And now the one where I argue with myself over what we saw on Sunday in the Derby. Is Pioli the devil or is he the angel that leads us to another resurrection? Is BAD NONNO taking over or is GOOD NONNO still in control? Let me argue amongst myselves and decide!
BAD NONNO: First things first… how in the hell do you bench Leao? It’s the biggest game of the year and you are gonna leave the reigning league MVP on the bench? He’s due for a renewal and you are gonna piss him off by benching him for the Milan Derby? COME ON MAN!!!
GOOD NONNO: I’ll admit the benching was a bit of a surprise. I can make sense of the reasoning behind it. First of all I think the game plan was definitely to sit deep early, similar to a half court press in basketball. If you watch carefully Giroud is the only person past midfield most of the time. The question would be whether we could organize and defend. Keep it 0-0 to half. If we could do that then you put on Leao either at the half or shortly thereafter. If it’s 0-0 you wait as long as possible. At 1-0 you couldn’t wait forever. Not the kind of tactic you wanna see if you ant your team to go for it, but a tactic I can understand considering our current run of form. Also keep in mind we have a game Friday and Champions league on Tuesday. A little rest after having him play nonstop since the break isn’t a bad idea. He probably gets that break sooner during this stretch if things are going well, but with the recent downturn in form he had to be out there in most games.
BN: Not buying it old man. Moving on. After playing a 4231, how are you gonna switch to a 352 midseason? We won the scudetto with a 4231. That’s who we are. IT’S OUR IDENTITY. We play 4231 and we press. For years we didn’t have an identity and now we have one and we ditch it for the derby? COME ON MAN!!!
GN: No doubt the 4231 is what got us here. It’s certainly what won us the Scudetto last year. It’s also exactly what we are built for. The fatal flaw in it, which we were able to mask for over 2 years, is we never had a CAM. 4231 needs a CAM. We won without one. Through a solid midfield and the magic of Leao and craftiness of Giroud we’ve been able to paper over that crack. Diaz, Kessie, Krunic, even Messias and Saelemaekers all took turns in that spot but there was never a solid starter. That changed this year when Diaz was essentially handed the spot with the hope of CDK coming on during the season. Well here it is February and Diaz hasn’t scored in almost 4 months. He still can’t play 90 minutes. CDK hasn’t blossomed. Kessie is long gone. Krunic missed time. It’s gone stale and been figured out. Running it back without much real reinforcement was a risk. To say it’s blown up in our faces is putting it mildly.
BN: But you still gotta press! We can’t just sit back and do nothing all game. That’s not what we do. We chase and press and force mistakes. That’s what we do! COME ON MAN!!!
GN: A good press starts from the back. Any coach will tell you this. Maignan is the perfect anchor for the press. He plays way off his line allowing everyone to get up a level. You have to have that guy in order to play that way. He’s the one that allows Kalulu and Tomori to make those runs to cut out attacks at the halfway line. Those runs allow the midfield to push into the opposing half, choking out through balls from the opposing midfield to attack. That allows the forwards to stay high and disrupt any attempt to play from the back. No Maignan really means no press. It all falls apart without him. It should at least. Yet it didn’t. At least not right away. We won the first 4 league games without Maignan. We won CL qualification without him too. Managed to stay in second place through the first 12 league games of his absence. Why do I say that? I say that because I think it was all an illusion. We should have been planning for a change then. We should have been planning all of the WC break for something new. Instead we doubled down on it. Some will say Pioli is stubborn. I think he was just fooled by good results against a very weak stretch of opponents.
BN: 352 against Inter though? In the Derby? Was this really the time to trot out something new? COME ON MAN!!!
GN: Truth be told Inter is probably the perfect team to trot out this formation and these tactics against. They are happiest when they are the team that can sit and counter. They have no interest in possessing. They have no metronome that works the ball back and forth in a Pirlo-esque fashion. They also don’t have anyone that is gonna take you on. Hakan, Brozovic, Barella , Mkhitaryan? They aren’t blowing by you toward goal. They were mostly invisible during this game for that reason. Their game is based on counters through the middle or wide counters on to the heads of Dzeko or Lukaku up top. The only exception is Lautaro. He’s the only one with that bit of something special, in movement and attack for them. He’s a tough task for anyone especially a group finding their way through a new system. Unfortunately for us he was fantastic on this day and clearly MOTM. Their only real danger man.
BN: 352 can’t be the answer though. Messias can’t possibly be a long term starter for us. That guy sucks. And you even mentioned yourself that Calabria is terrible. YOU said that! Not me! Gabbia? Krunic? You can’t be serious! COME ON MAN!!!
GN: All fair points. I’ll say this. It’s clear that Calabria sucks no matter where he plays for us. He’s no captain. it’s also clear that the RWB spot in the 352 is what Salad is built for. Gabbia? I’m no fan of the guy but clearly that’s a spot for Kalulu in time. Ideally that back 3 has a big imposing guy in the middle, a younger Kjaer of sorts, flanked by both Kalulu and Tomori. Someone like Thiaw who we saw later in the game. Lastly, don’t respect King Krunic. The Bosnian Ambrosini is solid. Also he’s just filling in for the suspended Bennacer. In time you have Tomori-Thiaw-Kalulu in the back with Salad and Theo on the wings, Bennacer and Tonali in the middle. The question will be who that 3rd midfielder is and who fills the 2 forward spots and how.
BN: That’s all fine and good but Pioli has not been able to bed in this new group of kids. They are all floundering, especially CDK. How much longer can a stiff like Messias get time? If we are gonna get back into this race and be a scudetto contender again he’s got to start playing these kids. COME ON MAN!!!
GN: I freely admit Pioli has not done well with last summers group of signings. There’s a player at every level to work in and really none of them have had much of an impact. At 6 months into the season that’s unacceptable. Keep in mind this is the same guy that worked in Kalulu and Saelemaekers rather quickly. His patience and planning also helped Tonali, Leao, Diaz and Tomori all grow. Maybe he hasn’t developed these guys far enough along yet but there is plenty of time. It’s not easy and tough decisions will have to be made. Also working these guys in while battling for top 4 is going to be tough. On this point I will concede that Pioli has blown it this season.
BN: Defend the man and this current management all you want but they gotta go! #MaldiniOUT #PioliOut! COME ON MAN!!
GN: #PioliIN… One last thing to keep in mind. This low budget/smart spending route we are going is not some magic pill to win scudetto after scudetto. It’s a way to do things where you are in a constant state of building and rebuilding. You are constantly selling and replenishing with an eye towards development and the future. Without new outlandish spending owners or, at the minimum, a new stadium, we won’t be at that level. We are probably never gonna be winning multiple consecutive scudetto again. That’s not being a Debbie Downer. That’s being a realist. The team most known for this philosophy, American baseball’s Oakland Athletics, have won their division 7 times during the 25 years of the ‘Moneyball’ era. They have never even made it to the World Series much less won it. To translate that to footballing terms that would be 7 scudetto over 25 years and never making it to the Champions League Final much less winning it. Maybe not what some dream of or even expect from this club, but I’d sign up for that.
In Maldini I Trust… FOREVER
Nonno