Making Milan Great Again

[Dan McConnell]

View attachment 1000479
Hi, and welcome to my story. You may remember in the very recent past a story from myself with Tottenham. Unfortunately, my old laptop is completely history and a new one has been purchased, meaning regular updates will now be available for me to process, hurrah!

I've decided to take on what's considered a big test in football currently, the AC Milan revival job.

Milan are one of the world's super powers in football and have a wonderful history to back that up, with 7 European Cup wins as well as 18 Serie A titles. Only Real Madrid have can better their European record and just Juventus better their domestic record, with fierce rivals Internazionale equalling their title haul of 18.

But, unfortunately, the last 2 seasons have been pretty shocking for Milan's standards. An 8th place finish in Serie A was made even worse by the following season by a 10th place finish, whilst barely any progress was made in Europe. Milan are in a deep slide and need new ideas.

This, luckily for me, is where I come in. Milan have no distractions this season, and after a summer of spending on proven, goal scoring quality in the likes of Carlos Bacca and Luiz Adriano as well as savvy buys like Alessio Romagnoli, Milan should be heading back towards the elite in Italy.

It's my job to, as the headline of the story goes, Make Milan Great Again.

We had a lot of players out on loan, which is usual in Italy as many of the big clubs co-own players, usually youngsters. This isn't very common anywhere else in the world but seems to work well in Italy. We do however have 2 true loanees who I believe can really make a difference this year. Alessio Cerci from Atletico Madrid and the pragmatic, unpredictable Mario Balotelli from Liverpool. Both of these are top quality players on their day and can cause problems all over the pitch (as well as off it in Mario's case!)

After a meeting with the board to discuss finances this season, I told them a Champions League spot was within reach this year, something the majority of the players agreed with. There were a few mumbles of discontent but nothing significant and nothing that won't go away if we start well this season. This enabled me to play with a £7m transfer budget and a £1.4m p/w wage budget, which could be adjusted.

I also received a team report from my assistant coach. I believe the squad is quite strong and should only be added to should we find someone available who would significantly improve the starting 11. The one position that does worry me is the right side of midfield. Suso was brought in from Liverpool after an initial loan spell and played well but has to improve a lot to be worthy of a regular starting place. We'll look to see what wingers are available once pre-season begins.​

 

[Dan McConnell]

I decided to offer out Christian Abbiati as he was now 37, our number 2 and I feel a goalie should be playing in his final years, something I don't believe we could offer here. We also had an absolute purler of a youngster in Gianluigi Donnarumma who has shot to worldwide fame IRL and retained Milan's No.1 jersey.

We received an offer from Dnipro in the Ukraine of approximately £400k and decided to let him go. The kid would be our number 2 this season, depending on the form of Lopez, who knows, maybe number 1.

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Also, a training camp was put in place before I joined, to none other than Iran. A strange choice in my opinion but we would take a group of 35 on an intensive training camp as well as playing 4 matches.

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[Dan McConnell]

The Overriding Tactic

When I took over at Milan, the philosophy drummed into me was attacking football. Therefore, an attacking tactic is exactly what's required, not only to meet the demands of the board, but to meet the demands I set myself.

View attachment 197962

This is the strongest 11 we have at the club. There are some very good players in reserve, the likes of Keisuke Honda, Luiz Adriano and Phillipe Mexes, but of course they'll get their chance throughout the season. The one mark on the team is the injury to Jeremy Menez, hopefully he'll be back before the start of the season, although it's not looking likely at the moment.

So in goal is former Real Madrid keeper Diego Lopez. He kept Iker Casillas out of the team at Madrid when he was still a cult legend, so he must have something about him.

Our defence consists of Mattia Di Sciglio, Alessio Romagnoli, former Chelsea defender Alex and Luca Antonelli. It's a good mixture of experience and youth with very good experience in reserve should anybody pick up any injuries.

Our midfield will rely heavily on the destructive power of Nigel de Jong. The man loves a tackle and proved that by karate kicking Xabi Alonso in the chest in the 2010 World Cup final. Alongside him is Andrea Poli. According to my coaches, he's a better option that captain Riccardo Montolivo, although I think I may be taking that decision into my own hands as I know Montolivo is a wonderful passer of the ball, a vital trait for a creative midfielder.

Out wide we have Jeremy Menez and Giacomo Bonaventura. Menez is known from his time at Roma and PSG but is yet to really set his career alight, hopefully this can be his year. Bonaventura signed from Atalanta a year ago and had a steady start to life in Milan, hopefully he can improve on last seasons stats.

Finally, upfront we have Carlos Bacca and Mario Balotelli. Bacca was signed from Sevilla for a handsome £21.5m, but after winning the Europa League with them, we hope his European experience will be enough to help fire us up the league. Also, how do you solve a problem like Mario? After posing in a Milan kit whilst still playing for Inter and the infamous 'Why Always Me?' goal celebration in the Manchester derby, the very least you can say about Mario is that he's an unpredictable character. He had his best ever goal scoring season at Milan in the 13/14 season scoring 14 goals but contributing a lot more to the team when under Clarence Seedorf. I hope I can get Mario working just as hard and hopefully we'll be able to see the best of him again in a Milan shirt.

 

[vasilli07]

Good luck. Not too sure about NDJ with the BWM role. His high aggression with ppms like dives into tackles and argues with officials will get him alot of red cards.

 

[Dan McConnell]

Good luck. Not too sure about NDJ with the BWM role. His high aggression with ppms like dives into tackles and argues with officials will get him alot of red cards.

Thanks mate, I will take your advice as he's already been sent off in a friendly so I'll try another way of keeping his competitive streak in the side.

Cheers again.

 

[lisadalessandro]

View attachment 1000479
Hi, and welcome to my story. You may remember in the very recent past a story from myself with Tottenham. Unfortunately, my old laptop is completely history and a new one has been purchased, meaning regular updates will now be available for me to process, hurrah!

I've decided to take on what's considered a big test in football currently, the AC Milan revival job.

Milan are one of the world's super powers in football and have a wonderful history to back that up, with 7 European Cup wins as well as 18 Serie A titles. Only Real Madrid have can better their European record and just Juventus better their domestic record, with fierce rivals Internazionale equalling their title haul of 18.

But, unfortunately, the last 2 seasons have been pretty shocking for Milan's standards. An 8th place finish in Serie A was made even worse by the following season by a 10th place finish, whilst barely any progress was made in Europe. Milan are in a deep slide and need new ideas.

This, luckily for me, is where I come in. Milan have no distractions this season, and after a summer of spending on proven, goal scoring quality in the likes of Carlos Bacca and Luiz Adriano as well as savvy buys like Alessio Romagnoli, Milan should be heading back towards the elite in Italy.

It's my job to, as the headline of the story goes, Make Milan Great Again.

We had a lot of players out on loan, which is usual in Italy as many of the big clubs co-own players, usually youngsters. This isn't very common anywhere else in the world but seems to work well in Italy. We do however have 2 true loanees who I believe can really make a difference this year. Alessio Cerci from Atletico Madrid and the pragmatic, unpredictable Mario Balotelli from Liverpool. Both of these are top quality players on their day and can cause problems all over the pitch (as well as off it in Mario's case!)

After a meeting with the board to discuss finances this season, I told them a Champions League spot was within reach this year, something the majority of the players agreed with. There were a few mumbles of discontent but nothing significant and nothing that won't go away if we start well this season. This enabled me to play with a £7m transfer budget and a £1.4m p/w wage budget, which could be adjusted.

I also received a team report from my assistant coach. I believe the squad is quite strong and should only be added to should we find someone available who would significantly improve the starting 11. The one position that does worry me is the right side of midfield. Suso was brought in from Liverpool after an initial loan spell and played well but has to improve a lot to be worthy of a regular starting place. We'll look to see what wingers are available once pre-season begins.​

Good luck. Not too sure about NDJ with the BWM role.

 

[Dan McConnell]

Pre Season

If I were to describe pre season in three words, they would be 'could do better'.

View attachment 197817

We started well in our first game in Iran with a convincing 3-0 victory. Our second game was a shambles. After going 2-0 up, we ended up losing the game 3-2 after conceding 3 in the second half, I was not happy with the performance against a poor side.

We got back to winning ways in our third game with another convincing 5-1 win and ended our tour of Iran with a 2-2 draw. Overall, I was relatively happy with the progress made, although there was a slightly worrying injury to Mario Balotelli in our second game, which was a shame as he'd scored 3 times in the first two matches.

Our final two friendlies were slightly unusual as they were both against teams we'd be facing in the league campaign. We travelled to Turin to face the Old Lady and were thoroughly outclassed by the clear title favourites Juve. The final pre season tie was another trip on the road, this time to Sassuolo. We again played poorly and lost 2-0 this time.

My overall thoughts about pre season were ones of wonderful play at times followed by ludicrous play at others. We won a couple of games by a large margin but conceded far too many goals, particularly against the opposition in Iran who were all poor. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much against Juve, even in pre season, their team is wonderful despite losing key players in the summer. I was much more disappointed with the lack-luster performance against Sassuolo, a 2-0 defeat was not what we expected at all.

My player of pre season is Giacomo Bonaventura. With an average rating of 7.75 from 4 games along with 1 goal, 1 assist and 1 man of the match performance, I have no hesitation in giving him a starting berth when the competitive action gets underway.

Just to add, I will be doing month by month updates so please bear with me as each update will have a lot of info and hopefully be quite detailed.

 

[Dan McConnell]

Good luck. Not too sure about NDJ with the BWM role.

Hi mate, as you can see, you're not the only one to say it, maybe my FM naivety is showing!

I have changed his role to a central defensive midfielder and we'll see how he does from there.

Cheers again

 

[Dan McConnell]

Transfer Update

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We've not been too busy in this summer window prior to the start of the season due to a lack of funds being available.

We sent a few youngsters out on loan to feeder clubs to help them gain some experience as well as letting Abbiati leave for more regular football at the end of his career.

The one arrival was Lucas Leiva from Liverpool on loan. He's the second loanee from the Merseyside club alongside Balotelli. He's joined on a season long deal, we'll pay 60% of his wages with a £375k per week monthly fee. I believe we may have slightly overpaid for his services considering it's a loan deal, but we needed to improve our central midfield options after some poor showings throughout pre season. Also, we do have the option at the end of the deal to sign Lucas for £9m which would be a snip considering he's currently worth almost £16.5m.

Also, due to injuries in pre season to Bacca and Balotelli, we slightly tinkered with the formation and played one upfront with 3 attacking midfielders and two holding. We'll train both of these tactics throughout the season, although the preferred 442 will be my number 1 tactic.

 

[vasilli07]

Surprised you kept Mexes who probably doesn't have too much of a future as he is old and an expiring contract. Ely could be the 4th CB.

With Lucas, you should consider getting rid of Nocerino too, high wages and an expiring contract. Should get some offers if you offer to pay around 10k of his wages.

 

[Dan McConnell]

Surprised you kept Mexes who probably doesn't have too much of a future as he is old and an expiring contract. Ely could be the 4th CB.

With Lucas, you should consider getting rid of Nocerino too, high wages and an expiring contract. Should get some offers if you offer to pay around 10k of his wages.

I think while we're not in Europe and concentrating solely on the league I believe both can have a part to play in helping us to get to the end of the season with positive results, but thanks for your input, you'll more than likely prove to be correct!

 

[Dan McConnell]

August

My first competitive month in charge has been a pretty decent return.
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My first game in charge of Milan was a cup tie against Crotone of Serie B. We completed a convincing 4-1 victory with Cerci, Balotelli, de Jong and Luiz Adriano all getting on the score sheet to fire us into the next round where we would face Lanciano in December.

Our next 2 games were both in the league. My first league game in charge saw us pitted against Palermo at the San Siro. We got off to a wonderful start with goals from Mario and Cerci after just 30 minutes, but unfortunately we fell away in the second half and conceded 2 to end up finishing the game 2-2.

Our final game of the month was a trip to newly promoted Carpi. This is their first ever season playing in Serie A and in their first game they welcomed the might of Milan. They actually played extremely well and we found it difficult to break them down. Challenges were flying in left, right and centre and after 61 minutes our captain Riccardo Montolivo received his marching orders for a second bookable offence leaving us down to ten. Fortunately, new signing Lucas Leiva found himself with space at the edge of the box with 6 minutes remaining to place a low shot into the bottom corner and we had ourselves our first league win of the campaign. It was ugly, but 3 points are 3 points and it doesn't matter how you get them sometimes.

We have an international break now so have time to work on a few new things with those players who've stayed behind and hopefully we can carry on our unbeaten start to the competitive season with our next game which is against Chievo.

 

[Dan McConnell]

Nocerino On His Way to the South Coast

View attachment 197675

We received an offer for Nocerino late in the day ahead of the deadline and decided to let him go. It would be a brand new experience for him playing in a team that would be considered the underdogs in most games. Bournemouth like to play passing football and that suits his style of football perfectly.

The Cherries offered us his value, £2.3m which was another factor in accepting the offer. We wish him the best.

 

[Dan McConnell]

September

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So, my second month in charge of Milan didn't exactly go to plan. Just 5 points from a possible 12 and some unconvincing performances have meant the month has been somewhat a disappointment.

We started the month very well with a 3-1 victory against Chievo despite going 1-0 down, but then Carlos Bacca scored his first two goals for us and Luiz Adriano came off the bench to seal the win.

Our next game was against Sampdoria and we were terrible. A 1-0 defeat away from home and we followed that up with a couple of draws, one against Roma, despite being 2-1, we were very unlucky to be clawed back, whilst our final game of the month was a bore fest against Atalanta, again away from home.

We really need to start putting our chances away when they come along. I do feel our forward line is a very threatening one, they just seem to be a little short on confidence at the moment, but once the goals start flowing, I really feel they can go on a really good run whilst moving up the table.

A blow this month was a long term injury to Nigel de Jong.

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Knee tendonitis will keep him out for approximately 3-4 months. Hopefully he can make a return before the winter break.

 

[Dan McConnell]

October

We went through the whole of October with a 100% winning record which was extremely pleasing.

View attachment 197535

With wins against the likes of Torino, Frosinone, Udinese and Sassuolo, you might say we should expect to beat teams of this quality. But with the spirit and fight we have shown over this little run, I'm extremely happy with our performances.

We kicked off the month with a 2-1 win away in Turin against Torino thanks to goals from Montolivo and an own goal by Pontus Jansson. Our next game was back at San Siro against Frosinone and we managed another win thanks to 2 goals off the bench from Mario Balotelli.

Next up was a trip to Udinese where we won again by a goal to nil thanks to a late goal, again off the bench, this time by Keisuke Honda. That took our unbeaten run to 5, 2 draws and 3 wins on the trot. I was very happy with the side at this point after the slightly difficult start to the season.

Our final game of the month extended our unbeaten run to 6 after a 2-0 against Sassuolo. Goals from Carlos Bacca and Alessio Romagnoli's first Milan goal. I was particularly pleased with this win as we lost against Sassuolo in pre season therefore it was a very good result for the side's confidence.

All of these wins meant at the end of October we'd rocketed up the league from 9th up to 3rd (didn't get the screen shot, apologies!!) so were we on track for the ultimate goal of Champions League qualification.

 

[Dan McConnell]

We went through the whole of October with a 100% winning record which was extremely pleasing.

View attachment 1001154

With wins against the likes of Torino, Frosinone, Udinese and Sassuolo, you might say we should expect to beat teams of this quality. But with the spirit and fight we have shown over this little run, I'm extremely happy with our performances.

We kicked off the month with a 2-1 win away in Turin against Torino thanks to goals from Montolivo and an own goal by Pontus Jansson. Our next game was back at San Siro against Frosinone and we managed another win thanks to 2 goals off the bench from Mario Balotelli.

Next up was a trip to Udinese where we won again by a goal to nil thanks to a late goal, again off the bench, this time by Keisuke Honda. That took our unbeaten run to 5, 2 draws and 3 wins on the trot. I was very happy with the side at this point after the slightly difficult start to the season.

Our final game of the month extended our unbeaten run to 6 after a 2-0 against Sassuolo. Goals from Carlos Bacca and Alessio Romagnoli's first Milan goal. I was particularly pleased with this win as we lost against Sassuolo in pre season therefore it was a very good result for the side's confidence.

All of these wins meant at the end of October we'd rocketed up the league from 9th up to 3rd (didn't get the screen shot, apologies!!) so were we on track for the ultimate goal of Champions League qualification.

I've just noticed I revealed the first 2 results in November in my last post, we managed two more wins as you can see, I'll update in more detail about these wins in my next post tonight

Still getting used to this story writing haha!

 

[vasilli07]

Great start so far.

May can try showing the league table every 8-9 games. Like to see how the rest of the teams are doing as compared to your team.

 

[Dan McConnell]

Great start so far.

May can try showing the league table every 8-9 games. Like to see how the rest of the teams are doing as compared to your team.

Hi vasilli07,

I'll definitely do this tonight, I've no idea why I didn't include this vital piece of information! Definitely need to brush up on my story writing skills haha!

Thanks for the support

 

[Dan McConnell]

November

The month of November was another good one for Milan, or at least for 3 games it was.

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Another 3 wins on the trot extended our unbeaten run to 9 games, we just couldn't make it the perfect 10 against Genoa in the final game of the month, although I'm not too disappointed overall as it's been a monumental effort over the past couple of months to get to where we are now as a team.

The first game of the month was against Fiorentina which was always going to be a difficult game. We levelled things up twice in the match after Mohamed Salah, on loan from Chelsea, scored either side of half time. We responded to each goal with efforts from Mattio De Sciglio and Andrea Poli in each half respectively. Our next game was back at the San Siro against Empoli where 2 goals in the first 11 minutes from Mario Balotelli and Suso were enough to see them off.

Our third game of the month was against Verona away from home. They have the evergreen Luca Toni up top for them who is still banging them in at the ripe old age of 36. Just 2 this season for the old timer so far, but he's always a threat and proved so by hitting the post against us late on in our 1-0 win thanks to a goal from Carlos Bacca. Jeremy Menez also missed a penalty with the game still at 0-0 on the hour mark. This is the win that extended our unbeaten run to 9.

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Unfortunately, it was the final game of the month which cost us the run at home to Genoa. We were 2-0 down at half time and I really ripped into the players at half time. There was no effort or hunger like there had been recently and I was very disappointed with them. In hindsight, maybe it was a little harsh considering the run we'd been on, but the lads most definitely responded in the second half and in the end were very unlucky not to come away with a draw. It was another missed penalty, this time by Carlos Bacca off the bench which cost us claiming a point after Keisuke Honda had given us more than a chance of salvaging a draw with 10 minutes to go.

So the run had come to an end, a run which had taken us to the top of Serie A at one point, but Lazio capitalized on our defeat against Genoa to take top spot at the end of the month, leapfrogging us by 2 points after a win in the Rome derby at the Olimpico. We were in second on 28 points from 14 games, a position I was very happy with going into December where we would continue our cup exploits and try to put even more pressure on Lazio, our next league opponents away from home.

View attachment 197319

 

[Dan McConnell]

December

Another month passed, another month closer to our goal.

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We started the month with the Italian Cup 4th qualifying round against Lanciano and expected to run out convincing winners. The game was the complete opposite. We found ourselves 1-0 down to the minnows after just 15 minutes. Luckily Luiz Adriano had read the script and got us back on track on the half hour mark. I then expected the team to really kick on but we were scrappy, couldn't keep the ball and let them back into the game again. Half time came and I warned the players that they really needed to buck up their ideas if they wanted to progress to the first round proper, which would be against our great rivals Inter. The second half was no better with no goals either way and the same poor performance continued in extra time. The game then went to penalties where our young protegee Donnaruma was given his chance to shine, and boy did he do just that! He was the hero for Milan, still just 16 remember, by saving 2 penalties in the shootout and us not missing any winning it 4-1. I was so proud of the lad and spoke with his beaming parents after the game who'd come out to watch their boy make his competitive debut for Milan and absolutely shine. I was ecstatic for the lad, but disappointed in the team. They would definitely have to improve ahead of a tough run of games before the winter break.

Our next game was a trip to the capital to face top of the table Lazio. They had taken advantage of our loss to Genoa the week before and we wanted our place at the top of the league back. Unfortunately, we played as badly, if not worse in this game than we did against Lanciano and, against the quality of opposition in Lazio, we were truly outclassed. They ran out 3-0 winners and we didn't even look like scoring. We had to get this out of our system very quickly ahead of a huge week for the club as we faced Internazionale, our great rivals, twice in the space of 4 days.

The day arrived of the league match against our fierce, ground sharing rivals and I have to admit, I was very tense. The city was tense. Inter were on a decent run and found themselves in 5th place and we were down to third. I really felt as though we had a very good chance to beat our bitter rivals today. We arrived at the ground and there were herds of red and black shirts and scarves being strewn all over our bus, it was clear how much this one meant to the fans, as if I didn't know already.

The game arrived and I decided to go 4-1-2-2-1 with Bacca leading the line. After just 30 minutes Ignazio Abate, our right back and a very experienced one to match, got himself sent off for the second time this season, this being his first straight red card offence. I was extremely angry with him for going into such a silly tackle which was a red all day long, we had no complaints whatsoever. To add insult to this, Inter took the lead 10 minutes into the second half thanks to a well timed header from a corner from Joao Miranda. I was seething at Abate for being so irresponsible.

The final 10 minutes of the game had begun and we got ourselves a free kick about 30 yards out. Bonaventura was standing over it with both hands in the air signalling a far post set piece which is exactly where he put it to find Romangoli's run and well timed finish, we were back level out of almost nothing and there was still plenty of time to find a winner, whether we deserved it was another thing. Just 4 minutes later, Andrea Bertolacci received a pass from Lucas Leiva and turned and unleashed an unstoppable shot into the top corner from all of 35 yards. It was an incredible goal to win any game, but to win a Milan derby, it was special. Very special. The red and black army were going beserk and we managed to hold out for a famous win over our greatest rivals. Another special mention should also go to Donnaruma again. Diego Lopez injured his left hand the day before the game and would miss both derbies, so even though the kid would have played in the cup tie anyway, he now also had a chance to shine in the league on one of the biggest stages of all. Despite not keeping a clean sheet which was a shame, he was exemplary in goal and all of the plaudits received were thoroughly deserved.

It would be just 4 days later when would face our great rivals again, this time classed as the away side, therefore playing at the Guisseppe Meazza in the first round proper of the Italian Cup. I played a slightly weaker side but still, with the likes of Balotelli, Bonaventura and Menez I expected a much better performance than the one we got. We lost the game 1-0 thanks to a Mauro Icardi goal and were out of the Italian Cup. It did mean we could focus solely on the league for the rest of the season, but I was disappointed, not least to go out against Inter.

Our final game before the Christmas break was against title favourites Juventus in Turin. We managed to hold Juve for 90 minutes and gained ourselves an extremely pleasing scoreless draw. This was the perfect result for Lazio, who's lead at the top of Serie A was now up to 4 points following the draw between ourselves and Juve.

View attachment 197256

A couple more pieces of news this month, Nigel de Jong has now returned from his long lay off with knee tendonitis and will train throughout the winter break to try and build up fitness.

View attachment 197255

And finally, Jeremy Menez isn't happy with the amount of football he's getting at the moment. He's not exactly set the world alight over the last 5 games he's played in with an average rating of just 6.62 so I explained to him that because of this, he's not getting what he wants right now. I have told him to carry on working hard in training and he'll get his chance in the new year. I can see why he's not really reached the heights expected of him so far in his career, when things go against him he blames everybody else instead of trying to better his game which is what the very best do.

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