Milan in crisis, Massimiliano Allegri admits: "Nobody expected it so"

Acc Milan stumbled again at the San Siro, where a very painful home loss also came against Atalanta. The Rossoneri have picked up one point in Serie A in their last three matches, four in their last six. A setback that threatens to weigh heavily in the chase for the Champions League, with Roma now level on points and Como only 2 away. All aspects that Massimiliano Allegri highlighted in the aftermath of the match at the Meazza stadium, while admitting that he had not factored in such deep problems at this stage of the season.

“Nobody would have expected such a difficult moment – Allegri confessed to ‘DAZN’ -. Now we have to face it with a great sense of responsibility, also because next Sunday we face a team that has always done very well at home. Today we disbanded after the first goal, reacting only in the final. However, it is useless to talk about what happened with Atalanta, we cannot change it anymore. Rather, let’s focus on Genoa, because it will be a decisive match.”

Among the most challenged in the audience is Rafa Leao. “The problem now is not him and not others. The priority has to be the team. Rafa is having such a moment, by the way against Atalanta he also had favorable situations. But he was and remains an important player, who moreover we will not be able to field against Genoa because he is disqualified. Let’s think one game at a time, we have to win them both but in the meantime let’s try to win the first one,” Allegri concluded.

The match, after all, had told a merciless story since the first minutes. Atalanta had taken the lead as early as 7′ through Ederson, who had taken advantage of a prolonged immobility of the Rossoneri rearguard, before Zappacosta doubled on 29′ on an assist from Krstovic. In the second half, at 52′, had come the tris with Raspadori, who was good at deflecting into the net a ball served by the same Ederson. Milan shortened only in the final period with Pavlovic and Nkunku on a penalty kick, in a late comeback that did not change the verdict of the field.

The atmosphere at San Siro was poisoned even before the opening whistle. The Curva Sud had displayed an unmistakable message: fans had formed with their bodies the words “GF OUT,” addressed to CEO Giorgio Furlani, while a banner read “Re-do everything from scratch, give us back Milan.” A protest that then spread to the entire team in the course of the evening, with the loudest booing reserved for Leao at the moment of his substitution: a script already seen in the challenges against Udinese and Juventus, in an increasingly frayed relationship with the fans, which had pushed the Portuguese in a difficult moment even to temporarily deactivate his official Instagram profile.

On the league standings front, Roma took advantage of the Rossoneri’s misstep to hook Milan in fourth place, defeating Parma at the Tardini in a thrilling manner with a penalty converted by Malen beyond the 10th minute of recovery. Como, meanwhile, had already done their homework in the 12:30 match, defeating Verona 1-0 with a goal from Douvikas and arithmetically gaining European qualification for the first time in their history: the Larians thus rise to 65 points, -2 from Milan, making the final sprint even more fiery.

With two days still to play, clouds over the future of the bench are inevitably gathering. According to reports in Corriere dello Sport, the Rossoneri management has already identified Vincenzo Italiano as Allegri’s possible successor, with a project that would also include a radical tactical change: goodbye to the 3-5-2 and return to the 4-2-3-1. Allegri’s contract provides for an automatic renewal until 2028 in the event of Champions League qualification, but the sirens of the national team – left without a guide after Gattuso’s resignation following the dramatic playoff elimination against Bosnia, which excluded Italy from the 2026 World Cup for the third consecutive time – make the picture even more intricate.

The debacle at San Siro seems destined to accelerate even the reflections on the summer market. The Rossoneri management, despite having a 170-million rescission clause now out of the market, would be willing to negotiate the sale of Leao for a figure around 50 million, considering the summer of 2026 the last useful moment to monetize in a reasonable way with the Portuguese’s contract expiring in 2028. Manchester United is moving insistently on him, with contacts between the Red Devils and the player’s entourage reportedly intensifying in recent weeks. To fill the void that could open up in attack, the profile that most convinces the management is that of Gabriel Jesus, 29, who has just returned from a positive second half of the season at Arsenal: the player’s price tag is valued at around 20 million euros, although the knot of the salary – 16 million gross – remains to be unraveled. Facilitating the negotiations is a non-negligible detail: Jesus is assisted by the agency of Giovanni Branchini, the same agent who was decisive for Allegri’s return to the Milan bench.