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.
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| Everyone and everything at Milan is surrounded by controversy. |
Venezia come to the San Siro in 19th place on the table, with one draw and two losses. Their most recent loss was a 1-0 loss to Torino before the international break. Di Francesco was appointed as the manager this summer, and the club made a number of new signings, including Inter's young Oristanio, German winger John Yeboah, Alfred Duncan from Fiorentina, and a former Milan youth player, Giorgio Altare, on loan from Cagliari. Unfortunately, these reinforcements have failed thus far to bring them up to the level they want in order to remain in Serie A this season.
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| Di Francesco in a new role with newly promoted Venezia. |
That could easily change at the San Siro on Saturday, however, given Milan's current situation. In their match versus Torino, Di Francesco lined up a 3-4-2-1 with: Joronen; Idzes, Svoboda, Šverko; Candela, Duncan, Nicolussi Caviglia, Zampano; Oristanio, Ellertsson; and Pohjanpalo. Several of the other new signings got minutes as substitutes, while Di Francesco does have one injured player: Bjarkasan is out for this one, having recently had surgery for a hernia.
Fonseca has a nightmare on his hands. In the Lazio match, he played the punitive power-grabbing parent and benched three starters, then subbed two of them on, who came on and immediately salvaged a point, but then kept their distance during a cooling break. For the past two weeks, this has been the major topic of all Italian journalists, and everyone seemingly has weighed in at least once. Milan News themselves coined the term 'vortex of controversy' to describe what they were doing, and for once, they were shockingly introspective and accurate. Although none of this did anything to help the respect Fonseca clearly needs to earn from the players.
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| The toxic Italian media has him swirling in a vortex of controversy again. |
Additionally, he is missing Florenzi, Sportiello, and now Bennacer to longterm injury. Thiaw is also still out injured with his sprained ankle. Morata has returned to training from injury, although he may not start or even feature in this one. Jović also was able to play for Serbia over the break, so should be called up again. Fonseca himself may be living on borrowed time if he does not produce some results. Certainly, despite saying he was confident, his body language was very agitated and defensive during his press conference on Friday. He clearly seems to be feeling the pressure.
Unfortunately, everyone has been talking about Fonseca's choice of tactical systems, particularly after the amazing performances that Tijjani Reijnders had with Netherlands over the break, with two goals in two matches, playing in a more advanced role. Even the legendary Zvonimir Boban advised him to use a 4-3-3 to take advantage of the players he has been given, rather than try to force his tactics into this squad that has too many redundant midfielders and no one who can truly play well in that double pivot Fonseca's been playing with his 4-2-3-1 system. But Fonseca doubled down on his system that is not working, respectfully thanking those who had "constructive" comments for him.
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| Abraham has looked good in training, it will be nice to have good options up front. |
As for who actually plays, Abraham is likely to start up front. Earlier in the week, Fonseca had indicated that he might not play Pulisic, given that he would be returning late from international duty, but he was not forthcoming about who he would actually play anywhere. Given Bennacer's calf injury that could keep him out until January, it was reported this week that Zeroli and Vos would most likely be called up to help fill in that gap, but reports say that only Zeroli will be called up for our match, while Vos will join Milan Futuro, who play just two hours earlier. In defense, it is reported that Gabbia and Pavlović will start, putting Tomori on the bench. It remains to be seen which players Fonseca actually lines up, but it is clear that he will be making more changes yet again to his starting 11.
On Thursday, the not terribly reliable Repubblica published a scathing article about a potential rift between Ibrahimović and Cardinale for a number of known reasons, as well as a few new bombshells. For example, apparently, Ibrahimović did not care for the fact that former bestie Ignazio Abate basically excluded Zlatan's older son, Maximillian, from the Primavera team last season. Reports are that he retaliated by firing Abate's father, former goalkeeper and a goalkeeping coach in Milan's youth sector for over 20 years.
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| The only time the press will be brave enough to write about Zlatan is when he is away. |
The former star striker has also been criticized, apparently, for spending more time at Vismara watching his younger son train than he has spent at Milanello, as well as other things. How much truth there is in these claims is unknown, as Repubblica is not always a reliable source. However, multiple reports say that Cardinale will be at the San Siro on Saturday, but Ibrahimović will not. (Ibrahimović is on vacation still in Canada, a trip that was planned some time ago, which is why these reporters are brave enough to talk so much trash about him.)
Of course, if Cardinale is in town, you know there is stadium news. In fact, this week, he made a statement about the stadium project, saying he had an "ambitious plan" to replace the San Siro, but there was controversy, as local politicians wanted the two Milano teams to invest together in the existing stadium. Who knew? It's almost as if he had never even read an article about the stadium project before buying the club.
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| Cardinale thought building a stadium would be easy with his 30 years of American experience. |
Speaking of the club, he also said that there was a "huge opportunity to bring Milan back to where it was." Did he mean where it was when he bought it two years ago, a winning team? Because in Boban's statements this week, he openly criticized this management for dismantling the Scudetto winning team, and rightly so. Given that Gerry wanted to bring what he learned in his "30 years in America to European football," and knowing that he has not known about the existence of European football for even ten years, I think we can all agree that he is absolutely clueless and will not succeed. Thus far, sporting results agree.
Friday also marked the long awaited big meeting about the San Siro stadium. Mayor Sala, Furlani, representatives from Inter and Oaktree all met to discuss the costs and timeframe of a plan by WeBuild to renovate the San Siro, as well as who would pay for it. Both clubs said no to paying for the renovation but opened up talks once again of building a stadium together near the San Siro.
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| Who is more stubborn? Fonseca? or Sala? |
Sala reopened his political motives of keeping the teams within the city boundaries, while saying out loud that he would really like them to formally halt and denounce their respective projects in San Donato and Rozzano. Last week, Milan were handed yet another potential bureaucratic stumbling block, with the process beginning for the area around the San Donato stadium potentially being named as a UNESCO protected area. This would prevent any new developments in the area. This process alone could delay the stadium for 7-8 years or even prevent it altogether, negating all the time and money RedBird has already invested in it.
Tired yet? There's more. The Curva Sud issued a statement this week that they have found the results thus far this season "disappointing" and "no one can be justified for the embarrassing spectacle shown in the first three games." As only Ultras do, they want "everyone to assume their own responsibilities, no one excluded!" So they have invited everyone to meet them two hours before the match "to make the club, the coach, and the players understand that September represents a decisive crossroads for our season!" Great. I wonder if they are bringing sticks?
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| Fonseca trying a different 11 each match, but it will be nice to see Gabbia again. |
Ideally, this team would react and put in a dominant performance, getting that first win for mentality ahead of their opening Champions League match on Tuesday and the Derby next week. However, given the drama and controversy surrounding the club, Fonseca's visible anxiety, serious injuries, and the players' clear confusion as to what they are meant to be doing (even if Gabbia insisted they are all "rowing in the same direction,") victory against this newly promoted side, who are playing away and are also without a win, is not a foregone conclusion. Which means that any more drama during the match or anything less than three points will only increase the vortex of controversy.
This post inspired by the music of Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)"