Thoughts from Sunday’s match
Milan held Genoa to a 0-0 draw after Leonardo Bonucci received a straight red card in the 25th minute for elbowing a Genoa player in the box during a corner.
I’m not sure where to begin exactly. My thoughts on this match, this season thus far, Montella, and Bonucci are all over the place. I was skeptical about him coming to Milan in the first place, let alone being given the Captaincy straight away after several years with rivals Juventus.
Let me say that the preseason wasn’t terrible. The first Europa League matches weren’t terrible (albeit we played against ‘lesser’ clubs, no disrespect intended as we are talking about AC Milan after all). The start of this league campaign wasn’t terrible, though there was much to be desired.
Now, to me, it’s all terrible.
The last 4 Serie A matches have seen us lose 3 and draw 1. There was a Europa League match within the time span of these 4 matches where we also were held to a draw against AEK Athens.
After these matches the same thing has been repeated by Montella - “We should’ve won. We played better. We didn’t deserve a draw/loss. We were the superior team.” In reality, all of this is absolutely meaningless unless we can ACTUALLY win. It doesn’t matter if he thinks we were superior and then still lose. It doesn’t matter if he thinks we didn’t deserve a loss/draw even though that’s the outcome. His platitudes don’t matter unless the results are there.
I’m one to back a manager through tough times because I’m aware not all of the blame should rest on their shoulders, but why must we be given the same sayings over and over after every poor result? This wears me down and ultimately wears down my faith in the manager and I’m sure I’m not alone. I liked Montella as a manager, but now I’m only giving him a match or two until I join the “Montella Out” bandwagon. Enough is enough. I’ve stood by him thus far, only to be slapped in the face with him repeating the same thing - we have new players, they need time to gel, we were superior. These are all valid (or were), but now they’re just convenient excuses when we put in a performance like we did against Athens or Genoa.
I am absolutely disgusted with him.
He’s world-class or at least at Juve with the likes of Chiellini and Barzagli playing with him in defense. Now, I didn’t expect the Bonucci of Juve when he came over and now we’re all seeing that that is exactly what we didn’t get. Don’t get me wrong, he is a great player, but he’s been dismal for a majority of the time he’s been on the pitch for Milan. I’ve praised his good plays, but when he makes mistakes he hurts the entire club severely. The Genoa match is a prime example.
What gets me is that he was brought over as Captain. He’s not new to football and Serie A. He knows VAR is a thing now. He knows it will definitely be used as it should be. Regardless of the excuse of him “making space for himself during the corner” his actions were inexcusable and well deserving of a red card. Instances like this are prime VAR real estate and he and the team paid the price.
Montella proceeded to say after the match that the use of VAR such as this is “televisual”. But had this happened to a Genoa player he’d be saying the exact opposite and would be praising VAR. Maybe in the time of pre-VAR football Bonucci might have gotten away with a talking to if the ref was really lenient or even just a yellow, but that is not the case. Montella saying this is nothing short of another excuse for poor football and composure. He knows good and well that what Bonucci did was well deserving of a straight red and I’d give him more respect if he would own up to that instead of giving into easy excuses.
This is a bit unfair, but I have a thought about his red card coming in the match against Genoa. He is conveniently going to miss out on the upcoming matches against Chievo and Juventus. Now, if I were Bonucci and playing how he currently is, I wouldn’t want to be on the pitch against my superior former club either.
Let me continue with Kalinic. He’s dreadful. Sure he scored a couple of goals, but that’s about it. I’m not entirely sure what Montella sees/saw in him, but whatever it is I sure hope it makes an appearance otherwise I’d be absolutely fine with Kalinic never stepping on the pitch for Milan again. We have Andre Silva who is definitely more deserving of a starting spot that Kalinic.
Kalinic seemed completely lost on the pitch against Genoa. He wasn’t useful in the least bit. And by the time he was subbed off it was ultimately meaningless. Cutrone came on with little time left in the match in hopes of scoring the winning goal. I’m almost certain that had Kalinic not started we’d be having a different conversation here - probably a more positive one.
Make of this what you will, but I stand by what I say.
