Inconceivable. Milan are in 28th of 36 teams in the Europa League after four matches, having lost three of their four games. This is perhaps the most shockingly humiliating European run in my memory. We have Luka Modrić, at least on the bench, and we are choking to teams who have a fraction of our wage bill. And we're doing it at the San Siro, in front of our own fans. This 2-0 loss to Ferencváros is no slight to them, they are now four for four in their Europa League campaign. But for Milan to not even score a single goal against a team playing in the Europa League, much less when they go down to ten men is just inconceivable.
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| Inconceivable. |
After the feel good Derby win of the decade, I had prepared myself for a drop in form. Knowing that Amorim would rotate players, I understood that this was not going to be an easy match at all. And after hearing his press conference and writing my preview, I understood that Ferencváros were absolutely not a team to underestimate. But nothing could prepare me for such an abysmal performance, let alone the result.
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| Torriani had a good match, but his teammates left him unprotected way too much. |
While I was very happy for Torriani to get a full match, obviously, Maignan was missed. And while the young keeper largely proved himself, this was a match where Maignan would have been yelling at his teammates for leaving him so exposed. That was immediately the case when they allowed Lenny Joseph into a 1v1 situation with Torriani, but he was up for it and made the save. I will say, though, that Joseph was hell bent on scoring on Torriani, and of the six saves Torriani made, I think five of them were on Joseph.
Milan produced nothing, but in the 17th minute, Zachariassen's shot was an easy save for Torriani. As was the shot a minute later from Joseph. In the 32nd minute, Cisse was shown a yellow card. It was unclear if it was for the foul he had committed or the protesting afterward, either way, it was a rare moment we saw his inexperience come into play.
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| New Papa De Winter has been playing so many minutes. |
The match continued much like this, with Milan players making many of the fouls, while Torriani was being called into question over and over. Cisse finally got a chance in the 39th and sent it into orbit. But at the other end, Torriani was forced into a big save on Joseph. Ramos had a shot that went wide, then Torriani had another massive save on Joseph. That was the malaise of a first half, which ended 0-0.
Amorim wasted no time in trying to fix the problem, sending Pulisic, Gila, and Moreira on for Cisse, Diawara, and Musah. I'm sure those three players were all guys he would have liked to have rested for Sunday, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Their presence on the pitch barely moved the needle, though, as Ramos had a shot wide in the 50th, followed by De Winter with a foul on Birmančević that earned him a yellow card.
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| Frankly, I'm not sure why he hasn't played more, but was happy to see him come on at halftime. |
In the 52nd minute, there was a comedy of defensive errors at the back, our defender made a very misguided backpass to Torriani while surrounded by Ferncváros players, while the goalkeeper, rather than pick it up, tried to play it with his feet, and was punished for it. Joseph got his goal, assisted by Zachariassen. 1-0 Ferncváros. Inconceivable. It felt like being punched in the stomach. I mean, I honestly felt like we played worse against Bournemouth, and probably Benfica, if I'm honest. But we were down a goal here, and it just made me feel ill.
Torriani was blatantly fouled in the 54th, no card. I'm not sure if the phrase "protecting the keeper" has simply been banned from referee training, or if they have some bizarre notion that being able to use your hands makes you immune to protection, but this was not okay with me. Hutchinson came closest to scoring as anyone else had in the 55th minute when his shot went painfully just wide after a cross from Ramos.
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| Ramos gets continued criticism for being a team player... what has happened to football? |
Perhaps that served, at least, to help calibrate the location of the goal for our players, as Moreira had a shot that forced a big save from Dibusz, who had largely been a spectator up until this point. And, at the opposite end of the spectrum, of course, there was Filippo Terracciano, who conceded a free kick. I get that Amorim likes to award players that work hard, but this is football. We need players who also deserve to wear the shirt. Let Terracciano be the ball boy, send him for coffee, whatever. But we need to stop seeing him on our pitch wearing our shirt. It's too much to ask of us.
In the 63rd minute, Amorim carefully unpacked Modrić from his cryogenic chamber he keeps him locked in midweek and sent him on for Jashari. And even he was not enough to stop the nightmare. Three minutes later, our players let not one, but two players through on goal on a fast brake, leaving Torriani hopelessly stranded in a 2v1 situation, where, once again, it was Joseph who scored. 2-0 Ferencváros. Inconceivable.
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| Moreira actually had a shot on target, first one for Milan in the match. |
For his last sub, Amorim sent Camarda on for Bartesaghi, trying to add to the attacking threat. And Camarda did have a shot right away, but it was off target. At the other end, though, Torriani was once again forced into a big save on Zachariassen. The poor young goalkeeper had to make six saves and still conceded two goals. And just after that, Mariano Gómez had a dangerous shot that ended up bouncing on the top of the net, too.
In the 76th minute, Gila went down, and was trying to tell the referee that he had been elbowed in the face. In a bizarre act of unprecedented luck, for the second time this week, a VAR review on Gila resulted in a favorable (and correct) call for Milan again. Inconceivable. Dele, who had just come on less than 10 minutes prior, was shown a straight red card and sent off. Ferencváros were on 10 men. Surely, now Milan were capable of exploiting the man advantage, right? At least pull one goal back to save some face?
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| Does Gila have some magical power to keep referees honest? |
No. While Hutchinson forced another big save of Dibusz, his second and final save of the night, in the 80th minute, things just never materialized for the Rossoneri. Their young Madarász even had a dangerous shot in the 92nd minute that ended up in the side netting. And a minute later, Rabiot, who wore the captain's armband for this match, had a shot that went wide, but that was it. Milan had lost their third Europa League match of the season. Inconceivable.
Reports are that Amorim was very angry with the team and gave them a lengthy lecture after the match. Publicly, he pointed out that the team were not ready, mentally or physically, to play on two fronts. Duh, the team was built by Gerald Cardinale. He made record signings to make himself look good, and completely ignored the rest of the team, especially depth. He loaned out players like Athekame and kept players like Filippo Terracciano, something not even a Sporting Director on drugs would do. And now, especially with injuries, Amorim is suffering, the team is suffering, we are suffering.(I genuinely don't care that his pocketbook is suffering, and he can save his crocodile tears for someone who cares, too. He did this to himself.)
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| The full range of Milan's players on display, without the full range of performances. |
I like Amorim a lot, but he is a young manager, with a lot of pride, and I don't think he is remotely aware of the blatant mistakes he is making. For example, in an angry speech to the team in which he was trying to unite and inspire (I hope that's what his endgame was,) he singled out Pavlović for the way he trains, saying they should all train like him, because he's "ready to die" in training. Number one, no one likes a teacher's pet. And number two, Pavlović was not available for this match because he trains and plays as if he's ready to die. So what is the message to the players?
Then there is the irony of him saying "we need to be more humble and understand what happened," while he was in an angry tirade, saying things he may have wanted to temper or use some introspection before sharing with the media. Which is ironic as well, because I'm a massive fan of how he generally handles the media. But it's not what you say to them when you're winning, or before you've played that matters. It's what you say after a loss that defines you, the team, and the season. And we have seen over and over how the toxic Italian media uses that against the team, which further impacts mentality.
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| Hutchinson has been emerging as a real threat, with some strong performances. |
Then there is the fact that I did not read anything about him congratulating Ferencváros on a match perfectly played. I mean sometimes it's not even all about what your team did wrong as it is that the opposite team played way above their level. And, as Borbély said in his press conference, his team played a perfect game. Not only is it a classy move to point that out, it takes some of the heat off of you and your team and is one more thing you can say in a press conference that you will not regret. Basic media training 101.
I am still questioning Amorim's lineup, sub, and rotation choices, because we still have players dropping like flies with injuries, and we still have matches like this way too often, as well. He keeps insisting that Modrić is unable to play every match (even though he did last year,) and maybe he's right. But you know who else plays every match like he's ready to die? Yeah, that guy. Why not also give him a shout out as an example? And Pulisic? Is he just made of glass or something? What are we not seeing that he's not playing every minute? He's in great form right now.
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| Yes, there are a lot of questions, Mister, but don't lose focus, you've got this. |
I also find it odd that he treats his midfield and attackers like fragile primadonnas, rotating many of them to the point of frustration from day one (for all of us,) while his defenders have to play every match. They also have to run a lot in a system like this, and now half of them are out injured until March or whatever. Then there's Ramos, who actually is going to die, playing every minute and running so much. Like explore some options. If you call up the U23 players, use them. Navarro has them on fire. Maybe their mentality will help the older players?
Like I think there is plenty for him to learn here. And I hope it doesn't cost us much more than it already has. I hope that he actually can be humble and retrospective and step away and see the big picture. I would hate for him to lose the team, they have seemed so united and the mentality has seemed so much better than in previous years. But I can also understand his anger and frustration after a match like this, because it truly was inconceivable.
This post inspired by the music of Royal Blood's "Rear View Mirror"
Milan Futuro vs. Virtus Ciserano Bergamo
Sunday, November 8 • 14:30 CET (8:30am EST)
Sunday, November 8 • 15:00 CET (9:00am EST)
Reviewed by Elaine
on
Rating:
