Europa League: Rijeka 2, Milan 0: Lifeless

Zero shots on goal. Zero. And only seven shots total. Despite the fact that the stats say we had 67% possession, this little Croatian team dominated Milan for 90 minutes. And very rightfully won, too. In fact, they probably should have had more goals. Gattuso said Milan have a mentality problem. But it’s much worse than that. Tactically, physically, and emotionally, our team was lifeless.

Football zombies

Not a huge surprised that we lost, given that Gattuso left most of his starters at home, played the wholly ineffective 3-5-2 again, and then put Cutrone and Silva up front again. He says he watched Montella, but he acts like he’s never seen a Milan match all season. I can kind of support leaving the starters behind for rest. But he also insisted ahead of time that this was a must win for morale. You can’t have both. And Montella’s possession and attack were the only things working for Milan. Why do everything else wrong and take that away, too? It’s completely baffling.

Puljic opened the scoring for Rijeka with a great free kick in the seventh minute. 1-0 Rijeka. Then Gavranovic scored from a lovely save/cross/assist from Kvrzic in the 47th. 2-0 Rijeka. Other than a few yellows and some very impotent and late subs from Gattuso, there is literally nothing else to write about. Well Antonelli’s yellow in the 66th was a merciful yellow, it could have been a red. The team may have even played better on ten men, who knows?

You never get a second chance to make a first impression

All I know is that I want those 90 minutes of my life back. The defensive style play Gattuso has got them playing is like watching a self-consuming black hole, and my soul feels like it has been sucked dry of all football pleasure. If UEFA are waffling on their decision about our Voluntary agreement, watching this soul-stealing nightmare that Gattuso calls football is going to convince them not to approve it. I mean we were undefeated in Europe, one of Montella’s few accomplishments this season, and Gattuso even stole that non-achievement from us. So don’t expect some kind of revolution where we suddenly turn around and start winning again. Fassone and Mirabelli are desperate, Gattuso is clueless, and our team is absolutely lifeless.

This post inspired by the music of Muse’s “Supermassive Black Hole”

Our next match is

Serie A Week 16

Milan vs. Bologna

Sunday, December 10 • 20:45 CET (2:45pm EST)

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