Sinisa Mihajlovic's AC Milan Are on the Right Track Despite Genoa Defeat

Modern football is a fast-paced world where coaches are given little time to get things right. This is especially the case at a prestigious club like Milan, where silverware is perennially the ultimate ambition.

Against the backdrop of such weighty expectations, it is fair to say that, with three defeats from his opening six league games in charge of the club, Sinisa Mihajlovic’s start to life as Milan head coach has been underwhelming. Nonetheless, it's important to retain perspective in such circumstances, especially in the immediate aftermath of a loss.

The latest defeat came away to Genoa, with the Rossoneri going down 1-0 in the Stadio Luigi Ferraris on Sunday afternoon. The result was a comedown, particularly after two consecutive league wins, but Gian Piero Gasperini’s Genoa side are always a tough test with their unorthodox 3-4-3 formation, fluid passing and intense pressing game.

Milan’s other two Serie A defeats look better in the cold light of day. The reverse to then-unbeaten Inter was a tight contest only decided by a single goal, while Milan’s opening-day 2-0 defeat to Fiorentina was given valuable context by the Viola’s crushing of Inter’s perfect start to the season with a searing 4-1 win in San Siro on Sunday evening.

Given the amount of change that has taken place at Milan over the last few months, including stadium planning, takeover talks, multiple publicly failed transfer bids and a revamp of the playing personnel, the aforementioned results must be taken on the chin. The reality is Mihajlovic could be doing a much worse job.

And, even if the results aren’t yet at the level the club—even the coach himself—would want, there are enough green shoots of recovery poking through to suggest Milan are on the right track.

A clear tactical plan

For starters, Mihajlovic seems to have a very specific idea of how he wants his Milan side to look on the pitch. In every competitive game thus far, the system used has been a 4-3-1-2. This formation was used frequently by the Serb during his successful spell in charge of Sampdoria, so he clearly has a predilection for it.

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Stylistically, Milan may not be where Mihajlovic wants them to be—their pressing game and positional structure has yet to be fully implemented—but he has very deliberately put his own stamp on the team with the consistent use of one clear system. This identity is something Milan lacked last season under Filippo Inzaghi’s direction.

Greater consistency of team selection

While the formation remains the same, the faces populating Milan’s starting lineup have altered since their opening-day trip to Florence.

Centre-back Rodrigo Ely has—on the back of his sending-off that day and subsequent suspension—found himself ousted from the team in favour of the more experienced Cristian Zapata, while Nigel de Jong no longer has claim to the midfield enforcer role, with Mihajlovic preferring the more technically proficient Riccardo Montolivo in this area for recent fixtures.

Late summer transfer window signings Mario Balotelli and Juraj Kucka have also shaken things up, with strikers Luiz Adriano and Carlos Bacca facing serious competition from the former and Keisuke Honda’s place in the team under threat due to the latter’s arrival.

Throw in injuries to Ignazio Abate, Luca Antonelli and Andrea Bertolacci, and it has been difficult for Mihajlovic to set up with the same players in consecutive league matches.

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Despite this, he is coming closer to a clearly defined preferred lineup. The defence will be settled once Alessio Romagnoli (suspended after his red card against Genoa), Abate and Antonelli are available again.

Elsewhere, the only qualm regarding the midfield at this point is what exactly to do with Andrea Bertolacci, while up front Mihajlovic has a nice headache in having to pick two from Bacca, Balotelli and Adriano.

In six league fixtures, Milan’s starting lineup has featured 17 different players, but the amount of change from match to match is decreasing as Mihajlovic makes sense of his squad. Soon, he will have a full complement of players to select from, and he should be able to field his favourite team on a more regular basis.

Young talent given a chance

One of the major bugbears of Milanisti in recent years was the sale of promising youth talent. Too often Milan shipped out there youngsters, including homegrown ones such as Bryan Cristante, with worrying speed having given them little opportunity in the first team.

This mentality seems to have gone, in large part due to Mihajlovic forcing a change. He started the season with a centre-back pairing of Ely and Romagnoli, who have a combined age of 41, and also showed little hesitation throwing in 18-year-old Davide Calabria at right-back when Abate got injured.

These decisions show bravery. Mihajlovic is under pressure to deliver big improvement at Milan, and there is nothing certain in fielding youngsters, particularly those without prior Serie A experience, such as Ely and Calabria. This also shows how committed the coach is toward building something for the long term.

There is still fine-tuning to be done, but Mihajlovic has already made a tangible impact upon Milan both in terms of the way they play and in more holistic ways, such as their attitude to youth. He has wasted little time impressing his core ideas upon the club and, with the required patience, there is enough evidence to suggest he can guide Milan closer to where they feel they belong: at the top of Italian football.