Filippo Inzaghi Is Lucky to Get Another Chance at AC Milan

The axe did not fall on Filippo Inzaghi after all.

AC Milan could have fired the 41-year-old here and now. They would have a case. Despite all the injuries to his squad, Inzaghi has not managed it right.

Poor tactical decisions at the weekend cost Milan another win against Hellas Verona. With 13 minutes remaining in a game the Rossoneri were winning, Inzaghi decided to pull off a striker and add another defender. He substituted Giampaolo Pazzini for Salvatore Bocchetti and pushed the team’s only active full-back (Luca Antonelli) into midfield.

Antonio Calanni/Associated Press

Suddenly, the entire back-four consisted exclusively of central defenders, a diabolical plan doomed for failure. Of course, they conceded the equalizer with seconds left in the match.

The immediate aftermath looked dreary. The possibility of the sack increased—not for the first time. Even Inzaghi seemed resigned to his fate.

“The club must do what they think is right,” he told reporters on Sunday (via Football Italia). “The club will tell you if it has made a decision or not. I go forward.”

But Adriano Galliani appears to have offered a final chance. Gianluca Di Marzio reports the Milan CEO had lunch with Inzaghi, and Sport Mediaset claims Silvio Berlusconi assured the first-year coach of his job (h/t Football Italia).

The road to possible Europa League qualification does not get easier. A negative result against high-flying Fiorentina next week could dissolve any good will left for a club legend like Inzaghi.

He certainly has a larger safety net for that reason. He has a good relationship with upper management and he has said repeatedly that he would like to stay for 20 years.

Milan probably would have fired an outside manager for similar results: just 35 points from 26 games. They even sacked Clarence Seedorf, and he had the same number of points in seven fewer Serie A matches.

The problem here stems from the absence of a decent replacement midway through the season. Long-time assistant Mauro Tassotti has experience as a caretaker, but he is no long-term solution. Gianluca Di Marzio also reported on Sunday that current Milan youth coach Cristian Brocchi could replace Inzaghi for the time being.

Antonio Calanni/Associated Press

That would set a dangerous cycle in motion again: a former player with zero senior coaching experience taking on a team with serious issues. Milan cannot risk having another half-baked coach making mistakes on the go. They need an accomplished tactician to squeeze the mediocrity out of this Milan team.

The off-season provides a lot more time to hatch the right plan. Future considerations, according to Goal.com, include Fiorentina’s Vincenzo Montella and Borussia Dortmund’s Jurgen Klopp: two young managers who have already built a foundation and a philosophy of playing.

Milan will have to spend the money to get the right man, on top of the millions of euros for sacking Seedorf and possibly Inzaghi. Coaching at the club is just not as glamorous as it once was. Money is the only way to entice the Klopps and Montellas of European football.

An influx of cash from a Thai investor could help. Reports in Italy from La Repubblica and Tuttosport (h/t Football Italia) suggest Berlusconi has agreed to sell a minority stake in Milan potentially worth hundreds of millions of euros, and that would have ramifications all over.

Radical change is the real antidote to this current state of paralysis at Milan, where such institutional traits like class and tradition are vanishing into the past.

In the meantime, Inzaghi has at least week to show that he has learned some lessons about managing at the top level.