Milan Mid-Season Review: Tricky Times
To say it's been an up and down first half of the season for AC Milan is a bit of an understatement. Gil Gillespie charts the highs and lows of a yo-yo few months for the Rossineri.
zoom - galleria Terrible home form. Ronaldo's persistent injuries. The thrilling World Club Cup triumph in Tokyo. Smashing five past Sampdoria and Lazio away from home.
Losing to Empoli in the San Siro. Kaka picking up the golden ball award. Maldini announcing the date of his retirement. And some of the worst goalkeeping blunders ever seen on a football pitch. Milan's season so far is probably best described as being a bit schizophrenic.
When they were drawn against Arsenal in the Champions League the first comment most English pundits made was that Milan are an ageing team with a chronic lack of pace and are not the same side that lifted the trophy last season.
Actually, they are exactly the same side that won the competition in May. And exactly the same team that slowly and ruthlessly demolished a pumped-up Boca Juniors to become the first ever European team to win the World Club Cup.
True, they can be listless, pedestrian and predictable at times. But Carlo Ancelotti's side are also capable of beating any team in the world when it comes to the cut-throat 90-minute format of the cup. Arsenal, you have been warned.
Maybe Milan's stuttering form in Serie A is down to the famously ageing squad not having the stamina for the long haul of a whole season. That said, the average age of the current starting eleven is only 31.
Maybe its difficult too to lift your game for a run-of-the-mill clash in your domestic league when you've just been jetting around the globe picking up yet another piece of silverware for European football's most over-stuffed trophy cabinet.
Out of form players haven't helped the red-and-black cause either. Unbelievably, the Champions League's leading goal scorer of all time, Pippo Inzaghi, hasn't found the back of the net in Serie A since February.
Gilardino has struggled to 5 in 14 games. In midfield, Rino Gattuso hasn't had a great season by his exacting standards, nor have Seedorf or Oddo. Nesta, Maldini and Kaladze have done well by and large, but in-between the posts, disaster has loomed large.
Giant Brazilian clown Dida has cemented his reputation as the most accident prone goalkeeper in the world. He is the worst this writer has ever seen. Why? A pair of inflexibly hard hands mean his shot-stopping is abysmal, he is always pushing the ball back into the path of the strikers.
The movement of his feet on his line is slow and stumbling. He is now so unsure of his catching ability that he wont come for any crosses. And he falls with all the urgency of a tree-trunk when getting down to low shots.
It was Dida's two handling errors that cost Milan the game against Celtic at Parkhead. He cost them two points at lowly Siena. And, most recently, he effectively handed rivals Inter the title by going for a little walk in the wrong direction as Cambiasso shot on goal.
In the last three or four seasons, Dida must have cost Milan more than 20 matches in all competitions. And now, at last, Silvio Berlusconi has apparently had enough and looks set to replace him in the January transfer window if possible. Mexican keeper Guillermo Ochoa has been mentioned. The much-talked about deal for Sebastian Frey might have to wait until the summer.
There is nothing more unsettling for players than a goalkeeper they know they cant rely on. Dida's complete lack of confidence in his own ability must have had an effect on the whole side at times. If Ancelotti can begin 2008 with a more reassuring presence in goal, then he can begin to turn around the wild inconsistencies that have plagued Milan's season to date.
How will Milan do in the second half of the season? Probably a whole lot better. Lets not forget that Brazilian wonderkid, Pato ‘The Duck’ will be available from January and looks capable of really setting his new team on fire. Lo Scudetto is gone, of course, but don’t rule out another Champions League win.
Gil Gillespie
source: goal.com
Some good, valid and intresting points about Dida.
) so we struggled.
) but I don't think, as I've already said, Ronaldinho will be content with what he's achieved. Because if he retires now, he won't be spoken of in the same breath as Ronaldo. And he knows it.
