Making Milan Great Again

January 2016

I expected the lads to come back rejuvenated after a couple of weeks off for the winter break and we got a decent point at home against Napoli thanks to a goal from Giacomo Bonaventura.

Little did I know this would be only one of two goals to be scored this whole month, yet we'd stay unbeaten.

View attachment 197241

4 draws in 5 games in January against Napoli, Bologna, Palermo and Carpi with just 1 goal being scored in all 4 was a little bit of a catch twenty two situation. On the one hand, we were defending absolutely brilliantly. On the other, we were absolutely terrible at the top of the pitch. We missed 3 penalties throughout the run of 4 draws, all of which, if they were scored, would have given us 3 points instead of 1. Balotelli, Bacca and Menez all missed one each. Those 3 are meant to be the best spot kick takers at the club, yet none of them have scored at all from the spot all season, while we have been awarded a fair few penalties from memory.

Our final game of the month came on deadline day against Chievo. We managed to score for the first time in 3 games to get a very much needed 3 points, as well as extending our somewhat disappointing unbeaten run to 6.

After all those draws in January, somehow we're still in third place.

View attachment 197239

I will be holding a team meeting with the players to try and get them on back on board after what was, on the whole, a very positive first half of the season.

We've also brought in a couple players on loan and let a few leave on loan too.

View attachment 197238

I decided we needed some more depth in the centre of midfield after the departure of Nocerino back in the summer, and whilst Joshua Kimmich was available on loan from Bayern, it was an opportunity too good to turn down. He joins us until the end of the season, as well as Andros Townsend from Spurs. He's been struggling for regular football at the Lane therefore a loan move was exactly what he needed, plus we needed someone who could really stretch defences and with his pace we are more than covered in the wide areas now.

We let M'Baye Niang go out on loan back to his native France until the end of the season. He'll be at Stade Rennais where I hope he can get some minutes and more importantly, goals. Also, Rodrigo Ely and Jose Mauri have left on loan deals too, Ely to Augsburg in Germany and Mauri to Aston Villa where he can experience playing in the Premier League. Hopefully both of these experiences will benefit both players' development.
 
February

February saw our unbeaten run come to an end, but on the whole, the month wasn't the end of the world.

View attachment 196842

We extended our unbeaten run at the beginning of the month with a 2-0 victory Sampdoria at San Siro thanks to goals from Giacomo Bonaventura and Balotelli, another pleasing victory which took the run to 7 games.

That all came to an end in our next game though when we travelled to the capital to face Roma. A 2-1 defeat, our goal coming from Maicon as an OG was frustrating as we actually played very well, just 2 sloppy mistakes gave away 2 goals, both for Edin Dzeko, who incidentally ended the month as the top scorer in Serie A with 14.

We then welcomed two home games in a row, the first of which was against Atalanta, where a goal from Luiz Adriano was enough to squeak past them by a goal to nil. Next up, Torino, again at San Siro. A couple of goals from Bonaventura and Balotelli again were enough to see us through with a 2-0 win this time.

Our final game of the month was a trip to struggling Frosinone. They were down in 18th place and hadn't won for 3 games, drawing 1 and losing the other two. We lost this game by a goal to nil and didn't play anywhere near the kind of standard we'd set ourselves over recent months. I was extremely disappointed and made sure the guys were aware of the fact.

Finally, the table still makes for decent reading.

View attachment 196841

It looks like it's going to be a two-horse race for the coveted third place between ourselves and our rivals Inter, barring any slip ups by either side, I'm sure Roma will be hot on our heels once we come towards the climax of the season. I'm hoping for a consistent March to help us get closer to the top 2, where Juventus top the table with Lazio just a point behind.
 
Youth Candidates

I'm absolutely ecstatic with the potential that we may well have at our disposal in the near future!

My head of youth development has sent me individual reports on each of the youngsters and a lot of them make for very impressive reading.

View attachment 196799

As you can see, there are at least 10 of these kids who have first team potential at the very least, so the future looks bright at Milan. I believe with us progressing well domestically as well as in Europe, we can provide these lads with a platform to go on to much better things, hopefully with us here in Italy.
 
March

Just 3 games this month due to an international break at the end of March, unfortunately it was a mixed month for us,

View attachment 196791

We began the month with another defeat, this time against at the time 7th placed Udinese. We just didn't show up, again, in a game we were expected to win. I was not happy once again.

Our next game saw us get back to winning way after a trip to Sassuolo where we scraped a 1-0 win thanks to Jeremy Menez exercising and shaking off the ghost that's seen him miss both penalty kicks he's taken so far this season to slot his third one away and give us much needed win after 2 defeats in a row.

Our final game of this short month was against a struggling Fiorentina who were surprisingly down in 16th. Considering we were at home, I was expecting to make it two wins out of two. I'm afraid that's not how it went and the boys from Florence really turned up and gave us an extremely difficult game, one in which they took the early lead. We managed to force ourselves back into the game and actually took the lead in the second half thanks to goals from Andros Townsend who got his first goal of his loan spell from Spurs, and an own goal from Fiorentina defender Gonzalo Rodriguez.

On the whole, it was another disappointing month form wise, but one where we actually moved up the table back into 3rd place, albeit on goal difference. Only the top 3 qualify for the Champions League in Italy, so we really need to try and rediscover some form to help us cement out position in the top 3 in the final couple of months of the season.
 
Thanks a lot mate, hopefully finish the season tonight and provide more updates about the summer over the Christmas period!
 
Some Exciting News

And no, the exciting news is nothing to do with Christmas!

View attachment 196590

We have managed to secure a deal for Geronimo Rulli to join us at the end of the season following the expiry of his contract with Real Sociedad in Spain.

The young 23 year old keeper will join us on a 5 year deal and will become our new number 1, we'll more than likely either get rid of Diego Lopez and keep Donnarumma as our number 2 or vice versa with Donnarumma going out on loan.

I'm extremely happy with the deal which see's us more than adept in this department come the start of next season.
 
April

It was a tale of what could, and maybe should, have been for us in April.

View attachment 196553

In what was a very busy month which saw us play 6 matches, we failed to win any of them and could only manage 4 points from a possible 18, definitely not Champions League qualification kind of form.

We kicked off the month with a trip to Empoli which saw us scrape a 1-1 draw thanks to a late Christian Zapata strike from a rebound at a corner. Next up was bottom club at the time Verona back at the San Siro. I was expecting to win this game easily, but again we could only manage a 1-1 draw, this time the goal coming from Jeremy Menez early in the second half, only for Verona to equalize later on with about 20 minutes left. These were two disappointing results against teams we're expected to beat.

Next up was a trip to Genoa to face the form team of the division, down to no other than Vagner Love. He has scored goals for fun this season at Genoa and has been a revelation. We lost the game by a goal to nil, although he didn't score this time. Our 4th game of the month was a home tie against Lazio who were second. If there's such a thing as a pleasing draw at home, this was it. Goalless and we went away happy.

Next up, the derby. We were classed as the away side this time, and after experiencing this derby once before already, I was desperate to win this time. Unfortunately we fell behind thanks to an Adem Ljajic goal 5 minutes before half time, but we were unlucky to go in a goal down and I told the lads that. We responded even better second half and after a sack full of chances we finally put one away with 4 minutes of normal time to play thanks to an incredible free kick from Mario Balotelli, against his former club of course, just to make it that bit sweeter. Two relatively pleasing draws in a row, we headed into our final game of the month in good spirits as we welcomed the leaders Juventus to the San Siro.

We got off to a wonderful start thanks to that man Mario again, getting on the end of a Jeremy Menez cross after just 5 minutes. Just two minutes later, Claudio Marchisio went up the other end and from all of 35 yards, scored an absolute screamer and before we knew it they were back on level terms. Sometimes you just have to sit back and applaud a goal scored against you because there's just nothing you can do about it, it was a world class strike and deserved to finish in the back of the net.

Appreciation of the goal over, we quickly got back onto the task in hand and played well up to half time, but Paul Pogba rose from a corner early in the second half giving Juve the lead and unfortunately we just couldn't come back.

A disappointing month on the whole, and despite some decent performances towards the end, we've almost as good as kissed goodbye to the Champions League next season.

View attachment 196550

3rd place is still a mathematical possibility but we'd need a huge goal swing, plus Inter and Udinese to lose their final 2 games, plus us to win both of ours, so it's looking unlikely at best. I still expect to qualify for the Europa League though, thus providing us with some extra finances to try and improve our ageing squad.

Finally, just a mention on our more than woeful disciplinary record this season. With extremely combative guys such as Nigel de Jong, Alex, Lucas Leiva and Mario Balotelli, yes, we expect to pick up a few cards every now and then. We top the table for the amount of yellow cards and are 2nd on the table for reds this season, something I'm not exactly proud to boast about, but feel needs to be included. I will be looking for ways to try and be just as effective in these areas, particularly the engine room in midfield, without getting on the wrong side of refs as much.

View attachment 196549Yellow card table

View attachment 196548Red card table
 
May

Unfortunately, after losing against Napoli by 2 goals to one and a 1-1 draw on the final day of the season, resulting in a 7th place finish, I was sacked as manager of AC Milan.

View attachment 196542

I'll finish this story as I don't think there's much point in continuing it given the name, but I'll start another over the Christmas period as I've enjoyed starting the story writing experience.

Thanks you for all your support and I'll be better next time!

Dan
 
I just finished my first season with Milan and just sneaked into 5th place with a final day win at Udinese. Milan is a tough job in the first season. They have a large squad and with no European games so a lot of players like Alex and Mexes and Montilivio complained about lack of game time which unsettled the entire squad. And when I did try to trim the back-up players like Noceroni and Kucka I couldn't sell them for full value and only got 35% back to spend because of the clubs debt. Just enough get Murru in at FB in Jan to cover for an injured Antonelli

I had frustratingly inconsistent results, a good unbeaten run at the end of Nov/Dec then lost to teams like Froshine at home after the winter break. I found it difficult to get the best out of my attacking players like Menez(just 4 gls, 2 ***, Av. Rat 6.72), Adriano and Bacca(who ended up being my top scorer in all comps with 12gls)

Still 2nd season is looking up, Berlosconi has retired and replaced with a new board with a little money to inject to cover the debt and for transfers. Picked up Timo Horn to replace a poor Lopez, Fabian Schaar, and Marlon to replace Alex and Mexes, brought back Cristante as a long term replacement for De Jong, and happiest with getting Ponte Sisto for 7m. Now i just have to fend off teams like PSG and Chelsea wanting all my best players!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Back
Top