AC Milan's Coaching Uncertainty May Be Affecting Their Mentality on the Field

Watching the last few games AC Milan has played in Serie A has produced a familiar feeling—and not a good one.

Milan have looked flat and uninspired.  The confidence and assured air that the team had through much of the unbeaten run that stretched from January to last week's loss against Sassuolo has suddenly been sucked away.  Passes have been wayward, tackles have been half-hearted, and in general the team's play has just been uninspired.  It's a problem that needs to be corrected—and its solution may be fairly simple.

We've seen this Milan before, at around this time last year.  With the team headed toward a 10th-place finish, many of the players last year looked utterly defeated.

The team had simply given up.  With nothing to play for last year that was perhaps understandable—though not acceptable—but this season the team has a lot still on the table.  Staying in sixth place will ensure them a place in the Europa League next year, even if they lose the Coppa Italia final to Juventus.

While the 11-point gap between Milan and AS Roma in third is almost certainly too much to overcome at this point, the top five—and an even more solid guarantee of European football—is still attainable if they get some help.

Veteran goalkeeper Christian Abbiati was quick to call out his teammates after Sunday's goalless draw against Chievo.  

"We had an unacceptable attitude right from the start today," he told Mediaset (h/t ESPN FC) after the game.  He continued: "We needed to show far more hunger...if only one out of 11 [players] have a winning mentality, you're not going to get results."

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Abbiati's words were echoed by Milan's youth coach, former midfielder Cristian Brocchi.  "I always insist that a player has got to be motivated whenever he pulls on a Milan shirt," he told ITASportPress (h/t ESPN FC) When I played for Milan, every single player had this desire—it was part of our DNA."

It's interesting that Brocchi would comment on the issue, because it's entirely possible—maybe even probable—that he's one of the reasons that it's happening, indirectly at least.

The incessant rumors about the security of Sinisa Mihajlovic's job as manager may be taking a toll on the team.  This time last year, when the side looked even worse, former coach Filippo Inzaghi's future was in similar doubt.

While it's true that Inzaghi had also lost the locker room, the fact that Mihajlovic hasn't is perhaps all the more reason Milan's players could be distracted.  The Serbian seems popular with his players.  Whether a coach is beloved or not, any team in any sport is capable of adopting a "what's-the-point" attitude when they sense that their coach is on his way out at the end of the season.

Owner and president Silvio Berlusconi certainly hasn't done much to help things.  When questioned about the coach's future on Rai Radio 1 on Tuesday (h/t Football Italia), he called any talk one way or the other "premature" and that his future will "depend on how the rest of the season goes."

Berlusconi's season-long indifference toward his coach really has no basis in reality.  Mihajlovic has done well to take a broken club—one that was broken in large part by the actions of its owner—and rebuild it.

A Juventus-like jump into the top three—or more—was always an outside chance this year, and for Mihajlovic to take a team that still has some serious flaws as far as he has this year is an achievement.

To dismiss that achievement is to dismiss that of the players—and when players feel dismissed, they tend not to play.

A simple acknowledgement that Mihajlovic has done well and that he will be back to try to finish what he started next season could do wonders for Milan's players.  Ever more rumors like the ones from last week in the pages of Corriere della Sera (h/t Football Italia) that Brocchi and Marcello Lippi will take over as a coaching tandem next season would do the exact opposite.

If Milan continues to play the way they played on Sunday, they could lose everything they've worked for this season.  

A lot of it is on the players to pick their heads up, but a little encouragement for their coach could perk them up as well.