A New Year's Resolution for AC Milan Boss Sinisa Mihajlovic

It's that time of year again. The calendar has changed and a new year is upon us. Everyone around the world is busy making their new year's resolutions—the things they're determined to do in order to better themselves over the next 12 months.

Footballers and the men who coach them aren't an exception to this rule, and as January begins, it's fair to wonder just what the resolution of a man such as, say, AC Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic is going to be.

What should that be? Considering all the complex aspects of his job—and according to reports such as this one from ESPN FC, its lack of security—you feel the simple answer could just be to hold on for dear life. But there is one thing, one concrete part of his game, he can look to improve on in the second half of the season.

What should his resolution be? Simple: Be more consistent.

Of course, we're not talking about on-field stuff here. Yes, Milan's players definitely need to be more consistent on the pitch. One week they'll be obliterating teams such as Lazio (3-1) or Sampdoria (4-1), and other times they're getting beaten by Genoa (1-0), held by Hellas Verona (1-1) or simply demolished by Napoli (4-0).

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Mihajlovic ultimately has no control of that. What he can control, however, is how often his team is put in position to produce the former kind of result rather than the latter. The best way to do that is by being consistent himself—consistent in his tactics and consistent in his selection.

Mihajlovic has used three main formations this season. He started the year using a 4-3-1-2 but encountered some problems, mainly at the trequartista position. With Giacomo Bonaventura needed further back, the likes of Keisuke Honda and Suso weren't able to fill the position well.

After the shellacking endured at the hands of Napoli in October, Mihajlovic moved away from the 4-3-1-2. This was partly due to the necessity of making a change and partly due to the groin injury suffered by Mario Balotelli. With the talented Italian out, Carlos Bacca and Luiz Adriano became—for the time being anyway—his only healthy strikers.

To start both of them would prohibit him from making in-game changes to the front line, so the 4-3-3's sole striker was perfect, allowing Miha some more flexibility.

The emergence of M'Baye Niang as a viable striker allowed Mihajlovic to go back to a pair, and for the last few games he's instituted a basic 4-4-2, with the likes of Bonaventura and Alessio Cerci out wide and Niang partnering with Bacca up front.

While the changes in formation have produced some results, they've also gone hot and cold. The 4-3-3 worked pretty well—until injuries to their midfield did it in. Already devoid of creativity, the unit was overrun by the midfields of Atalanta (less understandable) and Juventus (totally understandable). The 4-4-2 has its problems in defense out wide, where Bonaventura and Cerci have some deficiencies in that area.

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The change between systems isn't helping—and neither is the way the squad is being rotated from time to time.

Mihajlovic has had a tough time keeping the same team on the field. Injuries are out of his control, but healthy players have been swapped out to detriment to the team.

The most extreme example of this was in the team's Coppa Italia tie with Crotone. Mihajlovic opted to change his entire team for the game against the Serie B side, and the results were nearly disastrous. It took extra time and some real luck that Crotone weren't more clinical to stay in the tournament.

As said, that was an extreme example, one that we likely won't see again. But the lack of a set starting XI can be highly detrimental. This is particularly true of the defensive line, where the Serbian manager has been struggling to find the best partner is for summer signing Alessio Romagnoli.

All of the other center backs on the roster have been tried. Rodrigo Ely showed he wasn't ready for the big time, Cristian Zapata made another baffling series of mistakes, Philippe Mexes didn't play badly but isn't someone you want on the pitch all the time and Alex is starting to show his age.

As partnerships cycled through, the unit's performance went through its own peaks and valleys.

Some aspects of this are totally out of Sinisa Mihajlovic's control. Injuries and suspensions happen to every team every season. But Miha's new year's resolution should be to keep the moving parts to the bare minimum possible. This would allow the team to jell and start playing more and more like a cohesive unit rather than a jumble of individual parts.

The less tinkering he does, both to his tactics and his lineup, the better the team will be—and, perhaps, the more Silvio Berlusconi's wrath is kept in check.