In the summer transfer market window, Pioli's AC Milan only signed one player for the defence: Argentine centre-back Marco Pellegrino who came from Platense. He has joined the club to take over from Matteo Gabbia who moved on loan to Villarreal.
A market that, all things considered, has brought only one new face in the form of the young Argentine center Pellegrino, who took over the position previously held by Gabbia, who moved to Villarreal.
The club's decision to rely on three key players, Tomori, Kjaer, and Kalulu, is important. Kalulu is especially valuable because he can play both in the center and on the right side. The coach and management also believe in the potential of a young player like Thiaw.
These choices have shaped how the coach Pioli, along with Moncada and Furlani, have built the central defense. This defense has seen a lot of changes in the past four years, but it still depends on an overall strategy where the rest of the team needs to aggressively push forward. Sometimes, this approach doesn't work well against teams that are very organized in their tactics, such as Simone Inzaghi's Inter, which leads to uncomfortable situations, like how we witnessed yesterday in the 5-1 derby.
There hasn't been much change in the central defense lineup, and there aren't many other options for the two full-backs. The full-backs have been consistent starters since the Emilian coach took charge.
Perhaps they've been "squeezed" beyond belief due to the absence of reserves truly up to par in terms of performance. Except for Diogo Dalot in the 2020/21 season when he was a capable substitute on the right and left flanks whenever needed, the difference was clearly seen. Because neither Florenzi nor Ballo-Touré - to mention the players who theoretically arrived to give some breathing room to the starters - managed to carve out the playing time that would have offered high-level options to Pioli and allowed the first choices to catch their breath to present themselves in some key matches in the best possible conditions. However, the last transfer window saw Milan explore more than one possibility on both flanks: on the right, former Torino player Singo was an idea that lasted only as long as it took to receive Pioli's rejection, who would have preferred a player more accustomed to playing in a 4-man defense and potentially with the predisposition to transform into a midfielder added to Calabria.
With equally little conviction, they pursued the path leading to the promising Spanish player Ivan Fresneda, who later moved to Sporting Lisbon. On the left, the exit that occurred only at the end of the market - and with a dry loan formula - of Ballo-Touré blocked any possibility of intervention due to budget constraints. Allowing Bologna to overtake for Riccardo Calafiori.
Pioli, what's next in January?
In January, only time will tell if AC Milan's calculated choices with Pioli in the market will have paid off by then or not.
This AC Milan team, writes Calciomercato.com, continues to have the same major problems in the defensive phase. It's too early to draw hasty and definitive conclusions after so few matches, but the January market could offer the chance to correct the course where it was not possible to do so before, and that's not an option to be completely ruled out.
