Jeremy Menez Brace Tops Milan's Best Performance of Season

AC Milan should have won by more than just two goals. 

They dominated Udinese, and there was never any doubt that Milan would win their first game in six matches. There was just a doubt over how they would do it.

Without a true functioning striker, Milan have been forced to find goals in non-traditional ways. One of their heaviest resources is Jeremy Menez, and his two goals on Sunday (one a penalty) secured the points. 

Antonio Calanni/Associated Press

That they needed a penalty at all to gain the lead was a little alarming. Milan had 18 shots to Udinese's six, per WhoScored.com, not to mention the bulk of possession.

Still, it was attacking football, without hesitation, launching play after play. Milan simply do better with the ball. They cannot wait and spring on the counter-attack—it's risky to do that with the defence they have. They have to take the initiative. It's what the fans want to see, too.

"We should’ve been 3-0 up at the break and it was still goalless, so I think overall it was Milan’s best performance of the season," coach Pippo Inzaghi told Sky Sport Italia (h/t Football Italia) after the match. “My objective this term is to get the team playing good football, for the fans to be smiling in the stands and to make our president happy."

Menez has done his best to achieve that. Equal parts frustrating and exciting, he is almost like Mario Balotelli, scoring four of his team-leading seven goals from the penalty spot and the other three in spectacular fashion. The 27-year-old Frenchman either scores a golazo or runs himself into a dead end. He is either rewarded for his selfishness or criticized.

There's hardly any middle ground for Menez, and yet he is the most reliable scorer on a team which finds goals from wingers, midfielders and defenders, but never strikers.

And maybe Menez is the one scoring because he is exactly that: a combination of positions, capable of playing on the wing, as a false-nine or centre-forward. This is a team of moving parts at their best.

Goals aren't really the issue with Milan. If anything, it's the defence. But they must start punishing teams when they are dominating them. Possession stats mean nothing at the end of the game. 

Of course, Inzaghi is all about the process. It's one game toward a greater goal. A suspected phantom goal (later confirmed to be on the line by journalist Tancredi Palmeri) and two red cards would not take away from the performance.

"Let’s just stick to how we played, which is the real importance of football," Inzaghi said. "We dominated from start to finish, so a couple of incidents won’t change that."