It’s been a while since we’ve had a chance to take stock of where we are. A few things that have been rattling around in my head. Here we go.
This coming weekend marks the midway point in the league so it’s a good time to take stock of last summers transfer window. To recap we added the following players.
- De Keteleare 21 years old, for €32 million from Brugge
- Thiaw 21, for €7 million from Schalke
- Origi 27, on a free from Liverpool
- Pobega 22, loan return from Torino
- Adli 21, for €8 million from Bordeuax
- Dest 21, on loan from Barcelona
- Vranckx 19, on loan from Wolfsburg
- Messias 31, redeemed from Crotone for €3 million
- Florenzi 31, redeemed from from for €2.5 million
- It’s worth noting we lost Kessie and Romagnoli, both on frees, to Lazio and Barcelona respectively.
To sum up we brought in 7 players for something in the neighborhood of €50 million. Average age? 21.7 years old. It would have been only 6 if Florenzi hadn’t gone hurt and Dest wasn’t brought in last minute. To be clear NONE of these players were expected to start from day 1. NONE. The only starter we lost from last year was Kessie and he was replaced in house by Tonali. There were no glaring holes to fill. Okay maybe RW, but we can debate that. All these guys were seen as either depth players or longer term prospects or projects. With depth players like Krunic, Rebic, Kjær, Gabbia, Messias and Gabbia on the squad there might have been opportunities for minutes but not many. The first XI plus the first 5-6 names off the bench were already pretty set. Thiaw, Adli and Vranckx were gonna train, hope to make the call up list and MAYBE play in a blowout. Pobega would certainly rotate through, just like Origi, Messias and Florenzi/Dest. None were expected to start. No wild expectations. None except De Keteleare.
It’s easy to see why the expectations for CDK were off the charts. He put up some nice numbers the last couple yearsat Brugge, including double digit league goals and even a couple in the Champions League. Can play multiple positions up top. Tall, good looking kid. Effortless stride. Impeccable highlight videos set to Estonian house music. And let’s not forget the prolonged transfer saga which wiped out most of his summer. Nothing like a long transfer saga to raise the expectations of the delusional. Perfcet storm for a slow start to look like a colossal failure. All this is to say relax folks. I think he’s gonna be fine. At this point during his first year at Milan, Tonali had more red cards than goals. Remember that Benevento game? The word flop was heard a few times. At the same point Leão had a whopping 2 goals and more than a few performances that made one think more of Niang, not the future league MVP. Keep in mind those guys were also breaking through on teams with very little expectations. They had Europa League qualifiers and group games to cut their teeth on. Lots of them. CDK had no such games to learn on. Patience folks. I hear you out there muttering names like Gourcuff and Paloschi. Maybe… but not yet.
A side effect of adding mostly youth and not much in the way of real reinforcements is we kind of came back and ran it again. Not the worst idea considering we won the league last year but no 2 seasons are the same. Injuries to almost all those depth guys left us really thin during the waning weeks of the first half of the season. Pioli had no choice but to roll out the first XI again and again. Kjær, Rebic and Krunic especially missed a lot of time. The bench was pretty raw. See how nice it was to be able to roll in some vets against Lecce to turn the tide? We’ve missed that. Add in the fact that the league had already seen our act and were gonna start figuring us out and this campaign was always gonna be tough. Then Maignan got hurt.
It’s a nice little fact that we average almost the same points with Tatarusanu as Maignan. That’s all it is, a fun fact. Maignan is the leader in the back and he is sorely missed. Have you seen our set pieces lately? That’s left a giant vacuum that, without a vet like Kjær, is killing us. Especially on set pieces. I’m not totally bagging on Tatarusanu. He’s fine. He’s a backup though. How many teams have great backups? Where would Inter have been having to start Radu 15 games last year? How about Juve without Szczesny? Some of Milan Twitter would have you believe that every team has some stellar backup keeper locked away. Not the case. My bigger worry is that Maignan has now had 2 significant injuries in 2 seasons. We survived one and won a Scudetto. We’ve survived this one so far and are second in the league and made the CL knockouts. It hasn’t been the end of the world nor is it. We watched Donna walk away. We’ve survived Maignan’s injuries. This too shall pass.
Running it back again also meant we probably needed some different ideas. Same players is fine as long as we can employ some new concepts. Without Kessie we definitely needed some different ideas. His size and engine is missed not only in the double pivot but also in jamming up the midfield and even on set pieces. Bennacer and Tonali are great and all but they lack the size and physicality Kessie brought to the table. Also they can’t play every day. I think Pobega was seen as a bit of a Dollar Tree Kessie but that’s not his game. He’s better further up the pitch, or at least he was at Torino. That missing third guy in the double pivot is proving to be a tough nut to crack. Maybe some 433 would have helped? Some 343 with wingbacks? Hard to say. With injuries and fixtures thick and fast maybe they are trying it and it’s just not jelling? It’s this lack of ideas where I do think Pioli has dropped the ball. We need a Pioli 2.0. Something that fits the players at hand.
OTHER RANDOM RAMBLINGS
It’s amazing the minutes Giroud has put in so far, especially after the WC break. The man has been a workhorse these last 2 seasons, especially since Zlatan went down.
Zlatan… remember that guy?
A side effect of CDK slowly coming along is that Brahim has essentially been the de facto starter at CAM this year. While that’s been ok in spurts over time at Milan, longevity has not been his strong suit. Last year Pioli did a great job rotating different players with different skills through the AM spot, especially down the stretch. Need some of that creativity again.
That’s not to say I don’t want to see Diaz stay. He’s a nice piece to have that can do lots of different things. I imagine Maldini can get Madrid down to peanuts for a transfer fee. He’s shown an ability to play wider as well as down the middle.
Speaking of Maldini he’s doing his best on a shoe string budget. He’s had about €150 million to spend now over 3 years and has brought us a Scudetto and put respect back on our name in the Champions League. What he has to spend is out of his control. While this last window looks questionable so far give him time. He’s earned that.
If there’s one thing that does hurt from last summer it’s the Botman deal falling through. That’s the deal we needed. He was the instant plug and play guy that would have solved so many issues we currently see. What ever happened it sucks. We move though.
With games coming thick and fast it’s easy to get annoyed at a bad run of form, especially hen we have 3 clunkers in 8 days. No worries though! There are more games to come including the Super Cup on Wednesday, a big league showdown with Lazio the following Tuesday, and Champions League knockouts in just a few weeks. It wasn’t that long ago that we were knee deep in the Banter era losing games 3-0 to Genoa. Stay with us folks.
This is the way…
Nonno Lisi