Erik ten Hag handed blueprint for Man Utd success by AC Milan after league title

Next season will be the tenth campaign since Manchester United last lifted the Premier League trophy and this year saw them languish a whopping 35 points off top spot.

While the situation may seem particularly bleak for United, they could look to Italy for an example of a historically successful team who had gone through a prolonged slump before re-finding success. Milan had not won a league title since 2011 and in the 2019/20 campaign – the same wait that United had this year – had collected just 14 points from their opening 13 league games, and appointed Stefano Pioli.

Fast forward two-and-a-half years and the Rossoneri clinched their first Scudetto in 11 years with Sunday’s three-goal victory at Sassuolo ensuring they beat city rivals Inter to the crown by two points. It was the club’s first league title in more than a decade and confounded expectations for the campaign which had been to land a top four finish.

Only Real Madrid had won the Champions League more times than Milan’s seven, yet this season’s participation in the competition ended a seven-year absence for the club. Not only had the Milanese giants not been title challengers, but they had not been in the leading group of Italian teams for more than half a decade. It was an unprecedented situation.

The appointment of Pioli in October 2019 was a turning point – after their dreadful opening third of a season, they recovered to average over two points per game for the final 25 league matches to salvage a sixth-placed finish. That campaign finished with a 10-match unbeaten run, following the return of football from the Covid pandemic.

Pioli’s appointment was the first turning point but the second – and most significant – moment came at the end of that