Milan's Loss to Tottenham Gives Mihajlovic More Questions Than Answers

Pre-season tournaments serve several purposes. They can be used to foster tactical organisation and team spirit, blood youngsters and offer a stiff test prior to the upcoming campaign. Unfortunately for AC Milan, they gained little from their two displays in the Audi Cup.

On the back of being outclassed en route to losing 3-0 against Bayern Munich in their opener on Tuesday, Milan entered their second and final match of the tournament with Tottenham on Wednesday with a point, or several, to prove. That they failed to do, stumbling to a 2-0 loss.

The result itself was far from ideal, but what may alarm Rossoneri coach Sinisa Mihajlovic more was the lack of positives to gleam from the team’s performance.

The match didn’t get off to the best of starts for Milan when Tottenham’s Belgian winger Nacer Chadli cut in from the right after eight minutes to unleash a stunning strike that ripped into the top left corner from outside the penalty box. It was a wonderful finish that any defence would have found nearly impossible to stop.

Immediately following that goal there were few signs of life as Milan toiled in the German heat. Within the next four minutes, Brazilian centre-back Alex received the ball only to find passing options in short supply. He was forced into a backpass, leaving Christian Abbiati to loft an aimless ball long and gift possession back to Spurs.

This moment perfectly exemplified one of the most prominent issues throughout Milan’s performance; there was a genuine lack of purposeful possession.

Mihajlovic’s men struggled to build attacks and too often made bad decisions, such as making passes with no intent of offering support to the receiver. Rarely did anyone show for the ball and take responsibility for not only maintaining possession but using it with any real efficacy.

Disjointed attacking play may be forgivable when up against the masterful counter-pressing of Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich side, but against this Tottenham side such frequent misuse of the ball is a deserved area for scrutiny.

One excuse would be that Milan didn’t put out their best possible starting lineup, though such an argument holds little weight when considering Tottenham were without many of their own stars with a big Premier League opening fixture away to Manchester United awaiting them on Saturday.

Mauricio Pochettino rested his primary goalscorer Harry Kane, creator-in-chief Christian Eriksen and first-choice goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, among others, although the latter did eventually come on in the second half.

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Up front, Milan rested their two new signings—Carlos Bacca and Luiz Adriano—as well as Japanese schemer Keisuke Honda. In their place came Alessandro Matri, Alessio Cerci and Suso though, while Matri worked hard and tried to offer an outlet for his team-mates, Cerci and Suso showed little to suggest they will be in Milan’s starting 11 come their first Serie A match of the new season, against Fiorentina.

In fairness, the attacking trio were given very little supply and often had to forge their own routes to goal. Suso consistently looked to beat his marker and fashion a chance, but his occasionally twinkling feet lacked end product.

Cerci, on the other hand, was simply unable to impose himself upon the game and, on the back of this latest lacklustre showing as a right-sided inverted winger, questions must be asked as to whether he will fit Mihajlovic’s system.

I have written before about Milan’s desperate need to sign a centre-back, with Roma’s Alessio Romagnoli the ideal candidate, and the Rossoneri’s defensive display against Tottenham only reinforced this viewpoint further.

In central defence, Alex was partnered by Frenchman Philippe Mexes, who recently signed a contract extension, though the two were uninspiring in possession and vulnerable against a fluid and youthful Spurs attack.

Without Kane, Pochettino essentially opted to play four attacking midfielders with Chadli and Erik Lamela taking it in turns to head the front line. They were supported by youth team products Tom Carroll and Joshua Onomah.

The pace and direct running of that front four was something Alex and Mexes found difficult to handle, which is not particularly surprising given both are 33 and physically beyond their peak. Alex has been paired with 21-year-old Rodrigo Ely throughout much of pre-season, and without the youngster’s presence he, and Milan, looked even more open at the back.

One particular issue was the central defensive duo’s susceptibility to direct, vertical balls played in behind them, as Alex and Mexes have never been the quickest of turners.

They were not aided by a lack of support from the midfielders in front of them, who pressed well in packs but often left space in behind to be exploited. Jose Mauri was little more than a passenger, while Riccardo Montolivo had to be substituted on 42 minutes after sustaining a knock to the head following a late challenge on Nabil Bentaleb.

Gabriel Paletta put in a spirited effort having replaced Alex at the break before Carlos Bacca came on just after the hour mark to add quality up front, yet still Milan lacked cohesion.

Bacca sent a header just wide, but generally they continued to struggle for clear goalscoring opportunities, with the customary pre-season raft of substitutions hardly helping them in this cause as Ely, Honda, Adriano, Luca Antonelli and Giacomo Bonaventura all came on at the 70^th-minute mark.

Any hope of a positive result to gloss over a below-average performance was finally eliminated just one minute later, with Carroll finding space to calmly slot home after some neat interchanges from a corner opened up Milan’s defence.

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When the final whistle blew to conclude proceedings, Mihajlovic had been given more questions than answers after a tournament that saw Milan concede five, score none and give clear evidence of the need for further improvement.

They appear in better shape when compared to the side that finished 10^th in Serie A last season under Filippo Inzaghi, though that doesn’t say much. In reality, they remain defensively suspect and tactically incoherent. In short, Milan are still not where they want to be.

However, to get them there, Mihajlovic will need time to properly implement his system and style of football successfully, while the new signings must be given similar time to bed in. With more pre-season work still ahead of them, Milan needn’t be overly concerned by these particular issues.

The defensive issue will remain no matter how much time passes, though. While 16-year-old goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma looked assured and full of potential, and Ely has surprised with some decent individual performances, Milan need a central defender.

Things looks promising on that front, with Corriere dello Sport recently reporting via Football Italia that Milan are closer to reaching an agreement to sign Romagnoli after Roma lowered their asking price to €28m.

Baby steps are seemingly being made, though Mihajlovic did not wish to ignore his team’s insipid final Audi Cup outing, telling reporters via Football Italia:

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We know we have a lot of work to do. This tournament has shown us our problem areas. Nobody has a magic wand to resolve the problems…These are matches…help us understand where we are. Even when you lose, you have to try to be optimistic.

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Perhaps that’s another benefit to these pre-season tournaments; they put things in perspective. After a strong tour of China, Milan have been brought back down to earth, first by Bayern Munich and then Tottenham. At this point, the club’s dream of returning to the Champions League remains just that, a dream.