Milan take another step backwards in derby as Pioli scrambles for answers
At the southern end of San Siro, Milan’s Ultras did their best to set a tone. “The champions of Italy welcome the champions of Arabia,” read the banner hung from the dizzyingly vertical second tier, reminding Inter counterparts at the far end that a Supercoppa victory in Riyadh could never mean as much as a scudetto.
There was just one problem: nobody has seen Milan’s title-winning side since before the World Cup. The team who have taken the pitch in 2023 are the palest of imitations, familiar faces playing unrecognisable football. They had won one out of seven games this calendar year and lost the past three by a combined score of 12-2.
In the lead-up to the derby, Stefano Pioli sequestered his squad for a behind-closed-doors training retreat. He needed to shake things up, though not everyone may have shared his conviction that sidelining his best player was the way to do so.
Rafael Leão was Serie A’s player of the year last season and has been Milan’s top scorer and leading assist provider in this campaign. Just like his teammates, he had struggled to find his best form in 2023, but he still bagged a goal in the only win of the year, away to Salernitana, and another in the 2-2 draw at Lecce.
Pioli had already dropped Leão to the bench for the preceding game, which ended in a 5-2 home defeat to Sassuolo. Instead of restoring him to the starting XI against Inter, as most expected, the manager responded by abandoning the 4-2-3-1 formation that carried them to first place last season.
On paper, Sunday’s team looked like a 3-5-2. In practice, with wing-backs Davide Calabria and Theo Hernández showing little adventure, Milan had a five-man defence. A team whose winning identity under Pioli had been built on possession football and a high press chose to approach the derby in an unfamiliar low block.
The result, in the first half, was a non-contest. Inter held the ball for almost three-quarters of the time it was in play, taking nine shots to Milan’s zero. They were not especially creative, but did not need to be, breaking the deadlock with a Lautaro Martínez header from a corner in the 34th minute.
It was not just Milan’s new formation holding them back, but also the personnel. Instead of Leão, Pioli started Divock Origi up front alongside Olivier Giroud. Neither player had the pace to unsettle Inter’s defence, leaving Milan with no threat on the counter.
Only in the second half, as Pioli gradually adjusted his team back into a more familiar shape, did Milan show signs of life. Brahim Díaz came on for Junior Messias, Alexis Saelemaekers for Calabria and Leão for Origi. It was the Portuguese who created their best chance at an equaliser, playing Giroud through on goal in the 75th minute.
It felt like one of those moments written in the stars. Almost exactly one year ago, at almost exactly the same moment of the derby, Giroud rescued Milan’s title bid. They were a goal down back then, too, and had dropped five points in the preceding two games, but Giroud scored twice in three minutes to set them on course for the title.
There would be no repeat on Sunday. Giroud got his touch all wrong and Milan finished without a single attempt on target. Inter won 1-0 and the margin could have been wider, with Lautaro and Romelu Lukaku having goals disallowed late on.
Pioli struck a defiant tone, insisting he would choose the same team again. His assertion Milan needed to change something to stop conceding so many goals – 19 in seven games in all competitions in 2023 – rang true, but a team that creates no chances at the other end is unlikely to go very far either.
How did we reach this point? Among the most celebrated aspects of Milan’s title win was that they had achieved it with one of the youngest squads in Serie A, suggesting an opportunity to build even further. Napoli’s scintillating form this season has left all other teams in the dust, but Milan ended 2022 in second place with a solid 33 points from 15 games.
With hindsight, it is easy to say the club did not do enough to build on last season’s success. A thin squad has been stretched by a combination of injuries – starting goalkeeper Mike Maignan has made seven league appearances – and departures such as Franck Kessié’s move to Barcelona.
None of the players brought in last summer have made a positive impact. Charles De Ketelaere, Malick Thiaw, Aster Vranckx and Divock Origi have started 13 games between them. The first three of those are 21, 21 and 20 years old respectively and may have bright futures, but that will be scant consolation for a team that is slipping out of the Champions League places.
Defeat on Sunday left Milan jointfourth, level on points with Lazio and Atalanta, pending the Rome club’s game away to Verona on Monday night. As Pioli acknowledged on Sunday, missing out on Europe’s top club competition would be very bad news indeed.
His accompanying statement that he plans to persist with the new back three may not encourage supporters. None of Milan’s defenders have avoided high-profile mistakes in recent weeks but Fikayo Tomori’s hip injury means such a formation would certainly bring more starts for the struggling Matteo Gabbia.
The most pressing question for many, though, will revolve around Leão. Pioli defended his team selection against Inter by saying that he wanted to play with a pair of closely connected centre-forwards and that Leãoe was not suited to such a role. It is hard to shake a sense of something deeper going on.
Leão’s contract expires in 2024, and optimism for a new deal has faded with reported disagreements over the release clause. Even in happier times, Pioli had gently accused the player of failing to tap into all of his potential, suggesting more application could take him to new heights. Are the two not be seeing eye to eye?
One way or another, the pressure is on to find answers quickly. “Pioli’s on fire,” was the chant as he led Milan to glory in the spring. But as those supporters in the Curva Sud mocked their rivals’ Supercoppa success, a pair of Inter fans responded by raising up a smaller banner at the far end. “Pioli is on ferie,” it read – “on his hols” – goading the manager with the possibility that such poor form could finish in enforced break.