January end, Milan were atop the table and wobbling. 7 February, Milan hand the whipping boys of Serie A, Crotone, a sound thrashing. The wobble was a blip, bellowed the optimists prime. 14 February, Spezia startle Milan and humble them over ninety minutes. Inter simultaneously overtake Milan and become league leaders. A week later, Milan are mauled in the Derby della Madonnina, confirming the slide. Five rounds of football have passed since, and Milan are closer to 4th place Atalanta than to 1st placed Inter. The roars have turned to whines, white flags aloft.
Milan’s fairy tale appears to have come to a tragic end, forced by injuries. The best Italian side over the calendar year, Milan were the fourth club in Europe’s top five leagues to have amassed in excess of 100 points since 1 January 2020. They were part of an august company of superclubs, namely Manchester City, Bayern München and Real Madrid.
Il Diavolo‘s invincibility cloak was shredded at the Juventus Arena on 7 January 2021, as Milan succumbed to their first league defeat of the season. In a little over two months, Milan have tasted defeat four more times. Adding salt to injury are the mere five goals scored in the last six games – two of these from the penalty spot. The icing on the cake? None of the five were scored by a centre-forward.
At the back, Milan are juggling defenders, conceding a little over a goal a game (last eight matches). New defenders are usurping older ones and a neverending carousel of defensive partnerships is in play. Amidst this chaos, Milan aren’t the worst of Serie A’s current top four from a defensive perspective – Atalanta are. But, Milan have secured the fewest points (13/24) in comparison to Atalanta (16/24), Juventus (19/24) and Inter (24/24). The team has traversed from goal-glut to goal drought at an astonishing rate, scoring far fewer than its counterparts (11 in eight matches).
Stefano Pioli’s side has the lowest goal-difference of the top five teams in Serie A (19). They have scored the fewest goals as well (50). Milan have also lost the most games of the top five without having scored in the respective games (15% of all games played). The Rossoneri are firing blanks and that is having a telling effect on their results.
The burden of goalscoring often falls on the primary candidates – the strikers or centre-forwards. Juventus’s duo of Cristiano Ronaldo and Alvaro Morata have scored 56% of Juventus’s goals in the league. Inter’s formidable strike partnership of Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez have contributed to 51% of Inter’s goals, while Atalanta’s Luis Muriel and Duvan Zapata have pitched in with 39% of La Dea’s output. Milan aren’t much worse at 38% (Zlatan Ibrahimović 28% and Rafaele Leão 10%). However, the context of these goals is important.
Ibrahimović has missed half the season, which makes his contribution bothersome from a sustainability point of view. Even when fit during 2021, Ibrahimović has scored in only two of eight games that he has featured in. Rafael Leão, the disastrous deputy, has scored thrice in nine appearances as a centre-forward, clocking a goal every 242 minutes. Simeon Tochukwu Nwankwo of last-placed Crotone averages a goal every 163 minutes. Awful in contrast, innit?
The signing of Mario Mandžukić thus far has served little to no purpose. The veteran Croatian has spent more minutes with the medics than on the green. Milan rightly recognized the need for a striker in Ibrahimović’s absence but invested in one who is competing with the Swede off the pitch rather than on it. With 11 games remaining, on current form, Milan face the daunting possibility of finishing outside the top four. The debacle of blowing Milan’s best chance of winning the Scudetto in ten years needs to be swiftly put aside and objectives must be reprioritized. Ibrahimović and Mandžukić are making up for the lack of fans in the stadium. Leão is rumoured to be joining the bandaged strikeforce. Ante Rebic too will be seen on the sidelines for the next two games after collecting an avoidable red card against Napoli. Crisis mode is well and truly activated. Goals are the need of the hour, and it is difficult to fathom where they will come from. Rigore, rigore, rigore! The cries are likely to get louder.
