Milan celebrate Borriello's opener

Despite an encouraging start which saw Marco Borriello score an impressive opener, we can consider ourselves very lucky to have earned a point from what was a hugely disappointing display. At home, with qualification in sight and on the back of some good results, a win at home to Marseille was appropriately expected. But, instead we were lucky to get away with a draw as Marseille over ran us in the middle of the park and had two superb chances to claim victory only to be denied by the woodwork.

In a previous post this week I discussed the imbalance that was in our midfield and how it had become a real issue for the side. This imbalance I argued was because of the presence of Pirlo. Playing the three man midfield which when attacking becomes more like two as Seedorf pushes further up field, the remaining two midfield combatants must be defensively strong and the reasons for it is obvious. We need two defensively strong midfielders to provide the muscle in the middle of the park. To have the ability to win the ball back and provide protection for the defence and cover for the attack. With Seedorf the attacking midfielder and Ambrosini the defensive midfielder, it is logical that for balance we need a midfielder who ideally is a bit of both, that is, both strong defensively and competent offensively. But in Pirlo we do not have this player for Pirlo is a playmaker, a deep lying playmaker and that is all.

Let us remember that Pirlo entered professional football as a trequartista and not as a midfielder. But, first Mazzone and then later Ancelotti decided to deploy him deep in the midfield and in this role he excelled but excel he did because in Gattuso and sometimes Ambrosini as well, Pirlo was protected and was not expected to do much of the dirty work. It is by no means a coincidence that the decline of Gattuso has also affected Pirlo’s capacity to perform. For Gattuso in his day was worth two defensive midfielders and so even when in 2005 we played with just three midfielders, Seedorf included, it worked much due to the vigilancy and tenacity of Rino.

But Rino is no longer the player he used to be, hence his new-found role on the bench. And Ambrosini is no Rino and can not provide the cover Rino did for Pirlo not so long ago. Ambrosini can hardly be blamed though, for he is no spring chicken.

Back to the Marseille match, and it was this imbalance in midfield caused by Pirlo’s presence that resulted in our midfield being completely over-run and out-muscled by the likes of Cisse, Abriel and Cheyrou. Of course, it did not help that many of our players, Nesta, Seedorf and Oddo all had a day off. But by gaining control of the midfield, Marseille were able to control the game for relatively large spells in which they created more than enough chances to win.

The control Marseille were able to seize in midfield and the pressure they applied to our midfield forced numerous errors from our team especially in the first half. In fact, it was comical how many times we gave the ball away and it was not only our midfield that we were committing errors.

At the back, surprsingly Nesta also gave the ball away countless times in what was a very rare poor performance from the Italian legend. But worst then Nesta’s display was that of Oddo who was completely at fault for the first goal after making a mess of his challenge on Niang. His replacement following his injury was even worse. Abate was an absolute liability at the back, unable to deal with Niang and almost giving away a penalty when losing possession to Arfa in the second half.

We are not a complete side at all yet. We have an imbalance in midfield, are short of at least one strong attacking full back and are short of one world class striker. As we have seen this season already and what I expect we will see again, though I hope not too many times, is that our deficiences become exposed against well organised teams.

Looking on the positive side of things, at least we can say that even when playing badly we still are hard to beat. But it has to be said that against OM, we were just plain lucky.

Ronaldinho, despite an anomynous first half, came to life in the second half and what a delight it is to watch when he is in the mood. You feel that is capable of anything even with his loss of pace and acceleration. Pato also put in a stellar display but was just unable to get into any good scoring positions.

As for Borriello, his opener was superb. Even though Heinze is a hopeless defender, he did well to get by him and slot home. But it will take much more convincing for me to be content with his presence in the team for despite his opener, Borriello missed a host of chances and should have had a hat-trick. His glaring miss in the second half from Ronaldinho’s cross was amateur for with ample space and no marker around him and in a good position, his header feebly bounced wide.

In spite of our lacklustre performance all is not lost. We are still the favourites for the second round and all we have to do is beat lowly Zurich to ensure our progression. A task perhaps not so easy considering our shock loss at home to the Swiss but it is no less a match that we can and should win. The main disappointment from last night’s result is that unless we win in Zurich and Real Madrid draw with Marseille, we will have to face a top seeded team in the next round.