AC Milan's 5 Biggest Weaknesses and Ways to Solve Them
It's been sad times for AC Milan.
The Italian giants had hoped to avoid the ungodly start that plagued them last season and forced them to make a miracle comeback to qualify for the Champions League. Unfortunately, things have been even worse this year.
Through 15 games last season, Milan had won six, drawn three and lost six. Included in that onerous record was a season-opening loss to recently promoted Sampdoria and 2-2 draw against Palermo that saw Milan dig themselves out of a 2-0 hole with 20 minutes left against a team that would be relegated at the end of the year.
Four wins, six draws and five losses dog the Rossoneri this year. That puts them in ninth place and six points behind their pace from last year—22 points behind leaders Juventus, 14 points behind a Champions League spot and nine away from qualifying for Europe at all.
This start isn't the product of a single problem. Milan's struggles are rooted in the confluence of several major issues that have all come to a head at once.
What are the biggest? Let's take a look at the club to find out.
Age
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For a team that is supposedly in the throes of a youth movement, the average age of the players Milan puts on the field is alarmingly high.
If you look at the starting XI of Milan's last game against Livorno, Milan played only three players under the age of 27. The relative youth of those three—Mario Balotelli (23), Andrea Poli (24) and Gabriel (21)—drags the team's average age to a bit more than 26, but this speaks to a lack of chances for the team's younger players.
Young players like academy product Bryan Cristante and highly touted signing Riccardo Saponara have sat on the bench while older players have fumbled around the field dropping points. Cristante and Saponara—considered the future of the team in the midfield—have combined for exactly zero starts and three substitute appearances.
It makes little sense that Milan would buy a highly touted attacking midfielder like Saponara, then sign not one but two players who play exactly the same position in Kaka and alleged winter Bosman signing Keisuke Honda.
Max Allegri's stubborn insistence on using Kevin Constant over Mattia De Sciglio is another major example of the youth just not getting a shot.
The solution is easy here: Put the younger players on the team sheet. The season is likely lost—it's time for the Rossoneri to find out what these touted youngsters are made of. Rather than loaning young players out this winter, Milan should be throwing them into the fire to see if they pop.
Fitness
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Milan was once a model for fitness and extending careers. The likes of Pippo Inzaghi, Gennaro Gattuso and Clarence Seedorf extended their primes beyond the norm.
The best examples of the success of "MilanLab" were Alessandro Costacurta and Paolo Maldini, who played at near-elite levels into their forties. ESPN's John Brewin wrote an excellent article about the program and its functions in 2011.
However, that program has failed the club in recent times.
Alexandre Pato ended up leaving the club in part because of the rash of injuries he suffered over the course of his time at the San Siro. This year, Milan has had to go without the likes of Stephan El Shaarawy, Giampaolo Pazzini and Mattia De Sciglio for long stretches due to injury.
These aren't freak accidents on the field, either. Most of these injuries are of the non-contact, soft tissue variety. Age can't be considered a factor either. Of the three players mentioned above, Pazzini is the only one over the age of 21—and he's only 29 himself.
It's not just in the injuries. MilanLab's goals are to optimize a player's fitness over the course of an entire season, but last year, they failed in the very important case of El Shaarawy. El Sha scored 16 times last season but only twice after the winter break, as the youngster's form broke down from the grind of a full top-flight season.
Obviously whatever MilanLab was doing has started losing its mojo.
Milan needs to reevaluate their fitness programs to see what's going wrong and make adjustments accordingly. If they keep facing selection crises due to injuries, they won't be competing for anything.
Defense
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The biggest problem for Milan in the last two seasons has been in the back. While the flanks are fairly strong with Ignazio Abate and Mattia De Sciglio (when healthy and used—we'll get to those later), the center of defense has been a black hole for the Rossoneri.
It started last year when several personnel moves gutted Milan's corps of center-halfs. The legendary Alessandro Nesta was cut adrift at the end of his contract and moved to MLS. Thiago Silva, widely regarded as the best center-back in the world at the time, was sold to Paris Saint-Germain for €42 million. The move—coupled with the tandem sale of Zlatan Ibrahimovic—was designed to trim Milan's wage bill.
It left a massive hole in the center of Milan's rearguard, and it has yet to be filled. Loan move Francesco Acerbi was a massive failure, and he was sent packing back to Genoa after half a season. Holdover Philippe Mexes and Colombian Cristian Zapata—acquired on a loan from Villarreal that was made permanent this summer—have held the center for most of this year and have not been up to par.
Considering Milan's long history of excellent defenders, what's going on in the back at the San Siro this year is an absolute embarrassment.
Milan lacks a center-back prospect in their youth system that is ready for top-flight action, so the answer to this problem has to come from the transfer market. Having missed out on the best available option this summer when Angelo Ogbonna moved across town from Torino to Juventus, Milan's best option for immediate impact is Cagliari's Davide Astori.
The Italy international has impressed so much the last year that Cesare Prandelli took him to Brazil for the Confederations Cup this summer, where he started the Azzurri's third-place match against Uruguay. WhoScored.com ranked him as the man of the match that day in Salvador. He opened the scoring for the Azzurri on a set piece and made a tackle and four interceptions in the back before succumbing to cramps and leaving the field in the 96th minute.
Acquiring Astori is Milan's best option to improve what is certainly their biggest on-field weakness.
Massimiliano Allegri
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It's time for Massimiliano Allegri to go.
The coach led the team to its first title since 2003-04 in his first season and directed last year's miraculous comeback to make the Champions League from as far back as 15th. But his baffling tactical changes and strange personnel moves have worn thin, and there is little confidence in him anymore.
Allegri has alternated between four formations this season. The most common has been a 4-1-2-1-2, accompanied by a 4-3-3, 4-3-2-1 and 4-4-1-1. Interestingly enough, the 4-3-3, which probably suits the roster's talents the best, has also been it's worst on the field.
The Rossoneri are 0-1-3 (W-D-L) this season when using the 4-3-3. To be fair, Allegri has not had his best personnel for that formation. Stephan El Shaarawy—who would be ideal for the left side of the front three—has been out for much of the year. But given that the rest of Milan's squad is very well suited to the formation, that the team hasn't won a single game out of it has to come down to Allegri's tactics.
More puzzling has been his odd player selection. Last year he made an attempt to convert Kevin Constant into a left-back, and he seems hell-bent on making the move work.
Lost in this attempt is young Mattia De Sciglio. While naturally right-footed, the potential successor to Paolo Maldini is equally adept at playing on the left flank. While he has been injured for much of the season, Allegri was selecting Constant over him on the left even when he was healthy a year ago.
Allegri's time at Milan is simply spent. There's little confidence in him, and it seems unlikely that the team will bounce back for him the way it did a year ago.
The questions are when and who—as in when does Allegri get the ax, and who replaces him?
It seems likely that the answer to the latter question is Milan legend Filippo Inzaghi, who is currently coaching the team's Primavera squad. As for when...that's a harder question to pin down. It could be as early as this week if Milan fail to gain the point they need to advance in the Champions League against Ajax on Wednesday. The saga could also drag out through the season to see the sword fall in May.
One way or the other, the solution here is obvious—fire Allegri.
Ownership
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Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi's life is a mess.
Multiple political and personal scandals have led to massive legal troubles for the former Italian Prime Minister, and it was around the start of those problems that Milan's obsession with balancing the books began.
Milan never used to be a team that balked at a transfer fee, but over the last two years, they have shown uncharacteristic frugality—as my article, published during the summer transfer window, detailed.
One of the most startling quotes from Milan recently was this from team president Adriano Galliani. As quoted by Goal.com, Galliani responded to rumors the Rossoneri were pursuing then-Manchester City forward Carlos Tevez by saying, "Before we will try to bring in new players, we will have to sell some of our own players first."
Galliani immediately tried to claim that it had more to do with the team's wealth of attacking options rather than a financial problem, but the aforementioned sales of Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic indicate otherwise. The team is desperate to cut wages and was unwilling to beat Juventus to Angelo Ogbonna even though center-back was the team's highest need.
Despite the club's constant denials, in the opinion of this writer, it's clear that Berlusconi's legal problems are affecting the team's finances and are providing unwelcome distractions. ESPN reported Monday that Berlusconi has said that he will dedicate more time to the stricken club, but frankly, the opposite is probably the best thing for the club in the long run.
What Milan really needs is a sale.
It could mean an important influx of cash as well as a removal of the off-field distraction of Berlusconi's constant legal woes—which, given the structure of the Italian justice system, could carry on for years.
In the long run, Berlusconi relinquishing the team could be the best thing for the club.
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