As soon as Bonucci was purchased from Juve, Montella’s free
Milan ticket expired. No longer was he a pretty decent coach who did really
well with no reinforcements. Now the questions started flying: Can he manage
these players? Can he coach them to top four? Will he take this team to the
Champions League and take Milan far into that competition? The fact is, the
more a team spends in the mercato, the more pressure there is on the coach. And
while people say that we should be patient and let the team gel, at the
first sign of trouble, they are screaming for him to be sacked. But is there
actual cause to sack him? Today I wanted to look at some of the reasons people
are calling for his head, also known as the case against Montella.
 |
| The case against him is growing |
Substitutions
One of the most maddening habits of Montella are his late
substitutions, not using all of his substitutions, and substitutions which make
no sense or have no impact on the game. Or all of the above in a single match,
like we saw in the
Roma game on Sunday. We’ve seen this before, particularly with Allegri,
but it seems like Montella started poorly and is getting worse. Nothing that
happens in the game – subs for the other team, conceding a goal, or even one of
our players injured – seems to warrant a sub from Montella. And when he does
sub, late in the game, sometimes his subs are so incredibly mindboggling, it’s
ridiculous. Whether he takes the best player off for no apparent reason, or
maybe someone who was actually struggling, you can bet that at least 80% of the
time, he’ll replace them with someone much less effective, even with fresh
legs. It’s embarrassing.
Lineups
In the summer, it was a good time for him to try out
different players and different combinations of players. But as fans, we wanted
to see him find his starting 11, we wanted to see the best players play. While
I see both arguments, it was really strange when he didn’t try his strongest 11
ahead of Serie A. Especially with such poor performances and some lucky
results. Even more strange that he spoke repeatedly of his great love affair
with the 3-5-2, and even tried it a couple of times, but not with the best
players, so then switched back to a 4-3-3. Each time lineups were released, it was like he was undermining the
players, the team, and his own ideas. And that is one of the only concepts that
seems to be consistent with him.
 |
| Displaced anger |
Rotations
With three competitions, we all knew there would be some
squad rotation. All good coaches do it. And at first, I commended him for
rotating so much, as he seemed to be working hard to prevent injuries and
fatigue. But soon it became obvious that he was not rotating players like
Bonucci and Kessie at all, and would play certain players a lot, yet other
players hardly at all. Andre Silva is a good example here, as he has given
fantastic performances in every game, yet was barely used in Serie A. Never
mind that he was one of our most expensive players, the guy has earned his
starting berth repeatedly, and yet still has only started twice in Serie A. Meanwhile
a player like Borini, a striker who shoots like a blind man in the dark, has
four starts in Serie A. If these mad rotations are tactical, then why don’t we
see any tactics from them? They make no sense and are not producing good
football, while still producing injuries.
 |
| How Montella sees the results |
The 3-5-2
From day one, the very idea of the 3-5-2 drove me crazy. Maybe
we had 11 players who could pull it off… maybe. But it was questionable even
with that 11, and we certainly didn’t have any depth if, say, Conti ruptured
his ACL and was out for six months. Which did happen. But did Montella change?
No. In fact, he started Borini at that spot on Sunday. Borini. The
player we bought on the cheap from the relegated Sunderland. You know, the guy
who Montella loves because he “makes runs?” On Sunday everyone raved about him
because he had two assists, but the truth is, like Poli before him, he mostly
just runs. Give anyone enough playing time, and they’ll find their way on the
stat sheet one way or the other.
But I digress. In addition to having zero depth for the
3-5-2, it only looked good against smaller teams in the Europa League. In Serie
A, it was a disaster. And speaking of disasters, Montella switched to the 3-5-2
in reaction to the disaster of losing to Lazio so badly. Not because it was a
better formation, but because I think he honestly had no idea what else to do.
Which is the same problem for our defense in this formation. This is the same defense that
was looking pretty solid in a back four, mind you, and yet in the 3-5-2, they are all struggling, individually and collectively. Including Bonucci, who is one of the best center backs in the world right now, and has played in both three and four man defenses his whole career. And the worst of it is, less than two weeks
before, when he tried the 3-5-2, he had said it was wrong to play the 3-5-2 and
that it would be a while before they’d play it again, because it was such a
disaster. Apparently less than two weeks and a massive loss was “a while.” And
his psychotic compulsion to play this formation has brought us to where we are
today, regardless of how poor they play in it or how many losses we have.
 |
| Marra and Montella in the good old days |
Firing the Fitness Coach
The big turning point for me was when he fired his longtime
friend. Via social media. They had worked together for eight years, and while
both sides publicly say it was an amicable divorce, Montella just couldn’t wait
for the club to announce it. Now keep in mind, Montella is a guy who has tweeted
only 15 times in just over a year. A few tweets to announce his account and promote last summer’s US Tour, a few RT’s from his son’s account, etc. And he
tweets twice, once in Italian and once in English to tell the world that he and
his boyhood friend are splitting up. Like any other celebrity divorce. And now,
ten days later, there is still no new fitness coach in place. The original
candidate apparently turned him down, and now there are rumors he will just pull
someone from within. All of this is very strange, and for me, shows cracks in
character as well as some level of panic on his part.
 |
| Not the classiest move |
Accountability
That brings me to the next part: accountability. When there
is a poor result, he doesn’t take any responsibility for it. Lose to Sampdoria?
Fire the fitness coach. And while he keeps saying that they weren’t related, in
his own tweet said it was “where improvements can be made.” Not where he
can make improvements, there are never any discussions about that. He’ll hang
his defense out to dry in a poorly-manned 3-5-2, and instead of saying “maybe
this is not the formation for us,” he continuously points out their individual
errors in a formation they struggle with. When a player he usually benches
plays well, he is sure to criticize them in the press conference afterward. I
don’t know if he is truly not seeing what everyone else is, or if he has become
too egotistical, having been given this team and the faith and money that back
them. I mean a coach needs a healthy sized ego. But when the ego undermines the
team and the objectives, it is very dangerous.
 |
| What goes up must come down |
We all asked if Montella could do this job. And seven league
games in, we are four wins and three losses toward our goal, and facing both Inter
and Juventus in the next three weeks. The club continue to put faith in him,
despite these results, but at some point it becomes an issue of money. They
have invested so much, they need to get a certain return on their investments.
Perhaps it is just a matter of finding the right replacement, but with all of
these things stacked against him, Montella is walking a fine line at Milan. As
with all coaches, he is going to have to produce results sooner rather than
later. Can he do it? That remains to be seen. But there certainly is quite the
case against Montella.
This post
was inspired by the music of Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy”
--