Bells may be jingling this time of year in regards to the festive season, but the bell could toll for one Sinisa Mihajlovic says George Rinaldi.
Optimism met the appointment of the aforementioned coach, replacing Pippo Inzaghi saw the age-old saying “out with the old in the new,” and yet the supposed new is exactly the same as past seasons. Performances have ranged from the truly brilliant to the diabolical. Matches against Lazio and Sampdoria were reasons to be joyous, only for games against Napoli, Inter and draws with both Carpi and Hellas Verona to bring down any sense of an improvement.
For Mihajlovic has tried pretty much everything in his power prior to the winter break to change the Rossoneri’s fortunes. He brought in some talented youngsters in the shape of Alessio Romagnoli along with the troublesome but proven goalscorer Mario Balotelli.
He has change the style of the team’s play, enjoying more of a build-up of attacks that centre around advancing full-backs and a creative attacking midfielders. Gianluigi Donnarumma, a 16-year-old goalkeeper that replaced Diego Lopez, was another of Mihajlovic’s changes in the past month alongside the inclusion of M’Baye Niang.
Yet Milan sit in seventh place ahead of a Coppa Italia tie against lowly Sampdoria, coupled with no new-found optimism, no striking improvements to be pointed out and no feel-good factor.
Instead, there have been calls to remove Mihajlovic from his coaching role already. Silvio Berlusconi, Milan’s President, has recently outlined his disappointed of the 46-year-old. Italian news agency ANSA stated Berlusconi was “disappointed” with the coach and that the team in question “lacked any sort of chemistry”. There has been no undermining in the dressing room as in the infamous ‘attack’ incident with Inzaghi just yet, but time will tell if such drastic measures will be taken.
But was has been lacking for Mihajlovic? Why has the new man at the helm been unable to stir up a revival at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza?
We have looked at the defence as a key point, then the midfielders, before arriving at the attack. The past articles outlay exactly that the whole club is the problem. For it is not just one problem, such as a poor centre-back partnership or possibly a goalscoring drought from a forward. It is all these things culminating into one big mess.
Mihajlovic can only do what he is doing right now. He is gambling with changes in who plays and what tactics he deploys. The Serbian is making substitutions earlier in games, later in games and even changing an entire setup on the pitch multiple times. He inherited an awful squad at the start of his tenure, and to be perfectly honest has done well to even have Milan close to any form of European football qualification.
Despite all the changes, all the stab in the dark attempts to alter Milan’s situation, every time there is a light at the end of the tunnel it just seems to vanish.
Realistically, and rather underwhelming when mentioned, there are only three major successes in regards to players of Mihajlovic’s tenure thus far: Donnarumma, Giacomo Bonaventura and Carlos Bacca.
These three players’ performances have been the ones to give the Rossoneri their fairly stable position in the league. Yes, five years ago, ten years ago and so on a seventh place position in December would be a truly horrendous situation.
But this is where Milan and Mihajlovic are now and the Milanisti need to currently accept that. The club was born into the footballing world 116 years ago (December 16), and they once went 44 years without a Scudetto. They’ve only gone four years without one, but so has every single Italian side bar Juventus.
Milan fans may have lost their optimism and maybe their heads in calling for Mihajlovic’s departure, but they would have to wait until at least the 2055/2056 season, 40 years from now, to voice their displeasure at a Scudetto drought.
There’s a Coppa Italia tie against Sampdoria on the horizon, maybe that will quench the need for a trophy. Or so Milanisti hope.
