{"id":265650,"date":"2025-09-30T04:54:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T04:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/265650\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T04:54:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T04:54:13","slug":"inside-serie-a-ac-milans-new-era-as-stunning-napoli-win-gives-title-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/265650\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Serie A: AC Milan’s new era as stunning Napoli win gives title hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top of the the league\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Inside<\/p>\n

\n \u00a9TM\/IMAGO\n <\/p>\n

AC Milan<\/a> are one of the most recognisable clubs in the world but they\u2019ve experienced a low ebb in their illustrious history across the last decade. The Rossoneri were the dominant force in European football in the late 1980s and early 1990s under legendary managers Arrigo Sacchi<\/a> and Fabio Capello<\/a>. AC Milan cliched back-to-back European Cup<\/a> wins in 1989 under Sacchi and only Real Madrid have been crowned kings of Europe more than the Italian giants.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Built on an incredible Italian defensive core of Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi and Allesandro Costacurta, AC Milan also possessed incredible talent in Dutch trio Ruud Guillit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard. Capello succeeded Saachi and delivered three consecutive Serie A<\/a> titles between 1992 and 1994 but they\u2019ve only won one Scudetto across the last 14 years. Before that, Massimiliano Allegri<\/a> led AC Milan to the title in 2011 and the cunning Italian returned to the San Siro in the summer, tasked with halting the club\u2019s unquestionable decline. AC Milan have enjoyed an encouraging start to the season but can Allegri transform their fortunes to awaken a sleeping giant?<\/p>\n

\nMassimiliano Allegri: Impact at AC Milan<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only seven games into the season for AC Milan so it\u2019s imperative to ensure expectations remain realistic, but the early indications are very promising as they sit top of Serie A. The biggest test of Milan\u2019s improvement arrived at the San Siro on Sunday night and they claimed a brilliant 2-1 win against the reigning Serie A champions. AC Milan held firm after being reduced to ten-men on 57 points but they held firm for the last half hour and protected their one goal advantage.\u00a0Allegri is renowned for building teams that are incredibly difficult to breakdown and he\u2019s clearly prioritised improving their defensive resoluteness.<\/p>\n

\"\"AC Milan have kept clean sheets in five of their seven games this season and have only conceded three goals so far. Only Roma have conceded fewer goals in the top five leagues but they’ve played on games less, while Arsena have a better defensive record, \u00a0conceding just three goals but across one more game. Unsurprisingly, Allegri has implemented his trusted 3-5-2 formation with Fikayo Tomori<\/a>, Strahinja Pavlovi\u0107<\/a> and Matteo Gabbia<\/a> his preferred three centre-backs. Pervis Estupi\u00f1\u00e1n<\/a>, signed from Brighton in the summer, has provided solidity at left-wing back, while Allegri has rotated on the right, depending on the opposition.<\/p>\n

\"\"On AC Milan\u2019s start under Allegri, Jatin Dietl, Transfermarkt\u2019s Serie A expert, stated: \u201cAllegri is known for being able to give a team stability. The new three-man defense also seems to be working well, compensating for the weaknesses of individual players. In addition, there are now players in the wide positions who can also defend \u2014 something that wasn\u2019t really the case with Rafael Le\u00e3o<\/a>, for example. I see them as one of the favorites to win the championship, because they have a good squad, a very good coach, and no international competitions that would take away focus and resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAC Milan\u2019s title prospects this season<\/p>\n

Serie A is the most competitive of the top five leagues with five clubs holding realistic ambitions of challenging for the title this season. Napoli<\/a> and Inter Milan<\/a> are undoubtedly the favourites but AC Milan will benefit considerably from not playing in European competition this season. That was due to their dreadful eighth placed finish last season and the squad hasn\u2019t been overhauled that significantly this summer, so perspective is key.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

AC Milan\u2019s squad ranks as the fourth most valuable in Serie A at \u20ac472m, but that\u2019s some way off Inter Milan at \u20ac708m and even the most passionate Rossoneri fan would struggle to put forward a convincing argument that Allegri has the strongest squad at his disposal. AC Milan have added quality in midfield with the experienced duo of Adrien Rabiot<\/a> and Luka Modri\u0107<\/a>, while Ardon Jashari<\/a> possesses huge potential. Christopher Nkunku<\/a> has arrived from Chelsea and scored his first goal in midweek and it will be fascinating how Rafael Leao is reintegrated upon his return from injury.<\/p>\n

\nAC Milan summer transfer business<\/p>\n

Italian clubs don\u2019t enjoy the financial strength of English Premier League outfits but AC Milan were the biggest spending Italian club with \u20ac162m invested in new arrivals. However, AC Milan also recouped more than any Italian club through sales (\u20ac176.3m) and that ranked sixth highest of any club this summer. AC Milan have endured financial problems across the last decade and their business model clearly prioritises stability and selling prized assets will be pivotal.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tijani Reijnders joined Manchester City for \u20ac55m and Newcastle Untied acquired Malick Thiaw for \u20ac35m, which allowed the club to reinvest. AC Milan finished the summer with a positive transfer balance of \u20ac14.3m and interestingly, that is the best of all five realistic Serie A title challengers. AC Milan don\u2019t possess the world-class talent of yesteryear but they\u2019ll hope Allegri\u2019s wise management can provide solidity and allow them to compete for major trophies again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top of the the league\u00a0 \u00a9TM\/IMAGO AC Milan are one of the most recognisable clubs in the world…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":265651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[4525,138612,138613,138617,6427,36652,138616,138608,39424,138607,36936,138615,36935,138610,138611,36937,7760,221,62,11223,138609,138614,116133,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-265650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ac-milan","9":"tag-adrien-rabiot","10":"tag-ardon-jashari","11":"tag-arrigo-sacchi","12":"tag-as-roma","13":"tag-christopher-nkunku","14":"tag-fabio-capello","15":"tag-fikayo-tomori","16":"tag-inter-milan","17":"tag-juventus-fc","18":"tag-luka-modric","19":"tag-malick-thiaw","20":"tag-massimiliano-allegri","21":"tag-matteo-gabbia","22":"tag-pervis-estupinan","23":"tag-rafael-leao","24":"tag-serie-a","25":"tag-soccer","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-ssc-napoli","28":"tag-strahinja-pavlovic","29":"tag-tijjani-reijnders","30":"tag-uefa-champions-league","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-unitedstates","33":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115291466240967530","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}