Fabio Capello joined his former team, Milan, until Sandro Tonali’s big-money move to Newcastle in the summer and the loss of Franck Kessie to Barcelona and Hakan Calhanoglu to rivals Inter a few years earlier. He believes that he had “Italy’s best midfield”.
The former England manager assessed Milan’s team and their current position in Serie A in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport on Wednesday morning.
Capello believes Stefano Pioli is running one of the best teams in Italy and claims the Rossoneri have the second best squad in Serie A, behind Inter and ahead of Juventus. are doing.
However, Milan’s failure to make a serious challenge for the Serie A title in the 2023-24 season is due to the fact that many players took time to adapt to Italian football after their summer transfers, as well as a number of The cause was a muscular injury. Capello said.
“Inter are in a category of their own in terms of team value. But for me, Milan have a better team than Juve. I mean, they have the second best team in the league.” Capello told La Gazzetta.
Capello explained why he believes Milan had to settle for third place in Serie A already this season: There are also injuries, so you need to be careful.
“That’s not for me to say. I don’t know how much responsibility the coaches have, whether they tried too hard or too little, whether they played too many games on the preseason tour without preparing. . It makes me think the muscle problem will come back.”
When asked what has gone wrong for Milan in recent seasons, Capello explained: “Milan had Calhanoglu, Kessie, Bennacer, Tonali. It was the most powerful midfield in Italy, and Milan had them all at San Siro. Now there is almost no one left.”
Milan sold Tonali to Newcastle in July for a fee believed to be around 70 million euros. The transfer fee helped the club make a string of summer signings, including midfield trio Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Tijani Lijnders and Yunus Moussa.
However, Capello believes Milan needed a proven, immediate midfield player, rather than someone who would take time to develop into the role. Capello again cited Inter and Juventus as examples.
“Milan can’t make signings with the expectation that they will develop over time. They have to sign players who are sure to change the team. Look at Inter.
“Inter win games in midfield, it is in that area of the pitch that they make the difference. And Rabiot is extremely important for Juventus.”