Milan, lights and shadows: two months with Terim
13.9 || webmaster

>>Written by Vito Dantona, vito@sportrevolution.com

The impressive victory over a team once called Fiorentina seemed to cancel all the doubts which had accompanied AC Milan till the day before. As always, the truth lies in the middle: this Milan has great possibilities, but also made big mistakes.

I must confess that when Terim was announced, I said that he would be the next Tabarez. But the transfer market seemed at first to be the best of the last ten years: Galliani signed champions like Inzaghi and Rui Costa, youngsters like Pirlo and Donati, good players like Javi Moreno and Contra. The management had also succeeded in getting rid of those players who could not be useful for the team: Ba, Bierhoff, Giunti, Guly, Sala, and two legends like Leonardo and Boban. Signing Laursen would just complete the red and black defense...

At this point, the biggest mistake comes: Francesco Coco is loaned (but virtually sold) to Barcelona. I can't simply understand. He was one of the best players of last season. He was young. He was an international with Italy. Yet he was sold, though Milan had started a policy of decreasing the team's age. Coco said he wanted to play, but is he so sure he will find a spot with Barça? Was this the real reason of his leaving, or were there problems with the coach? His story reminds me of Panucci and Desailly, and I hope we won't miss him as those players.

What happened in Brescia is another black hole in this beginning of season. I do not want to enter tactical details by now, and journalists from all over the world have already done it. What is clear is that Terim seemed so weak that he revolutionized the lineup from the past friendly matches. I agree that friendlies are not important, but they can't be ignored at all: so the new squad was a real disaster, in spite of the late recovery.

The last match, instead, proved that Milan can play well, can score many goals, can win important matches, even without Rui Costa. Is that enough to say that Milan can fight for the scudetto? I don't think so. There are still some huge question marks, to which only Terim and time can answer.

Defense: Maldini looks everlasting, but he needs good mates. Kaladze proved he is, but is really Laursen worth of this team?
Who will occupy the right side?
Midfield: Will Albertini fully recover? Will Redondo ever come back? How will Ambrosini and Gattuso help the team? Will Serginho and Contra find continuity on the two sides?
Attack: Will Rui, Pippo and Sheva be one real goal machine, and not just three good players? Will Javi Moreno have the patience to wait for his moment sitting on the bench? And what if Marco Simone will come back from Monaco?

Only when these questions will be answered, we'll know whether Terim is just another Tabarez, or he is our new Sacchi. The real pity is that the answers will only come by May. There are still 32 matches plus the Cups before... there is to suffer a lot!

Note: This news item was first published on (and belongs to) the site mentioned in the source, right below the heading. We would like to show our appreciation to them for letting us manually syndicate their content. In case the source is acmilan-online.com, then you've guessed: it's one of our masterpieces. ;)