Italian Serie A 2021/2022

[Universe]

Milan winning the Scudetto should be a reminder to naysayers who claim you can't be competitive and win titles with such a salary cap and young set of players.

This I disagree with. Even if they do not win the league, this is an immensely successful season for Milan. Part of what makes Milan's success so annoying is however, is that by all rights, it shouldn't have worked - and knowing our luck, there's no chance it'd work for us.

• 9 times out of 10, when you lose a generational talent and national team keeper like Donnarumma, that too for free, you struggle to replace him. Milan not only replaced him but arguably improved on him with Maignan for just €15m. This is generally not how it goes. Imagine us replacing prime Handanovic for some loser like Cragno - do you think we wouldn't feel Handanovic's absence?
  
  
• 9 times out of 10, when you lose a starting midfielder for free and you don't properly replace him, you struggle. Yet despite missing Calhanoglu and having an absolute bum "replacement" in Brahim Diaz, Milan have managed to win without Calhanoglu's G + A contribution
  
  
• 9 times out of 10, when both your starting striker and backup striker are simultaneously injured, you struggle to score goals. Yet despite missing both Ibra and Giroud, often at the same time (Rebic too), Milan still managed to keep winning games
  
  
• 9 times out of 10, when you lose your starting CB for the season with an ACL injury, your defence struggles, not to mention when your other starter is simultaneously injured. Yet Milan managed to win games, including the derby, with a backline of fucking Kalulu - Romagnoli. Again, this is not how this kind of thing goes
  
  
• Speaking of Kalulu, 9 times out of 10, replacing your starting CB with some unknown RB bought from France for €1m does not work. Yet Milan have found an extremely reliable player in Kalulu for extremely cheap and they have not missed Kjaer at all. That generally does not happen either. Imagine that Handanovic and Radu both got injured and we had to play fucking Gabriel Brazao who performed out of his skin? Unimaginable

My point is that 9 times out of 10, the situations that Milan have faced don't end up the way they have ended up for Milan. When you downsize your squad, replace them with players of lesser repute, you do NOT end up competing, let alone winning the league.

Sure, they've had some luck with external factors, namely Suning's self-amputation of our squad, plus juve's transition period. But what Pioli has done is nothing short of miraculous. I am impressed as I am bemused by the whole thing.

 

[Jnr]

Conte wanted his expierence and winning mentality in Vidal, he said we won't win shit with Vecino and Gagliardini as our first bench options and he was absolutely right plus he saw Rube is in mess and its now or never. No time to groom a young Tonali and wait for him to blossom. We got that title, but Tonali has grown into a monster. What a player!

This season is a neverending lesson to Suning, to Beppe to Inzaghi and to the players. We had our chances on transfer targets, in key h2h matches, but we didnt finish them. We bottled the derby in 5minutes, we bottled the Bologna match, there were so many situations where our strikers just shit their pants ( and DeVrij in defense) .

Milan has been playing 6 or 7months without Kjaer, he was their No1 backbone. Without Ibra most of the season , he carried this club last season. Pioli had to play Saladshitter and Messias and Diaz the whole year, 2 very important positions and he had scrubs there!! To win the league with these players it takes a monumental effort from the likes of Leao and Theo to carry the team and to forget the fact they had almost zero help from the right side( you can include Calabria here too)

And finally, was it realistic to demand a scudetto from Inzaghi at his first attempt after losing 60 goal combination duo BigRom and Hakimi? We wanted a fair scudetto fight until the final weeks and we got it ( against weaker Milan , not against overpaying Rube with a 9M€ per year serial winner Allegri). The scudetto demand was growing into us while the season was going in full swing as we played the best football by far. Unfortunately we did our mistakes, had a unbelievably shitty 2 month period and now have to pray for Gasperini to do something and the odds are not very good. And it gets even worse if we lose the Coppa and got our only hands in the Mickey Mouse cup and shitty Milan and hilariously awful Rube gets the creme de la creme cups. Now that would be pure pain.

 

[DiegoMilito22]

We need a miracle like Sampdoria beating Roma in 2010

 

[NimAraya]

This I disagree with. Even if they do not win the league, this is an immensely successful season for Milan. Part of what makes Milan's success so annoying is however, is that by all rights, it shouldn't have worked - and knowing our luck, there's no chance it'd work for us.

• 9 times out of 10, when you lose a generational talent and national team keeper like Donnarumma, that too for free, you struggle to replace him. Milan not only replaced him but arguably improved on him with Maignan for just €15m. This is generally not how it goes. Imagine us replacing prime Handanovic for some loser like Cragno - do you think we wouldn't feel Handanovic's absence?
  
  
• 9 times out of 10, when you lose a starting midfielder for free and you don't properly replace him, you struggle. Yet despite missing Calhanoglu and having an absolute bum "replacement" in Brahim Diaz, Milan have managed to win without Calhanoglu's G + A contribution
  
  
• 9 times out of 10, when both your starting striker and backup striker are simultaneously injured, you struggle to score goals. Yet despite missing both Ibra and Giroud, often at the same time (Rebic too), Milan still managed to keep winning games
  
  
• 9 times out of 10, when you lose your starting CB for the season with an ACL injury, your defence struggles, not to mention when your other starter is simultaneously injured. Yet Milan managed to win games, including the derby, with a backline of fucking Kalulu - Romagnoli. Again, this is not how this kind of thing goes
  
  
• Speaking of Kalulu, 9 times out of 10, replacing your starting CB with some unknown RB bought from France for €1m does not work. Yet Milan have found an extremely reliable player in Kalulu for extremely cheap and they have not missed Kjaer at all. That generally does not happen either. Imagine that Handanovic and Radu both got injured and we had to play fucking Gabriel Brazao who performed out of his skin? Unimaginable

My point is that 9 times out of 10, the situations that Milan have faced don't end up the way they have ended up for Milan. When you downsize your squad, replace them with players of lesser repute, you do NOT end up competing, let alone winning the league.

Sure, they've had some luck with external factors, namely Suning's self-amputation of our squad, plus juve's transition period. But what Pioli has done is nothing short of miraculous. I am impressed as I am bemused by the whole thing.

Even if they don't win the title their season is still a success yes, and fighting for titles would still be considered competitive for me.

My point was that people should not dismiss such a project with ease, saying it NEVER works. We might be in disagreement about how many times it might happen out of 10, but it's still doable and we should not use excuses as why we keep preferring oldbags on high salaries over young players.

Sure, Pioli is doing miracles with what he had, but having young energetic players who could outrun their opponents helped him gain a lot of points this season, something which we severely lacked in our squad.

 

[bubba zanetti]

Also when they missed all those important players,they had Ibra or Giroud,a born winners, who(even they couldnt play) always pushed that team to the limits. Meanwhile,our proven winner is tik tok instagram hack Vidal. And we got that old sack of shit for Tonali,who already become one of the best midfielders in league(again thank to Cunte and Suning). We were so ahead of them in last few seasons,and now they are going up and we are goin down. It really sucks.

 

[bubba zanetti]

Even if they don't win the title their season is still a success yes, and fighting for titles would still be considered competitive for me.

My point was that people should not dismiss such a project with ease, saying it NEVER works. We might be in disagreement about how many times it might happen out of 10, but it's still doable and we should not use excuses as why we keep preferring oldbags on high salaries over young players.

Sure, Pioli is doing miracles with what he had, but having young energetic players who could outrun their opponents helped him gain a lot of points this season, something which we severely lacked in our squad.

I would agree with you if we lost title to Allegri's rube with healthy Chiesa plus Vlahović,but to lose to Bbeelan,who were missing key players for a most part of the season..Nope,this season is not succes,this season is shit. It will be consider succes in the future,cause with this owners prepare for much worse than this.

 

[wera]

The getting Vidal instead of Tonali example doesn't work because 1. We didn't have the money 2. Tonali wouldn't be a starter like he is in Milan and wouldn't continue his development as promptly

 

[vex]

My point is that 9 times out of 10, the situations that Milan have faced don't end up the way they have ended up for Milan. When you downsize your squad, replace them with players of lesser repute, you do NOT end up competing, let alone winning the league.

This is key to point out. We kinda tried the similar paths in our banter era, but you couldn't do shit competing with juves ruthlessness. They definitely built a solid team, good enough to comfortably get cl place, but in a normal circumstances where your biggest rival doesn't commit sporting suicide it shouldn't be good enough for the title.

At the end of the day, milan could be the biggest beneficiary of our all in transfer strategy two summers ago where we said fuck the future, we have to win it right now at all costs. We won it, but the cost of it we see right now.

It was still worth it, being the first team to break juves dominance, but you have to say that devil was there smiling when we signed that deal.

 

[CafeCordoba]

If Milan wins, it's Pioli's Scudetto if anyone's. He made them winners despite the young squad without much experience in winning.

Before we jump blaming other teams for sucking, it ALWAYS needs others to do not so well at some parts of the season for that one team to actually win the title.

 

[bubba zanetti]

When you depend on teams that are trained by rubentinos Tudor and Gasp you know you are pretty fucked. Cant wait for summer mercato to see how far more will Sunning go on dismantling this squad.

 

[brehme1989]

Vex made a good point. It all falls back on Suning.

They underestimated the changes that were made to the squad in the summer: Conte walking, Hakimi and Lukaku being sold and Eriksen unable to play for us. Alternatively, they understood and simply did not want to reinvest to reinforce the squad because of their finances. Or maybe it was a bit of both.

I think they felt the changes that were made were relatively minor. Replace Conte with a 3-5-2 tactician, Dumfies for Hakimi and Dzeko and Correa for Lukaku and it was all fixed: we would still defend the Championship we won last season. More than anything it shows how little they understand and know about football and how their lack of investment has hurt the club.

What has happened this season is unsustainable. We have played a full season relying on 14 or so core players (Handanovic, Skriniar, De Vrij, Bastoni, Dumfries, Barella, Calhanoglu, Brozovic, Perisic, Martinez, Dzeko, Darmian, Dimarco, Vidal) with a squad that is so pitiful that the likes of Dzeko, Barella, Calhanoglu and Brozovic can not be rested without the team suffering a significant dip in performance.

And apparently, we need another 70 million in sales this summer. It is only going to get worse because with each sale the squad gets weakened and the replacements are by no means up to standard.

You're basing the entire argument on the fallacy that Suning cares about the Scudetto. They only wanted a top 4 spot.

 

[bubba zanetti]

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's team talk that inspired AC Milan to their latest win

AC Milan are closing in on their first Serie A title in 11 years and can thank Zlatan Ibrahimovic for his impact on and off the pitch after a crucial win against Hellas Verona on Sunday

www.mirror.co.uk

 

[NimAraya]

The getting Vidal instead of Tonali example doesn't work because 1. We didn't have the money 2. Tonali wouldn't be a starter like he is in Milan and wouldn't continue his development as promptly

1. This thing about having no money is an excuse for preferring Vidal over Tonali. Signing him over Tonali was not about lack of money. No club with "no money" would make a 33 years old one of the highest earners in the team on a 3 years contract.

And clubs won't pay for players in one installment, it is paid in several installments. Even if we had no money we could simply go for a loan deal with option/obligation to buy. It's how many deals happen these days.

2. Tonali wasn't a defnite starter at Milan in his first year either. If we had him instead of Vidal Conte and Inzaghi would give him enough chances to play.

 

[brehme1989]

The getting Vidal instead of Tonali example doesn't work because 1. We didn't have the money 2. Tonali wouldn't be a starter like he is in Milan and wouldn't continue his development as promptly

It does work because he wouldn't be at Milan

 

[bubba zanetti]

It does work because he wouldn't be at Milan

Lol

 

[andrejZGB]

I still can't believe that they came this close to winning the league, such embarrasment for Italian football as a whole, especially embarrasing for us allowing them to even be in this position.

But until there are games left to be played I'll believe things will end in the best scenario for us.

 

[acroMacho]

For me Milan looks as the strongest contender to Scudetto this year. They have many young players, who get better each year. So looking at trends, I would say Inter declined, Juve declined, Milan are rising, Atalanta... who knows, Roma rising ( but still not enough) , Lazio small squad, Napoli - they are good, maybe lacking some chemistry in midfield.

My prediction back from 12 september was pretty good. Can't say it is that big of a suprise. As much as we do like them to be shit, they are pretty good team. They have strong mentality, which they showed last season as well. Most importantly they continue to get better. Overall they have strong core of players and their weaknesses are mainly in attacking department. It will be shame we'll probably lose Scudetto to them this year, because I find Inter a little bit better team this season and it will be much harder to achieve Scudetto in coming seasons.

 

[bubba zanetti]

See the team Conte has led there and Inzaghi leads now.

He had better team than Inzaghi,and still Dortmund trashed that team after leading in first half time 2:0. Just saying that all these " I doubt that would have happened with Conte" are shite.

 

[Jusef]

Members here have discussed Milan factors, Sunning lack of investment, but seem to forget that during the 2021-2022 winter Break, Inter was comfortably in first place.

This is when Marotta started to make statements such as there is no difference between Dzeko and Lukaku on the pitch(eating his words now), Inzaghi had his head in the clouds( thinking of extension or maybe how he was going to manage Real Madrid) and more importantly, no midfield reinforcements were brought in.

I still have a hard time understanding why Sensi was loaned out when he could have materially contributed to the team during the tough February- March period where this Scudetto was lost. In fact that Coppa Italia goal against Empoli showed that he was indeed required.

Members here will mention that Sensi was unreliable because he is injury prone, etc., but he would have been used during those Liverpool games at least.

Overall, this scudetto was lost because the management through to players underestimated the long race a championship requires, like a turtle and hare story.

 

[bubba zanetti]

I still can't believe that they came this close to winning the league, such embarrasment for Italian football as a whole, especially embarrasing for us allowing them to even be in this position.

But until there are games left to be played I'll believe things will end in the best scenario for us.

They are not close,its over. No fkn way they cant get 4 pts against Atalanta and Sassuolo. See what happened yesterday against Verona. Easy win. No trouble at all,while we were squeezing our balls against fkn Empoli.Ma pušiona stari.