Assessing Cristian Brocchi's 1st 2 Games as AC Milan's Manager

It's been almost two weeks since AC Milan fired head coach Sinisa Mihajlovic and replaced him with youth team coach Cristian Brocchi.

The merits of that decision were debatable, and it remains to be seen what the Rossoneri will do with the position going forward. But the immediate concern in front of Brocchi were the six league games and the Coppa Italia final that would determine whether or not Milan would qualify for European competition for the first time in three seasons. Two of those games have now passed.

Brocchi's task is simple—stay in sixth place. If he can do that, Milan will qualify for the UEFA Europa League whether or not they defeat Juventus in the Coppa final. But has he done enough over his first two games to inspire confidence that he'll do it?

Evaluating Brocchi's job performance so far is difficult just because of the small sample size, but there is another factor that has to be taken into account: Silvio Berlusconi.

Particularly, the club owner's insistence on the team playing a certain style of football. His obsession with style is well documented. In his memoir I Think Therefore I Play, former Milan midfielder Andrea Pirlo recalled exchanges he overheard between Berlusconi and then-manager Carlo Ancelotti:

"

"Carlo, son, remember that I want to see the team play with two strikers"

How could he forget? He's heard it a billion times. He and everyone else.

"Another thing, Carlo. We need to own the pitch and boss the game. In Italy, in Europe, throughout the world."

"

Luca Bruno/Associated Press

At times Berlusconi seems to care more about how his team looks on the field than what the results are. After firing Mihajlovic, he said in a Facebook post (h/t Football Italia), "Brocchi is a choice to prepare for the future, a future in which Milan must return to a style of play and results worthy of our history."

A day later, in response to fan criticism of the move, he said in the same medium (h/t Football Italia), "Let us be clear, aside from the results, we have never seen Milan play so badly." It certainly gives you the impression that winning matters less to him than having a team that looks like the Brazil teams of the 1970s.

If that doesn't illustrate the difficulty of Brocchi's job, nothing does. Not only does he have to win, he has to do it while living up to Berlusconi's nebulous standard of good-looking football—which he seems to care about even more than winning games.

If you were to grade him on that scale, Brocchi has been a definite improvement over Mihajlovic, whose pragmatic approach produced better results than Milan had seen over the last two years but little of the flashy football his boss wanted to see.

Thursday's goalless draw against Carpi saw Milan control 74.9 percent of possession (per WhoScored.com). Brocchi's first game, a 1-0 win against Sampdoria, saw his team control the ball for 54.4 percent of the game—a good number considering the difficulty of bossing the game as a visitor at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris. It's clear that Brocchi is taking his owner's wishes to heart and taking the attacking initiative.

But whether his team can do anything with that style is another question. Against Sampdoria, the Rossoneri took 14 shots, but only three hit the target. They only managed three against Carpi on 20 total efforts. Of those 20, nine shots were blocked by Carpi players.

Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

The lack of shots on target can simply be emblematic of poor finishing, something that Brocchi has limited control over. But if the plurality of the team's shots in a game end up getting blocked, it's an indication that Brocchi's system isn't getting his players enough open looks to get to the goal.

Indeed, at times—especially against Carpi—Milan controlled possession but looked as if they had no idea what to do with it. The team made a lot of lateral passes in a zone from the edge of the penalty area to about 10 yards further upfield, but coming up with a killer ball that would lead to a shooting opportunity generally eluded them.

Of course, it's hard to criticize Brocchi for his team's failings after only two games, both because it takes time for a team to learn what a new coach wants and because Berlusconi is boxing him into a corner in terms of strategy.

Going on the front foot and controlling the game is an excellent thing—if you have the players that can make it work. Against teams like Carpi, who are more likely to try to defend against a bigger opponent, doing this means you need players who can slice through a set defense.

That runs Brocchi up against a problem Mihajlovic had to deal with all season—Milan's extreme lack of creative players. The team has an excellent finisher in Carlos Bacca and some good holding players like Juraj Kucka, but there are few who can create opportunities the way Pirlo used to.

The only consistent creative outlet at Milan's disposal is Giacomo Bonaventura—and he's just suffered an injury that could keep him out for the rest of the season. Even with him, Milan have struggled to create chances for their forwards. Without him, they may end up running repeatedly into a brick wall.

On a game level, Brocchi hasn't made any egregious mistakes. But as he seemingly placates Berlusconi by playing a more attacking game, he isn't playing to his squad's strengths. The former midfielder looks like he has the makings of a good manager, but his boss' desire for style may paint him into a corner when a little of his predecessor's pragmatism may be the best way to proceed.