AC Milan versus Napoli was dubbed as the most crucial match of the Serie A season in the race for Champions League qualification.
In the end, both sides fought to a 1-1 draw. The Partenopei stay in second place, four points up on the Rossoneri, who are now just four points ahead of fourth place Fiorentina. If this game had a storyline, it wouldn’t be about the Mathieu Flamini red card or Goran Pandev’s performance, it would be the coaching displays of Milan’s Massimiliano Allegri and the Azzurri’s Walter Mazzarri.
When Napoli qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League last season, many criticised Mazzarri’s predictable tactics. Since then he’s shaken things up by adding some depth in Pablo Armero, Valon Behrami, and Lorenzo Insigne. With those new additions, Mazzarri has also instilled a more possession based style. When necessary, the system can go back into the counter attacking tactic that gave the Partenopei great success the previous two campaigns.
Allegri, on the other hand, has left something to be desired. Fans and media members alike are split on their opinion, claiming he hasn’t gotten the right players, while the other side of the fence says he’s a mediocre coach. Glancing at the numbers and looking at the match on Sunday night, the latter belief seems to be the correct one. Allegri is 7-13-9 against the top six in Serie A in his current coaching tenure, not to mention he only has eight wins from 27 European games.
Before the game even started there was controversy swirling about Allegri’s team selection. Despite having Stephan El Shaarawy and M’Baye Niang available, the tactician didn’t start either of them.
Allegri opted to give the spots to Robinho (left wing) and Kevin Prince Boateng (right wing). Mattia De Sciglio also spent the majority of the match on the bench. Despite the youngster’s defensive inexperience, he provides great service in attack and demonstrates great pace, making it even more strange as to why he didn’t occupy one of the fullback roles.
Considering that Napoli are susceptible to crosses into their penalty area, De Sciglio’s delivery from the flank would’ve been far more dangerous than either Ignazio Abate and Kevin Constant, who didn’t send anything dangerous into the box.
Also, when Flamini was sent off, despite having El Shaarawy on the touchline, Allegri didn’t bring him on until after the red card. By that point, he didn’t get very many opportunities. His best chance was a flick over a couple of defenders which ended in him tumbling over.
Even though Milan were down a man, their cautious tactics they deployed all game paid off. When playing a match of that magnitude at home, the hosts must take it to the visiting side. Yes Napoli had the man advantage, but Milan’s strategy stayed the same all night. A massive opportunity to claim second place in Serie A came and left on Sunday.
Allegri’s counterpart Mazzarri read and understood every situation in the match. When Milan started to lose pace across the pitch, especially at the back, he brought on faster players in Insigne and Armero. Taking off an in-form Pandev and one of the best assist men in Marek Hamsik is questionable, but Mazzarri at least made the correct call in bringing on some pace.
Who knows, maybe both players taken off for the substitutes were fatigued. Napoli didn’t have the best of games, but they didn’t need to win. Going into the San Siro and getting a draw to maintain a four point lead is a great result for the southerners. They did concede a few attempts to Milan when they lost Flamini, but all in all, it was a solid result. They’re now one step closer to attaining automatic qualification to the group stage of the Champions League for the second time in three years.
With the likes of Juventus and Roma left on their fixture list, Milan aren’t out of the woods yet in terms of playing top opposition. They’ve done well against the smaller sides in Italy, but must get something from both matches if they want to grab second place in the table.
Napoli also have Roma late next month along with Inter on May 5th. If they continue to show off their offensive firepower like they have in recent weeks, then the Neapolitan club could very well be Serie A’s runners up. Both of their final positions starts and ends with their coaches, though. Right now, it appears as if they’ll stay put in their respective spots come the end of the season.
Eh. Allegri is never that impressive, but you can expect what you get from him: decent play without anything impressive. Mazzari’s teams are wildly inconsistent. They rely completely on counterattacks (no matter how possession based they try to be). Plus, Mazzari’s teams have no future because he refuses to favor youth. I’ll take Allegri dullness over Mazzari’s craziness.
@AP Do you even watch football or are you just mentally retarded?
jim i agree with u ap dont watch footbal