You know when you are watching someone trying to put
together a puzzle and you see how the pieces fit, but they don’t? No matter
what, they can’t put it together. That is what it is like for Milan fans
watching Montella’s lineups and tactics. And one cannot help but feel that if
he could just put those pieces together, this team could actually win more
games. But if it’s not Montella, or his beloved Tweedle Dee (Montolivo) and
Tweedle Dum (Borini,) then it’s that damned VAR. No explanation at all for its
random usage, I only know that it sucks to be on the wrong end of its misuse.
Needless to say, this game left me puzzled.
 |
| THAT goal |
I would say that the Donnarumma family came out on top in
this game. Gigio had a brilliant performance in front of his family, but his
family’s team got the three points. Our gentle giant had eight saves, and still
conceded two goals. Without VAR, we could have maybe won this one. In the 33rd, Insigne scored but was whistled for offside. But then the VAR ref
remembered that they were in a cauldron of hate and entitlement, and told
Doveri in his earpiece that if he wanted to make it out of the stadium alive,
he’d better award this goal. 1-0 Napoli. I’m still waiting to see what VAR
supposedly saw that makes Insigne onside when that ball was passed forward. But
maybe VAR uses handicaps. Like since Insigne is only 5’4”, he gets a head
start?
 |
| "Wait, to get out of here safely, I've got to award this offside goal?" |
All I know is that Milan didn’t play great, but they played
with grinta. And into the second half, they fought harder. Zielinski’s goal in
the 72nd could have also been offside, but VAR has a quota of errors, and
Doveri had already helped to fill it. 2-0 Napoli. At least Milan, seriously
handicapped by Montella having to sub off Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in the
second half instead of bringing on some fresh guns, at least they continued to
fight harder while Milan were down. But it didn’t pay off until the 91st
minute in stoppage time, when Romagnoli took a clearance on the volley and
scored a massive goal from distance. 2-1 Napoli. Sadly, it was only a
consolation, but at least it was a beautiful consolation.
 |
| Putting the saves in savior |
The bigger issue was losing Suso to injury. Even played out
of position, he is so consistent for us. Hoping it’s nothing big. Especially if
we’re stuck with Montella, like we seem to be. I don’t understand his lineups,
his formations, or what he thinks are tactics. Or why we are stuck with his “I
thought they played well” even in a loss, while offering underhanded criticisms
to individual players, usually the ones who played best. I also don’t
understand how we came out of the San Paolo with that scoreline, especially
with ten shots on goal against us from Napoli, it’s pretty impressive.
Particularly when Doveri called a goal using VAR, having not called for VAR,
and with all of the non-VAR cameras showing it was offside. It is all very
puzzling.
This post inspired by the music of Love
and Rockets’ “Ball of Confusion”
Our next match is
Europa League
Group Stage
AC Milan vs. Austria Wien
Thursday, November
23 • 21:05 CET (3:05pm EST)