It is not completely beyond the realms of fantasy to imagine that the Rossoneri could finish the season, with either or both, the Europa League and the Coppa Italia. Admittedly at this point their chances seem slim, yet they have more in their favour than they are getting credit for right now. Throughout his season they have busied themselves adding clutter when they needed minimalism, but they should not despair. They have all the pieces they need to complete the puzzle and in turn, they maybe able to finish the campaign with their heads held high.
Perhaps it is ignorant to assume that Gennaro Gattuso is simply all blood and thunder on the touch line, simply because he was a hard-tackling midfielder. He certainly doesn’t try and deter anyone from thinking this however, as his interviews often resemble a desperate captain rallying his troops rather than any showing off any Machiavellian cunning. Perhaps one should remember that Gattuso could also play and had a good footballing brain when on the pitch but even if this doesn’t always transmit to his coaching methods (yet) that doesn’t mean that even his rustic approach cannot work.
The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, Milan have an extremely talented squad. From front to back the quality is there, even if they haven’t shown this. History will also tell us that not every coach needs to be a master tactician. Rafa Benitez, a superlative coach, couldn’t cut it with the big ego’s and names of Inter’s treble winning squad and the Spaniards focus on coaching rather than guiding, saw him leave post haste. Roberto Di Matteo wasn’t and isn’t regarded as one of the most innovative or tactical coaches and yet he managed to guide another squad of huge egos, in Chelsea, to a Champions League win.
The second reason is perhaps the most concerning for the Milanese, consistency in approach. Vincenzo Montella was certainly not a bad coach but one of his reasons for departing Milanello was that he could not settle on a formation. His experiments with back three’s, one up front, two up front and playing Fabio Borini everywhere other than in goal, infuriated the fans and confused the players. Gattuso is also at this moment in time, struggling with the same issues and poor Borini is still being deployed in the same manner. Milan are Picasso right now but they just simply need to use a ruler and draw straight lines. If the coach can pick a formation, as basic as it needs to be and decide on a starting eleven then this could be the key. He only needs to look across town at Luciano Spalletti’s Nerazzurri to see how well that can work.
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Whilst Milan have spent in the region of 200m Euro on players this summer it should also not be overlooked that they had a good crop of young players that were coming through last season. This gives them ample ability to compete on all fronts but perhaps the biggest problem the coach needs to fix, lies with the forwards. Between Andre Silva (0), Nikola Kalinic (4) and youngster Patrick Cutrone (2) they have only amassed six Serie A goals all season. This is an issue but there is no doubting the talent of any of these options.
The young Cutrone has earned a chance to be the main striker thus far and his affiliation with the club will allow him more time than the others in barren spells. Andre Silva has exhibited his ability in the Europa League but need to quickly translate this in Serie A and Kalinic has for a long time been a striker that has the typical number nine qualities who will usually will convert when given a chance. It is arguable that a consistent formation would allow one or two of these strikers to start finding their feet and if Milan can make the most of this then the season could be bright.
There is no blame on Milan fans for being pessimistic at this point in time, as they had been offered such great hope at the start of the campaign. It is not hard to see why many see the glass as half empty. The flip side of the coin is that they still have a chance of finishing in the top six and have a chance at two major honours, one that will allow them into the Champions League. What would constitute success this season for them? Perhaps it would simply be having a coach that had a settled formation and given them an opportunity to dream by taking them to a final.
