Leonardo Gamble Finally Paying Dividends for AC Milan?

As Carlo Ancelotti confirmed, he was leaving AC Milan on May 31, after eight years on the Rossoneri bench, the club wasn’t late to announce his replacement, Leonardo.

At the time, the Brazilian—who had represented the Milan outfit in 96 games—worked as the club’s technical director, but was to take over the coaching duties from the season of 2009/2010.

The appointment of the 39-year old was questioned and on top of that the rookie coach was hardly given the ideal conditions to begin his work with as Paolo Maldini bowed out of the game and playmaker Ricardo Kaká was shipped away to the Spanish Capital.

How would he cope?

When Leonardo held his first press conference as official Milan coach and talked about how he wanted the team to play entertaining, offensive minded football, many shook their heads—not out disbelieve, but out of pity. He was talking, but would he be able to deliver the goods with his lack of experience and what he had to work with?

A non-existent mercato followed by a disastrous preseason—also dubbed the Milan-slaughter—only confirmed what most thought they knew. The Diavoli were headed for a tough season.

Despite all the hesitations and questions surrounding Leonardo’s coaching abilities, Milan went on to collect an inspiring victory against Siena in the opening day of the season.

However, the success was to be very short-lived as league champions Inter Milan completely humiliated their city rivals the following week by a 4-0 scoreline against a Milan side that looked completely devoid of ideas. The team lacked pace, creativity and most of all—the right kind of attitude and determination.

The derby loss was followed up by a set of mixed results and at one point the club was hovering in the second half of the league table—an absolute disgrace for a club of Milan’s high standings.

It didn’t take long for media and supporters to demand a replacement.

Then came the turnaround.

Milan was displaying a new 4-4-2 system as they played hosts to AS Roma in week eight. As Ignazio Abate was forced out with an injury, the coach had to make some rearrangements and switched back to his beloved 4-3-3 as his side ultimately turned the score to win by 2-1.

The Rossoneri then went on to collect an impressive four points out of their double fixture with Spanish giants, Real Madrid in the Champions League group stages.

Things are looking bright on the domestic front as the team has now recorded six victories and two draws in the eight latest outings and on top of that passed Juventus in the standings. Leonardo’s men are currently resting comfortably in second place—seven points after league leaders Inter.

As the two mentioned above face off this Saturday, Milan could even come to reduce the deficit to the top spot and their cross town rivals.

After being completely written off, the Rossoneri are suddenly very much back in the title race.

Leonardo is slowly learning the tricks of the trade, and although he has an extremely long road to walk, things finally seems to be headed down the right path for the rookie coach and his team.

The Brazilian has been able to convey his ideas and implement them on his team which has finally started to gel and are showcasing a new-found confidence.

Although the game has been far from entertaining at times, the team is still picking up the points and hasn’t lost a game since their 1-0 defeat to Udinese in week five.

Although it’s too early to tell, it looks like Silvio Berlusconi and Adriano Galliani’s gamble might pay off after all.