Sinister Mihajlovic

Vindication

Can't wait to see this , finally , happening. I am sure i've been talking about this since .. maybe as far back as 2013 tbh .

I am quite convinced this is where we will see the real El Shaarawy , and if we get Ibrahimovic , it will be simply amazing .

Attaccare

Presidente

squad to 25 , fantastic news , if Galliani can manage it...

Miha said he wants to play SES at AM , but he must see first how he will adapt and if he actually wants too play there. Well SES has done that already and i am sure he will preffer AM anyday over the bench/leaving anyway

Biggest BS that came of this , Berlusconi probably doesn't want Menez sold and from what i gather , they won't look to sell him , unless we get Ibrahimovic . So if no Ibrahimovic = Menez stays , like i was expecting. Better hope Ibra comes .

4-3-1-2 is the formation he wants to start with . He may as well have said play 4-3-1-2 only , because frankly without the right players we ain't going to play anything else properly , whether we like that or not. Unless he intends to stay for 1 season like Pippo , he better stick to it .

Very typical on players , nothing really concrete , all good players e.t.c kk , no definitive answer as to what he intends to do with Menez-Cerci . No fks given about Honda at all . He said Bonaventura in 3 man midfield . And if i am to guess , behind Bertolacci on the left no doubt .

Berlusconi wants Milan to keep the ball more and generaly aim to control the game from start to finish , even after a lead and generally oppress teams no matter what . No more Pippo 'clear ideas' = score and sit back , sit back and counter , e.t.c bs , Miha knows what he has to do , or gtfo if he can't do it . Frankly , i am all in for that , i hated watching Pippo's ideas for Milan , the worst i've ever seen at Milan so far.

As for the stadium , we have many offers from investment funds to fund the stadium and they believe our offer for the stadium is the best it can be and he's confident it will be accepted . Can't wait for the news , in 1-2 weeks we will know , if the stadium will be in the fondazione area .

Finally , Miha confirmed he's the best yes man he can be and that he will do whatever Il Presidente says , but will do so in private

Overall , seems very ambitious and quite cheeky and confident in his abilties to make Milan strong again .

Attaccare Sinisa !

As much of legend Inzaghi was as a player, he had no clear idea of what he wanted his team to look like as a coach.

Apparently during the press conference today, Galliani turned to Berlusconi and said "We're really close to Laporte" this is according to journalists (dunno who) and Twitter investigators



At 17:40 Galliani says "Siamo Vicinisimi" and after that some people heard "Laporte"

Take that as you will, i couldn't hear it

Where did the journalists get the directional microphone from MGS?

Seriously , Laporte ?? I could buy it for another player maybe , but Laporte ?

The lad's buy out clause is 50 million euros . And good luck to anyone who wants to lowball Bilbao about it.

50m could get you Sergio Ramos even , if he wanted to come that is . Really , Milan won't pay so hard for such a young CB , it's even crazier than expecting Milan to pay 30m for Romagnoli .

I am convinced we will buy 2 CBs for Sinisa to work with , but they won't be for 50m and 30m each . Most likely and best case scenario as well , it will either be 30m , or 50m both .

Because the time to inform Berlusconi of the progress of our negotiations is during a live press conference when there are microphones everywhere, sure.

On topic, all the right things were said but we'll have to wait and see just how our summer pans out. In particular our goal to cut the squad to 25 players has been stated year after year without results. We've been taking very positive steps thus far however so perhaps this is finally the time when we dispose of the majority of the deadwood.

Whether El Shaarawy's a success at AM can't be judged until we see him on the pitch but most importantly, Sinisa has the determination to try him there and properly. That's all we can ask for. Perhaps it succeeds, perhaps it doesn't but we'll see him given a fair chance.

With the players we now have and the additional signings we will bring, we have no excuse not to control games, particularly in Serie A. Displays such as against Hellas where we spend the last fifteen minutes protecting a one goal lead by sitting deep with Antonelli in midfield can never be repeated. We dropped countless points against sides that don't even bother to try against Juventus because they truly believed we were ripe for the taking. It's time to be feared again.

Yeap .

I used to say that in Allegri's final season .. but i was defending Allegri , apparently. That we needed to always control games and the impact it has overal , exact same things i said back then tbh. And it was always like that for Milan , with tweaks and differences for sure , but yeah , the core of it was always the same. We had the initiative and others reacted against that.

We abandoned that and every team in Serie A could look us in the eyes all of a sudden . Won't lie , this will take time to fix. And certainly players that need to come and go .

Just like he said , just the name isn't enough . You obviously need more than that . With Ibrahimovic , Witsel maybe , fixing the defence.. we could accomplish this , way sooner than otherwise .

It certainly can't happen quickly but Conte demonstrated how rapidly you can gain lost ground. We can't expect to replicate an undefeated season for these things are beyond rare but the aim should be to regain our standing as an important club in Italy over the course of the season. We need to have realistic expectations though, there are false starts every year. Stramaccioni's Inter burst out of the blocks, even becoming the first to beat Juventus in their own stadium but crumbled to the way side. You don't become feared in three months or six. You have to back it up year after year. The first step though is to show that we can play a full season not play in bursts.

Yes , but Conte had the likes of Pirlo , Buffon , Vidal , Barzagli , Chiellini , e.t.c , he had the means to do so . We aren't there yet , but with the likes of Ibrahimovic and Witsel , and obviously a good defence , we can certainly fast forward the process .

Having said that , i do agree we will need time to regain lost ground . And we have a lot of it to get back i am afraid . Even godamn Sassuolo dares to play us with confidence they will get something back . This is unacceptable , but by all means well deserved .

Mihajlovic will have great work to do and difficult tasks ahead of him , however the management better grant him all the help they can and not hold back this summer.

As for your last sentence , traditionally at least , whenever Milan is competitive for a full season , we usually win the Scudetto , the big ups and downs used to be there even when we were legit . You're right in what you're saying , it's just that , in order to be competitive from day 1 to finish , certain very important ingredients are needed , elsewise it's only so much a coach can manage .

Best we can hope is not lose all the ground there is in the first half of the season and have a strong 2nd half in the race for the top 3 . Again , both a strong first half of the season and a strong 2nd half , usually lead to the scudetto. Since the team as it is at least doesn't allow me to believe in much , i can only say the bursts are to be expected .. and if they wish more , they should work and get the players we need.

Mihajlovic may look like Ancelotti compared to Pippo , but Poli and the like won't look THAT much better , that's for sure. Most of our players barely had a full competitive , succesfull season . It's going to be difficult , but anyway , i get what you're saying , it most likely won't be like Pippo's Milan , if that's what you're afraid .

I do expect a tricky start though , if we don't get a top midfielder and Ibrahimovic . And frankly , just as much Mihajlovic needs to fix the defence , with at least 1 CB who will be really clutch . I think we need 2 really , for the lineup , unless Paletta intends to have the season of his career that is.

At the time Barzagli's return to Italy had been scoffed at, Pirlo had just endured an injury ridden season and Vidal was only known to those who followed the Bundesliga. Up front they had Vucinic, Quagliarella, Matri and even Borriello. Good players but there was certainly not an expectation that they would immediately return to great things.

I wouldn't suggest for a moment though that we can replicate their meteoric rise. It's also true what you said about consistency over an entire season generally leading to the Scudetto. Roma finished second and they barely played after November. Lazio finished third with a run that effectively started in January. Even a full season is unlikely to be enough to overturn Juventus unless they succumb to an injury crisis in the same manner that we did when Conte won his first title. It would distance us from our competition for the Champions League however. Even that's unnecessary though, all that matters is that we make that top three, by January or by the final day, it makes no difference.

With the right reinforcements though, the questionable players around our club are good enough. Honda, Poli, even the likes of Zapata, they're not to be relied upon but they're no worse than the likes of Padoin or Matri who have made important contributions to Juventus' league success in support of much better players around them. As with Conte and Allegri's teams though, you win by not conceding. Paletta's a decent central defender but ideally he should be a reserve. Having him and Mexes backing up Romagnoli and a more experienced defender would be ideal. Who knows what we'll get though.

You make a good case , about how supposedly strong they were , or weren't for that matter , before their season . And i remember it myself anyway , i mostly said that in hindsight tbh.

Still .. it remains to be seen if Mihajlovic will have a similar effect . He will surely do significantly better than Inzaghi , tbh , even as we are right now , i do believe we could reach EL places with Mihajlovic. Won't analyse the issues here , but yes , most of the issues was down to Inzaghi and with certain players who were below par . Zapata , Honda and Poli may be useful on their day , but stuff like Bonera RB/LB , Essien and Muntari to feed forwards , Pazzini , Torres failing ... we are free of all of that , the least we will do next season is EL tbh .

But that's not our target , in the end , it's the CL that we want to be in . And that will require the useful on their day in the likes of Poli , Zapata and Honda , to play they least possible . They have proven to be undependable ,for the most part. Call me reluctant , or simply wrong about it , but i am not sure what Mihajlovic can do to transform these players so much . I find them lacking , even though they are decent depth options , i suppose .

Paletta as you said is a decent depth option and frankly , i am sure he will play his games next season no matter who we buy , i can see Sinisa trust him when in need. It's certainly complicated though , that if Mexes indeed renewed , what will happen with Zapata.

Assuming Mexes renewed , then there's Mexes , Paletta , Zapata and Alex , supposedly 3 of them at the very least , for backup . Frankly , i seriously doubt Zapata is going to stay on the bench another season . Alex i don't see Sinisa trusting him and we probably want to sell him anyway , but even then , Zapata would stay as bench option ?? Ideally that's his place in Milan anyway , but i am not sure he would agree with me .

Not sure what will happen , tbh , i don't think the roster is half finalised yet. So much work to be done . If things go down as expected , literaly half the team could be new. It may be a success , it may fall short , but if we expect a CL place , we need many more changes , actually .

Do you think Mihajlovic can handle it ? As much as i am positive so far , i still have my doubts.

I'm not sure how far Mihajlovic can take us. He's done well at previous Serie A clubs but there, meeting or even exceeding expectations meant fighting for the Europa League and it enabled him to meet his targets even when he had terrible runs. He's certainly going to be given a far stronger squad than he's had before though and if Ibrahimovic arrives he'll benefit from having a player who wins you games that you should have really lost on the balance of play.

As you said, at the very least, he returns us to a decent base level. Even without further reinforcements this side should be reaching the Europa League as a bare minimum. Striking the right balance, bringing in a new central defensive partnership, moving El Shaarawy into midfield, handling injury prone fullbacks, dealing with midfielders who will be under a heavy burden to perform, balancing two central defenders who rely on their teammates and are asked to bring us back to a high level, managing players when we're asking experienced internationals who still want to play week in and week out to ride the bench, there's so much that can go wrong. All this while our opponents are also improving. Juventus probably won't put up the same numbers as last year but they can afford a small drop and even as they're losing Tevez they're bringing in greater depth up front and I suspect another midfielder on top of Khedira. Inter are splashing the cash and have Mancini, who is clearly prepared to go back to his tried and tested league formula of playing football that's awful on the eye but gets the job done after trying to be expansive since January. Roma have money to invest and a strong foundation, Lazio are holding onto their players and Napoli are strengthening their midfield though they must hold onto their stars in attack and reinforce at the back.

All we can do for the moment though is give him time to prove himself. I'm calmer now than when Inzaghi and Seedorf were given the helm. All I asked was for a manager with experience to be given a shot and I'm more than willing to give Sinisa a chance. As with all coaches, he'll be under constant scrutiny but that's fair enough. As long as he's making progress and getting the fundamentals right, I'll support a coach. I was happy to defend Allegri when he was under pressure until the end - I was accepting of his decision to leave at the end of the season because his relationship with Berlusconi had become unworkable but that's a different issue. With Inzaghi, I could no longer support him because his performance on a sporting level had long been deteriorating with no signs that he understood the problems that had to be fixed. He had no vision and no guts. As long as Mihajlovic shows that he has those, then I'll give him the time to work through our many issues.

From what I've read it doesn't seem like Miha wants to play SES as a CAM, but rather as LCM. In a Di Maria-like role because he was 'inspired' by his defensive workrate.

Interesting, not sure if it'll work, but nonetheless i like the idea. Also, didn't Pippo say something similar last year but in regards to Bonaventura?

Thats actually very interesting and i could deff see Ses doing better at the LCM than the CAM position. His defensive workrate is amazing and should definitely be expolited a bit more to the team's benefits.

El Shaarawy at LCM and Bertolacci at AM? Sounds like Sinisa is trying to out-hipster Van Gaal.

A move deeper will be good for El Shaarawy however in order to round out his game and ease the pressure on him to carry the goal scoring burden. I'm not convinced LCM will be a long term solution however SES has always shown himself rather defensively astute unlike Bonaventura who often doesn't track runs, gets caught ball watching at the back and lacks a bit of positional discipline when sitting deep. He's excellent on the ball from midfield however so one has to accept the good with the bad but I actually feel that El Shaarawy could prove to be more complete though I'm unsure how he'd go positionally if forced to play midfield rather than tracking back to help out.

Gonna go against the grain here and say I actually don't want to see him at LCM.

He's good defensively, we know that. He can track runs and he works hard. But that's not all you need to play in central midfield. He lacks the composure and the discipline to play such a position IMO. Whenever he gets the ball SES is always looking to take on his man, always looking to drive forward towards goal. While these are great qualities for a winger, they're not always so great in a central midfielder. He may be able to adapt, not ruling that out, but if he is to play LCM he'll need to learn to take less risks with the ball, to distribute the ball better, to hold his position better, and accept the ball under pressure. Obviously Mihajlovic would know best after seeing him in training, but for me he hasn't demonstrated those skills.

Again though, I could be wrong and I wouldn't mind it at least being tried in pre season.

I agree with you Cruijf, I'm happy to see him in midfield at the tip of a diamond but any deeper seems to be unnecessary and uncertain of success. In particular, the issue you raise of safely using the ball when in deep positions is something SES has struggled with at times when coming deep, particularly when trying to switch the play. There's nothing to lose by experimenting in pre-season of course but I see him as an AM at best. I would be very happy to see us chasing a player with the qualities SES might bring to the role but who is a natural central midfielder in the market though.

I wouldn't mind seeing SES on the wing in a 4 man midfield, but in a 4-3-1-2, he must be in the front 3, and preferably the TQ.

I love the fact he seems to be looking at youngsters to build the team. I expect a MDS revival

SES at CM
Goodluck with that
I don't see SES doing any good in that role..

Yes he's hardworking, but he hardly ever wins the ball off his opponent, he's light weight and isn't composed enough to succeed in such a deep role. El Sharaawy thrives when afforded space, how the hell is he supposed to cope in midfield. We should be utilising his pace and skillset further up the pitch where his limitations wouldn't hurt us a lot

Mihajlovic: "We have to improve. I want the players to play possession football with two touches each."

Who watched the game? What was our performance like?

Who watched the game? What was our performance like?