AC Milan Must Fix Problems from Jekyll-and-Hyde Performance Against Udinese

AC Milan went into Tuesday's game against Udinese confident they could build upon the weekend's victory over Palermo.  While they certainly looked good in parts of the 3-2 victory, the full story of the game read more like a piece of 19th-century English literature.

I speak, of course, of Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The Rossoneri roared out of the gate.  After four minutes, Mattia De Sciglio stole possession and drove hard up the left wing.  He laid the ball off to Mario Balotelli, who was making his first start since returning to Milan over the summer.  Balotelli cut inside and took a foul in an excellent position for a direct free-kick.

Giacomo Bonaventura scored from a similar position over the weekend, but this time, Balotelli claimed that responsibility all on his own.  After two positive performances as a sub, he put an early exclamation point on his first start by flying a picture-perfect free-kick into the top corner.

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Filled with the confidence from the early goal, Milan continued to press forward and doubled their lead five minutes later when Riccardo Montolivo fired a pinpoint long ball over the top to Bonaventura.  The midfielder had split the defense with a long run, and he controlled expertly with his chest before slotting past Orestis Karnezis.

For the majority of the rest of the half, Milan fluctuated from being clear aggressors to absolutely dominant.  Udinese got a few balls into the box but looked like they didn't know what to do with it once it got there.

Milan, on the other hand, kept on putting themselves into dangerous positions.  Keisuke Honda jumped a pass deep in the Udinese end and sent in Carlos Bacca, but the Colombian couldn't get his feet set properly for the shot.  Ten minutes later, Bacca returned the favor to Honda after being sent through by Davide Calabria, but the Japan international was tackled before he could put the ball on target.

It culminated in stoppage time, when Bonaventura stood over the first corner kick of the half.  The delivery found Cristian Zapata, who bounced a header past Karnezis to put Milan in the locker room up by three goals.

It was easily the most dominant the team has looked in a long time.  For 45 minutes, Milan looked like Milan.

Then the second half started.

Perhaps it's been so long since Milan were up by that much that they were unused to killing off the game.  Regardless of the reason, what happened in the second half wasn't excusable.

Udinese manager Stefano Colantuono started the half by throwing on Duvan Zapata and using him as part of a trident along with Cyril Thereau and Antonio Di Natale.  It almost went all for naught when Maurizio Domizzi nearly deflected a long-range shot past Karnezis, but a minute later, the Zebrette had a foothold.

The goalscorer was Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu.  He was lurking near the penalty spot while the entire defensive line tracked back into the six-yard box.  Badu had acres of space to set and slot past Diego Lopez.

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Seven minutes later, the defence screwed up again.  The ball came down their right side, and the entire line shifted towards the ball.  It left a pair of runners free to attack the ensuing cross.  Di Natale couldn't stretch to it, but Zapata did.  It was game on.

For the last half-hour, Milan were in panic mode.  Their passing was jumpy.  Instead of calmly cycling the ball to the open man, they tensed up and played too many loose balls and low-percentage long balls.  They committed needless fouls that gave possession back to their opponents and set up some dangerous set pieces.

By stoppage time, the Rossoneri were playing a full-on code-red rearguard action.  Lopez needed to make a fantastic save against Bruno Fernandes in order to put the game to bed.

What caused this collapse?  Some of it may have to do with manager Sinisa Mihajlovic's first substitution.

That came in the 49th minute, when he sent on Alex for 18-year-old full-back Calabria.  The youngster played fantastically against Palermo last week, and this week he again impressed.  He claimed the ball well and seamlessly transitioned into the attack.  The fly in the ointment was a first-half yellow card, which was probably the reason he was withdrawn.

But without him on the field, the defensive line lost cohesion.  Once Zapata moved into the right, it seemed like everyone forgot where they were supposed to be.  The result was chaos.  There was also a general panic in the midfield, which gave up possession time and time again.

It was such a massive contrast to the first half, which was the best 45 minutes the team played in two years.  Balotelli in particular was impressive.  He again held up against defenders that were obviously attempting to rile him up.  He did receive a yellow, but it was a weak call.  However, he did get three Udinese players booked and generally looked good going forward.

There's a long way to go, but with each game, it looks like Good Mario might be here to stay.

But while Balotelli's performance was a great positive, the way this team collapsed in the second half is seriously concerning.  From the first whistle of the second half, the team on the field transformed from Carlo Ancelotti's Milan to Filippo Inzaghi's Milan.

Mihajlovic questioned Milan's mentality earlier this season.  He is going to have to do that again.  What's certain is that Milan have potential.  But if they keep breaking mentally like this, that potential will be completely wasted.