This result should not have been a surprise to anyone.
Napoli had a fully fit, fully available squad and have been playing great
football, in addition to coming into the game at the top of the table. Milan,
on the other hand, have been suffering from that Slow Start Allegri™ syndrome
yet again, and had Injury Armageddon™ on top of it. Coming into the match in
9th place, we couldn’t afford to lose, but with the players we had available,
we really didn’t have the quality to win, either. And although our boys gave it
a fantastic attempt, once again, almost just wasn’t good enough.
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| The match should have been more evenly matched |
In one of those records just waiting to be broken, Napoli
came into the match having not won at the San Siro since 1986, with Milan
winning 10 of those matches and drawing nine. And some of the statistics show
that the record should have held, too. Milan had 56% possession and took 22
shots, with 8 on target, while Napoli only got 9 shots off, with 3 of them on target.
But it was the ability to convert those shots that broke Napoli’s drought at
the San Siro. Truly, Milan played so much better this match than they have
been, perhaps their best game this season, certainly the first half. But their
best at this point was just not good enough.
Many people are blaming Allegri, the calls for him to be
sacked get louder each time he fails to get a result. While I am not sure that
the blame should entirely be on him, he certainly has a few things to answer
for. One, why keep playing Balotelli out wide? Two, when Balotelli takes a
knock big enough to have him leave the field for treatment and comes back on at
the half not walking right, why leave him on 90 minutes? And when he is getting
increasingly frustrated, misses his first penalty ever, and the ref is not
protecting him by calling the fouls, why leave him on for 90 minutes? All of
these questions are for naught, though, as the red card Balotelli saw after the
final whistle for protesting to the refs about said calls will give him the rest
he needed today, as we will not have him for Bologna on Wednesday. (Does this
syndrome remind you of anyone? Maybe Ibra? He, too, had to get frustrated
enough to see red before given a rest. And El Shaarawy just plain didn’t get
any rest last year.)
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| The ball is literally in your hands, Allegri. Don't drop it.... again. |
In other news of Allegri not learning from his mistakes,
this is his tenth year coaching. In every one of his ten years, his teams have
started slow, even the year Milan won the Scudetto. In his postmatch comments,
he simply described September as “unlucky.” Now I don’t care who you are, but
if the same thing happens to you for ten
years in a row, it is not luck. There is something that you are doing that
is causing this to happen. And if injuries have been as great as or worse than
other teams for the fourth year of your tenure, particularly when some of the
medical staff were changed and the San Siro pitch was changed, there might be
some correlation between what you and the rest of the training and medical
staff are doing that were not changed. I definitely believe in luck, but luck
has nothing to do with any of this.
However even more stubborn than Allegri and perhaps as
delusional are Berlusconi and Galliani and the Milan Board. Not only did they
derail “the plan” in the mercato,
leaving Allegri with his worthless €11m bromance forward Matri, amongst other
gaping holes, but they fail to learn that every year we are going to lose the
Scudetto in the first part of the season, digging a hole so deep that it will
take a miracle (and a lot of favorable ref calls) to even qualify for the
Champions League. If I woke up one morning and saw that Allegri was even in
danger of being sacked, I might have a heart attack on the spot. Instead, I
expect to wake up in the morning and see another one of those weekly Allegri
confirmations in the morning.
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| Running another key player into the ground with a potential injury, Allegri? When will you learn? |
Other than completely mismanaging Balotelli, starting Sulley
“The Killer” Muntari defies all logic and reason. His ability to get a
terrible, scrappy goal is an argument for Allegri’s choice, I’m sure, but even
a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and again. Most of the time, he has
horrible passing, tackles through people as if he is a blind squirrel, and
randomly tries to kill people. For anyone who complained about Seedorf’s
slowing down toward the end of his career at Milan, I am pretty sure he would
be a site for sore eyes after Muntari. But Allegri loves his physique, so here
we are.
Allegri’s delsusions of a Matri-Balotelli partnership are
more like a dysfunctional family. Not only did Matri contribute only a couple
of passes and weak attempts on goal tonight, now he is actually getting in the
way of others’ attempts, like blocking Niang late in the game. I like Birsa,
without a proper trequartista, at least the guy is decent with the passing,
makes some great runs and attempts on goal, and makes great crosses and takes
good corners. But let’s not kid ourselves, this 4-3-1-2 delusion has got to end
until we have a proper trequartista available. And while the timing of
Allegri’s decisions, his Zeman-like “throw on all of the strikers” (or even a
midfielder if you run out of strikers) is not effective, but seems to be his
only solution when down.
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| Another high-flying performance from Poli (remember, object in foreground is smaller than he may appear) |
What went right in the match wasn’t necessarily Allegri’s
fault, either. De Jong, for instance, bossed. Poli was great, despite earning his token
yellow card in the 62nd. He played so well, I wonder what Allegri will do when
Montolivo is fit again. Wait, maybe I don’t want to think about that. Despite
what I’ve heard from some people, Abbiati was great. Conceding 2 goals again
from dead ball situations, with no defenders anywhere near him is certainly not
his fault, and I would love to have a speed on Higuain’s screamer in the 53rd
that he couldn’t quite stop, either. The early Britos goal in the 6th from a
free kick made me actually want to see Zaccardo out there since he seems to be
the only one on our entire team who has heard of a goal line clearance. But I
digress back to things that are within Allegri’s scope of responsibilities
again, as we conceded both goals from dead ball situations. Almost is just not
good enough.
Balotelli was a beast. Like Atlas trying to hold up the
entire world, he was the entire attack, in spite of Matri, as well as trying to
make plays and defend, too. And his perfect penalty kick record was broken by a
Reina save in the 61st, even if Reina admitted to having studied Balotelli’s
penalties. He had a lot of chances, and was definitely the target of a lot of
fouls, called or not. So when he finally scored in the 91st, it barely seemed
like a consolation for all of his massive efforts tonight. I really feel for
the guy, even if he of course needs to learn to hold his tongue. But he left
everything out on the pitch, and honestly, he deserves whatever break he is
given, whether it is one or more matches.
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| Balotelli bummed after his first penalty kick ever is saved. |
I don’t even know what else to say. Napoli played great,
they were managed well by Benitez. Even if on a good day we might have taken
them, tonight we didn’t. The referee missed at least one penalty, but we cannot
depend on those calls, and neither can Allegri. Giving Napoli only one yellow
card with all of the elbows that were flying seemed rather ridiculous, too, but
again, the referee is human and therefore fallible, we need to be able to play
better than that. Particularly when it came to the reffing, almost was just not
good enough.
I think the most frustrating thing is that with so many
injuries, and playing better than we have, maintaining possession and taking
the most chances we’ve had in any match this season, we still lost, 1-2 Napoli.
For all of the positives, we still dropped another 3 points. We need to stop
dropping points to stay in the race this year, since several clubs will be in
the hunt for that Scudetto. Tonight’s match was a tough pill to swallow, but at
some point Allegri and the boys will have to learn from their mistakes. Let’s
hope it starts vs. Bologna on Wednesday, because otherwise, almost just isn’t good
enough.
This post inspired by the music of
Rammstein
Our next match is
Bologna vs. Milan
Wednesday, September 25 • 20:45 CEST (2:45 EDT)
NOTE: As mentioned previously this past week, due to
personal circumstances and the repeated abuse of the guidelines
for commenting, the comment section of this blog is in danger of being
closed permanently. Please do your
part by being proactive and helping post news, opinions, etc. It would
really be a shame for one or two people to spoil it for everyone, and it is not
something I want to do, but if my hand continues to be forced, it seems to be
the only solution.