AC Milan Show Mettle a Little Too Late in Comeback Win over Atalanta

AC Milan finished their season the way they started it: with a win.

If only everything in between was not so much of a disaster.

Milan beat Atalanta, 3-1, on Saturday evening to close a miserable year. It was their first comeback win of the campaign in their last game. Go figure.

Still, it was a nice way to send off coach Filippo Inzaghi, whose future with club remains uncertain at best after failing to improve on Milan's eighth-place finish from the previous year.

"We woke up late," Inzaghi told Sky Sport Italia (h/t Football Italia), "but the club can see this team has an identity now.”

Milan won three of their final four games, scoring 10 goals along the way. It was one of their most productive runs of the season. 

Dino Panato/Getty Images

"I knew the players would react, we were truly a team in these last four or five games," Inzaghi said. "Now there are strong foundations and with a few new faces Milan will get back to where it was."

If only it were that easy. For large parts of the 2014-15 campaign, Milan could not string together more than a pair of good results. They were injured; they were inconsistent. Inzaghi switched systems almost on a weekly basis. He could not settle on a back line. 

In all, Milan conceded 50 goals—their highest total since 1949, according to Football Italia.

Some results from a few meaningless games does not suddenly make this team a good one. That it took 38 league games to show their mettle and produce a comeback victory from a losing position is sad. This is the same team that lost 19 points from winning positions. They could not play with or recover a lead. 

Simply put, Inzaghi failed. Maybe it was unfair to expect a first-time coach to resurrect a big club like Milan. But he did not get the best out of his roster. On paper, they are better than Torino, Sampdoria and Genoa—and yet all three of those clubs will finish higher than Milan. 

Inzaghi set out to improve all areas of the team, but they only worsened under his watch. 

Dino Panato/Getty Images

"I told the lads I want an attacking and positive Milan, hopefully with entertaining football too," Inzaghi said in July, per Football Italia. "We must try to take control of the game."

Rarely did they ever boss the pitch for a full 90 minutes. Everything happened in spurts: an early goal followed by two or three shots in the back of their net. 

They did find a response on Saturday. Milan went down, 1-0, but scored three unanswered goals—two from former Atalanta product Giacomo Bonaventura. The 25-year-old midfielder didn't celebrate, and he didn't look like he really wanted to score either. They were rebounds off the post, lucky bounces—nothing more. 

Milan often scored like that: There never was much of a buildup, just chaos in front of the net and the odd individual effort that led to goals. 

One of the main constants was Nigel de Jong, who once again dominated the midfield. His countryman, Marco van Ginkel, also began to find his game as he earned more playing time. 

Against Atalanta, they were making things happen again:

"

72/63 - @NDJ_Official (72) & Marco van Ginkel (63) were the players with most passes in Milan - Atalanta. Tulipani. pic.twitter.com/EDQIEUfMbH

— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) May 30, 2015"

They may not be with Milan next year. De Jong's contract is expiring, and Van Ginkel's loan spell is ending. 

The whole team could and probably should look a lot different in September, but these two midfielders gave Milan something the rest did not: stability.

Their final record stands at 13-13-12, stuck in the middle. And rightfully so: They would beat Napoli and lose to Sassuolo. They would win a game and lose the next three. This was a way of life at Milan, always a balancing act and never the main draw.