Fabio Capello believes that his former side Milan had ‘the best midfield in Italy’ before Sandro Tonali’s big-money move to Newcastle in the summer and the losses of Franck Kessie to Barcelona and Hakan Calhanoglu to rivals Inter in the years prior.
The former England national team coach assessed Milan’s squad as well as their current position in Serie A in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport on Wednesday morning.
Capello believes that Stefano Pioli is in charge of one of the best squads in Italy, and claims that the Rossoneri have the second-best set of players in Serie A behind Inter and ahead of Juventus.
However, Milan’s failure to mount any real challenge for the Serie A title in 2023-24 has come down to a multitude of muscular injuries, on top of a number of players who needed time to adapt to Italian football after their moves in the summer, Capello said.
“Inter are in a category of their own in terms of squad value. However, for me, Milan has a better team than Juve. In short, they have the second-best squad in the league,” Capello told La Gazzetta.
Explaining why he believes Milan have already had to settle for third place in Serie A this season, Capello said: “Several signings took a long time to integrate, to understand Italian football. Then there are the injuries, which must be looked at.
“It’s not for me to say. I don’t know how many responsibilities the coach has, whether he has worked them too hard or too little, whether they played too many matches on pre-season tours instead of preparing. The recurrence of muscular problems does make you think.”
Asked where it has gone wrong for Milan in recent seasons, Capello explained: “Milan had Calhanoglu, Kessie, Bennacer and Tonali. That was the strongest midfield in Italy and Milan had them all at San Siro. Now, there is almost nobody left.”
Milan sold Tonali to Newcastle in July for a fee believed to be in the region of €70m. That fee helped to bring in a series of summer signings, including midfield trio Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Tijjani Reijnders and Yunus Musah.
However, Capello believes that Milan needed proven, ready-to-perform acquisitions in midfield, as opposed to players who need time to grow into their roles. Capello pointed again to Inter and Juventus as examples.
“Milan cannot make signings hoping they will grow over time. They must take guaranteed players who will change the team. Look at Inter.
“Inter win their matches with their midfield, it’s in that area of the pitch that they make the difference. And also, Rabiot for Juventus is crucial.”