Milan’s championship was affected by the points lost against the small teams and, above all, by the difficulty of managing the few weeks with double commitments. Also because Allegri almost always has the same players play…
The good news for Max Allegri is that after this effort there will be no more dangerous crossings. No more weeks with double (or triple) commitments, so you can make the most of the advantage of having adequate rest and work cycles to prepare for the championship matches while the opponents in the race for a place in the next Champions League will be forced to face expensive challenges in Europe. This is good news for Milan, built with a bare-bones squad and in which alternatives to the starters are struggling to emerge.
The nightmare afternoon in Florence confirmed this, failing almost without appeal Estupinian and putting it off Jashari And Ricci while the Rossoneri are starting to receive some answers from Nkunku. The man who cost 40 million euros and who until now had ended up in a shadow.
Leaving aside the Arab trip to the Italian Super Cup, which ended quickly against Napoli, In the middle of the season, Milan lost 2 matches and drew 7 and you just need to take a look at the calendar to see how one of the two defeats, the one against Lazio in the Italian Cup, and 4 draws coincided with the famous “double commitments”. Which Allegri only had to face in four minicycles from September to January, but which cost his team dearly.
Milan, all the results in weeks with multiple commitments
It only went well at the beginning. In September, Milan had come through the opening week unscathed with an excellent performance in Udine in the league (convincing 0-3), continued with the home run in the Italian Cup against Lecce (another 3-0) and closed with the success at San Siro facing Italian champions Napoli (2-1). Three games in eight days, three victories.
From then on, however, the music changed. Between 24 October and 2 November, for example, there were consecutive draws against Pisa (2-2) and Atalanta (1-1 on 28 October) before full points and confidence in the direct clash with Roma at San Siro (1-0).
At the beginning of winter, similar pattern. On 29 November, victory against Lazio at San Siro (1-0), elimination at the hands of the Biancocelesti at the Olimpico five days later and then an away blitz against Torino (2-3) on the day of the Immaculate Conception. Until we get to the very current moment: double draws against Genoa (2-2 on 8 January) and Fiorentina (1-1 three days later) and now two other close matches in Como (15 January, recovery of the round missed to go to Saudi Arabia) and with Lecce (18 January). A red circle calendar.
Allegri and the turnover managed poorly
In Florence Allegri initiated a massive turnover. In addition to having to replace the suspended Tomori, he left out five other protagonists of the effort three days earlier against Genoa: Bartesaghi, Fofana, Modric, Rabiot and Leao. There is no counter-proof, since even with the Grifone there was a hard-fought draw, but the feeling is that the rotation could have been spread out in a more balanced way even if the attempt to have all the starting players in the tough trip to Como is evident.
In any case, Allegri received inadequate responses from most of the alternatives and this is a problem even if the circumstance of the “double commitment” from February onwards will no longer concern Milan. The alibi of the 64 hours of rest between the first two matches doesn’t hold up: they are few, but it is a problem that also concerns the others and not a slight done to the Rossoneri. and it is enough to cross-reference the matches and dates of all the big teams to realize this and dismantle a speciously fueled controversy.
Milan, here’s how many minutes the starters spend on the pitch
The reality is that the limitations of the squad made available and some unfortunate circumstances (the injuries of Leao and Pulisic) or on the pitch (the terrible performance of some) forced Allegri squeezed out his top players despite having to deal practically only with the championship. The numbers confirm this incontrovertibly.
In the first 19 Serie A matches of the season, basically a group even if in reality the recovery in Como is missing and replaced by the match against Fiorentina, there are 9 players who were on the pitch for at least two thirds of the maximum playing time. And of these there are 6 with over 75% employment: Saelemaekers (1,628 minutes out of 1,710), Maignan (1,586), Modric (1,575), Pavlovic (1,537), Cage (1.496) e Tomori (1,312).
The others are Fofana (1.209), Bartesaghi (1.122) e Rabiot (1.020). In fact a team of very starters that never changes and the suspicion is that if Leao (849) e Pulisic (786) had they not often been in the pits the picture would have been completely outlined.
There are two conclusions: Allegri cannot trust beyond the handful of those on whom he is building the run-up to the Champions League zone and many of these players are accumulating playing time not dissimilar to that of colleagues from other big teams who have to deal with international commitments. It may seem like a paradox, but it’s true. Two recognized workaholics like McTominay, who is making up for absences in the Neapolitan midfield, and Barella have respectively 2,261 and 1,895 minutes already spent on the pitch in all competitions (excluding national teams); Saelemaekers (1,907) and Pavlovic (1,886) are not far behind and Modric himself, symbol of the need to measure efforts due to identity cards, is at 1,623.
