AC Milan: Should the Rossoneri Stick or Twist with Filippo Inzaghi?

Filippo Inzaghi always deserved what Clarence Seedorf never had: a full season in his first year as a senior coach.

The beginning was nice enough. The players could not rave more about Inzaghi. They celebrated goals together. Milan looked whole once again.

But the months passed and the team lost more and more points, especially against inferior Serie A clubs. 

Deeper into his coaching baptism, Inzaghi has apparently lost the support of management. An unfavourable result on Saturday against Hellas Verona could spell an early end to his tenure, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t Football Italia).

CEO Adriano Galliani and president Silvio Berlusconi are not wrong to have such doubts. Milan need more experience on the bench. They literally cannot afford to wait another year to see if Inzaghi learns to adopt better tactics and better man-management policies.

The main problem with Inzaghi is his failure to promote prospects like M’Baye Niang and Riccardo Saponara—both of whom had to leave the club to get playing time—and his inability to field a consistent set of players game in, game out.

The centre-back partnership of choice is a mystery to all fans. The midfield, either through injury or ineptitude, is slow and sterile. There was also the fireable offence of making Sulley Muntari a captain for a big game against Juventus. 

It’s hard to win games on a regular basis when the spine of the team keeps changing for one reason or another.

"

I think the worst part about Milan in general is that I have such affection for Inzaghi.. its painful to see him drowning in the deep end.

— Pete Acquaviva (@PDAcquaviva) February 28, 2015"

Of course, a coach grows in time. But Milan are set to miss the Champions League for a second straight season, costing them tens of millions of euros and hurting their overall commercial value. 

It’s not even certain whether Inzaghi will become the manager Milan were hoping to get. In seven months, the 41-year-old has made the same mistakes over and over and his team has played ineffective football on far too many occasions. He has had two transfer windows to shape his squad, and he’s done far less with more than Seedorf ever got.

It’s ironic that a manager like Fiorentina’s Vincenzo Montella, who is a year younger than Inzaghi, is now slowly emerging as Milan’s prime candidate—even though he has publicly committed himself to La Viola, per Football Italia.

Inzaghi in many ways is Montella: They both played striker for their main club (Milan and Roma); they both coached the youth team of those clubs; and they both graduated to the first-team bench. 

Fabrizio Giovannozzi/Associated Press

But Montella is a few years ahead of Inzaghi in his second career, and he has proven himself with Catania and Fiorentina, showing that he can work with what he has and still achieve results. Montella almost cracked Europe with a lesser team like Catania in 2011-12, and he is a contender in the Europa League this year with Fiorentina despite losing star Juan Cuadrado.

Milan need someone like Montella, a combination of a young coach with a solid tactical understanding of the game at this level. They need someone who does not have an immediate relationship with the club. They need an outside influence.

Hiring a legend as a coach was always going to be a tough balancing act. Milan did it twice in a row, and it has failed. 

Inzaghi could learn from his mistakes. But he is best off at a club where the pressure is not suffocating. Inzaghi does not deserve a reckoning every week, and Milan do not deserve a coach that may or may not amount to anything.