In conjunction with the OneFootball 2016 end of year review, the staff at SempreMilan have picked their best (and worst) on all things AC Milan this year.
Best XI
(4-3-3): Donnarumma; Abate, Paletta, Romagnoli, De Sciglio; Kucka, Locatelli, Bonaventura; Suso, Bacca, Niang.
Milan’s better part of 2016 has been under Montella, and the best XI represents this. The striking part is how young the core is, with tough choices made in leaving out players like Lapadula and Antonelli.
Player
Gialuigi Donnarumma without question. It has been an absolute pleasure to witness the development of such a young talent.
We all sincerely hope that he is between the sticks for the Rossoneri for two more decades at least!
Manager
Easily Vincenzo Montella. While Sinisa Mihajlovic did have some redeeming qualities such as organising the back line, the results ultimately were not good enough.
Montella has built a winning team that always has a goal in them. We have not seen that for a while…
Moment
It may have come late in 2016, but the Supercoppa victory over Juventus put the cherry on the top of what has been a year of relative progress.
When Pasalic scored the winning penalty, the eruption of joy from the group of players signified the first piece of success in which should be an exciting journey.
Game
In terms of a spectacle, it has to be when Milan came from 3-1 down to defeat Sassuolo 4-3 at San Siro earlier this season.
However, in terms of significance, the 3-0 Derby Della Madonnina win over Inter earlier in the year I saw also up there.
Disappointment
Unfortunately, Milan were unable to win in the Coppa Italia final at the end of the 2015-16 season.
That has to be the lowest point of what has been an otherwise good year!
Hero
It is tempting to give this to Donnarumma, but Locatelli perhaps slightly edges the “hero” status.
Goals against Sassuolo and Juventus catapulted the teenager into stardom, and his emotion on the field makes supporters proud.
Villain
This one is difficult, because you never want to call out members of the team you support.
Unfortunately it has to go to Riccardo Montolivo, just because he has struggled so much to find form despite being captain.
