AC Milan slumped to a 1-1 draw against Lazio on Sunday evening. Earlier that day, Parma wrestled a point after coming back from behind against Genoa.
The same amount of points are gifted to both Parma and AC Milan, but the performances and the matches have different connotations. Under fire Clarence Seedorf’s earned point was the first domestic points earned in a month, AC Milan beating Sampdoria prior to three consecutive losses against Juventus, Udinese and Parma.
Meanwhile, Roberto Donadoni’s earned point was another added to a domestic streak that is bordering on the ridiculous; 17 games without a defeat for the Ducali, a side built like a home made rally car, made up of all the pieces of other teams that were cut-off, sold or discarded.
Another appropriate analogy for this unlikely run is the concept of the famous film “Mean Machine” where Burt Reynolds/Vinne Jones built a team of misfits to play cohesive sport. Similarly, Amauri, Jonathan Biabiany, Christian Molinaro and their enigmatic talisman Antonio Cassano are perhaps the motliest of crews, rejected and discarded by former clubs forming an oddly inspiring team.
As a result of Donadoni’s success in bringing these players in and playing successful football, the former Italy coach has been linked with a move away from Emilia-Romagna to one of the bigger sides in Serie A and it appears that a gap could be available at Milan.
With Clarence Seedorf not providing the change in performance that Silvio Berlusconi expected since his arrival in mid-January, rumours are circulating that the Dutchman could lose his job despite only holding a coaching position with Milan for just over two months to this point.
Should that incident occur, Seedorf would be replaced temporarily by coaching stalwart Mauro Tassotti until the end of the season, whereby a new coach would be selected from a selection of Roberto Donadoni or Filippo Inzaghi.
While it will be another classic Berlusconi move to hire Inzaghi, another former Milan legend who’d bring guaranteed popularity to the position as Seedorf did on his arrival, but Roberto Donadoni makes the most sense as a tactician. While “SuperPippo” has experience coaching Milan youth teams since his retirement in 2012, replacing Clarence Seedorf with another rookie without an actual job coaching men is a senseless sideways move.
Donadoni on the other hand comes from an extended career in charge of Parma and Italy, primed for a step into one of the elite jobs in Italy. His track record at the Ducali speaks for itself, and his proven ability to make the best out of previously discarded players makes him the ideal candidate to try and deal with the tyre fire that is the AC Milan squad.
But, can he save Milan? President Berlusconi’s comments about Milan spending the second most in wages despite sitting second shouldn’t be an indictment of coaching as the reported pressure on Clarence Seedorf suggests, it should be an indictment of how the money is spent. It doesn’t take a financial graduate or a football expert to tell you that €12m for Alessandro Matri was a bad deal while €10 million for Carlos Tevez is a good one, nor does paying Philippe Mexes and Robinho more in a year than Napoli paid to buy Jorginho from Hellas Verona provide a cornerstone for a good squad. It doesn’t matter how free Michael Essien was, it doesn’t make it a good signing.
Clarence Seedorf’s Milan looked a mirror image of Massimiliano Allegri’s Milan against Lazio on Sunday. No shape, little movement nor a clear tactical plan in the heads of the players (at least that’s how it looked) and despite Mario Balotelli, Keisuke Honda, Giampaolo Pazzini and Kaka’ seeing time at the Olimpico, the Rossoneri had zero shots on target. A combination of Jose Mourinho and Arrigo Sacchi would struggle to organize this team – much less Roberto Donadoni or the still green fingered Clarence Seedorf.
Logic seems to dictate that Milan look to overhaul in summer before seeing what they have in their young coach with a new group of players. However logic has not been often associated with Milan in recent months, and another change wouldn’t be surprising. If Seedorf is ushered out of the door, his replacement will have a difficult job on his hands with seemingly little time to do it.
