1 day ago
33
Now that one of the most revolutionary summer windows in AC Milan’s history has been completed, the ball passes to Massimiliano Allegri.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below), Milan feel they are in excellent hands, the best possible in fact. After a 2024-25 season to forget, they couldn’t have found a more confident leader to entrust with a new project.
The revolution was profound because it needed to signal a break with what had happened over the past 12 months. And so it happened, with a transfer market in which significant investments were made and almost all players arrived ready to play a leading role right away.
The management believe that they have done their bit by giving Allegri a squad that is fit to challenge in the competitions that Milan will have this season, but as always the field will tell the truth.
Allegri’s past
Allegri is a coach who has almost always gotten the most out of the teams he’s been given. In his first spell at Milan, he immediately won the Scudetto, capitalising on the key signings of Ibrahimovic, Robinho, and Cassano (in January). Before his dismissal in January 2014, he always managed to qualify for the Champions League.
At Juventus, he took on Conte’s complicated legacy, re-motivating the squad and making use of the top players he was given. In terms of trophies won (only one), his second Juventus stint was the most challenging, the one that brought him the least satisfaction, but it was complex.
The sale of Ronaldo, the Super League bubble, and the capital gains scandal – with the points penalty and departure of president Andrea Agnelli – made it very choppy waters for Max to deal with, yet the ship never sank.
This is why Milan trusts him: they are convinced that he will bring out the best in the players who didn’t perform at their best last year and that it won’t take long to bring in the new signings.
Solutions
The quick recovery against Lecce after the shock defeat to Cremonese in their league debut shows that Allegri has the group under control. The feeling conveyed on Friday night is different from the downward spiral that gripped both Paulo Fonseca and Sergio Conceiçao last season.
The break will serve the Livorno-born coach to further refine the situation, given that upon restarting he’ll be able to count on the jewel Christopher Nkunku, who must be fully exploited due to his obvious quality.
He and Luka Modric can make the Diavolo dream, and Max is studying how to harness all his talent. He will certainly start with the three-man defence, which was supposed to be a temporary solution for preseason but is now a cornerstone to limit lapses in concentration.
The mission to be achieved at all costs is to concede fewer goals than in 2024-25; the rest will be done by the play (an aspect that still needs work) and the individuals. Allegri is banking heavily on the new version of Rafael Leao – who he will use as a striker – with Nkunku and Santiago Gimenez as options.
❌ #ACMilan’s summer mercato must be deemed a FAILURE for multiple reasons
🗣 @olifisher explains why 👇 pic.twitter.com/0x3T8QKWwf
— SempreMilanTV (@SempreMilanTV) September 3, 2025
This is why the former Juventus coach will be able to decide whether to deploy an attack with a striker and two midfielders (3-4-2-1) or a 3-5-2, in which the central midfielders (Rabiot plus one of Fofana, the injured Jashari or the revitalised Loftus-Cheek) will have freedom to cash in on Ballon d’Or winner Modric’s long-range passes.
Allegri dreamed of a midfield like this, and with it he hopes to achieve his goal of ‘finishing in the top four because Milan can’t stay out of the Champions League’. To reach that goal, they’ll need to be consistent and make the most of the weeks without competition to develop the team.
Allegri is a master at this, and he faces yet another challenging mission in a career studded with triumphs: finally unleashing Leao and strengthening a defence that has shown too many flaws in the past.
English (US) ·