Things are pretty dark at Via Turati. The once great AC Milan sit 10th on 13 points from 12 games, 15 away from Napoli sitting in the last Champions League spot Serie A can offer yet just four points from the relegation zone. AC Milan!
Milan haven't won in Serie A for over a month, the last coming in a dreadful 1-0 win over Udinese and Massimiliano Allegri's side have scored more than one goal in a game only once in the last five, a 3-2 loss to Parma. They've only scored more than once and won against Celtic in the Champions League. They haven't done it at all in Serie A. At all. AC Milan haven't beaten a Serie A rival by more than one goal all season.
None of this is startling if you watch them play. Milan, formerly so classy and clinical in possession are now sloppy, sluggish and unimaginative. There is no pace, no intensity, no pressure (as well as the inability to deal with pressure from any other team) and it's a sporting train wreck defensively.
While writing a piece for Forza Italian Football I found out that while Milan lead the league in possession(Allegri's side average 59.5% a game) they sit joint 7th in goals scored. So what are they doing with the ball? There is literally swathes of possession being wasted as the likes of Kevin Constant, Sulley Muntari and Alessandro Matri struggle to make concise passes. When he plays, Balotelli is often isolated and unaided up front while Valter Birsa tends to spend at least 20-30 minutes every game completely uninvolved. Only Andrea Poli and returning star Riccardo Kaka' seem willing(or able) to play cohesive, attractive football this season while the rest of Milan's team play like guys who have already written the season off.
Which is why hiring Zdenek Zeman until the end of the season makes a lot of sense. (Or not, whatever, just hear me out.)
The former Foggia, Pescara and two-time Roma boss is famed throughout Italian football for a few things: his chain smoking, his conspiracy theories (notably about Juventus) and his attack first, don't do anything else second brand of football.
Zeman has employed a 4-3-3 his entire coaching career and he relies on fitness, intensity and hard running for 90 minutes as he aims to overpower teams with pace and sheer persistence. His teams score a lot of goals, concede a lot of goals and play a 'blink and you've missed it' sort of style.
Milan have a lot of attacking talent that is currently not being used to it's full potential that could be harnessed by Zeman; Balotelli, Stephan El Shaarawy, Kaka', M'baye Niang, Riccardo Saponara and the January arrival of Keisuke Honda is more than enough for the Czech tactician to work his magic. With the players I've just listed, you can guarantee Zeman's rossoneri wouldn't sit 7th in scoring with that amount of possession.
In midfield, Riccardo Montolivo, Nigel De Jong, Andrea Poli and the possibility of playing Kaka in a deep role once again gives Zeman enough creativity to work with and his unflappable attitude toward playing youth would benefit the likes of Bryan Cristante and Riccardo Saponara - both of whom have not seen a lot of minutes under Allegri so far this season. Additionally, imagine what he could do with El Shaarawy, Balotelli and Honda/Kaka? He turned Francesco Totti into a star playing as left winger in his first stint at Roma in the 1990's and El Shaarawy is also gifted with the work ethic and pace that Zeman loves in attackers. On paper, they're perfect for each other.
AC Milan are not strong defensively at all, but the firepower up front could genuinely be used by Zeman to create a side that will cause more problems to sides than the currently anemic offense under Allegri has been.
Before you call me a nutcase - hear me out. This isn't the answer. Long term, absolutely not. Zeman's stint at Roma two seasons ago proved that as far as managing a team hoping to compete for a title goes, he's not your guy. But Milan don't need him to be that guy.
It appears all signs in Milan are pointing toward a 2014 blow up and rebuild, with Allegri walking to be replaced by any one of Cesare Prandelli, Roberto Donadoni or a guy coming from Milan's history books(a favorite method of Silvio Berlusconi). There will probably be a new vice president and COO if Silvio's daughter Barbara gets her way along with a summer spent trying to get a lot of Adriano Galliani's, ah, less successful signings off the Milan books. So if Milan are just killing time until 2014, then why not go out in style? Bring in Zeman and his footballing insanity to bring a little bit of adrenalin until May, let him go back to whatever he's been doing in his time off at the end of the year and rebuild like you're planning on doing anyway.
The thing is, after last season's heroic comeback to force Milan into a Champions League spot last season, there is probably still hope that a productive January, a few players coming back from injury and a decent run of results could re-propel Milan back into prominence. Unfortunately, that's very rapidly approaching impossible, especially when you consider that every side bar Milan have got noticeably stronger over the summer. It's not that easy this time.
So once the inevitability of not appearing in the top three come May dawns on the remaining optimists in the rossoneri camp (and believe me, it's coming), then the whole season will just feel even worse. If there's no hope, why does it still have to be dull? Can't we just have a little fun? If we're going to be pressing the reset button in June, why not just go down swinging? I bet Zeman has some really good stories about Juventus he'd love to tell.
Zdnek Zeman to Milan. Why not?
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