AC Milan, Montella can’t afford rotation policy
Despite last week-end’s win against Juventus, nobody had really thought that AC Milan are scudetto material yet, but such a huge defeat was definitely not an expected one.
There are some objective limits in Montella’s squad and the aeroplanino also made some awkward mistakes yesterday night.
AC Milan’s strongest points are on their flanks. Ignazio Abate may not be the best right-back in the world when it comes to defending, but he is very good indeed when he has to push forward. The Italian defender did build up the action that led to Locatelli’s winner last Saturday alongside Suso.
Montella rested them both against Genoa, playing Andrea Poli and Keisura Honda in their place. Poli, a former Sampdoria midfielder, is the one to be blamed for Genoa’s opener, whilst the Japanese phantom failed to have any sort of impact in the game and Montella didn’t even replace him when Paletta was shown the red card. Having Honda in the lineup is like playing one man down, having him in a 10-man squad, means playing with nine players on the pitch.
Montella should have replaced Honda and not Bacca to play Gomez after Paletta’s red card.
What about Lapadula? The Italian striker did well against Verona, but Montella played Luiz Adriano over him even if the Brazilian striker doesn’t seem neither fit nor motivated.
Niang, Bonaventura and De Sciglio created the only clear cut chance of the game for the rossoneri. We don’t know what Montella sees everyday at Milanello, nor we know why he decided to play Poli out of position, but what we know is that this team is not deep enough to allow Montella to rotate players. There are 12-13 players that must play at anytime, isn’t this the advantage of not playing European competitions?
Luca Serafini, translated by Lorenzo Bettoni
