In
another season-defining, life or death performance featuring all of our best
players (sarcasm detector: level of sarcasm extremely high,) Milan actually won
this preseason friendly vs. Bundesliga’s Schalke. Despite having lost 12
players this summer and also the trust in our management, it is Schalke that must feel
like they got robbed twice over – on the pitch and from the pocket. With the
genius clause in Huntelaar’s contract, Milan are to receive all of the proceeds
from ticket sales, which have to be pretty nice considering over 30,000 tickets
were sold. So let’s just take the money and run.
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| Urby FTW |
It’s hard to watch any preseason friendly, if you ask me. No one is 100% match fit, there are all of these extra players we may never see again, and we are almost inevitably missing our best players due to some national team duty or another. (Or to being robbed blind ourselves by PSG.) But this year is particularly difficult with the exodus of quality and talent we’ve come to enjoy and expect at Milan.
To
use a fashion analogy, you can make two of the exact same dress, same design,
same pattern, same details, but if you use an inferior fabric on one of them,
it just doesn’t come out the same. This is true of Milan. We have lost our
‘fine silks and linens’ and are left with polyesters. But, sticking with the
analogy, polyester is easy to care for, durable, inexpensive, and in some
situations even better than the more expensive natural fibers.
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| He's got Abbiati's back |
To
bring the analogy back to Milan, we have a lot of players who are hungry for a
starting spot. They work hard and will play anywhere. Some of our best examples
tonight were Amelia, who is a fantastic number two keeper and may just eclipse Abbiati
someday if his injury woes continue. He was incredibly solid, whether the saves
were easy or dangerous, he was confident and calm and spot on.
Another
example was Ambrosini. I know he is 35 on paper, but he was truly The God of
Tackles tonight, and played all 90 minutes without showing fatigue. He
looks absolutely prepared to step up and make up for some of the Senatori who
have left, and I am proud to call him captain.
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| Who in their right mind tackles Thor? Don't make him angry. |
I
was also impressed yet again with De Sciglio. He is so very poised and confident
on both offense and defense. Wow, what a great conundrum for Allegri to have to
choose between him and Abate. I only wish each position was reinforced so well, we’d
have nothing to fear.
Things
we do need to fear: I’m pretty sure that we could buy every available
midfielder this mercato and still not have the passing and communication we so
desperately need. I had hoped that by giving Allegri a lot of looks at several
different combinations, this would click at some point, but it is still our
weakest link, even if I thought sometimes we looked a bit stronger than we did
the other day in the Trofeo TIM.
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| Will he shine now that he's out of the shadows of the big stars? |
Urby
was very dynamic, and of course his amazing run and goal in the 64th, assisted
by Robinho, was a thing of beauty. Although we have to give Schalke a little
credit for an obvious brain lapse there. I would say that Urby has similar
qualities to a fine polyester, which really holds up when put to the test. I
was not as impressed with Flamini, although he had his moments and I will give
him chances to prove himself simply based on the fact that he took that
ginormous pay cut to stay at Milan. Traorè has been reportedly great in
training, but has yet to impress me so far in these friendlies.
The
trequartista position has always been troublesome for us, and in the old system
with players like Ibra who could carry more than their weight, Boateng shone
and was able to put good performances forward. But now that everyone has to
carry the weight evenly, I fear he is better off playing on one of the sides in
the midfield. He wasn’t awful tonight, but we will need bigger performances,
much better passing and better support for the strikers. This is one spot that
would be great to reinforce in the mercato with a truly creative player.
The
strikers… El Shaarawy is worth every penny we paid to get and keep him. He is
fast, hungry, has great vision, good finishing…. well, okay tonight there was
the one on one with the keeper in the 8th minute that he didn’t convert. But to
be fair, between his speed and the keeper’s hand on the ball, it probably
wasn’t meant to be.
Robinho, on the other hand, needs a stronger player alongside him to shine. He is the
kind of player who is just better when in the presence of greatness, and this
preseason squad was filled with more goodness than greatness. His Robinhoed™ shot into the
wrong side of the net in the 42nd reminded all of us of the drinking game that
seemed fun when we had other people to finish, but doesn’t seem as fun now.
That said, his assist to Urby was great and he works hard, come goals or
misses. Plus, he may be the team’s best dancer.
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| My jury is still out, but you haven't impressed, either. |
Our
defense has given many of us nightmares since losing both Nesta and Thiago
Silva this summer. I am not ready to give a verdict on Acerbi yet, but have
been unimpressed thus far. Bonera… just read all of the game reviews from last
season, I can’t say anymore. But I will say a bit more about Antonini, he earned it. Not only did
he get a yellow in the 62nd for a nasty, sloppy tackle, he had a couple of
others like that, too, and was lucky to not get sent off…. in a friendly. Don’t
get me wrong, I love him as a person, but tonight he was absolutely awful on
the left, and only unnoticeably decent when he switched to the right.
Whatever
good things I had to say about Taiwo on Saturday, I take them all back tonight.
Sorry, Taiwo, but I am not impressed. I’ll still give you a chance, though, but
know I am still praying for an actual left back. Mesbah wasn’t horrific, but he
wasn’t that great, either. (hence the prayers) Yepes, I love you, but you are a
backup. Probably one of our best backups, but still a backup. Your challenges
are getting sloppier, we need the Yepes I fell in love with.
As
for our youth players, I really like Valoti and Ganz, I hope they get a serious
look by Allegri and don’t get shipped off to Serie B clubs (Valoti is supposed
to play for Albinoleffe, I believe, and Ganz just turned down Bari.) Cristante
seems promising, too. We can only hope they are taken seriously and given some
more playing time over the next few weeks on the U.S. tour.
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| (Acerbi, you should probably pretend to challenge for that) |
Okay,
this has turned into much more of a report card than a review. But overall,
Schalke looked really dangerous and kept us on our heels in the first half.
Huntelaar did have that dangerous looking header in the 68th that went just over the bar, but
Farfan was a pain in the behind for us the entire match and Amelia worked way
to hard for my comfort.
We
are still struggling with maintaining possession in the midfield, which will be
incredibly dangerous playing teams that are good at capitalizing on turnovers.
With our defense slipping so much in quality, we really need to tighten the
midfield up. I can see why Allegri wants another defensive midfielder. But more
importantly, our guys, even when they hold the ball, have a tougher time getting
the ball forward. This is a problem we have typically had, it is just amplified
now that we are missing so much quality.
In
the end, it wasn’t too bad for having such little match fitness and five of our
best players still out. With those players having returned to Milanello today, it gives me hope
that this little squad can do more than we hoped they might be able to. And
again, one performance cannot show a player’s (or even a team’s) worth. I think
we have a lot of polyester, players that will prove themselves in the end, and
only a little fine silk and linen, or quality left. But maybe we need the
durability and practicality of those players anyway. We just need to be
prepared to give up our more luxurious taste in fabrics and players and support
our team to use the quality and practicality all together to make a super team.
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| El Shaarawy potentially our most promising player so far |
Getting
the win tonight was great, even if we maybe didn’t entirely deserve it. We
capitalized on a rare chance, so we certainly earned it. But the best part of
this match may be the cash from the ticket sales. Thank you again Huntelaar,
thank you Galliani or whatever genius included that clause in his contract,
thank you Schalke for a full stadium and a good match. Now let’s take the money
and run.
This post inspired by the music of
NIN’s “Head Like a Hole”
Our next match is Milan vs. Chelsea Friendly
Saturday, July 28th • 6:30pm EDT
SunLife Stadium, Miami, FL, U.S.A.