The Scudetto bunker from last year collapsed, and the champion is on his knees. February has just started, and AC Milan already had to say goodbye to the title. And not only did they hand over the throne, they had their place in the Champions League in danger, all as a result of three consecutive defeats in Serie A. Stefano Pioli found himself under pressure, he had to do something. He made a radical move, changed the formation and looked for salvation in Malick Thiaw, this year’s reinforcement that he ignored as much as possible until about twenty days ago. At first characterized as a desperate move, it turned out to be the latest invention of the Italian expert, responsible for making AC Milan look like the champions of Italy again.Already seen at San Siro.Just over a year ago, Simon Kjaer tore a ligament in his knee and announced a series of injuries. Soon, Fikayo Tomori also had to take a break, followed by the crossed-out captain Alessio Romagnoli, who by force of circumstances returned to the team. However, he also got injured and Pioli had no other choice but to rely on Pierre Kalulu, a right-back who a year and a half earlier the head of the scouting service Geoffrey Moncada gathered from Lyon for ‘pocket money’ (costing around half a million euros).At first extremely reserved about the French defender, Pioli had no choice but to trust Kalulu and pair him with Fikayo Tomori. It turned out that they formed an impenetrable tandem, the most responsible for Milan withstanding all the attacks of Inter Milan and lifting the first Scudetto since 2011.##NAJAVA_MECA_7059804##Something similar happened at the beginning of February.AC Milan started the year 2023 disastrously, with only one win in the opening eight games, and it got particularly bad at the transition between January and February. From the derby with Inter in the Super Cup to the derby with Inter in Serie A, Milan conceded 13 goals. In four games!The sudden fall made Pioli doubt himself. The formula he used for two seasons no longer worked. The season threatened to go in the wrong direction, with Milan recording ever more convincing defeats and Pioli facing its biggest crisis since that match against Atalanta when Rossoneri conceded five goals almost four years earlier. His answer was – a change of formation. He switched to a 3-4-2-1, only the moment and the team with which he tried to transform were wrong. Derby della Madonina was waiting for him.The team, accustomed to high pressing in the derby, was set in a low block for Della Madonina, neglected the latest reinforcements once again, and left Rafael Leao on the bench. Epilogue: Milan laid down their arms before Inter without a fight.”By defending with five in the back, Pioli pretty much erased three years of work. Milan is no longer a team,” Arrigo Sacchi criticized coach Rossoneri for the change in formation.Ibra on Leo’s contract: I agreed to a lower salary to increase his, I’m already playing for nothingIt’s just that neither the legend of Milan nor the fans of the club could have guessed that this move would bring the team back to life. For the upcoming visit to Torino, Pioli once again mixed up the lineup and turned the cry of the desperate into another delicious recipe from the San Siro kitchen. The recipe was concocted due to Tomori’s new injury, mistrust in Matteo Gabbia prone to mistakes and the need for another, third stopper in the formation.In a move that was irresistibly reminiscent of the one he made with Kalulu a year earlier, Pioli decided to finally, with great delay, promote Malick Thiaw, the captain of the German youth team whom AC Milan brought in at the end of the summer transfer window, financed by percentages – paid €5,000,000 to Schalke – after Lyon sent them part of the money from the sale of Lucas Paquetta to West Ham.Thiaw made his debut for the Rossoneri at the beginning of November against Verona, and although he only got ten minutes at the end of the match, the 21-year-old German from Dusseldorf impressed with several reactions thanks to which Milan preserved the advantage in the ‘city of Romeo and Juliet’. However, instead of his playing time increasing over time, Thiaw disappeared for the rest of the season. The fans called for him, and Pioli ignored him like every other reinforcement this year. Until the match with Torino.Malick Thiaw vs Atalanta38 passes89% pass accuracy5/6 accurate long balls4 tackles5 clearances1/2 aerial duels won5/7 duels won21 years of age. “Il Professore” in recent weeks. 🔴⚫️ pic.twitter.com/cXOmCorzFQ— Football Talent Scout – Jacek Kulig (@FTalentScout) February 26, 2023 After almost three months, Malick found himself in the starting line-up in the 22nd round and, accustomed to the same system in Schalke (in the season when he was relegated from the Bundesliga, he played in a formation with three at the back), he immediately responded to the task. Milan did not shine, but they won and more importantly – they kept a clean sheet, for the first time since the beginning of November and the game with Cremonese. And then the German found himself in the starting line-up.The best, however, was yet to come. First, Thiaw had Harry Kane ‘under lock and key’ in front of a packed San Siro in the knockout stage of the Champions League (a match for which Milan had been waiting for ten years), and then made the attackers of Monza and Atalanta, the third most effective team in the league, disappear in the Bermuda triangle that he formed with Tomori and Kalulu. A triangle whose average age is 22.6 years.The result of everything: in February, for the first time in the season, Milan won four games and kept a clean sheet in each of those games (for the first time since February 2018), and the fact that the “hype” that arose around Thiaw is not unfounded is also shown by the fact that in each of the matches in that period, he was among the three candidates for the man of the match, so the fans have already attached the epithet “colossus from Dusseldorf” to him.Pioli made the right decision once more. And everyone thought he was done for.L’homme qui a totalement changé notre défense: monsieur Malick Thiaw. 4e clean sheet consécutive ! ✨ pic.twitter.com/mHvoqmcIg2— AC Milan – FR (@AC_MilanFR) February 26, 2023
