won the scudetto. And who knows how far we can go in the Europa League…
Yes, it will be disappointing if they don’t win a trophy this year, but they are building a stronger, deeper team that is playing better and there are more positives than negatives right now. The fans should be more supportive of that.
It’s one thing to support the team, it’s another to sugarcoat everything that happens. I feel like that some fans consider that Milan is doing well if it’s not entierly collapsing.
Last season was utterly garbage, aside from the lucky run to the UCL semi-finals, everything else was catastrophic for a club that had just won the scudetto (although Napoli seems to be doing even worse than that). So it doesn’t make sense to me to use it as a reference point.
We brought many players, we have depth ? Yes, so we actually have less excuses to perform bad, especially considering that our former contenders for UCL spots (Roma, Lazio and Napoli) are utterly garbage this season.
Inter is having a great season but many laughed at them during the summer (hell they brought Sanchez, Cuadrado and Arnautovic) and lost key players like Brozovic and Skriniar. They’re doing so well because they know how to play and they play together as a team and that’s credit to their coach. It’s one thing to lose the scudetto race to them in April or in May, but another to be pretty much out since November.
Do I see positives ? Yes, there is always something that has improved. Jovic is doing quite well, with Okafor we have alternatives for the left wing and with Pulisic we finally have a right-wing. But for Pioli, unless he wins something this season, we should terminate with him, and consecutive wins against teams ranked outside of the top 15 is not going to convince me otherwise.