AC Milan Improve by Degrees in Draw at Torino but Aren't Complete Yet

After being destroyed 4-0 by Napoli last time out, AC Milan were in need of a major improvement coming out of the international break. Their task was a big one: beat a Torino team that was perfect so far at home.

Milan certainly didn't play the perfect match. While they probably should have held on and gotten more than a 1-1 draw, they did enough to make a case that they had moved on from that horrific night against the Partenopei and made the first moves to get better.

There were certainly enough distractions in the two weeks since the team's previous match. After the Napoli game, there were reports in La Repubblica (h/t Football Italia) that Mihajlovic's place on the bench was no longer certain.

Whether or not he's considering firing his new coach, owner Silvio Berlusconi has definitely begun to characteristically stick his nose into his manager's business. On Thursday, La Stampa reported (h/t Football Italia) that Berlusconi was overheard during a political meeting as saying that Mihajlovic, while a good coach on the training field, needed to work on "a bit of tactics."

Dealing with Berlusconi's perpetual belief that he knows more about football than his managers is a fact of life if you're managing Milan, and Mihajlovic responded forcefully in his pre-match press conference, asserting, again through Football Italia, "only I am responsible for the tactics."

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He did indeed tinker with the team's tactics on Saturday, deploying a 4-3-3 formation rather than the 4-3-1-2 he used at the beginning of the season. It was an interesting move. It threw Alessio Cerci onto the field for his first start of the season and moved Giacomo Bonaventura from attacking midfield to the left wing. It also saw surprise starts given to Luiz Adriano and Alex.

The choice to start Adriano, who after two goals in his first three games between the league and the Coppa Italia has gone ice cold as he adjusts to Serie A, over Carlos Bacca was indeed unexpected, but it was most likely inspired by the fact Bacca had played the entirety of both of Colombia's World Cup qualifiers over the international break.

Alex's place in the XI was likewise perplexing. Cristian Zapata also featured for Colombia in qualifying, but Rodrigo Ely has been ahead of the aging Brazilian in the pecking order this year, and Philippe Mexes had returned from injury, making his inclusion even more of a surprise.

Neither of the surprise starters turned in a decent shift. A year ago Alex would generally defend anything in front of him but could struggle when attackers got behind him. On Saturday, he struggled either way—as evidenced by the way Maxi Lopez nearly turned him 10 minutes in. He did make a few important interventions toward the end of the game, but his regression is clear.

Adriano, on other hand, is dangerously close to losing his place to Mario Balotelli once he returns from injury. He could not hold the ball up on Saturday and never looked anything close to dangerous.

Of course, no one on the field looked all that dangerous for the first 45 minutes. Riccardo Montolivo's low shot, saved well by Torino's Daniele Padelli, was the first effort from either side to come close to the target, and it took 24 minutes to get there.

The only other close call came in the 31st minute, when Bonaventura took a free kick from close to the far corner of the Tornio box that curled just outside of the post, snapping the side netting so hard the traveling Milan fans thought he'd scored.

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For both teams, the first half was a midfield slog. Milan's new formation didn't have the effect Mihajlovic had hoped for. Bonaventura's move to the wing robbed him of many of the qualities that made him so good this season, and starting halfway through the first half, he could be seen drifting into the middle, where he was far more dangerous.

On the other side, Alessio Cerci did absolutely nothing against his former team. Two years after Torino manager Giampiero Ventura proved he's much more effective playing as a seconda punta than as a winger, managers still insist on playing him there, and Cerci has unsurprisingly reverted to the player he was before he arrived at Torino.

It wasn't until Bacca was introduced 10 minutes into the half that Milan showed real bite. He found space immediately, and eight minutes after he was introduced, he made some for himself by hanging back as Andrea Bertolacci powered forward with the ball. His pullback was perfect, and Bacca had all day to set himself and beat Padelli to open the scoring.

A minute later, it should've been 2-0. Bacca was slipped through the Torino defense, but he pulled up. He apparently thought he was offside, but the Granata had actually played him on. By the time he restarted play the Torino defense had recovered, and what should've been an easy second goal came to nothing.

It was at that point that Milan's omnipresent mental issues descended. It was as if the players had scared themselves by taking the lead. Three minutes after the goal, Alex gave up a soft corner kick. Fabio Quagliarella nodded the ball into the path of Maxi Lopez, only for Alessio Romagnoli to defend very well and allow Diego Lopez to claim.

By the time the equalizer came, Daniele Baselli had already had a deflected effort fly just wide of the post. Substitute Andrea Belotti delivered a precise chest pass to the young midfielder, who coolly finished at the near post. The main culprit for Milan was Ignazio Abate, who let Baselli cross right in front of him and then failed to follow his run.

The Rossoneri initially responded well. Bertolacci drove to the byline and crossed low, but Torino's defense stood strong. Bonaventura nearly capitalized on a giveaway by Afriyie Acquah, driving forward and then playing a one-two with Bacca before ballooning his shot well over.

After that, though, Torino seized the initiative and had the best of the last 10 minutes of the game. Milan struggled to maintain possession, often resorting to punting the ball upfield only to see the Granata come back the other way. Even then, however, the only real threat was an Acquah shot from distance that Diego Lopez had to be smart to parry away.

Neither team on the field gave its best performance, but Milan was better for long stretches. They certainly turned in an improved performance from two weeks earlier. Romagnoli's return from suspension was a boon—he played quite well, making three tackles, two interceptions and seven clearances according to WhoScored.com.

Especially encouraging was the fact Bertolacci was not horrible. The €20 million man has had a terrible start to the season, but he looked far more at ease in Turin, making five tackles and assisting Bacca's goal. If he were to improve, it would go a long way toward improving Milan's midfield.

But a lot of the same issues remain. Boneheaded mistakes such as Abate's have become the norm over the last few years, and the Rossoneri look downright uncomfortable when defending a lead. That's a continuation of one of the biggest issues from last season, when they led the league in points dropped from a winning position.

While the improvement from the Napoli game was apparent on the field, Milan is a team that is still very much a work in progress. It's going to take time to work their way to where they want to be, but there is now hope that journey finally started with this game.