Blaming Only Theo is a Mistake’ Ordine Pinpoint Why ‘Everyone’ is to Blame for Milan’s Troubles
Journalist Franco Ordine has provided a rather bleak outlook on all of the failings that have led AC Milan to the point of shock elimination from the Champions League.
The fall-out after the exit at the hands of Feyenoord has been raging on since the full-time whistle, with talk of Zlatan Ibrahimovic giving the team a dressing down in training yesterday.
There have been mentioned of a summer revolution being planned with numerous candidates to leave the club, as well as the idea that Sergio Conceicao might not be around to oversee it.
The last remaining objectives for Milan to try and save the season are a top four finish and to try win the Coppa Italia, but everything to this point – barring the Supercoppa Italiana victory – has left a bitter taste.
Ordine published his weekly column for MilanNews and spoke about the result on Tuesday night in a piece titled: ‘Everyone made a mistake, from the club to the coach and the players. Blaming only Theo is a mistake’.
“It is in these hours that the capabilities of the club, coach and players are measured. These are the most complicated hours experienced at the height of the disastrous result achieved on Tuesday evening, after having failed – and it should have been understood immediately that the conditions were there to miss the third and final opportunity – the first two appointments between Zagreb and Rotterdam,” he began.
“A club led with a sure hand by a team experienced in football events does not make hasty decisions today or tomorrow but takes on collective responsibilities and analyses the details. Ibra continues to repeat: ‘There was no maturity’. It’s true.
“An experienced football management team cannot ignore the contradictions in terms of technical judgments starting with Emerson Royal in the summer and then replacing him with the more experienced and reliable Walker, as well as moving from selling Tomori and Pavlovic, to the recovery of the pair thanks to Conceiçao, or from the recognition that the ideal centre-forward could not be Morata but Gimenez purchased at the end of January. Pavlovic is the one who held the bar in defence.
“And these are just some of the points to be considered. The sad evening at San Siro has brought the number one defendant to the headlines, namely Theo Hernandez. He was stoned by fans on social media, by critics and by ferocious insiders. It was inevitable.
“But we must ask ourselves: what has been done to try to cure the dark disease that has affected Theo since the beginning of the season, with a performance below his threshold and with demonstrations that testified to the fact that he was disconnected from the club, the coach, his teammates and football? Paradoxically, on the very evening in which his performance made some progress, he committed yet another folly that cost something like 11 million euros!
“We cannot even think that on this occasion Sergio Conceiçao is completely free from criticism despite the precariousness of his role and the limited time he had available. After the red card he reshuffled the lineup against Feyenoord first with a worrying immobility, then pulling Gimenez away with the explanation that his ailment had to be managed.
“But then he could have brought Abraham on immediately and recalled Joao Felix! Instead he left Joao Felix on the pitch who already during the first half had shown signs of poor finishing. Now is the time in which you cannot make a wrong move or make a hasty decision (like taking off Theo) because the fate of the season will be decided by the next three matches which are Turin on Saturday night, then the recovery with Bologna and then Lazio.
“Finally the last consideration. If the key errors bear the signature of Gabbia, plus Musah, Maignan and Theo Hernandez, that is, the main exponents of the Scudetto season, can we say that what Milan lacked was not quality but the man capable of eliminating the limits and exalting the virtues of the squad? The answer is obviously yes.”
