SERIE A
Brace for Impact; AC Milan are Back
I’ve been asking myself this million-dollar question recently; is this AC Milan amazing run really telling us the full story?
It was nice for Milanisti around the world to flex an unbeaten run in the league. Milan was one of the best football teams in the world in 2020, especially after the pandemic break. They were unbeaten for 27 matches in a row through January 2021, doing so while scoring at least twice in all but one match.
But Milan hasn’t really profited from this amazing run, yet. They are only two points clear from another team on the table that happens to be that team from the same city. As a reminder, Milan did not even qualify for the Champions League and barely reached the Europa League’s group stage by taking down Rio Ave in a seemingly never-ending penalty shootout. It was weird for a team that most of the time looks unbeatable.
As the first half of the 2020–21 season recently concluded, I’m taking a look back to give some explanations on how the good things finally happened at AC Milan. They are currently standing on top of the Serie A table with 15 wins, four draws, and two losses. Milan has scored 45 goals and conceded 23 goals to the opposition, both ranked as third-best in the league. Anyone following Milan in the last five or six years could not be happier to see this team rising again.
Zlatan Ibrahimović
I can leave it without saying and everyone will understand what I mean. But where is the fun in writing about football without analyzing the beauty of the game? Or should I say, the beauty of Zlatan?
Ibrahimović is one of those athletes. He may be 39 years old, but just like Tom Brady (43), LeBron James (36), and Cristiano Ronaldo (36), he is aging like fine wine.
He also singlehandedly revamped the team’s whole mentality, holding everyone in the second-youngest squad in Serie A with an average age of 25.5 years, accountable. Before Ibrahimović came, Milan seemed like a team with no identity and was barely cracking the barrier that held them from reaching a higher ceiling. Simply put, they didn’t even know what it takes to win football games. This may sound speculative l, but Zlatan is the soul of AC Milan and will remain so until he decides to call it a career. Hopefully, by that time it happens, his mentality is already transferred to the whole squad and the torch is ready to be passed to younger leaders like Alessio Romagnoli, Franck Kessié, and Gianluigi Donnarumma. His presence gave the team a clear leader the squad can follow and a mentor to the inexperienced talents.
Enough with narratives, let’s talk about the numbers. I looked at some numbers important to center forwards and compare Zlatan with other prolific strikers in Serie A.
It’s crazy that despite only playing in 11 games, Ibrahimović always delivers. All the numbers showed that he’s indeed one of the best performing center forwards in the Serie A this season, if not the best. The difference between non-penalty goals and non-penalty xG can tell how good a player in scoring goals given various occasions compared to average players. Ibrahimović’s number is just as good as Ronaldo and Belotti, slightly worse than Immobile, and much better than Romelu Lukaku and Duvan Zapata. He’s also the most efficient center forward on the list, converting 22% of his shots into goals. All that while playing much less and being the oldest of them all.
Grinta is not a joke anymore, it is real.
Anyone that watches all of Milan’s matches this season will know this team just won’t give up. It seems like they always find their way to win a deadlocked game or snatch a late equalizer in injury time. There were also some scrappy wins that the old AC Milan would usually bottle, like the 2–0 win versus Benevento despite having less possession and outperformed in every other performance metrics.
Other than those results plus the two disgusting losses against Juventus and Atalanta, Milan played like a true champion. Not as phenomenal as the Pep Guardiola-led Barcelona or the current Manchester City or Bayern Munich, but Milan is pretty good. To the very least, this team is clearly full of determination and the hunger for success.
As previously mentioned, Ibrahimović challenged every person in Milan to give their best. Milan is currently fielding one of the youngest starting eleven in European football, despite Ibrahimović’s age inflating the number. He provides guidance to this young team by speaking up, yelling at them on the pitch, and scoring goals. No longer will you see players being lazy and not tracking back for every lost possession. It is also Ibrahimović who infused this squad with hunger and determination, as he always gives and demands no less than 100% from everyone on the pitch. Even when Ibrahimović is not available, anyone can clearly see that Milan is no longer the same Milan that was painful to watch and became the butt of everyone’s joke from 2014 to late 2019.
Stefano Pioli and his Pioli Ball scheme
I won’t blame anyone if they don’t know who Stefano Pioli is. He is, pretty much, the typical average Italian coach. He’s never won a trophy, and his best achievement was carrying Lazio to finish third in 2015. His last managerial campaign was with Fiorentina, finishing eighth and 16th during his two seasons there from 2017 to 2019.
Milan appointed Pioli after eight disastrous matches during the 2019–20 Serie A campaign with Marco Giampaolo. By that time, he was met with doubts by the faithful Milanisti around the world as #PioliOut was trending in Italy even before he was officially announced. Although it seemed rude, the doubt was understandable, given how frustrated Milan fans were.
Pioli heard all the chatter, and after mediocre performances before the COVID-19 pandemic, everything finally started to click. Finally able to implement his favored 4–2–3–1 scheme, he delivered results after results, making Milan a fun team to watch. The 4–2–3–1 formation allows key players in midfield like Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Franck Kessié, Ismaël Bennacer, and Rafael Leão to display their best, especially Çalhanoğlu who was forced to play as a left winger during most of his Milan’s career in a 4–3–3 formation before Pioli came, even though everyone knew that he is best as an attacking midfielder.
Pioli Ball is nothing fancy, but he always gets things done and right. When attacking, his 4–2–3–1 transforms into more of a 3–4–3, with one of the pivots, Ismaël Bennacer or Sandro Tonali, temporarily forming a backline with the center backs, usually Alessio Romagnoli and Simon Kjær, allowing both fullbacks to advance from their position. Another pivot, Franck Kessié or Rade Krunić, will also advance forward close to Hakan Çalhanoğlu’s position, while both wingers, Rafael Leão and Alexis Saelemaekers, will play a bit narrow and closer to the edge of the penalty box. The striker and attacking midfielder will play with more freedom in their respective position, allowing them to roam freely across the field.
Milan usually utilizes their wings to open the attack, which includes dazzling overlap from both Theo Hernández on the left and Davide Calabria on the right. Overlapping fullbacks provide Rafael Leão and Alexis Saelemaekers the option to pass the ball to the wider open space that usually allows the fullbacks to provide cutbacks or crossings. Both Hernández and Calabria can also be found underlapping instead of overlapping to feed the wingers towards a wider open space or attempt a long shot whenever the opportunities are present.
Another common tactic is Hakan Çalhanoğlu as an attacking midfielder dropping back to hold the play and then feeding the wingers, usually Rafael Leão, Ante Rebić, or Jens Petter Hauge at left wing, and let them be creative with either passing or cutting inside for an open shot. Çalhanoğlu could also try to pass to Ibrahimović and then let the magic happen. The right winger is arguably the most upgradable spot on this team. Even so, Alexis Saelemaekers has been playing really well as a utility player. Saelemaekers is a jack-of-all-trades player that proved to be an important asset at Pioli’s disposal with his hard-working attitude. Samu Castillejo also always gives his best on the pitch.
Pioli used his double-pivot, mostly Ismaël Bennacer and Franck Kessié as the pairing, to effectively circulate the ball across the midfield, switch plays, and deliver the ball to the more advanced players on the field. They are also tasked to win backfield position, maintain the overall team’s shape, and direct the traffic. Kessié is a very good box-to-box midfielder, and he’s very technical with his feet, he is even dubbed as the best penalty taker in the squad. Bennacer is essentially the brain of this team, telling other players where to pass and making himself open to receive passes while the team is playing the ball from the back. If needed, he can also provide passes that thread the needle to open spaces that make the opponents crumble.
Milan is also very capable of launching long balls from deep and reap benefits from it. Ibrahimović can win any long passes the defenders or goalkeeper deliver to him with his massive, signature kungfu-esque moves and pass the ball to either side of the field. Not only that, but Zlatan is also capable of holding the ball for a while and play quick one-two passes with teammates, slicing the opposition’s defense.
On defense, Milan tends to press the opponent high on the pitch and always tries to win possession quickly. Defense starts up high from the offensive line with high intensity pressing and closing the opposition’s passing lanes. Eventually, when the ball approaches Milan’s backline, that’s where the fortified backline comes into action. Alessio Romagnoli is always a reliable captain for such tasks and simply one of the best ball-playing center backs that Italy has to offer. Simon Kjær is arguably the best tackler on the team and very capable of delivering high quality long passes. Both fullbacks, Hernández and Calabria, are decent defenders as well.
Milan’s defense is quite solid with pretty much everyone willing to participate in the defensive scheme. Ibrahimović, due to his age, is often tasked to block opposition’s passing lanes in the middle by simply standing there, and understandably almost never try to win back possession. Other than that, Çalhanoğlu, Leão, and Saelemaekers are pressing hard, tracking the ball back, and helping fullbacks in defensive situations. Bennacer and Kessié are protecting the backline from any through ball threats in the middle area, covering any possible open space, and harassing the opposition’s attacking midfielder.
If all the defensive effort still didn’t stop the opposition from bringing the ball to the penalty area, Milan still has Gianluigi Donnarumma, who simply has no weakness in his game as a goalkeeper and keeps getting better every season. Donnarumma is arguably the second most important player in AC Milan after Ibrahimović. With his presence, anyone is confident in stopping goals from coming in even when facing a penalty kick.
The Players
Other than Ibrahimović, Donnarumma, and arguably Theo Hernández, the rest of Milan’s squad aren’t really that well known. They don’t usually make the front page or get hyped mainstream social media accounts. Even so, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Ismaël Bennacer, Franck Kessié, and Alessio Romagnoli are all really good players that somehow are still severely underrated, which I honestly prefer to keep that way. There are also Rafael Leão, Ante Rebić, and Davide Calabria who keep displaying impressive performances on a weekly basis.
What I’m trying to say is, Milan’s players may look average on paper, but most of them are arguably having the best season of their careers. And what’s the better way to prove this than with numbers? Let’s compare some Milan players with the “big names” across the footballing world.
As can be seen on the tables above, the production of Milan’s players is comparable to other football stars out there. Those numbers might not tell the full story, but at the very least, they are not lying either.
Give the Front Office Their Flowers!
One has to appreciate the fact that Milan’s management is finally a functional one. Milan fans were once bamboozled by the previous Chinese owner’s gimmicks by hiring Marco Fassone and Massimiliano Mirabelli as the front office executives, who signed 11 players worth more than 200 million euros in the 2017–18 season and even more signings in the next season, including expensive signings like Gonzalo Higuaín, Mattia Caldara, Lucas Paquetá, and Krzysztof Piątek. Almost all of them flopped, only Kessié and Çalhanoğlu remain in the starting eleven today. Now, with Elliot Management at the helm, led by CEO Ivan Gazidis, Technical Director Paolo Maldini, and Sports Director Frederic Massara, they seem to get things right and know the right players to buy according to the team’s needs.
Maldini went as far as visiting Theo Hernández (23) in Ibiza while the latter was on vacation and convinced him to leave Real Madrid and join AC Milan, a gesture from a legend that proved too much for Hernández to resist. This management is also able to secure the next big thing from Italy, Sandro Tonali (20), who happens to be a lifetime Milanista. Other gems who also wear the Rossoneri color are Rafael Leão (21), a flashy and versatile Portuguese striker, and Jens Petter Hauge (21), a sensational Norwegian winger. This management is also the one who signed Zlatan Ibrahimović, Ismaël Bennacer, Alexis Saelemakers, and swapped a failed experiment that is André Silva with Ante Rebić, and all of them have proven critical to Milan’s current success. This management is also able to get rid of all the deadwood left by the previous regime.
None of the current players are ridiculously expensive, as this management has yet to spend more than 35 million euros on one player. If any, Milan has seen the value of almost every contributing player on their squad rising, including the new players under Gazidis’ administration. Per transfermarkt.com, Bennacer, signed for 16.2 million euros, is now a 40 million-euro player, and Theo Hernandez, signed for 21.5 million euros, is now valued at 50 million euros. Other role players who experienced an increase in their value are Saelemaekers, who was signed for 7 million euros, is now worth 18 million euros. Hauge, who signed for 5 million euros, is now worth 10 million euros.
Hopefully, with the Champions League money coming in next season, this management can do even better with more bargaining power in the transfer market.
Epilogue — What to Expect
My friendly advice is, Milanisti shouldn’t get their hopes up too much. When the season started, simply finishing this season fourth would have been enough. Every Milanista probably missed hearing the Champions League anthem while watching the camera moving to introduce AC Milan’s starting eleven to the world of football every Tuesday or Wednesday night.
But, then again, nothing is wrong with dreaming of the Scudetto. I believe AC Milan has got what it takes to win it. Luck, injuries, and rivals’ results will play a big part in Milan winning the Scudetto, given how tight the competition is in Serie A this season. As long as Milan can win games they are expected to win, they will be fine. It won’t be the losses against Inter Milan or Juventus that cost Milan the Scudetto, but it’s the draws against the likes of Benevento, Cagliari, Udinese, Parma, Fiorentina, or Genoa that will leave a lot of regrets at the end of the season.
After this season, one can hope the management will be able to keep all of the valuable players, find Zlatan’s successor as the main striker, upgrade the squad as needed, and give key members new contracts they deserve. Those tasks are going to be very important, particularly the last one. Players like Gianluigi Donnarumma and Hakan Çalhanoğlu cannot be allowed to walk out for free, especially given the fact that they are actually willing to stay.
Milan is not a perfect squad. They’re actually far from it but this team is barely getting started. A collection of raw talents, slowly growing to reach their highest potential. If nothing disastrous happens to them, I genuinely believe the sky’s the limit. Perhaps someone at Casa Milan should start preparing some empty spaces in the trophy cabinet in the foreseeable future.
One thing that I know for sure; this is not a drill, AC Milan are finally a good football team again.
