AC Milan suddenly find themselves in Champions League territory, having won three games on the trot in the league. However, as the race remains more or less impossible, there is a lot of regret.
Yesterday’s win against Bologna was the fourth consecutive one for Milan, three of those in the league, and there’s no doubt that Sergio Conceicao’s men have found form. It’s a little late, though, as the Champions League race remains incredibly tough.
While fourth place is currently just three points away, most of the teams above have a game in hand and should thus extend the gap. Furthermore, Milan have Roma up next and the Giallorossi have been in tremendous form this year, so that game is far from a guaranteed three points.
The fact that we are even talking about Milan in the top-four race does leave us with a lot of regret, though. Looking at the games since Conceicao took over, the dropped points against the likes of Cagliari (1-1 draw), Torino (2-1 defeat) and Fiorentina (2-2 draw) stand out.
The Rossoneri were the superior team in the first clash and in the second, they conceded early due to a howler from Mike Maignan, while Christian Pulisic also missed a penalty in that game. As for the Fiorentina defeat, a shocking start (two goals in ten minutes) gave them a mountain to climb.
We are talking about eight points dropped here, so even if they had recovered just five of those, they would have been in fourth place right now. Not to mention that there were silly points dropped in the first half of the season under Paulo Fonseca, such as Cagliari away and Genoa at home.
In short, Milan have themselves to blame and winning the Coppa Italia on Wednesday would only partly salvage the season.
If Sergio Conceicao have had the inspiration to change the playing system to 3-4-3 ten games earlier, otherwise we would be talking now and we probably had a good chance of being in 3rd or 4th place and playing in the Champions League next season. Too bad…
But if the team with this new 3-4-3 system wins the remaining matches of this season, maintaining this good form of play and also wins the Coppa Italia… although I have criticized him harshly many times during this season, I am starting to change my opinion and I would be inclined to trust him for a new season, with a few well-made transfers, with full summer training, I am confident that we will have a very good season next year, even with good chances of the Scudetto.
At least he adapted just like Pioli when he found the 1-4-3-2-1 for his team. Sarri will only play what he wants regardless of players and many other managers. Same for Allegri. I say give Sergio time till October.
You don’t implement ideas and formation overnight. He said himself during an interview that he was working on that formation a while. You people think it’s like FIFA you can change formation without proper training
If Management had not delayed Fonseca getting fired until Dec 30th after the Roma Draw, Conceicao would have had all of Christmas to assess the team and maybe would have changed the formation MONTHS ago..
This is not on the Coach, who found a problem and came up with a solution (albeit too late), this is 100% on Management for getting the club in this situation, and not being fast enough to fix the situation.