Six weeks ago, Milan fans would have assumed that three
points against a struggling Udinese were a foregone conclusion. Especially at a
San Siro filled with nearly 50,000 fans. But over the break, Udinese brought in
the pinch-hitting Igor Tudor, the coach that saved them from relegation at the
end of last season. And Milan suffered two painful losses in a row, as well as
a new crop of injuries, even before kickoff. So now we’re all miserably
lamenting a single point in three matches and licking our wounds as well. Might
as well send out the wagons and say “Bring out your dead!”
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| Still standing, gratefully |
In the fifth minute of this match, Gigio Donnarumma pulled
up with a muscular injury. After some treatment and attempting to play on, he
was subbed off in the eleventh minute for Pepe Reina. Despite Gattuso’s
exciting new 4-3-1-2 formation, that set an ominous tone for the match.
In spite of losing our number one keeper, though, Milan
started building attack after attack. Great plays and shots by Paqueta,
Calhanoglu, and Cutrone tested Musso throughout the first half. In the midst of
all of that, Paqueta rolled his ankle badly, requiring treatment and eventually
being subbed off for Castillejo in the 41st. That didn’t seem to disrupt
everyone’s favorite new strike partnership, and Cutrone sent the ball in to
Piatek in the 44 th. Piatek’s first shot was parried by Musso, but his follow
up hit the back of the net without question, 1-0 Milan. Pum pum pum.
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| Simply unstoppable |
I don’t know what Gattuso said at the half or how much the
two big injuries impacted a team where Kessie, Conti and Suso were already
injured ahead of the match, but the second half seemed to be met with
complacency by Milan. Udinese were opportunistic, and although Milan eventually
registered 18 shots, with only six on goal, Udinese only needed to take seven
shots with two on goal to take points from Milan.
Of course, it was Lasagna who scored the equalizer in the 64th.
1-1 all. I do take partial responsibility for this, having mentioned his threat
in my preview
post. Meanwhile, back in Gattuso’s “something different” tactics,
rather than replace Paqueta with a fabulous trequartista we already had in
Calhanoglu, he continued to keep the Turkish player deeply embedded in the
midfield three and give the awkward but fast Castillejo the duties of playing
behind the striker. However, Castillejo couldn’t stay in the middle, so Gattuso
switched to an even more complacent 4-4-2.
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| Definitely not a trequartista. |
I am not a coach. But, as I mentioned on the last
podcast, sometimes I think coaches are too close to the problem to see
what is really going on. For example, it’s been so long since Gattuso let
Calhanoglu play as a trequartista, he probably forgot that it is his natural
position. Well, and then once you put the one-dimensional Castillejo on, there
aren’t as many options, either. But so often, we’ve seen that Gattuso struggles
with any kind of tactical flexibility, and although he tried today with his
starting lineup, he still failed to make the right changes within the game.
I’m not trying to imply that he is the only reason Milan
dropped points today. I don’t know how Milan players plan to earn a Champions
League spot when they put more enthusiasm and energy into telling the ref how
to do his job than they do in actually doing theirs. Tactics or not, our
players are getting paid probably anywhere from double to ten times as much as
Udinese players are. And they are barely able to equalize with them. That was perhaps
the most harsh reality of this match.
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| Sorely missed. |
Losing two of our best starters is horrible, and adding them
to our three other injured starters makes facing Juventus on Saturday that much
more dreadful. But looking at our performances of late, even several of them
where we won, is far more portentous. The scoreline of this match perhaps most
accurately shows how Milan performed of all of the recent matches, but now we
have a new plague of injuries to our starters to add to that. Bring out your
dead.
This post inspired by the music of Jan
Stoeckart’s “Monty Python and the Holy Grail Theme”
Our next match is
Serie A Week 31
Juventus vs. Milan
Saturday, April 6
• 18:00 CST (12noon EDT)