Every AC Milan brief The Playbook has printed, newest first — 45 editions so far. Below: 4 Ledger calls this paper put in print on them. The Archive runs two days behind the paper.
Diego Moreira's three goals across all competitions this season have arrived without a settled position around him — the trequartista role behind Milan's front line has cycled through combinations rather than finding a fixed shape, and the 3-0 home win over Lecce at San Siro was the first fixture in this early run where the attacking structure held its form for a full ninety minutes. That win is the sharpest data point in a short but uneven five-game Serie A sample: 61% possession on average, 2.00 goals scored and 0.80 conceded per league match, numbers that describe a side controlling the conditions of most games even when the final product has been inconsistent. The 0-2 home loss to Benfica in the Europa League league phase is the complicating result — not for the points, which belong to a different competition, but because it revealed what happens when a side with that much of the ball encounters a team organised to absorb and counter. Rabiot's two goals and two assists in the scorer columns tell you where the attacking weight sits in midfield rather than the final third, which is itself a shape decision: Moreira, per MilanNews.it, is pressing his case for a permanent starting role, and how Amorim resolves that question will determine whether Milan's trequarti creates its own chances or continues to depend on midfield runners arriving late. Milan travel to Mapei Stadium on Sunday 11 October to face a Sassuolo side whose structure — nine scored, nine conceded in five games — leaves the fixture open to exactly the kind of finishing consequence Milan's shape has not reliably produced. Whether Moreira starts that fixture is the decision this form window sets up.
The role that has gone unfilled longest in Milan's defensive structure — a left-sided central defender who can carry the ball into midfield and hold a high line — is the thread running through this week's news. Per SempreMilan, Gonçalo Inácio's name survived the summer window intact, with Milan now targeting a €40m move in January after failing to land him before the season began, and that persistence is the clearest signal of where Ruben Amorim sees the structural gap. Milan's Serie A record reads three wins, two draws and no defeats from five games, with a goal difference of plus six and 61% average possession — numbers that describe a team already controlling matches — but conceding twice in the 0-2 home loss to Benfica in the Europa League's league phase suggested the back line under pressure from direct, purposeful opponents is a different proposition. Inácio's role in that picture is specific: a left-footed defender comfortable stepping into midfield fits Amorim's shape in a way the current options apparently do not. The question that fixture at Mapei Stadium on Sunday 11 October will begin to answer is whether the centre-back structure as presently constituted can hold when Sassuolo — nine goals scored in five games — test its depth in transition.
Milan's 61% possession average through five Serie A matches has been the system's clearest signal — but possession-dominant football only stays coherent when the forward structure behind it is deep enough to rotate. Gonçalo Ramos, who arrived from PSG for €74m per SempreMilan, is the most expensive signing in the club's history and the centre-forward role the system was built around, yet his single goal and assist across Serie A and the Europa League so far suggest the fit is still settling rather than settled. Diego Moreira leads both competitions with three goals, and Adrien Rabiot's two goals and two assists from midfield confirm that the goals are being shared across the structure rather than concentrated at the nine — which is sustainable until Sassuolo, who average 7.0 shots on target per game at the back of a 46.4% possession share, invite a more direct test of whether Ramos can impose himself when space is compressed.
AC Milan sit 5th in the league with 11 points from 5 games — a 3W 2D 0L record that puts them on a 60% win rate. The +6 goal difference reflects a team doing more right than wrong across the season.
The most recent result was a win, which keeps the momentum positive.
The next fixture comes away against Sassuolo in the 2026 27 Italian Serie A. On current form, maintaining a clean sheet will be central to the game plan — the defensive metrics across the season show that results largely follow the defensive performance rather than individual attacking brilliance.
Stats Deep Dive: 2.0 goals scored per game | 0.8 conceded per game | 3W 2D 0L from 5 games. Currently 2 points off top spot with 25 games remaining. Win rate: 60% | Points per game: 2.2.
Milan's 61.0% possession average through five Serie A matches is the clearest signal of what the current system demands — not just territory, but the conversion of it. The 3-0 home win over Lecce at San Siro was the first time that demand was met cleanly: six goals scored across the three-match recent window against three conceded, a goal difference of plus three that reflects a side beginning to close the gap between dominance and output. Diego Moreira's three goals in five league appearances — per MilanNews.it, he was the club's second-largest summer outlay — and Adrien Rabiot's two goals and two assists confirm that the system is generating from central and wide positions simultaneously. What the numbers do not yet confirm is whether Mapei Stadium on Sunday will sustain it: Sassuolo have conceded nine in five games, but they have also scored nine, and a side averaging 7.0 shots on target per game will test a Milan back line that has been shielded, so far, by possession rather than defensive volume.
Two draws in a row have left Milan's attacking structure under scrutiny, and Sunday's home fixture against Lecce at San Siro — where over 72,000 supporters are expected, per MilanNews.it — arrives as the first real test of whether Ruben Amorim can arrange his pieces in a way that produces a winning margin rather than a shared point. The Playbook expects Milan to win this one, narrowly, with Lecce's openness on the ball making the difference.
Alphadjo Cissè and Diego Moreira lead the scoring list this season with two goals each across Serie A and the Europa League, and the role each occupies in Amorim's shape matters as much as the numbers: Milan have averaged 58.2% possession across their four Serie A matches, which means the ball moves through them rather than past them, and the mechanism for turning that possession into goals must be deliberate rather than incidental. Lecce sit twelfth with a goal difference of minus two — five scored, seven conceded across four games — and they concede more than they create; their season average of 40.4% possession tells you they invite pressure, defend with 22.5 tackles per game, and then look for the transition. That is the shape Amorim's side must solve: not how to hold the ball, but how to break a low, organised defensive block that will cede width willingly and trust the counter. Adrien Rabiot, with two assists in this window, is the connector who has to find Cissè or Moreira in the spaces Lecce's line leaves — and that is the decision Sunday settles.
A club whose manager is already navigating a fractured dressing room does not arrive at a home fixture against Lecce with confidence as its primary resource — it arrives with a need to resolve something, and Sunday's match at San Siro is where that resolution either begins or stalls further. The 2-0 Europa League defeat to Benfica midweek, reported by SempreMilan citing Matteo Moretto, has surfaced a harder structural problem: Amorim's relationship with several senior figures in the squad is, per Moretto's reporting, not exactly idyllic, and Fabio Capello's public criticism of both the performances and certain individuals has added external weight to what was already an internal tension. The Playbook predicts Milan win this one — Lecce have conceded seven goals across their four Serie A games and carry a goal difference of minus two, while Milan's 58.2% possession average this season, against Lecce's 40.4%, points toward a home side that will have the ball and the space to use it. The question that matters more than the result is whether Alphadjo Cissé and Diego Moreira, each on two league goals, can produce the kind of purposeful final-third decision-making that Amorim himself said was absent against Benfica — his acknowledgement that Milan create few chances and fail to fill the penalty area is the honest diagnosis of a side that has drawn twice in Serie A when it might have won. Adrien Rabiot's two assists suggest there is creativity moving through midfield; what has been missing is the finishing consequence at the far end of it. Sunday will not settle the institutional question — a Cardinale meeting with Amorim is the forum for that — but a controlled win here, built on the structure Milan have managed across four unbeaten Serie A games, would at least separate league form from the noise around it.
Eight points from four Serie A games, with five goals scored and three conceded across that stretch, tells only part of the story Ruben Amorim is actually writing — the more revealing line is that Milan's two dropped points have both come on the road, where the 1-1 away draw with Juventus at Allianz Stadium and the 2-2 away draw with Lazio at Olimpico exposed a structural gap between what Milan produce at home and what they can hold away. The Europa League league-phase lineup reported by MilanNews.it on 16 September — Maignan, Terracciano, De Winter, Pavlovic, Chukwueze, Musah, Jashari, Bartesaghi, Hutchinson, Cissè, and Ramos — signals Amorim's preferred shape: Alphadjo Cissè and Gonçalo Ramos, who between them carry four of Milan's six scoring contributions in Serie A this season, operating inside a back four with Ardon Jashari as the structural anchor. That structure, potent enough at San Siro, will face a Lecce side averaging 22.5 tackles per game — a deliberate disruptive effort from a team that sits twelfth — on Sunday, and whether the midfield triangle holds its shape against that volume of pressing will determine whether the five goals in three games become a settled habit rather than a hopeful start.
Milan win the Europa League league-phase fixture against Benfica at San Siro on Wednesday 16 September 2026.
The role Amorim cannot yet solve sits in the middle of the pitch: two points dropped against Lazio at Olimpico on Saturday confirm that the question of how Luka Modric operates inside this system — one that, per MilanNews.it, does not provide the same half-space protection the previous setup afforded him — remains structurally open. Milan take this into Wednesday's Europa League league-phase fixture against Benfica at San Siro, and on balance The Playbook expects a Milan win, but not a clean one.
The 2-2 away draw with Lazio at Olimpico arrived after the 1-1 draw at Allianz Stadium the week before, leaving Milan with five goals scored and three conceded across those three Serie A games — a return that flatters the attack while obscuring a midfield shape that has yet to find its settled structure. What changed the texture of the Lazio game, though, was Christian Pulisic's second-half impact: per MilanNews.it, his 45 minutes produced an assist, a near-goal, and a series of interventions across the attacking third that no other player off the bench matched in sharpness. That he arrived as a substitute, not a starter, frames the selection decision Amorim must answer before Wednesday — not as a question of quality, but of how to fit Pulisic's movement around Modric's need for cover. Alphadjo Cissè and Diego Moreira each lead the Serie A scoring list with two goals, and their combined output gives Milan a front-line that can hurt a side in transition; what the Lazio draw showed is that the structure behind them, specifically the screen in front of the back four, remains the piece that costs points rather than buys them. The Benfica fixture will settle whether Amorim has found a shape that holds.
AC Milan sit 5th in the league with 7 points from 3 games — a 2W 1D 0L record that puts them on a 67% win rate. A +3 goal difference is functional — neither a strength nor a concern.
The most recent result was a draw — a point banked but two left on the pitch.
The next fixture comes away against Lazio in the 2026 27 Italian Serie A. On current form, maintaining a clean sheet will be central to the game plan — the defensive metrics across the season show that results largely follow the defensive performance rather than individual attacking brilliance.
Stats Deep Dive: 1.67 goals scored per game | 0.67 conceded per game | 2W 1D 0L from 3 games. Currently 2 points off top spot with 27 games remaining. Win rate: 67% | Points per game: 2.33.
Sunday's trip to the Allianz Stadium is the sharpest test of whether Milan's early-season form means anything. Two wins, four goals scored, one conceded — the 2-0 home win over Venezia at San Siro followed the 2-1 away win over Torino to hand Amorim's side a perfect six points — but Juventus arrive at this fixture with identical numbers: six points, three goals scored, none conceded, and a back four that has not yet been troubled in 180 minutes of Serie A football. Adrien Rabiot, with a goal and an assist already, is Milan's most complete contributor in the final third, and whether he can disrupt a Juventus midfield that has conceded nothing will shape how much the visitors see of the ball. The 4 September edition of this paper noted Milan's six-match winless run at the Allianz Stadium — that structural weight matters here because Juventus' defensive record gives no early invitation to open play. A low-scoring, contested afternoon is the likelier shape; if Milan are going to take anything home, Rabiot carrying his early form into a compact game is where to watch.
Milan have gone six matches without a win against Juventus at the Allianz Stadium, per MilanNews.it, and that structural weight arrives this Sunday as Ruben Amorim takes his unbeaten side into the first genuine test of what his team can actually become. The call here: Milan lose a tight match in Turin, with both sides keeping the score low.
Four goals scored and one conceded across the opening two results — the 2-0 home win over Venezia and the 2-1 away win at Torino — establish a foundation, but Juventus arrive at the same points tally with a goal difference of plus three and a clean sheet in both fixtures, meaning Sunday will ask a sharper defensive question than either of Milan's opponents so far have posed. Gonçalo Ramos leads the attack with one goal from those two matches, and per MilanNews.it the fixture is being framed as one where his ability to carry that burden shapes the result. Adrien Rabiot, the only midfielder contributing at both ends with one goal and one assist, will need to generate from deep if Milan's final third is to function without the space lower-ranked sides have conceded. MilanNews.it also reported this week that Amorim has built a squad where young players are genuine alternatives, not afterthoughts — that decision either pays its first serious dividend on Sunday or reveals where the structure still needs time.
A side that scored four goals and conceded one across its opening two Serie A fixtures has established something more useful than confidence — it has established a structure that holds, and Sunday at the Allianz Stadium will be the first real test of whether it holds under pressure. The 2-0 home win over Venezia at San Siro, following the 2-1 away win at Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, produced a goal difference of +3 through two matches, identical to Juventus's, and that arithmetic sets up a direct collision between the two sides with six points apiece and no margin for error. What the scoring spread reveals is that the attacking load is distributed rather than concentrated: Adrien Rabiot, Alphadjo Cissè, and Gonçalo Ramos each carry one Serie A goal, Samuel Chukwueze and Alexis Saelemaekers one assist each, which means Ruben Amorim has not yet been forced to lean on a single finisher. The structural question Sunday answers is whether that spread can function against a Juventus back line that has not conceded in two outings — and whether Milan's shape, which has been efficient but only lightly tested, can produce the same final-third penetration against opponents of a different defensive calibre.
Gonçalo Ramos arrived in the summer as the structural answer to a question Milan had been carrying for two seasons — who leads the line when the margin between a European spot and a title challenge is a goal, not a system — and two games into the new Serie A campaign, the shape that question demanded is beginning to show its outline. Ramos scored with a flashing drive from a tight angle against Venezia, per NDTV Sports, to help Milan to the 2-0 home win at San Siro; Adrien Rabiot has contributed a goal and an assist, Alphadjo Cissè one goal, and across both results Milan have scored four and conceded one. This paper called a home win over Venezia on Friday, and it landed. The structural question that Sunday's fixture at Juventus will answer is whether that shape — four goals, a clean sheet and a half, Ramos already on the board — holds against an opponent who has also taken six points from six without conceding, and where the margin for error inside Ruben Amorim's selection decisions shrinks considerably.
Six weeks ago, Gonçalo Ramos was the marquee name on a summer roster that announced structural ambition — a signing meant to answer the question Rafael Leão's nine-goal return had made unavoidable. Friday night at San Siro, per NDTV Sports, Ramos converted with a drive from a tight angle for his first Serie A goal, and the 2-0 home win over Venezia completed something arithmetic and something institutional at once. This paper called that win and it arrived on schedule. Milan sit top of Serie A on six points from two games — four scored, one conceded across those two results — a perfect-record start not seen since 2023/24, per MilanNews.it, and the cleanliness of that defensive record matters as much as the attacking one: Adrien Rabiot's goal and assist across these two fixtures gives the midfield a presence that the final-third production had previously lacked. The structural question September will answer is whether that shape holds at the Allianz Stadium on the sixth, where Juventus away will demand rather more than Torino or Venezia conceded.
Amorim enters tomorrow's home fixture against Venezia with a structural choice made visible by his opening result: the 2-1 away win over Torino confirmed that his midfield can generate both goals and assists, with Adrien Rabiot contributing a goal and an assist in Serie A and Alphadjo Cissè adding another, while the front line created without clean separation between wide creativity and central finishing. The Leão situation sharpens that problem — per MilanNews.it, Tuttosport reports Milan are actively seeking a wide profile capable of replacing the Portuguese in the final days of the transfer window, which means Amorim may deploy a right-heavy attack against Venezia rather than enforce a shape his current wide options do not fully suit. Milan win at home on Friday. The structural test is whether Chukwueze, who produced one assist in the opener without a goal, can function as the left-channel threat the system requires, or whether the role sits unfilled again — the answer will tell us more about this squad's shape than any single result.
Amorim built his squad with a specific structural question unresolved — whether the wide roles could be covered by profiles who create as well as press — and the 2-1 win away at Torino on August 23 answered part of it, though not the part you'd call comfortable. This paper called the result and it landed; the more instructive detail is how. Adrien Rabiot's goal and assist from midfield, alongside Alphadjo Cissè's goal, means both of Milan's Serie A scoring contributions have come from central midfielders, not from the front line — a structural signal worth noting after just one match, not a conclusion. Samuel Chukwueze's assist from a wide role confirms the right channel was productive, but the margin was one goal across 90 minutes away from home, and per MilanNews.it the matchday bench held Saelemaekers, Luka Modric, Rabiot, Christian Pulisic and Diego Moreira — depth that either signals rotation capacity or a first-choice shape still finding its settled form. Friday's home fixture against Venezia will establish which: if Amorim repeats the same central structure, the midfield's goal-contribution role becomes the deliberate mechanism; if the bench depth rotates forward, the first week reads differently.
Milan's summer work acquired a sharper edge on 19 August when the club confirmed Diego Moreira from RC Strasbourg on a deal through 2031, per SempreMilan and Sofascore — a wide addition to a squad that finished fifth in Serie A last season on 70 points, four wins short of a Champions League return. The pressure that creates is real: with Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão both registering 10 goals across Serie A and the Coppa Italia, the attacking returns were there; the table position was not. Moreira's arrival signals that the front line is being reinforced ahead of a 23 August trip to Torino — the first competitive test of whether this squad can convert individual output into a sustained title challenge.
Five days before the trip to Torino, Jorge Mendes is reportedly meeting Milan's management to discuss further signings — per SempreMilan, citing Fabrizio Romano, with the agent already linked to a centre-back push that includes a Lecce target and, as a longer-term ambition, Ruben Dias. The goalkeeping depth is tidied, with Léo-Paul Bouyer renewed and a new signing added behind Mike Maignan. The sharper question is the attack: with Rafael Leão — 10 goals and 3 assists last season — apparently being offered around by Mendes himself, Milan need the Moreira arrival and any incoming striker to compensate for a forward line that finished fifth in Serie A on 70 points.
Milan's summer crossed €150m in outlay on Monday when they agreed a deal worth more than €50m with Strasbourg for wing-back Diego Moreira, per SempreMilan — a rapid, unannounced move that La Gazzetta dello Sport described as costly, unexpected, and sudden. The 2004-born Belgian international arrives as a direct response to last season's fifth-place finish and a 70-point haul that left Milan outside European football's top tier, and per a report from Sacha Tavolieri cited by SempreMilan, agent Jorge Mendes has simultaneously offered Rafael Leão — 10 goals and 3 assists last season — to Roma on Milan's behalf, which would free significant wages for further reinvestment. With the Torino away fixture on August 23rd now days away, the more pressing question is how quickly Moreira slots into the squad alongside Leão's likely successor in the wide areas, and whether Christian Pulisic — joint top scorer last season with 10 goals and 4 assists — can anchor the attack through what shapes up as a pivotal opening run.
The Rafa Leão situation is the subplot that will define Milan's summer more than any confirmed signing. Per MilanNews.it, citing Corriere della Sera, Leão has shifted position and would now prefer to stay — yet the club itself remains open to selling him, the 10-goal, 3-assist contributor who shared the team's Serie A and Coppa Italia scoring lead last season alongside Christian Pulisic. That tension sits awkwardly against an otherwise active window: MilanNews.it's transfer ledger shows Andrej Kostic among the summer arrivals, and Mario Gila told Gazzetta dello Sport that Milan was his only destination — a defender who credits the club's sporting structure for making the move happen as early as March. A fifth-place finish and 70 points last season left Milan outside the Champions League places, and the August 23 trip to Torino is the opening test of whether the new pieces — and a Leão whose future remains unresolved — can sustain a push back into Europe's top tier.
A pre-season win over Manchester United has given Milan's squad — and its supporters — something to hold onto before the August 23 trip to Torino. Per MilanNews.it, the club returned to Milanello for a training session on August 16 following the friendly, with the coaching staff treating the Manchester United result as a genuine marker of progress rather than a routine warm-up tick. That matters because last season's fifth-place finish and 70 points left Milan outside the Champions League places, and the squad needs competitive edge, not just confidence, when Serie A opens.
The summer roster activity published by MilanNews.it on August 16 shows Milan have been active in shaping the group around proven contributors. Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão both finished last season on 10 goals each across Serie A and Coppa Italia, and Christopher Nkunku added eight — that's a forward line with genuine depth if the new arrivals, including Andrej Kostic, integrate quickly enough to take pressure off the top three in the scoring charts. Adrien Rabiot's six goals from midfield last season also signals a squad that can generate output from multiple positions, which becomes important when European football on Thursday nights demands rotation.
The Coppa Italia bracket has already started — per MilanNews.it, fixtures in the 32nd-round stage are underway, with results including Monza 3-0 Avellino and Fiorentina 4-1 Benevento — and Milan's own path in that competition will add fixture congestion early in the schedule. The immediate question, though, is Sunday's away trip to Torino: whether the positive signals from the Manchester United friendly translate into a competitive result against a Serie A opponent who will press and test Milan's defensive structure from the first whistle.
A fifth-place finish on 70 points and a goal difference of plus-18 tells one half of Milan's story from last season; the summer squad decisions being reported now are already rewriting the other half. Per MilanNews.it, citing Quotidiano Sportivo, the club is moving on from Fikayo Tomori, Christopher Nkunku, David Odogu, and Youssouf Fofana — four names who between them contributed significantly to a top-five finish, with Nkunku alone recording 8 goals and 3 assists across Serie A and the Coppa Italia. That is a substantial amount of attacking output to replace, and the direction of the exits suggests the club is prepared to reshape the roster rather than simply freshen it.
The incoming business so far is modest by comparison. MilanNews.it's official transfer log as of August 14 lists Andrej Kostic among the summer arrivals, while the same outlet reports, citing Fabrizio Romano and Matteo Moretto, that Milan submitted a formal offer for Arsenal's Ethan Nwaneri — which was rejected. Rafael Leão, who matched Nkunku's goal tally with 10 and added 3 assists last season, is still on the roster but SempreMilan, citing Gazzetta dello Sport, reports he picked up a muscle problem in training ahead of the pre-season fixture against Manchester United, compounding uncertainty around a player who has attracted transfer interest this window. Christian Pulisic, the joint-top scorer on 10 goals and 4 assists, remains a confirmed current player and shapes up as the most reliable attacking reference heading into the new campaign.
Milan open the 2026-27 season away at Torino on August 23, and the squad's exact shape between now and then matters considerably. A fifth-place finish last term left the club outside the automatic Champions League positions, so the pressure on this transfer window to deliver genuine quality — not just volume — is direct and measurable. Watch whether the Nwaneri pursuit is revived or redirected, and whether any of the reported departures force the club to reconsider its timeline before kick-off in Turin.
Fifth place and 70 points is the number Milan carry into the off-season — enough to finish the 2025-26 Serie A campaign above mid-table respectability, not enough to reach the Champions League. The gap between where the squad landed and where the club expects to compete is the pressure this summer has to answer, and the next opportunity to do that arrives on August 23 when Milan travel to Torino for the opening fixture of the new season. The attacking output from last season points to where the squad's foundation sits. Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão each finished with 10 goals across Serie A and the Coppa Italia, with Christopher Nkunku adding eight in his first full run in the side. That is a functional, varied front line — three contributors in double figures is not the problem. The question the season's final weeks posed, though, is whether the rest of the squad can deliver the consistent defensive weight that separates fifth place from the top four. The trip to Torino in late August lands before European group stages begin to squeeze the schedule, which makes it a useful early read on how the new-season squad holds its shape on the road. Adrien Rabiot's six goals from midfield — the kind of box-to-box production that most Serie A sides can't match from that position — will matter in the final third, and Luka Modric's presence adds a different dimension in controlling tempo. Whether the back line can keep clean sheets against a side like Torino, who make life uncomfortable for visiting defenses, is the specific thing to watch on August 23.
Fifth place and 70 points last season is the mathematical verdict on a year that promised more. The gap between that finish and a Champions League return is exactly what the summer has to close — and per MilanNews.it, Ruben Amorim is now the man tasked with closing it, with Milan's last pre-season friendly before the August 23 opener at Torino still to come on Saturday.
The squad being assembled around Amorim shows ambition in certain areas and uncomfortable exposure in others. MilanNews.it reports that the summer window has brought in Andrej Kostic among the confirmed arrivals for the first team, with Kostic already on the verified roster. Santiago Gimenez's situation is less settled: MilanNews.it reports that negotiations with Porto over the forward are ongoing, with Milan pushing for an obligation-to-buy clause rather than a loan option — a distinction that matters for how the club can plan around his presence. Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão each finished last season with 10 goals across Serie A and the Coppa Italia combined, and Nkunku added eight; whoever starts the season in the final third, the goal returns need to climb if Milan intend to threaten the top four.
One pointed note from MilanNews.it: commentary from within Italian football circles describes this Milan as looking exposed, and places the responsibility for fixing it squarely on Amorim. Sunday's friendly is the last look before competitive football arrives, and Torino away on August 23 will serve as the first real test of whether the new manager's structure has taken hold. How the midfield — Rabiot, Youssouf Fofana, and the options around them — holds shape against a Torino side known for physicality will be the opening signal of what kind of season lies ahead.
Milan's summer business has been substantive enough to shift the calculus for August. Per MilanNews.it, the club has completed a series of official signings in the summer window — among them Andrej Kostic on the attacking front — while the squad returned from a pre-season trip to Italy after a 3-0 defeat to Chelsea abroad, with training at Milanello resuming on August 12. That result against Chelsea stings less as a scoreline than as a data point: a squad that finished fifth in Serie A last season on 70 points, six wins clear of the relegation zone but five points and a Europa League place adrift of the top four, needs the pre-season to answer structural questions, not just accumulate friendly minutes.
The goal production from last season gives the forward line a reasonable foundation. Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão each reached 10 goals across Serie A and Coppa Italia, while Christopher Nkunku contributed 8 — three contributors clearing double digits across those competitions is an attacking platform most fifth-placed sides would accept. What the final weeks of last season exposed, though, was fragility in outcomes that mattered: the sequence of results across the closing fixtures left Milan without a European place above the Conference League threshold. That gap is the pressure point the new arrivals will be asked to close.
Torino away on August 23 is the opening fixture, and MilanNews.it notes it carries an edge of familiarity — the Torino bench will be managed by Ignazio Abate, a name the Milan support knows well. The first test of whether this summer's work translates into points will come on that away day, where Pulisic's movement between the lines and Leão's ability to stretch a back four will matter more than any pre-season narrative.
Fifth place and 70 points. That is the number Milan carry into a summer that will define whether last season was a floor or a ceiling. The 2025-26 campaign ended without European football at the highest level — the gap between fifth and the Champions League places is the sharpest possible argument for why the squad configuration that produced 20 wins and a goal difference of 18 was not quite enough. The opening pre-season fixture, away at Torino on 23 August, arrives as the first live test of whether the group assembled this summer can look like something more coherent than the side that took only four points from its final three league matches.
The attacking spine at least gives the coaching staff something to work with. Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão each finished on 10 goals across Serie A and the Coppa Italia, and Christopher Nkunku added eight — that is 28 goals from three players in those two competitions, a genuine foundation. Adrien Rabiot's six goals from midfield, with four assists, gave the team a late-arriving presence that was arguably underused in the final weeks. The question for pre-season is whether the front line can build combinations deep enough that the attack does not stall when one of those three is unavailable, as happened repeatedly in the run-in.
Torino on 23 August is where the shape of the new season becomes legible. Milan will travel to face a side that has historically made life uncomfortable for teams who are still finding their rhythm in August, and a result there will set the early-season tone before the fixture list hardens. The watch is simple: can Pulisic, Leão, and Nkunku operate with the kind of fluency that a fifth-place side threatening the European spots will need from the first whistle, or does another slow start push Milan into the same recovery mode that made last season's final table feel like a missed opportunity?
A 3-0 defeat to Chelsea in Jakarta — no shots on target, rarely crossing halfway — is the sharpest possible summary of where AC Milan stand two weeks before the Torino opener on August 23rd. Per MilanNews.it, the Chelsea friendly followed draws against Celtic and Inter that had offered glimpses of the system the manager is trying to build, but the result in Jakarta exposed how thin the squad is for that approach. The same outlet's match-week reporting notes the club is being described as "defenseless" and still waiting on reinforcements — a blunt assessment that, five seasons in fifth place on 70 points, this group cannot afford to carry into a competitive fixture.
The output lines from last season put the problem in focus: Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão each reached 10 goals across Serie A and the Coppa Italia, Christopher Nkunku contributed eight, and Adrien Rabiot added six — a functional attacking core, but one that finished the year with a goal difference of only 18 from 38 games. That narrow margin directly explains the gap between fifth place and a Champions League berth. Per MilanNews.it, the official summer business includes Andrej Kostic among the confirmed arrivals, but the same reporting is explicit that targets in central midfield and defensive reinforcement — Hojbjerg and Inácio named by Corriere dello Sport — remain unresolved heading into the final stretch of the window.
The Torino trip on August 23rd arrives in just under a fortnight, and MilanNews.it describes the squad as a building site with too few players suited to the manager's requirements. The identity of this Milan — Luka Modric dictating tempo, Samuele Ricci pressing through the middle, Gonçalo Ramos alongside Santiago Gimenez in the final third — is visible in outline but not yet in substance. Whether the window delivers before the first whistle in Turin will determine whether that 3-0 in Jakarta was a warning or a preview.
A fifth-place finish on 70 points — and a pre-season schedule that reads like a major tournament — sets the stakes for AC Milan's summer. Per MilanNews.it, August alone includes a friendly against Chelsea in Jakarta and a second pre-season match against Manchester United before Serie A kicks off, with the first competitive fixture arriving on 23 August away to Torino. That is not an incidental warm-up run; it is a pressure test of whether the squad rebuilt over the summer can handle a physical Torino side from the opening whistle.
The most significant piece of confirmed business is a departure: per MilanNews.it, Ismaël Bennacer's contract has been mutually terminated, with the Algerian midfielder posting an emotional farewell message to the club. Bennacer's exit removes a profile from the engine room that Milan will need to account for, particularly with Samuele Ricci, Ardon Jashari, Warren Bondo, and Youssouf Fofana now carrying the central midfield load. On the incoming side, MilanNews.it's summer transfer log confirms Andrej Kostic among the arrivals — a forward addition to a group that already includes Santiago Gimenez and Gonçalo Ramos alongside the established attacking voices. Last season Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão each reached 10 goals across Serie A and Coppa Italia, with Christopher Nkunku contributing eight; the depth behind them is growing.
The Torino fixture on 23 August is the first chance to see how the new pieces actually fit. Torino defend with discipline and make the final third genuinely difficult, so the question of how Milan's midfield connects with Pulisic and Leão — without Bennacer setting the tempo from deep — is not abstract. The pre-season tour through Jakarta and whatever follows against Manchester United should give the coaching staff two competitive run-outs to settle the midfield structure before that opening Serie A road trip.
Milan's pre-season tour through Jakarta has produced more than squad fitness updates. Per SempreMilan, the club and PUMA have unveiled an all-black third kit for 2026-27, a visual reset that coincides with what looks like a genuine managerial transition in philosophy. At the pre-season press conference ahead of the Chelsea friendly in Jakarta, the manager sent a clear signal — per MilanNews.it, next week will bring decisions, including on the transfer market, with a contact reported for a Chilean player. That framing matters: Milan finished last season fifth in Serie A on 70 points, seven wins and eight losses shaping a side that was too inconsistent to force its way into Champions League contention.
The Europa League is now the ceiling and the target. La Gazzetta dello Sport, as cited by MilanNews.it, frames it as an attainable prize for Milan and Juventus after both clubs missed out on Champions League qualification — and the squad's attacking numbers suggest the tools are already there. Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão each finished the season with 10 goals across Serie A and Coppa Italia, Christopher Nkunku added eight, and Adrien Rabiot contributed six. That is four players in double figures or close to it; the problem last season was not the final third so much as the inability to hold results — two of the last three matches of the season ended in home defeats.
The fitness and cohesion question gets its first competitive answer away at Torino on August 23rd. Per MilanNews.it, midfielder Ardon Jashari, speaking from the Jakarta camp, said he never considered leaving and that the manager's high-intensity approach gives him encouragement. A player who buys into the system publicly, mid-tour, is a small but concrete sign that the dressing room is aligned ahead of that opener. Torino away is a grinding fixture at the best of times; how the back four organizes under a new identity will tell us whether the pre-season work translated or whether August 23rd becomes another evening of defensive fragility.
The death of Franco Baresi at 66 has cast a long shadow over Milan's pre-season. Per BBC Sport and The Guardian, thousands lined the streets of Milan and former teammates gathered at the Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio to pay their respects to the man who defined the art of central defending across Serie A's most celebrated era. For a club that finished fifth last season on 70 points — good enough for a European place, but not the one supporters expected — the mourning period has sharpened a broader question about identity: what exactly does this squad stand for, and how does it build back toward the top three?
The attacking picture from last season at least gives the squad something to work from. Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão both finished on 10 goals across Serie A and the Coppa Italia, while Christopher Nkunku contributed 8 goals and 3 assists in his first full campaign at the club. Adrien Rabiot added 6 goals from midfield. That is a productive spread across four contributors — the problem was a record that included a final-day home defeat to Cagliari and a season-closing goal difference of plus 18, numbers that place Milan firmly in the chasing pack rather than among the pacesetters.
The first competitive measure of how the summer has changed things arrives on August 23 at Torino. It is a road fixture, against a side that will want to impose an early-season tempo of their own, and Milan's recent away form — including the 2-1 win at Genoa in May — suggests they can travel and get results. Whether Pulisic and Leão are sharp enough from the first whistle of a new campaign, and whether the defensive record that cost points in the final weeks has genuinely been addressed, will start to become clear that Sunday afternoon.
The flags are flying at half-mast over San Siro this week. Franco Baresi died aged 66, and the outpouring — thousands lining the streets of Milan for his funeral at the Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio, per both BBC Sport and The Guardian — was a reminder of what this club meant to an era. Baresi was not simply a decoration on the trophy cabinet; he was the architecture of how Milan defended, the back four organized around his reading of the game rather than brute athleticism. That weight of legacy sits awkwardly against last season's final standings: fifth place, 70 points, a goal difference of 18 that tells the story of a team that scored often enough but conceded when it could least afford it.
The attacking returns were not the problem. Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão each finished on 10 goals across Serie A and the Coppa Italia, Christopher Nkunku contributed 8, and Adrien Rabiot added 6 alongside 4 assists in his first full season in the red and black — four players in double figures or close to it is a healthy return for any side outside the European elite. What a 20-10-8 record and a fifth-place finish actually reveals is that the wins came in clusters and the draws bled points at the wrong moments; ten draws across 38 games is not a death sentence, but it is the margin between Champions League football and the Europa League conversation. The August 23 trip to Torino is the first chance to show whether the summer has addressed that habit.
That fixture arrives before the full picture of pre-season is clear, but the squad's attacking core is intact and its scoring depth is a reasonable platform. Torino away is the kind of opener that catches teams still finding their legs — and whether the back four has been tightened enough to avoid the defensive lapses that contributed to a negative-result finish against the drop zone and mid-table sides last May will be the real question to track from the first whistle.
The death of Franco Baresi, confirmed by the club and reported by BBC Sport on July 31st, arrived during a summer when AC Milan are already doing the hard work of reconciling a storied past with an uncertain present. Baresi spent his entire career at San Siro and, per The Guardian, was the definition of central defending at his peak — a standard the club has spent decades trying to rebuild into its DNA. Mourning him while constructing a squad capable of climbing back into Champions League contention is not contradiction; it is the particular weight of being AC Milan in 2026.
Last season's finish told the clearest version of the problem: fifth place, 70 points, a goal difference of 18 across a 20-10-8 campaign. That is a mid-pack European position, not a title contender's. Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão each finished on 10 goals across Serie A and Coppa Italia, Christopher Nkunku added eight, but the team's inconsistency in the final weeks — dropping home games in May — kept them out of the top four. Luka Modric, who turns 41 in September, has signed a one-year extension per BBC Sport, meaning the midfield retains its most experienced organiser even as the club weighs how to add legs and intensity around him.
The first test of whatever version Milan have assembled arrives on August 23rd away to Torino — an early-season away fixture that will quickly reveal whether the defensive lapses that contributed to a negative home run in May have been addressed. Adrien Rabiot's six goals from midfield last season gave the team a second creative layer behind Pulisic and Leão; whether that balance holds with a reshuffled squad around Modric is the question the Torino fixture starts to answer.
Finishing fifth in Serie A on 70 points — 20 wins, a goal difference of plus-18 — is the kind of result that sits uncomfortably between progress and stagnation. It confirmed European football for next season, but it also confirmed a gap to the top four that Milan never quite closed across 38 matchdays. That gap, not any individual defeat, is the honest summary of where the club stands heading into pre-season.
The attacking numbers from last season point at something real: Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leão each reached 10 goals across Serie A and the Coppa Italia, while Christopher Nkunku added 8. That is a front line with proven output. The more structural question is whether that production — spread across three contributors without a dominant 15-goal striker — is sufficient to sustain a top-four challenge through January and into the spring. Adrien Rabiot's 6 goals and 4 assists from midfield also matter here; that return from a central midfielder is not supplementary, it's load-bearing, and it suggests Milan's goal threat was built on collective volume rather than a single decisive presence in the final third.
The first competitive read of the new season arrives on 23 August when Milan travel to Torino. Road form will be worth monitoring closely: last season's away record contributed to a points-per-game average that held Milan a tier below the title contenders. Whether the squad that reported for pre-season reflects the lessons of a fifth-place finish — or simply restates the same structure — will become visible at Torino before any tactical declaration can be made in comfort.
The death of Franco Baresi, confirmed by BBC Sport, lands during an off-season that already carried weight for the club. The Guardian's tribute described him as unsurpassed — the definition of the central defender's art — and the timing makes this a moment to reckon with what the badge actually represents. Milan finished last season fifth in Serie A on 70 points, good enough for a European place but not the one that defines ambitions. The gap between that and a genuine Scudetto challenge runs through the attacking numbers: Rafael Leão led all scorers across all competitions with 9 goals and 3 assists, and Christian Pulisic added 8 goals and 4 assists — contributions that kept Milan competitive without ever hitting the volume a title-chasing side needs from its forward line.
Luka Modric's contract extension, per BBC Sport, is the off-season's sharpest editorial line. The Croatian turns 41 in September and has signed on for another season, which says something about how the club views its midfield depth even if it raises questions about planning beyond the immediate term. Adrien Rabiot contributed 6 goals and 4 assists last season across all competitions — a midfielder's return that actually flattered the position's influence — while Christopher Nkunku's 7 goals and 3 assists gave the forward line a third credible option. The spine is experienced. Whether it has the legs for a sustained Champions League push across a full campaign is the question the August fixtures will begin to answer.
Serie A's 2026/27 schedule opens with Torino away on August 23rd, per the Lega Serie A calendar announcement. A road opener against Torino is a test with its own logic — physical, combative, a side that defends in structured blocks — and finishing fifth last season means Milan arrive in the new campaign with something to prove rather than something to protect. Strahinja Pavlović's 5 goals from defence last season confirmed he is a set-piece threat worth building around; if the back line holds its shape early, the attacking returns from Leão and Pulisic have enough quality to take three points. The opener will tell us whether last season's inconsistency carried over or got left behind in the summer.
The news out of Milan this week carries a weight that no league table can measure. Franco Baresi — the captain who defined the Rossoneri's era of European dominance, the sweeper who made the back four an art form — has died at 66, per both The Guardian and BBC Sport. The club's response, that the entire history of AC Milan is in tears, is not hyperbole. It is the only honest register for losing the man whose number 6 was retired from Serie A altogether. Pre-season training sessions in Perth continue, but the squad begins this summer carrying something heavier than a fifth-place finish and a goal difference of plus-18.
That fifth-place finish — 70 points, 20 wins, a record across 38 games — lands Milan outside the Champions League places, and that gap shapes everything about how this squad must be assessed going into August. The attack did enough to suggest the pieces are there: Rafael Leão contributed 9 goals and 3 assists across all competitions, Christian Pulisic added 8 goals and 4 assists, and Christopher Nkunku chipped in 7 goals and 3 assists. The problem was never the front third in isolation — it was the failure to convert that firepower into a top-four return. Meanwhile, BBC Sport reports that Luka Modric, who turns 41 in September, has signed a one-year contract extension, keeping a Champions League-calibre midfield voice in the building through another campaign.
The first competitive test arrives on 23 August at Torino — a road fixture that will tell Milan's opening-day story quickly. Torino are a side built to make transitional play uncomfortable, and Milan's record of conceding in their final home games of last season points to a defence that needs to be sharper than it was in May. Strahinja Pavlovic — five goals from the back last season, the most of any defender in the scoring block — remains the platform Milan's centre-back structure relies on. Whether the pre-season work in Perth has tightened the shape that let a 2-1 lead slip against Cagliari on the final day is the practical question the Torino fixture will answer.
A 40-year-old midfielder extending his contract is not the usual sign of a squad moving forward — but per BBC Sport, Luka Modric has signed a new one-year deal at San Siro, turning 41 in September. The decision reflects where Milan actually stand: fifth in Serie A last season on 70 points, outside the top four on goal difference, with a squad that finished 2025-26 producing just 9 goals from its leading scorer, Rafael Leão. That attacking ceiling was the season's clearest constraint, and Modric's retention suggests the rebuild is more evolutionary than structural.
Pre-season is already providing some early answers about the direction of travel. A summer friendly against Celtic — detailed by both Yahoo Sports and The Scotsman — gives the squad competitive minutes before the August calendar opens. Christian Pulisic's 8 goals and 4 assists last season made him the most consistent contributor in the final third, and Christopher Nkunku's 7 goals in his first campaign at the club represent the kind of upside the squad needs to grow if Milan are to close the gap on the top four. Strahinja Pavlović's 5 goals from centre-back last season also signals a set-piece threat that can be built on — that kind of defensive output from an unlikely source is a real tactical asset heading into a new campaign.
The August 23 trip to Torino is the first concrete measure of whether the off-season work has translated. Milan won 20 games last season and lost only 8, which means the points-per-game was good enough to challenge for European places — just not to secure the right ones. The question that fixture will begin to answer is whether the front line can find more consistency earlier in the campaign rather than drifting into the top-scorer tallies that Leão and Pulisic ultimately delivered, because fifth place was fine last season and will not be enough if Milan are serious about returning to the Champions League.
A fifth-place finish on 70 points — one position outside the European places that matter most — is the number that frames this entire off-season for AC Milan. The 2025-26 campaign produced 20 wins and a goal difference of plus-18, which is a foundation worth building on, but the Champions League berth slipped away and that gap will shape every decision made before the August 23 opener at Torino.
The most concrete off-season development so far is Luka Modric's contract extension, confirmed by BBC Sport and Football Italia. The deal keeps a midfielder who contributed six goals and four assists last season — per Adrien Rabiot's numbers in the scoring list — no, let's be precise: Rabiot himself posted those six goals and four assists across all competitions, and his midfield partnership with a now-retained Modric gives the club continuity in the centre ahead of a season where deeper European qualification is the target. Pre-season is already underway, with The Scotsman reporting a friendly against Celtic this weekend — Milan's first meaningful test against top-level resistance before competitive football resumes.
The Torino fixture on August 23 is a useful early read. Rafael Leão led the scoring charts last season with nine goals and three assists across all competitions, and Christian Pulisic added eight goals and four assists — but neither was enough to push Milan into the top four when it mattered. Whether that attacking output sharpens, or whether the same patterns produce the same fifth-place ceiling, is the argument this pre-season and that first fixture will start to answer.
Luka Modric committing to another year at San Siro — confirmed by BBC Sport and Football Italia — is the clearest signal of where AC Milan see themselves heading into 2026-27. At 40, turning 41 in September, Modric is not a squad-depth signing; his retention suggests the club expects to compete at a level that makes his experience worth the roster spot, even after a fifth-place finish on 70 points and a goal difference of just +18 last season.
That fifth-place finish is the number that frames everything the pre-season must answer. Rafael Leão led the attacking contributors with 9 goals and 3 assists across all competitions, with Christian Pulisic adding 8 goals and 4 assists — and yet the combined output from the squad's two most productive attackers wasn't enough to push Milan into the top four. Christopher Nkunku chipped in 7 goals and 3 assists, and Adrien Rabiot's 6 goals and 4 assists from midfield gave the side genuine depth in the final third — but 20 wins and 8 defeats across 38 games tells you this was a team that dropped points in fixtures it was expected to take. A pre-season fixture against Celtic, reported by The Scotsman, gives the coaching staff a meaningful test environment before the competitive calendar reopens.
The first league fixture of 2026-27 arrives on 23 August at Torino — an away match that will immediately ask whether the off-season addressed the inconsistency that cost Milan Champions League football. Strahinja Pavlovic's 5 goals from defence last season was a genuine tactical weapon from set pieces, and whether that threat translates into a cleaner defensive record — the back line conceded enough to leave GD at only +18 — is the question worth tracking from the first whistle at Torino.
Luka Modric committing to another year at San Siro — confirmed by BBC Sport and Football Italia — is the clearest signal of where AC Milan see themselves heading into 2026-27. At 40, turning 41 in September, Modric is not a squad-depth signing; his retention suggests the club expects to compete at a level that makes his experience worth the roster spot, even after a fifth-place finish on 70 points and a goal difference of just +18 last season.
That fifth-place finish is the number that frames everything the pre-season must answer. Rafael Leão led the attacking contributors with 9 goals and 3 assists across all competitions, with Christian Pulisic adding 8 goals and 4 assists — and yet the combined output from the squad's two most productive attackers wasn't enough to push Milan into the top four. Christopher Nkunku chipped in 7 goals and 3 assists, and Adrien Rabiot's 6 goals and 4 assists from midfield gave the side genuine depth in the final third — but 20 wins and 8 defeats across 38 games tells you this was a team that dropped points in fixtures it was expected to take. A pre-season fixture against Celtic, reported by The Scotsman, gives the coaching staff a meaningful test environment before the competitive calendar reopens.
The first league fixture of 2026-27 arrives on 23 August at Torino — an away match that will immediately ask whether the off-season addressed the inconsistency that cost Milan Champions League football. Strahinja Pavlovic's 5 goals from defence last season was a genuine tactical weapon from set pieces, and whether that threat translates into a cleaner defensive record — the back line conceded enough to leave GD at only +18 — is the question worth tracking from the first whistle at Torino.
Seventy points and fifth place was the arithmetic of a season that never quite resolved its own contradictions: enough quality to finish six points clear of the European places below, not enough consistency to threaten the Champions League slots above. The final record tells a mid-table-of-ambition story — 20 wins is a title-contender volume of victories, but ten draws bled the points that would have separated Milan from the Europa League conversation. The pre-season opener against Torino on August 23 is the first real signal of whether anything structural has changed.
The attacking numbers from last season give the squad genuine foundation to build from. Rafael Leão finished as the top scorer across all competitions with nine goals and three assists, while Christian Pulisic contributed eight goals and four assists from midfield — a combined return that represents real threat when both are running. Christopher Nkunku added seven goals and three assists in his first campaign at the club, and Adrien Rabiot's six goals from central midfield gave Milan a dimension that most sides with similar budget constraints can't replicate. The question the pre-season window needs to answer isn't whether the attack has talent; it's whether the squad can reduce the ten draws that separated this version of Milan from a top-four finish.
Strahinja Pavlović's five goals from the back line — the fifth-highest individual tally at the club last season — is the most underappreciated number in that squad profile, and it points to where Milan's set-piece delivery and defensive aggression can genuinely supplement the attack. Torino away on August 23 will be an early read on how the squad has cohered through pre-season: a team with this attacking firepower and last season's 18-goal positive difference should be converting those draw weeks into wins rather than splitting points. That conversion rate, more than any single result, is what the new campaign needs to get right.
The August 23 visit to Torino — first competitive fixture of the new season — lands against a backdrop that makes the destination more pointed than usual: fifth place and 70 points was where 2025-26 ended, two positions and several points short of Champions League football. That gap between what Milan produced across 38 matches and what UCL qualification demands is the sharpest framing device going into pre-season, and it renders the Torino opener something more than a calendar formality.
The attacking numbers from last season tell a specific story about distribution. Rafael Leão finished as top scorer across all competitions with 9 goals and 3 assists, but the contribution spread across the squad was unusually flat — Christian Pulisic recorded 8 goals and 4 assists, Christopher Nkunku added 7 goals and 3 assists, and even Adrien Rabiot and Strahinja Pavlovic contributed meaningfully from midfield and defence respectively. Five players in double-figure combined goal and assist tallies across a season sounds healthy; the underlying issue is that none of them broke into territory that separates European contenders from Europa League finishers. No single player imposed himself on games consistently enough to carry Milan through the tight moments that decide top-four races.
The Torino fixture on August 23 is where pre-season intentions meet competitive reality. Torino away is an awkward early test — physical, organised in their own half, and capable of making the opening weekend uncomfortable for a side still finding its rhythm. What to watch: whether the front line shows the kind of vertical aggression in the final third that was conspicuously absent in the last home defeat of last season, and whether the balance between Leão's directness and Pulisic's movement produces the incisive combinations that Milan's 20-win campaign occasionally flattered to deceive.
Torino away on August 23rd is where last season's accounting begins — and the ledger is unsparing. Milan finished fifth on 70 points, a campaign that delivered neither a Champions League berth nor the kind of European runway the squad's attacking output deserved. The goals were there: Rafael Leão produced 9 goals and 3 assists across all competitions, Christian Pulisic added 8 goals and 4 assists, and Christopher Nkunku chipped in 7 goals and 3 assists — a front-line capable of hurting most defenses in Serie A. The problem was what surrounded it, a squad that couldn't reliably close out matches at San Siro, dropping points to both Atalanta and Cagliari in the final fortnight.
The structure of that fifth-place finish tells the real story heading into the new campaign. A goal difference of plus-18 over 38 games reflects a side that generated enough going forward but leaked at the wrong moments — and the fact that a midfielder in Adrien Rabiot reached six Serie A goals tells you something about where the scoring burden landed when the forwards were quiet. Strahinja Pavlovic's five goals from center-back illustrate how far Milan had to reach into the squad for contribution; that kind of defensive output is a bonus, not a blueprint. Nothing has been reported on that front regarding summer activity.
The opening fixture at Torino on August 23rd is the first real test of whether the off-season addressed those fault lines. Torino traditionally set up to frustrate — compact, physical, difficult to break down early — which means Milan's front three will need to find combinations faster than they managed in the final weeks of last season. Pulisic's movement in the half-spaces and Leão's direct running represent the clearest route through; whether the midfield can supply them with the frequency the fixture demands is the question that August 23rd will begin to answer.
Pre-season begins Monday, per SempreMilan, and the man now leading those sessions carries more symbolic weight than anything that happened across last season's final weeks. Ruben Amorim steps onto the training ground as head coach with a squad that finished fifth in Serie A on 70 points — enough to stay in the European conversation, not enough to reach the Champions League places. The gulf between fifth and the top four is the single most urgent fact of the off-season, and it frames every decision made before the August 23 trip to Torino.
The scoring picture from last season tells its own story. Rafael Leão led all contributors with 9 goals and 3 assists across all competitions, with Christian Pulisic posting 8 goals and 4 assists and Christopher Nkunku adding 7 goals and 3 assists — three forwards who each touched double figures in combined goal involvements, yet the club still won only 20 of 38 matches. Ten draws in a season is a pattern, not bad luck; it signals moments where Milan controlled territory without converting it into the decisive third goal. Amorim's task is to turn that attacking volume into results that hold. Nothing has been reported on the transfer front.
The opening fixture on August 23 arrives before the bulk of pre-season sharpness can be properly tested, which makes the next six weeks of work at Milanello genuinely consequential. Adrien Rabiot's 6 goals and 4 assists from midfield — and Strahinja Pavlovic's 5 goals from centre-back — show that last season's contributions were spread wide across the squad, a promising base for a new coach learning which combinations he trusts. Whether Amorim can compress that learning curve before Torino is the question that will define Milan's early-season footing.
Fifth place and 70 points last season. That finishing position — behind Juventus, Inter, Napoli, and Atalanta — is the sharpest possible editorial on where AC Milan's season fell apart, and the final three results tell the story without mercy: a 2-3 home defeat to Atalanta on May 10, then a 2-1 win at Genoa that briefly suggested a late rally, then a 2-1 loss at home to Cagliari on the final day. Twenty wins, ten draws, eight defeats, a goal difference of plus-18. Those are the numbers of a team with enough quality to suggest more, and not enough consistency to deliver it.
The scoring picture adds its own wrinkle. Rafael Leão finished the season as the club's leading contributor across all competitions with nine goals and three assists, but nine goals from a forward of his profile is a number that invites scrutiny. Christian Pulisic, nominally a midfielder, reached eight goals and four assists, while Christopher Nkunku posted seven goals and three assists. Adrien Rabiot's six goals from midfield and Strahinja Pavlovic's five from central defence were the kind of contributions that flattered a front line that never quite caught fire. Per SempreMilan, pre-season under the new head coach begins Monday — the first training session of the 2026-27 cycle, the first concrete signal of what the squad actually looks like going forward. Nothing has been reported on that front beyond that start date.
The August 23 trip to Torino arrives quickly once pre-season is folded away. Torino away is not a forgiving opener — they press with purpose and are comfortable making the final third uncomfortable early in the campaign — and for a side that conceded that 2-3 at home to Atalanta and that 1-2 to Cagliari in the last two home matches of last season, defensive cohesion under a new manager is the sharpest question mark. Whether the partnership built around Pavlovic — five goals from set pieces last season, which means he is already a weapon the opposition will account for — can transfer its reliability into a new system before August 23 is the number that frames the opening month.