While other teams are
busy making moves in the transfer market this summer, AC Milan have more
important concerns to address.
Firstly, their ownership situation is unclear, with club
president Silvio Berlusconi negotiating with
a Chinese consortium about a potential takeover. Secondly, it is uncertain who
will be the Rossoneri’s head coach come next season.
Last summer, Sinisa Mihajlovicwas
hired and charged with leading the club back to the top of Italian football.
But he was ultimately dismissed on 12 April and replaced by Cristian Brocchiuntil
the end of the campaign.
The former Primavera coach couldn’t galvanise the
team, though, winning just two of his six league games in charge as Milan fell
to seventh in Serie A before losing in the Coppa Italia final
to Juventus.
The Rossoneri have already signed Argentinian
left-back LeonelVangioni, but they would be wise to confirm their future head
coach before pressing on with any further transfer business.
A number of candidates have been linked to the job, including
formerManchester City boss
Manuel Pellegrini, though Marco Giampaolo has emerged as the
favourite for the job, according to Sky Sport Italia (h/tFootball Italia).
The 48-year-old had an unspectacular playing career before
moving into Pescara’s
backroom staff, first as a scout, then as an assistant coach.
Giampaolo’s first managerial role came with Ascoli in
2004, though he had a string of short spells with Cagliari, Siena, Catania and Cesenafollowing that before
he wound up at Brescia.
But it didn’t quite work out for him with the Rondinelle.
Per Football Italia’s Antonio Labbate,
after just one win in five, he went AWOL, offered his resignation, which was
refused, and ignored phone calls before rescinding his contract.
Such inauspicious beginnings belied Giampaolo’s true
coaching savvy. It wasn’t until he arrived at Empoli last summer that he showed the
full extent of his managerial and tactical capability.
Maurizio Sarri had ensured the small-town Tuscan
club’s safety with a 15th-place finish in Serie A and some wonderful,
flowing football. And when he left for Napoli’s dugout, the expectation was that
his old team would be relegated.
However, Giampaolo stepped up to the task and defied
the critics, leading Empoli to 10th. More impressively, he built on
the groundwork laid down before him. He discussed this in an interview with Corrieredello Sport (h/t Football Italia),
saying: “I harvested the principles that had been sowed by Sarri. After
all, they are my own principles too.”
CARLO HERMANN/Getty Images
With Empoli, Sarri had utilised a basic 4-3-1-2
shape which offered central stability and opportunities for combinations in
possession. Other themes of the style of play he extolled were the pulling wide
of the two strikers to create space in attacking situations and a high defensive
line that ensured a short distance between the back four and the midfield.
Rather than force new ideas on a group of players who were set
in this very specific method of playing, Giampaolo accepted the
conditions and sought to enhance the team’s performance while using the
principles already ingrained.
This is something Polish midfielder Piotr Zielinski, who
has spent the previous two years on loan at Empoli, referred to in an
interview withWhoScored.com when
asked about the team’s training and tactics, saying:
To be honest with you, the situation hasn’t
changed that much. We play the same tactical formation and our training
sessions are just slightly different. Giovanni Martusciello and Sarri’s
former staff have remained with us, so there are no big differences to last
year, at least as far as our tactic is concerned.
Evidently, Giampaolo takes an evolutionary—as opposed to
revolutionary—approach to management, and his assertion that Sarri’s
ideals mirror his own is backed up by the level of success Empoli had
under his auspices.
Per WhoScored.com,
on average the Azzurri enjoyed 52.4 per cent possession last season,
the seventh-highest total in Serie A. And, in terms of pass accuracy,
they were sixth, with 82.1 per cent. Additionally, 32 per cent of their attacks
came through the middle of the pitch, more than any other team in the league.
These statistics show that Giampaolo was able to
effectively continue with many of the tactical principles that Sarri had
implemented before him, with strong central presence and combinations aiding
their possession.
And those principles may soon be of real interest to Milanisti.
Giampaolo left Empoli at the conclusion of last
season, making him a free agent for clubs potentially interested in hiring him.
Milan appear to be one of those clubs, and the coach has spoken openly, and
favourably, about the rumours.
“It's an honour to be linked with the Rossoneri,” he said
at an Italian Association of Coaches event, per ESPN FC.
“But there’s nothing definite and there has not been any meetings.”
Giampaolo’s work with Empoli was extremely positive,
though it’s worth considering if his stylistic tendencies would suit the
current Milan players.
Defensively, one issue he may encounter would be in trying to
institute a high back line. The Rossoneri lack pace in their central
defensive options and so asking them to take up a high position could be risky,
leaving space in behind for their athletic weaknesses to be exploited.
An even bigger problem may be in midfield, where Milan have a
real lack of quality. Aside from Riccardo Montolivo, Andrea Bertolacci and
Manuel Locatelli, their central midfielders are technically basic, with a
greater focus on physicality, dynamism and energy in the form of JurajKucka,
Andrea Poli and Jose Mauri.
There is also plenty for Giampaolo to work with,
however.
Alessio Romagnoli is a technically sound centre-back
with a precise left foot and a good passing range, something he showed adeptly
towards the end of last season when asked to bring the ball out of defence.
This would suit the sort of short passing build-up play the former Empoliboss
aims for.
Spielverlagerung's Tom
Payne highlights that: "When it comes toGiampaolo's team, the full-backs
stay deep in the team's structure." Considering this, Milan's full-backs,
Ignazio Abate and Luca Antonelli, could be comfortable with his tactical
demands. Both are fast and capable of joining in attacks, though they are also
defensively sound.
Riccardo Saponara has thrived at Empoli since
returning to the club in January 2015, and given the Rossoneri’s Giacomo Bonaventura shares
a number of qualities with his ex-team-mate, including spatial awareness,
nimble footwork and good close control, it is reasonable to suggest he would
relish playing a similar trequartista role.
Meanwhile, up front, M’Baye Niang’s dribbling skills, work
rate, pace and tendency to move into wider areas would seemingly make it
relatively easy for him to also assimilate to Giampaolo’s ideas.
Arguably the most
pertinent point about the Swiss coach’s Milan credentials, however, lies in his
notion of how football should be played.
In April, Berlusconi described his appointment of Brocchi as,
“A choice to prepare for the future, a future in which Milan must return to a
style of play and results worthy of our history,” per Football Italia.
Hiring Giampaolo would in some ways be a risk. He has
never coached at one of Italian football’s major clubs and has a mixed track
record overall. But, as shown in his most recent post with Empoli, he is
capable of ensuring—as well as improved results—attractive, proactive,
attacking football.
That style, more than
anything else, is what makes him stand out as a serious candidate for the role
of Milan head coach.