This Derby seemed win-able. Our squad were match fit with
only a few injuries, and they seemed newly motivated after a couple of
performances that were more reminiscent of the Milan of past years. On the
other hand Inter, obviously a better squad on paper, were still trying to gel
and find their form together after a number of last minute changes in the
transfer market. They had eeked out a couple of wins thus far thanks entirely
to one player’s heroics, so it just seemed like maybe they were beatable. With
all of this in mind, I think a lot of us had great expectations.
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| Yeah, it kinda felt like that. |
Of course any fan would expect their team to win, especially
a Derby. Playing your cross town rivals increases the anticipation tenfold. But
this match was different than the matches in recent years in that our
expectations somehow changed from the beginning of the match until afterward.
Milan came out firing on all cylinders and were undisputedly the better team
for the first half. Even in the second half when a few players started to fade,
they played with heart and left it all out on the pitch. In hindsight, that was
nearly as good as a win. In fact, the performance exceeded expectations so well that I think the disappointment is just that a lot of fans
just hate seeing Inter win and go top of the table undeservedly.
The second half saw the singular goal, from Guarin in the
58th. 1-0 Inter. No one is talking about how the pass to Guarin went right
through a Milan player, a player who not only didn’t try to intercept it at
all, but casually jogged after Guarin to watch it go into the back of the net,
despite De Sciglio’s desperate attempt to run and tackle him (from further
away.)
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| Have we become so accustomed to terrible performance that an improved one is okay? |
So who was this apathetic player? Why our dear captain, of
course. And while he can’t be blamed entirely for the conceding of the goal, he
certainly did not do his part to prevent it. All of the experts were predicting that the game
would be won or lost in the midfield. And they were right. Mihajlovic explained
later that he put Montolivo in instead of De Jong for his different qualities.
I can understand the thinking behind that, but I believe Mihajlovic has
seriously overrated Montolivo’s qualities. And while I absolutely agree with
everyone who has pointed out that this was a much improved match for Montolivo,
the thing no one is talking about is that an improved Montolivo is still
inferior to De Jong in most ways. Specifically in intercepting passes like the
one that led to the goal. And tackling errant Inter players.
In fact, after looking at both of their stats so far, all of the things I never liked about Montolivo show up as worse than De
Jong: long range useless shots, being dribbled past, being dispossessed
(without even dribbling,) too many long balls, and especially a lower pass
success rate. There were a few things like clearances that Montolivo surprised
with today, but overall, De Jong is still the more effective player in my book. Also
an interesting choice to have Montolivo play 90 minutes when he’s still working
back to fitness. But whatever.
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| "Kuco's" debut didn't overly impress, but did not disappoint, either. |
Kucka surprised a lot of fans. While I’m not convinced he
brings a lot to the midfield that we didn’t already have, he works very hard
and took one for the team early on in the match thanks to Juan Jesus. You have
to give him credit for playing through that. And speaking of giving credit,
Balotelli was immense when he came on in the 62nd, right after the goal. Not
only did he force a Handanovic miracle save, he hit the post in the most
heartbreaking of ways. Particularly since the Inter fans started their chants
against him well before the game, it would have been nice to see him answer
their jeers with a goal. Or two. However the biggest surprise may have been Rocchi, who gave what may be a record low total of only five cards, and did surprisingly well.
I am puzzled a bit as to Mihajlovic’ subs. As I mentioned
earlier, Montolivo faded a lot in the second half, and a fresh De Jong would
have done wonders to not only prevent the Inter waves of attack, but may have
even helped us offensively, too. But instead, he pulled off Bacca, who had an
amazing first half, when it was time to bring Balotelli on. Adriano had missed
a lot of shots he shouldn’t have, and I think that a lot of fans would have preferred to see
him sit. Kucka off for Poli in the 72nd made sense, but I’m not convinced about
Cerci on for Honda. I mean, I get that you have two attacking players left on
the bench, and he is not fond of Suso for some reason. But when the other player
is Cerci, don’t you go back to Suso? Because bringing on Alex to play in attack
would have probably been more fruitful than Cerci. I hope all of these old Fiorentina
connections disappear soon and Mihajlovic stops looking at them through Viola
colored glasses. They are not the players you used to coach, Mister.
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| Balotelli kept his cool against the worst kind of Inter scum, to the disappointment of the media. |
While it was appalling to watch Inter celebrate the win, and
painful to watch them atop the table for at least a week now, we need to remember that Milan
were top of the table at the beginning of last season, too, and we all know how
that ended. So knock yourselve out, Inter. We'll be there to laugh when you fall, I promise. Also, at least if you look down at 16th place on the table, you see
the fine work Allegri is doing at Juve, who have a grand total of one point
from three matches. So the positive to take from this match is that at least we
haven’t self-destructed like Allegri’s Juve. And that it was an entertaining
game, with our players giving it 100%. Beyond that, we’ll just have to manage
our great expectations a little better next time, I guess.
This post inspired by the music of
Nitzer Ebb’s “Violent Playground”
Our next match is
Milan vs. Palermo
Saturday, September 19 • 20:45 CEST (2:45pm EDT)
Stay tuned for an all new Milan
Obsession Podcast coming soon!