The 125th anniversary game was a beautiful spectacle. The week leading up to it. The pregame ceremonies. THE KIT. Seeing Rossoneri legends (except we didn’t see one major one…). Everything was great. Unfortunately, I wish the performance on the pitch was up to the task as Milan walk away with a dreadful 0-0 draw.
I read some tactical analyses over the last day or so. Nothing super in-depth, like deep in the weeds, but I feel there wasn’t the detachment I’ve seen sometimes with what we saw with our eyes in real time and what the video and still images show. Milan wasn’t terrible but came up terrible in a few key moments. They also weren’t spectacular and this is the part that concerns me. Least concerning? The Curva Sud. Stop with the protesting. You’re the same idiots who were protesting Pioli and a second place finish. So just miss me with that sh*t.
It’s important to keep in mind this was against a Genoa side meandering in the bottom third of the table, one of the worst scoring teams in the league and in the bottom third in defense and Milan draws 0-0?…at home?…in what was supposed to be a celebration of 125 years since its founding? I’ve been bemoaning Fonseca’s squad management and lineup decisions, and there is some of that worth scrutinizing in a moment, but mostly this game was lost as Fonseca didn’t counter Genoa’s aggressiveness effectively and Milan’s talent difference, almost doing enough to win, didn’t and here we are sitting in 8th. Yes, game in hand but sitting 8 points out of 4th to a team also with a game in hand.
Being 8 points out as we near the midway point in the league season isn’t insurmountable, but nothing in Fonseca’s short tenure has given us any reason to believe he can pull it together for long enough to go on a sustained run. Even during the somewhat nice run heading into the Atalanta game, Fonseca’s Milan put together 2 VERY unconvincing wins in Champions League vs some of the worst competition the league has to offer. We’ve seen the occasional one-off quality win, including against Inter and Real Madrid, but one-offs don’t get you deep in tournaments nor do they guarantee top 4 finishes.
In the last 24 hours at the time of this writing, there’s been some really great thoughtful and well-reasoned replies in the comments of the matchday post. While there has been some overlap, most have offered differing perspectives on what’s plaguing Milan. Heck, Lisi and I here at the Fossa disagree somewhat on what’s plaguing Milan so this isn’t terribly surprising.
Here is my take: Fonseca’s coaching is a sizeable portion of Milan’s problems at the moment. In fact, I think it’s the biggest problem. Gerry & Company (minus Maldini is what I mostly mean here since Maldini technically stayed on for his first year of ownership) are the next biggest, followed by the player’s performance. Why do I think that? Because Pioli has a lesser team with the same Gerry & Company and produced a 2nd place league finish. And before someone says Pioli didn’t make the Champions League knockouts last season, Champions League qualification ALWAYS trumps knockouts at least until Milan can win it all. Why? Because Milan doesn’t have the money to construct a team that can challenge on two fronts. Champions League qualification brings in more money on the whole since you don’t know how far you’ll make it in the knockouts, so qualification has to be the priority.
I know some of you are on the side of benching star players but I can tell you in my 30+ years of fandom, in many sports and not just football/soccer, this RARELY works. Usually you split the locker room, tank your team’s chances (both in game and perhaps in the future if key players are sold off), you just end up getting fired, and the team almost always suffers a set back. In this Genoa game, Theo was benched, apparently the target of Fonseca’s Red Star Belgrade post game rant blaming the players, and what did Fonseca get for it? He got dropped points and a worse table position than before the game started. Essentially a deeper hole and too proud to admit he was wrong. Come to think of it, he’s very emblematic of the current Gerry & Company leadership: cut off nose/spite face.
Finally, while we’re on stupidity, I don’t know if you all saw Maldini’s Instagram post honoring the 125th anniversary occasion. It was a tribute to what Milan has meant to him. It was lovely. The stupid part comes after. Milan’s Instagram tried sharing the post and after what a surely a deluge of negative comments, they deleted it. Then, adding insult to injury, a wave of Milan players liked Maldini’s Instagram post, showing the love they have for their former director. Yes, it’s just liking a post but you’d have to be blind to not see why a few of us wanted him in the role, and why even more of us felt it was mistake to let him go after years of positive impact bringing Milan back to relevance.
What a moronic decision it was to not invite Maldini to the festivities for the 125 year anniversary celebration. As I said in the matchday post, and as longtime reader @Favretto on Twitter quoted in his Tweet in the link above, Maldini is Milan.
What Happened in Serie A
Ok, so Milan fell to 8th in the table and Genoa remain in 14th. Let’s go over the rest.
After suffering their first loss since September 24th, losing to Real Madrid 3-2 in Champions League midweek, Atalanta (1st) grinded through a tough road win at Cagliari (18th). As Lisi said in the Whip Around, Cagliari has been difficult at home (Milan had that tough 3-3 draw there last month) but Atalanta did just enough with a 66th minute Zaniolo goal to grab all 3 points.
Napoli (2nd) grabbed 3 second half goals to win 3-1 away at Udinese (9th). I caught a little of the first half and thought Napoli was due to drop at least a few points but they fought back and played better than I thought they would on the day. Inter (3rd) showed none of the sluggishness Napoli showed in the first half and DEMOLISHED Lazio (5th), at the Stadio Olimpico, 6-0. You read that right. It looks like the Scudetto is more likely than not going to be between Atalanta and Inter and you know what Nerazzurri I’ll be going for between the two.
Fiorentina (4th) dropped their first Serie A match since September 15th, losing 1-0 to Bologna (7th). Bologna has been slowly improving and have now leapfrogged Milan. Looks like they’ll be back in the fight for a European spot, especially once they likely bow out of Champions League and can just focus on Serie A. Juventus (6th), last of those currently occupying a European spot, needed a stoppage time PK to draw 2-2 at home vs Venezia (20th). With Juve’s big 2-0 win over Manchester City midweek, a letdown was surely in the cards for them in this game but they kept it to a minimum.
Torino (11th) are now tied on points with Empoli (10th) after beating them 1-0 on a 70th goal from the midline, catching Milan loanee GK Vasquez off his line. Yikes. Speaking of yikes, Roma (12th) lost 2-0 at Como (16th), continuing their poor season. I love me some Claudio Ranieri but that poorly constructed team, largely built under the guidance of Mourinho and exacerbated by Daniele De Rossi’s spending spree, maybe be too far of a lost cause to salvage this season. Time to blow them up as Lisi has been saying.
Lecce (14th) got a much needed win over Monza (19th), who despite another close loss, may not have what it takes to stay up this season. Their goal differential is still in their favor compared to other bottom dwellers but they need to find a way to bring home all 3 points at least sometimes, something they’ve only done once so far this season. Finally, Hellas Verona (17th) beat Parma (15th) 3-2 in an exciting game for anyone that watched. Lisi predicted a lot of goals in this with both teams having poor defenses and he was right.
Alright, that wraps up what happened in the league, now let’s move on to player ratings.
Player Ratings
Goal Keeping
MAIGNAN 7 – Didn’t have a lot to do as Genoa only mustered 5 shots for the game, none of them on goal. Also, he looked great in the all black throwback keeper kit
Goal Keeping Overall 7
Defense
ROYAL 6.5 – Lots of great forward runs. Terrible once he got there.
GABBIA 6.5 – Was fine.
THIAW 6.5 – Was fine.
JIMENEZ 6.5 – Kid had a solid season debut. Good runs, delivered a few solid balls into dangerous areas. Though not his fault, he shouldn’t have started at LB as Theo needed to play. Would’ve been happy to see him as a sub or even tried out at RB.
Defense Overall 6.5
Midfield
FOFANA 6.5 – Solid. Love his passing. DM’d like a boss.
REIJNDERS 6.5 – Solid like Fofana. I do wish in games like this he asserted himself more offensively as he stayed out of the 18 yard box for most of the match. Not sure if that was intentional as part of the tactics but Milan needed him to help generate a few goals and it just didn’t happen. Am I being hard on him? Yes. But if he wants to continue to climb that elite midfielder ladder, he’s going to need to find ways to impact games like this and not just bang home goals when Milan is up 1 or 2 goals already.
Midfield Overall 6.5
Forwards
CHUKWUEZE 6 – I wanted him wider and running to the end line and he just kept cutting in and trying to fire off a shot. That movement helped Genoa swarm and snuff out any build up. I was big on him heading into the season with the prospect of Pulisic as the CAM but it’s just not happening, with or without Pulisic.
LIBERALI 6.5 – Not bad in his debut with the first team. You can see his talent on the ball and he warrants more playing time, especially with the injuries. But in this game, he was timid a lot of the time and I guess we just have to take that as he grows and gains confidence. I definitely want to see more, especially in a more open game.
LEÃO 6.5 – Just seemed a little bit off all game. Like he just couldn’t complete whatever he was trying to do.
ABRAHAM 6 – Had one solid chance but just wasn’t as involved as he needed to be. Apparently got subbed off at the half as a precaution with some sort of injury. Hopefully it’s nothing major.
Forwards Overall 6.3
Subs
MORATA 6 – Work rate was great as usual. But the finishing. Dreadful. The two best chances of the game for Milan fell to him and he just didn’t produce. Milan as a team should’ve been better but Morata had the chance to salvage all 3 points and he just couldn’t get it into the back of the net.
CAMARDA 6 – Solid. He’s faster than I intuitively think because he’s a big kid. Love all the minutes he’s getting and this experience will pay off.
OKAFOR 6 – He played.
Subs Overall 6
Coaching
FONSECA 3 – Loved the attacking selection but hated just about everything tactically. And the Theo benching was DUMB. Dude, you were sitting in 7th place heading in and you need to make up points. So you bench Theo to send him a message but you drop points in a very winnable game at home for your team’s 125th anniversary. Now you have even less leverage and your team is worse off, now sitting in 8th. Moronic decision.
On the pitch, the ref in this game let Genoa foul and disrupt play in ways that were outside of the rules of play and they should have been carded more and earlier in the game. But even then, at the half loyal reader Roberto Palma pointed out that Genoa’s right side was carded but did Fonseca attack and hone in on it to exploit it? Nope. If anything, they favored Genoa’s left side more in the second half. Pure incompetence.
Still, Fonseca’s squad management is the biggest hindrance to the team right now. Even more than what Gerry & Company are doing to it. Fonseca’s Milan is more talented than Pioli ever had. Seriously. Google it. Look up and down those teams. Sure, there are areas where Pioli had it better, some worse, but on the whole this team is more talented than any Pioli-led team.
So, this all leads to the very important question: does Milan cut bait? I think they should but the bigger problem is I don’t know who can come in midseason and save a top 4 finish. That being said, I don’t have the insight to know who would be a good replacement midseason because it’s not my job to know. But it is the job of Gerry & Company. Their string of decisions these last 2 years however does not comfort my anxiety.
Final Thoughts
Sigh. What now? Does Fonseca start Theo next game? Does it even matter? Does the locker room go to battle for him? I doubt it. So many questions for a team underperforming and with little evidence they have the consistency to right the ship.
Not all is lost but an improvement from last season doesn’t appear to be in the cards. Milan is almost certain to make the knockouts in Champions League, but any deep run there is hard to say. In the league, there are a lot of teams clustered together and more than 6 points up in the standings. Still time but again, not a lot of evidence Milan can go on a sustained run with Fonseca’s squad management.
I guess we wait and see what comes this Friday and Milan travel to Hellas Verona. Until then…
Forza Milan.
gillis
