Milan finding their feet
View attachment 280438Milan 4th at the end of November.
A.C. Milan are starting to find their feet under Guus Hiddink. At the end of November, we lay 4th, only 2 points behind Juventus and Sampdoria, and even with 3rd placed Torino, who have played one more game than us. 5 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss in October and November puts us in a good position heading into December, and the winter break.
In our first game after the bitter loss away to Sampdoria, we faced a struggling Chievo side. However, they did put up a fight, and created several good chances. But thanks to a good game from Diego Lopez, and goals from Adil Rami and Vincent Aboubakar, we took our first 3 points of October. It was nice to see Hiddink's style starting to set in, as we dominated possession 61% to 39%.
We headed into another home game against under-performing Palermo. We took full advantage of their poor form and after a show in striking class, with Aboubakar and Pazzini both netting two, we came out clear winners. Pazzini came on for a struggling André Gomes after only 6 minutes, and scored 30 seconds later. Add another 5 minutes, and Pazzini got his second. A great start to his season, where he may be forced to accept the role as super-sub.
We headed into this game in high spirits, but were aware that Torino are having a great season and are very hard to beat. Even though we had hoped to come away with all 3 points, Torino gave us a lesson in taking your chances, as they scored 3 from only 4 shots on target. Diego Lopez had a shocker, giving away two goals. Brazilian teenager Kenedy scored a brace, as an El Shaarawy goal was our only consolation. We also had De Sciglio carried off with an injury after 10 minutes. This shows that football can be cruel, but we've got to get our heads down, and keep working, as we're not quite there yet, in terms of quality of play.
We needed to get back to winning ways, and that is just what we did against mid-table Sassuolo. With Abbiati still having nightmares about teenager Berardi, we were relieved that we did not have to face him after the transfer-chaos that saw him loaned to Fiorentina in pre-season. The game itself was fairly uneventful. An early Aboubakar goal saw us take a deserved win, but we did nothing to impress the less than half-full San Siro.
We have really struggled to bring a crowd to matches, as the public keep flocking away from the Serie A. I guess the only way to help it is by winning matches at home, which we keep doing.
Parma are in dire trouble. Bottom of the table, points withdrawn, and in economic administration due to catastrophic running of the club. Everything should point to one of the best chances to pick up 3 points away that we've had this season. So what do we do? We produce our absolute worst display of the season. Despite picking up a point, this was a horrible performance. We produced 1 shot on target for the whole game. Luckily that chance fell to super-sub Pazzini who gave us an undeserved point. Parma should have gotten all 3. Much improvement needed. Muntari got his first chance of the season and gave a typical performance: Yellow carded for a horrible tackle after 24 minutes. Tore his hamstring after 43 minutes. He is out for 2-3 months. (Lucky for our disciplinary record!)
The games against Viola are never dull, and always seem to surprise. The surprise in this game was that Montella's technical, possession based, playmaker-filled squad came out trying to bulldoze fear into our hearts. El Shaarawy limped off after 7 minutes, having his achilles stamped. In the 14th minute, our hearts stopped, as a crunching tackle left André Gomes on the ground. He was carried off, and scans showed a broken bone in his foot. He will be out for 3-4 months. A flurry of cards made sure the game got under control, and we dominated possession. Late goals from Jorginho and former Viola "favourite" Alessio Cerci saw us pick up all three points. Cerci's celebration in front of the travelling Fiorentina fans, may see us lose him for a game or two, but this was a step in the right direction!
Cagliari have been performing above expectations this season, so going to Sant'Elia would not be easy. However, our saviour of the month, Giampaolo Pazzini, made it 4 goals in 4 substitute performances, as we grabbed all three points in a daylight robbery, and headed back to Lombardy. We dominated possession throughout, but Cagliari played on the counter, and created more and better chances. Good displays from Lopez, Zapata and Bocchetti, as well as another man of the match performance from Gayà saw us hold on. In the 56th minute, 20 seconds after replacing El Shaarawy, Pazzini showed what a clinical finisher he still is, and put away the goal that gave us all three points. It may not have been deserved, but boy was it good!
Summary of October and November:
On paper, 16 out of 21 possible points is a good tally. However, our fixture list was kind these months. We now have to face Roma (H), Genoa (A), Inter (A), Juventus (H) and Udinese (A), which will be a much bigger challenge. We're yet to hit our stride offensively with 17 goals in 12 matches, but 5 clean sheets in 7 games in the last month is a very impressive achievement. If we keep that defensive record, we could well end up being back in Europe by the end of the season, which is where we should be!
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