Milan 3, Lecce 0: Third Gear

After a very rough start of the season in which performances actually looked even worse than results, on Friday, Milan actually recorded their third consecutive league win. In fact, we were kings for a day, briefly topping the Serie A table before the other matches in round six were played. Even if the match also got off to a very rough start, three quick goals put a painful end to Lecce's soul crushing week, while Milan took all 3 points with a 3-0 win at home. Perhaps Fonseca finally has these guys shifting into third gear.

A team united, with happy fans again.

Milan-Lecce Preview: The Return of Rebić

After a brilliant Derby win on Sunday, Milan host 17th place Lecce at the San Siro on Friday. The same Lecce who played and lost a Coppa Italia match on Tuesday. So Milan are rested and flying high, and Lecce are tired and demoralized after getting knocked out of the Coppa Italia.(Ironically, in doing so, they gave us our Coppa Italia opponents for December.) It should be easy, right? Not for Milan. And to make matters worse, Lecce are bringing an ex with them. Beloved former Milan badboy Ante Rebić returns to the scene of his many crimes in hopes of committing another one: remind Milan of what we lost. So, while this looks like it should be an easy one for Fonseca's men, they need to beware of the return of Rebić.

Hide your women and children, he's coming back to San Siro.

Inter 1, Milan 2: Written In the Stars

I believe in fate, I believe in destiny, and after this match, I believe in miracles. Milan beat Inter 2-1 to claim the Derby della Madonnina. Coming into this match, I, like every Milan fan I know, expected the worst. But the players knew how much this match meant. They knew what was at stake, and they did not want to become a part of a historic seventh straight Derby loss. Fonseca's tactical tweaking certainly helped with both effectiveness and confidence, and he also tried some extra morale boosting. Instead of benching key players, he reportedly planned a barbecue on Friday for the players, and placed a special message in the players' lockers ahead of the match. But perhaps the biggest motivator was the cardboard star Inter put on their kits after celebrating their last win at our home Derby in April. Or maybe it was the desperate-for-attention social media post of a certain former Milan player who now plays for Inter, but cannot stop talking about us. Despite one of the worst starts to a Milan season in decades, this win was written in the stars.

Redemption.

Inter vs. AC Milan: Dysfunctional Derby

Normally, the Derby brings out the bloodlust in me, and I always relish the opportunity to destroy the team that destroyed Serie A in the Calciopoli scandal in 2006. They have whined and complained for years, creating a belief that other teams were cheating, even when they were not. I absolutely despise them. But this Derby is very different. After unusual scheduling saw us meet them five times during the 2022-23 season, losing four out of five of those, then losing both Derbies last season, including them celebrating their league win and their cardboard second star at our home Derby in April, that makes six in a row that we have lost. Given the absolute meltdown at all levels of our club right now, with a complete lack of sporting results, while Inter are still cruising along like most clubs do after winning the league, this match does not give me much any hope. For Milan, this one will be a dysfunctional Derby.

Hard to watch these guys get thrown under the bus.

AC Milan 1, Liverpool FC 3: Moneyball Miscalculation

After taking the lead in just the third minute, Milan collapsed to Liverpool, losing 3-1 at the San Siro in our first Champions League match of the new League Phase. Having watched our first four matches, I don't know why this would surprise anyone, it's not as if having a ball with stars on it and playing a team that was even stronger than any of our opponents was somehow expected to transform this Milan side into world beaters. (Liverpool's wagebill is nearly three times the highest wagebill of any opponent we have played so far.) Most of all, I am confused as to why our management told us they were building a team for the Champions League, when our only success thus far has been against a 10-man newly promoted side. They have sent away most of the team who won the Scudetto with us, who played in a Champions League semifinal with us, replacing them for a bunch of ready-to-play Moneyball players. They sacked the manager who built that team, and replaced him with a cheaper, unproven version who is alienating the players and not getting any results. It wasn't just this match, their whole project is a Moneyball miscalculation.

As if losing isn't bad enough, a bunch of criminals booed and chanted against them.

Champions League • League Phase • AC Milan vs. Liverpool FC: The RedBirdShow

The first Champions League match of the season is here, and it is a matchup that evokes nightmares or dreams, depending if you are thinking of Istanbul or Athens. Milan are hosting Liverpool at the San Siro in our very first League Phase match, the new format of the Champions League. Cardinale must be thrilled about this draw, because RedBird technically wins either way. Liverpool is 60% owned by Fenway Sports Group, of which about 10% of that is owned by RedBird Capital. As RedBird are also the owner of Milan, either way, Gerry wins, and this matchup becomes the RedBird Show.

This is the team coming into this match.

Milan 4, Venezia 0: First Blood

After such a poor start in the first three matches, Milan were desperate for their first three points. Not only that, but they were greeted by thousands of fans ahead of the match on the team bus, with only a slightly menacing banner from the Curva Sud that read, "No more excuses, Last call." Fonseca, too, had been criticized for his stubborn tactics nonstop the past two weeks, and even in his prematch press conference said he believed in his football, but ultimately made the changes everyone else was encouraging him to. The result was the reaction that Milan was in such dire need of to qualm the myriad controversies surrounding the club right now, and poor newly promoted Venezia were the victims. There are still many problems, but the mentality of the fans and team will be much improved now that they have drawn first blood.

United in victory.

Milan-Venezia Preview: Vortex of Controversy

Milan host Venezia on Saturday with fan morale shockingly low for just the fourth week of the season. Why, you ask? It's not just that we are winless, gaining only two points from three matches, the worst start for Milan since the 1938-39 season. That would obviously be discouraging. No, the entire club is trapped in a vortex of controversy. The players, the manager, injuries, tactics, management, Ibrahimović, the stadium project are all in the spotlight, and the hopes of any success this season grow dimmer with every report, every match. Now, Milan host a newly promoted side, who actually sit below us on the table, though we are in 14th place. But nothing is guaranteed when we are caught in the nonstop vortex of controversy.

Everyone and everything at Milan is surrounded by controversy.

Lazio 2, Milan 2: Lost the Plot

Fonseca lined up his Milan side without his captain and two of his best players, saying ahead of the match it was "for the good of the team." Yet the team struggled, and it took Lazio scoring two goals before Fonseca finally put two of the players on, who immediately created an equalizer, securing a point with a 2-2 draw. Everyone and their Nonna's cousin's hairstylist's uncle's butcher's friend's dogwalker is talking about the subsequent cooling break, but what they should be talking about is how Milan played. And how Fonseca seems to have already lost the dressing room. And, listening to his postmatch comments yet again, lost the plot.

Theo, dubbed "not a leader" in the toxic media scandal, leads the team to thank the fans.