Black January: season with zero titles near. We need to react to save the Champions League place. The Cardinale-Maldini feeling at the 2023 test
Riad, which means “gardens”, took away the roots of Milan. All the certainties of a life with Pioli, torn by force. Is that the team that won a Scudetto by attacking Italy? It didn’t run on Wednesday.
Is that the team that for years has come out like Houdini from difficult situations? Wednesday never reacted. Is that the team that didn’t care about predictions and fought together? Wednesday felt like the sum of eleven singles, many scared. The day after, in these cases, is always the worst: the bruises come out. Stefano Pioli spoke briefly to the team at the end of the game, then everyone boarded the plane for Italy. From the stories, it was a silent journey: sleepy and little, very little desire to talk. Pioli, who after the defeats against Psv and Turin had brought the team to Milanello, chose to avoid the hard line… which evidently, with this team, is useless: everyone home from the morning and training resumed for tomorrow. Even today, however, everyone will think about the Super Cup and the future.
TRUST
—
Gerry Cardinale thought about it from New York, where he followed the derby. Naturally, RedBird’s man of reference is not happy with the defeat and with the week, which arrived like a bolt from the blue after the victory in Salerno and 85 minutes played great against Roma. As a man of sport, however, he knows that ups and downs are not unusual and he fully trusts in the ability to analyze and solve problems, to bring Milan back on the virtuous path. A path that he led to the Scudetto but now seems abandoned. In short, Cardinale trusts his working group and does not press the panic button: to date, there are no extra-budgets for the market and naturally Stefano Pioli is not in question. Milan, however, cannot be this. Milan must react quickly.
ASCENT OR SLIDE
—
The calendar doesn’t help. Away against Lazio on Tuesday, Milan-Sassuolo on Sunday, the championship derby on 5 February, then the return of the nightmare Turin and, on Valentine’s Day, the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Tottenham. Not a month at the spa. From these four weeks of fire, Milan will come out regenerated or beaten down: middle ground, today, seems unlikely. So, it’s good to clarify that fourth place will inevitably be the watershed between a gray season and a season that undermines a project… which is much worse. Qualifying for the Champions League is essential to give continuity to the work, support the budget with UEFA prizes and sponsor money, convince the players to remain in a competitive environment, at the level of the best clubs in the world.
BALANCE
—
Milan are second today at -9 from Napoli and +4 on the Roma-Lazio-Atalanta trio, which they are pursuing with conviction. If Pioli defends his place in the Champions League – the Scudetto now seems like a mirage – there will probably be tweaks, changes, not revolutions. If Milan don’t reverse course and slide downwards, however, there will be tough decisions to make. The most delicate balance, in this sense, is with the technical area, therefore with Ricky Massara and above all Paolo Maldini, yesterday in Bergamo to see his son Daniel in the Coppa Italia. Maldini and Massara built the Scudetto-winning venture (difficult, very difficult) but the agreement for their two-year renewal was tense, guided by the lawyers rather than mutual love. On June 30, a border was drawn: the owners, as usual, retained the paternity of strategic choices (setting objectives, determining management methods, establishing a budget), while Maldini obtained decision-making autonomy within the perimeter established by Elliott first and then RedBird. However, the summer complicated the picture because the market disappointed – De Ketelaere to wait for but very disappointing, Origi almost nil, Adli practically never used – and left more than a few perplexities in the air. Maldini did not have the “two-three important purchases” he was aiming for, while the property invested over 40 million – a figure higher than that of its competitors, if we consider the balance between expenses and receipts – without having a leap forward in the standings. Here, more than anywhere else, the history of Milan 2023 will be written.
January 20 – 09:51
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
#Milan #crisis #air #Redbird #confidence #4th #place..