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Silvio Berlusconi likes the sound of his own voice. A former cruise ship singer, he finds it hard to resist putting on a show whenever there’s an audience and he stole it from Sinisa Mihajlovic at his official unveiling last Friday. Limping to his place, Berlusconi joked: “I’m Milan’s first injury of the season.”
Even at 78, one particular gag never gets old and that’s when Berlusconi tells the story of how he used to coach a team of employees at one of his companies, Edilnord, and they won everything. That one isn’t supposed to make you laugh though, as he’s deadly serious about it.
Berlusconi is so confident in his own ability that he never tires of giving the impression that were he ever to turn his hand to football management, he would be as successful as he has been in business. And so for more than quarter of an hour of Mihajlovic’s presentation, he was the one who spoke. The uninitiated in attendance could even be forgiven for thinking Berlusconi was the new manager, not the owner, for he started by telling everyone how Milan should play. Mihajlovic was left under no illusion.
Milan have got to get back to bossing their opponent and bossing the game. Too often last season they relinquished the initiative and looked to play on the counter. It was the mentality of a small provincial club, not a great one and while not wishing to spend too long dwelling on the previous campaign, Berlusconi expressed his opinion that given the talent within the squad it should have done better.
A lot of hope had been [mis]placed in Fernando Torres too. Now though Milan have a couple of first class strikers, both of whom are at their peak. Not past it like El Niño.
At this stage, the politician in Berlusconi emerged. Ignoring how Inter had beat them to the signature of Geoffrey Kondogbia, he put quite the spin on the done deal for Jackson Martinez that rather embarrassingly undid itself. Milan withdrew their interest apparently. The buy-out clause [which they had agreed to pay] was excessively high so they switched targets.
It had absolutely nothing to do with the reported power struggle between Bee Taechaubol’s advisors Doyen Sports and super agent Jorge Mendes whose influence on Martinez’s entourage isn’t lacking. No, Berlusconi went on, Carlos Bacca represented better value and besides he was the one starting for Colombia at the Copa America while Martinez was on the bench. Only Berlusconi had got his facts slightly wrong. Both started only once and Martinez played 106 minutes to Bacca’s 86.
Nothing, however, should be taken away from Milan. Bacca’s signing and their other spending is still a very welcome statement of renewed intent. And it did represent better business too. Bacca and Martinez are the same age but the former cost €5m less. He also scored twice in the Europa League final as Sevilla retained the trophy. With all due respect to the Liga Nos [and it wasn’t as if Martinez didn’t prove himself in the Champions League] La Liga is of a higher standard and last season Bacca found the net 20 times.
Limited to only 1.9 shots per game, his efficiency is impressive. Bacca’s conversion rate last season was 29%, the highest in the Primera among players with 10 or more goals. Extend that across Europe’s top five leagues and only Bas Dost of Wolfsburg and Miroslav Klose of Lazio could boast a better ratio.
Concluding the campaign with 28 goals in all competitions, including 7 in the Europa League, what also stands out about Bacca is his all-round play. He laid on 9 assists for his teammates across the league and Europa League last season as well. The question, however, is whether a lone centre-forward like him can play alongside another, for Bacca is joined by Luiz Adriano. Available for free next January, Shakhtar accepted an offer from Al-Ahli [which the player declined] and knew of interest from Roma who went in for him the last time the window was open. Unwilling to miss out on another target, Milan didn’t hesitate and swiftly cut a cheque for €8m to beat the competition.
He is an intriguing buy, Adriano. There is great curiosity to see him in one of Europe’s top five leagues. Like Bacca, he is also 28 and scored 21 goals in all competitions last season. Four came in 17 minutes against BATE Borisov in the Champions League. It is the fastest poker in tournament history and, not done there, he ended the night with five, a record for a single match he shares with Lionel Messi.
A fortnight later, Adriano made it back-to-back Champions League hat-tricks against the Belarusians. It was the third time he has scored three or more in the competition, a feat matched by Pippo Inzaghi and Mario Gomez. Only Messi, who else, can boast more. The nine goals Adriano scored in last season’s group stage - his other effort came against Porto - also equalled the record set by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Trained superbly by Unai Emery and Mircea Lucescu, if Bacca and Adriano gel and play to their potential as a partnership, Milan will have some strikeforce. Meanwhile, talk of a return to San Siro for Zlatan Ibrahimovic refuses to go away. Asked if Ibra might be yet another big present Milan give their fans to unwrap this summer, Berlusconi smiled and said: “Ibra would be a gift to myself too.”
Considering how the owner always prefers to see Milan play with a No.10 and Mihajlovic’s success at Sampdoria with a 4-3-1-2 this has led the papers to get a little carried away and fantasise about a team with Ibra behind Bacca and Adriano.
Looking at the squad as it stands, you wonder about the future of a number of players. Jeremy Menez was Milan’s top scorer last season and excelled as a false nine. Will he be pushed out by Bacca and Adriano? Might one of them have to make way for him as a second striker? If he plays as the 10 what about Keisuke Honda, the player who actually wears that number? Could Mihajlovic spring a surprise too? After all, Suso is apparently the one who has impressed the most in that role since the beginning of pre-season last week.
Considering how narrow a system it is, spare a thought for Milan’s many wide players. Mihajlovic’s predecessor Pippo Inzaghi specifically chose 4-3-3 with Stephan El Shaarawy in mind. He wanted to build the team around him but where does he now fit in? The expectation is that he will be experimented with in midfield and asked to play like Angel Di Maria did for Real Madrid. Competition in the middle of the pitch is fierce though and why play El Shaarawy out of position when other more suitable options are in abundance?
Milan paid Roma €20m for Andrea Bertolacci to repeat the performances he produced for Genoa. Among midfielders, only Miralem Pjanic combined for more goals and assists than he did last season. Giacomo Bonaventura was widely considered Milan’s most consistent performer under Inzaghi. Jose Mauri, one of the top prospects in Serie A, has been picked up from Parma. Don’t forget Andrea Poli, not to mention to Simone Verdi who has returned to San Siro after playing really well at Empoli.
Then last but by no means least there’s Nigel de Jong, who has signed a new contract and Milan aren’t done yet. After bringing in Bertolacci, the intention is to add a regista, a player Milan have been missing ever since they let Andrea Pirlo walk away four years ago. “Top Gun” was the headline of Wednesday’s La Gazzetta dello Sport as Milan’s latest objective is the unlikely signing of Ilkay Gundogan from Borussia Dortmund.
In anticipation of the addition of more quality, Milan sure have quantity and unless they start selling Mihajlovic is going to have to keep a lot of people happy which is going to be by no means easy given there are only so many places to go round and so many matches too. For a second season running, remember, the club isn’t involved in European competition.
The other issue for Mihajlovic to figure out, and it is without a shadow of a doubt the biggest one of all, is the defence as while the attack and midfield have been addressed, that is one zone still in desperate need of an upgrade.
Milan have a top goalkeeper in Diego Lopez. He was one of the best in the league last year along with Gigi Buffon, Albano Bizzarri and Samir Handanovic. The centre-backs in front of him however aren’t worthy of Milan’s history and tradition. Mihajlovic would appear to agree. It’s clear he’d really like to bring Alessio Romagnoli with him to San Siro after the under-21 international performed so excellently under his guidance on loan at Samp.
Parent club Roma are reluctant to sell though. Unsurprisingly, Mihajlovic also didn’t feel Philippe Mexes should be awarded a contract extension but, quite incredibly, after the intervention of the owner - an early undermining of the coach’s authority? - and the acceptance of a big pay cut he got one anyway.
Unable to sign any more non-EU players after registering Bacca and Adriano, the likes of Monaco stopper Aymen Abdennour are out of the question while Aymeric Laporte is too expensive even for flush again Milan. But if Milan are really serious about returning to the Champions League and challenging for the Scudetto again, which Berlusconi insists is “fundamental”, then improving the backline is an imperative.
Every year for the last four years it has only got worse. Milan shipped 50 goals last season, 15 of which were from dead-ball situations, a stat that includes nine from corners. Only relegated Cesena conceded more [11] from that game situation. It has been an Achilles heel for too long now and is holding back a defence that ranked 10th overall, which just happens to be where they finished.
It’s curious isn’t it how under a former defender Milan have so far signed only attackers while Inter, under a former attacker, have done the opposite and signed almost exclusively defenders. There is still a long time before the window closes. But Milan, notwithstanding the encouraging steps forward, will remain incomplete unless they take care of the back.
