Milan succumb to Palermo

In the preview to this match I mentioned the fact that with all good runs, the end inevitably arrives at some point. Yesterday in the match at home to Palermo, the end did arrive as we were deservingly beaten at home to an impressive Palermo outfit. Miccoli in particular was outstanding but so was Bresciano who got into a number of good positions to score.

The reasons for this loss can be summed in three points. Firstly, the performances of our forwards were poor. Abate, who was deployed in Pato’s role, was ineffective. Unable to take advantage when receiving the ball in an attacking position, as the young Italian was always forced back one way or another by the Palermo defence. Alongside Abate, Borriello also had a poor match. Simon Kjaer got the best of Borriello on the day as the Italian struggled to break away from his marker throughout the match. Ronaldinho is the exception. R80 was the one shining light for Milan yesterday as he managed to dribble past players and be the one creative force in our side.

Secondly, our midfield once again lost the battle in the centre of the park. Like against Zurich, our one defensive midfielder in Ambrosini failed to deliver and as a result we had no chance of controlling the match from midfield. Up against the likes of Nocerino, Bresciano and Simplicio, who all impressed, our midfield completely lost out. Once again the fact that we lack defensive qualities in the midfield was highlighted. This is a real problem in our side and it must be addressed in January. The headline in my preview to this match was ‘The Trial of Simplicio and Nocerino’ as both players have recently been linked to the club. And yesterday both these players impressed at the San Siro as they were very much the reason why Palermo had the upper hand in the midfield areas.

The last point was that our current lack of depth at the back due to injuries cost us big time. Favalli was atrocious. It was a surprise to many when he was named in the lineup ahead of Kaladze and in all honesty I think I would even prefer the Georgian purely because his is ‘only’ 31. Unlike Favalli who is almost 38. Against Cavani and Miccoli, players who have pace and are quick of the mark, Favalli stands no chance for he is far from a Maldini or Baresi. Silva has become so important to this side and his absence was sorely missed against Palermo and will continue to be missed until he is back. With our preferred alternatives in Bonera and Onyewu all out injured, it is a rather hopeless situation.

It did not help that the our full backs, who have been impressive lately, completely underperformed. Miccoli in particular tormented our full backs and it is a real concern that if Miccoli can cause so much trouble for our full backs, imagine what the likes of Ronaldo, Messi or even Rooney can do should we face them in the latter stages of the UCL. I say this taking nothing away from Miccoli who is an outstanding footballer. In fact, it is amazing just our stubborn Lippi is as he continues to completely disregard him along with Cassano.

With just one more match before the winter break, all is definitely not lost. By the new year, both Bonera and Silva will be back and many of the problems we saw against Palermo will be sorted with the return of these two players. Also, January offers the club a chance to buy one or two new players in addition to the imminent arrivals of Adiyiah and Beckham who will add some quality depth to our side. In addtiion, both Juve and Inter both lost points too this weekend. So we still remain in touching distance of Inter with Juve not getting any closer behind us.

The final match before the winter break against the Viola will be an even tougher assignment. On the back our the performance yesterday, one is not filled with much confidence heading into the next week’s match. Of course, as always, I side is capable of winning next week but Leo has much work to do before then.