Milan Obsession

Milan managed to take all three points from a subdued Brescia today to reward the 56,000 fans who showed up to the San Siro. But to hear Giampaolo tell it, it was a complete disaster. Nay, Paqueta is too Brazilian. And he’ll start whomever he wants up front. The guy sounds more like the grumpy old man telling you to get off of his lawn. Maybe he was just cranky from wearing the suit. And he is crazy stubborn about doing things his way, at the cost of actually lining up the best team and winning in the best possible way. So I’ve developed a plan: have the media tell him the opposite of what is working. Then he’ll stubbornly do the right thing, just to spite them. It’s reverse psychology.

Saturday is the big day that many have seen coming since Brescia won promotion at the end of last season: it’s Donnarumma vs. Donnarumma. Alfredo Donnarumma was the capocannoniere last season in Serie B, and Gigio Donnarumma is Milan’s starting goalkeeper. It’s David vs. Goliath, the shooter vs. the shotblocker. And the strangest thing is that Milan might not be favorites to win.

After all of the excitement of summer and the optimism surrounding an apparently solid mercato, Milan fell flat on their face in their opening match of the season. There are plenty of questions about the mercato, the coach, the system, the players, and more. So we had plenty to discuss, even if the news wasn’t good.

Marco Giampaolo was a coach with ideas, they said. He would play his typical 4-3-1-2. During the summer, we saw such improvement in play, even if the results didn’t quite come. Then came the friendly with Cesena last week, and we were unable to put the game away against a Serie C side. That was worrying, but surely it was just a fluke. However against Udinese, we saw that it wasn’t a fluke at all. In fact, it seemed that Giampaolo had no ideas.

We’ve seen the friendlies, we have some idea how our new coach wants the team to play. But this one is different. This one is the first step in our season’s journey, which ideally will ultimately end in Champions League qualification. This one matters. New players and playing style aside, Milan need to win this one. Away. No matter what. It’s all about first impressions.

In keeping with their promise to invest in promising, talented young players who would stay at Milan for a long time, the club have invested in 20-year-old striker Rafael Leao. Despite their quest for other forwards this transfer market, they stepped up in the market and believed in the young Portuguese player and invested €28m plus selling Tiago Djalo to Lille in order to make this deal happen. Whatever else you could criticize about this management, it definitely seems like they are moving forward.

I don’t know if Milan saw the black and white kits, heard ”Bianconeri” and assumed they were playing Juventus, so just gave up. Or maybe the guys thought Milan were supposed to be the ones who played in Serie D last season, but there was certainly some sort of mistaken identity. The team we know as Milan played more like you would expect Cesena, and Cesena made fools of Milan.

So tonight we are playing a newly promoted Serie C side that used to be a different club, but went bankrupt, then came back with a slightly different name and are now on their way back again. But who cares about the friendly?! Milan have an app! And as if that weren’t enough, they are supposedly showing the friendly on the app tonight.

There’s a new center back at Milan, and word on the street is that he means business. At the age of 23 years old, Léo Duarte was signed to reinforce a center back lineup that also includes Romagnoli, Musacchio, and Caldara. That gives Milan one of the youngest defenses in Serie A, but also one of the most talented. Duarte wasn’t signed just to sit and watch the others, he was signed because of his reputation for being both tough and talented, to give our defense a little something extra. I suppose you could say that Milan have fortified.

We’ve welcomed new players. We’ve seen the friendlies. And with the season set to kick off in less than two weeks, there are just a few loose ends to tie up. This is the time of the year to assess not only how far we’ve come, but to look ahead at where we are going. Time to talk about those summer dreams.

This was Giampaolo’s first win on the Milan bench, perhaps a quiet win in a historic match. The win itself… well, it would have been incredibly disappointing if we hadn’t won, due to the disparity in player quality and experience. It wasn’t ever in doubt that we would win, but it wasn’t exactly as dominant of a performance as one might expect, either. But we got to see new players, returning players, and actually, pretty much all the players. Giampaolo used both first team keepers and all of his outfield players, so we got to see a truly comprehensive look at where we are preseason.

Milan have never played a match in Kosovo. Granted, Kosovo has only existed as an independent nation since 2008, and it probably wasn’t the safest place for Milan to travel to for a while. So this friendly is historic, and honestly a little exciting to witness. Maybe it won’t be a Champions League final kind of match, but increasing goodwill throughout the world is something that football does best.

In his first interview as a Rossonero, Bennacer said that he would give us two thousand per cent. I don’t care about the math skills, I need someone with football skills. And as if that weren’t enough to convince Milan fans, he also promised that he would die on the pitch for the fans and for the team. That’s all I needed to hear. I already like this guy two thousand per cent.

With another season upon us, Puma have given us three more shirts. I feel like musician Danny Elfman said it best in his Oingo Boingo song, “Grey Matter”: “You’ll swallow anything that they shove down your throat.” This is possibly true of all football kits, as there is an immediate attachment to the club, the colors, and your heroes who will be wearing them, so it doesn’t really matter if the kits are good or bad, fans will buy them. And that is certainly what Puma are counting on here.

The fact that Milan lost… again... is very misleading. Each match in the ICC Tournament, they have shown improvement and a greater sense of the tactics that Giampaolo is trying to instill in the team. In this match, they met a team that is about three weeks ahead of them in terms of preparation, and Milan actually dominated them in times in possession. In fact, it was only on penalties that we lost, and it was the closest thing to a win that Giampaolo has seen so far at Milan. Not winning aside, however, the play is so incredibly refreshing. For Milan fans, it is very promising.

Everyone knows that these summer friendlies mean nothing. However, as pointed out in the Benfica review and the last podcast, there is a bit of pride on the line here. With a reasonable draw or a win in this match, Milan will not be dead last in the tournament. More importantly, though, fans want to see continuing improvement in Milan’s play. This is a great opportunity to make a good showing and feature Giampaolo’s new tactics and ideas. So please don’t bodge it.

Watching all of the fun that Milan supporters had in the United States this past week with the club forced me to record this bonus podcast. We talked about all of the important topics for fans: spirit animals, shoelaces, stadium bids, socks, and of course, Cutrone. This episode was all about how it is to be a fan, learning from two of the best.