Milan Obsession

Coming into this match, everyone with a friend in journalism or maybe just a Twitter account was criticizing Higuain and Milan for their goalscoring droughts. Gattuso’s fate rested on this match, they said, and the players all said they wanted to score for the Mister. But all of that senseless babble missed the crucial key for Milan to score again: Fabio Borini.

Although Milan sit precariously in sixth place and SPAL sit way too close to the relegation zone in 15th place, this one will be the clash of the feeble. Both teams have regrets this season, and both teams probably should have done better than they have done. Although to be fair, only one team has won 18 Scudetti, and therefore should really be doing much, much better. Still, as both teams face off for their final Serie A match of 2018, it’s a game that matters more than it should, a clash of the feeble.

This game had everything Milan fans are fast becoming accustomed to: plenty of possession, plenty of shots without any accuracy or power, and absolutely zero goals. Well there was the one Frosinone goal called off, but other than that, this game was everything the last three games have been: stale.

I didn’t ask for much this year for Christmas, only that Milan would play better and get a result against Fiorentina. I got half my wish – Milan did play better. But the loss was unlucky and did more to add to holiday depression than Christmas goodwill. So I am going to ask one more time, especially since the game is at 3:30am for me: Please, Santa? Please let Milan play better and give us a result against 19th place Frosinone tomorrow. Please?

This is Gattuso’s second Christmas in charge of the first team, and I like to think he’s learned some things. For example, last year, like the worst Grinch ever, he took away the team’s annual Christmas party and put the team in ritiro for a week, away from their families at the time of the year most people want to be with their families the most. And it didn’t help, they suffered a soul-killing 2-0 loss to Atalanta at the San Siro just two days before Christmas. At least this year, despite also being in a slump (coincidence?) he seems to have a heart that grew a size or two to allow them to spend time with their families. However after the 1-0 loss to Fiorentina on Saturday, there are still a lot of things that I would say to him if I could talk to Santa.

Gattuso must have been a very bad boy this year. In a game where Milan had more possession, more shots, and overall looked more threatening for much of the match, the win should have been gift wrapped by Santa himself. Instead, a single moment of brilliance from Chiesa cost us all three points, and Gattuso had no answers. Not on the pitch or in his press conference. So now Milan are getting nothin’ for Christmas.

Unlike the Christmas carol of the same name from a Christina Rossetti poem, Milan’s circumstances going into the Fiorentina match do not offer much hope, least of all any kind of savior. After two mindnumbingly bleak draws against Torino and Bologna, as well as an unthinkable Europa League loss, only the most masochistic Milan fans are likely to even watch this match. It’s another humbug Christmas match for us.

It’s really sad when even the weather is more noteworthy than your team’s performance. But that was the case yesterday. With all eyes on the former teammates who are now coaching against each other, there was very little to distract from that storyline. However, it wasn’t the weather that made this game unwatchable, Milan were just frozen.

Gattuso and Pippo Inzaghi are old friends. They won trophies together, they even retired together. But tonight they will meet for the first time as coaches that are also opponents in Serie A. Inzaghi is coaching for his job, and Gattuso is coaching for redemption, with whispers once again that his job is on the line as well. Neither has lost their seemingly endless amount of passion that they exhibited as players, but only one can possibly win. So it will be interesting to see which coach comes out on top at the end of 90 minutes.

Milan are celebrating their 119th birthday having just crashed out of the Europa League and then being slapped with sanctions from UEFA. Not the birthday gifts we were hoping for, but at least not playing in the Europa League might help curb our injury crisis. It’s enough to give anyone the holiday blues.

I asked a simple question in my preview: Do you want it bad enough? And at the whistle, the answer was no, not quite. Amidst a hostile environment, our boys simply didn’t do enough to get through, even though all we had to do was lose by only one goal or better. The next round was in our hands, and we let Olympiacos take it from us. For that alone, they deserve to go through and Milan deserve to go home, despite having had to work so hard off the pitch to get here. But I don’t have a lot of criticism for the team, as we are still injury ravaged. And as for our grinta, we’ve seen it sputtering a lot lately. Maybe tonight in Athens, their tank was just on empty.

Milan have an excellent chance of making it through to the next round. Our opponent in this match isn’t Olympiacos as much as it is ourselves. A win or a draw against Olympiacos would guarantee us to go through, while even a 1-0 loss would still see us through. But Milan have become particularly good at shooting themselves in the foot when it matters most. So the question Gattuso should be asking is “Do you want it bad enough?”

It was written in the cards. Although I had entertained a hope that we could pull off the win, I should have known that Milan’s innate ability to choke when there is opportunity on the table would never allow us the three points. But at least we kept a clean sheet, there is always that. And one point is a point more than Inter took this week, so that is also good. Still, a nil-nil draw is never fun. It sucks when your team is drawing a blank.

Some matches don’t seem like much on the surface. Then you look at the table and look at the time in the season and other factors, and realize that this game could be very important in the big scheme of things. For example, Torino are showing signs of climbing up the table, and they are only four points behind us going into this match. Meanwhile, Milan would be only one point behind Inter with a win in this match. That’s one point behind third place, leaving Lazio a full three points behind us, too. That would be massive right now. Especially with our injuries and playing a team that does so well away. So maybe this game is bigger than you think.

Gattuso just celebrated his first year as Milan’s head coach, so of course his track record has been under the microscope. But with recent results and performances improving, the microscope is looking pretty favorably at him. Much of the attention this week is turning towards Milan’s new CEO, Ivan Gazidis. Certainly, there is always plenty to talk about at Milan.

I can’t remember a lunchtime game that I actually enjoyed. At 3:30am my time, I am usually just bleary eyed and frustrated by a lackluster performance and often a poor result. But not on this day. From kickoff, it was exciting and action-packed, and at the final whistle, it was a lunchtime delight.

Parma nearly didn’t make it back to Serie A this year. Then they did, but were going to have a five points deduction. Then that was overruled, too. Which is why they now sit in sixth place on the table only two points behind Milan. I mean why actually punish a storied club like Parma for matchfixing when they could be a storyline in Serie A? Because in Italy, anything goes.