In common vernacular, it is Milan and Inter. The giants of the Italian and European game technically called AC Milan and Internazionale Milan are ubiquitous with football in the 1990s and the revolution that swept Britain in the time of Channel 4 showing Serie A. The respective strips, black and red stripes for Milan and blue and black stripes for Inter were synonymous with football culture at that time.
For the purposes of this feature piece, however, we will concentrate on the fortuned in recent times of just one of these two sides, Milan.
The names run off the tongue, Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit, Marco Van Basten, Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, Roberto Donadoni, Clarence Seedorf, Andrea Pirlo Marcel Desailly, George Weah, Andriy Shevchenko, all fantastic professionals and all key players in a succession of great Milan sides that were dominant both domestically and in Europe.
At the centre of this success though was a culture of high performance that was second to none. There was an expectation of success that was driven by the senior players in the squad with the belief that as Milan players they should be held to a higher standard both on and off the pitch. This culture was self-perpetuating with a core of players within each squad having grown up inside what became known as the Milan way leading the next intake of players into the squad.
Through a succession of great coaches such as Arrigo Sacchi, Fabio Capello and Carlo Ancelotti there was a common theme that ran through the club as a whole.
It is difficult then to pinpoint the time that things began to fall apart for the Rossoneri. A succession of managerial appointments that fell more on the questionable side of the line and some poor recruitment saw the continuity of the culture at the club stumble and eventually break apart.
There are signs now that sections of the club are starting to move in a more positive direction but there can be no doubt that they still have a long way to go in order to effectively challenge Juventus at the top of the Serie A table. Recent changes to the infrastructure at the club have seen two club legends in Leonardo and Paolo Maldini return to the club as sporting director and sporting strategy & development director. These latter moves, in particular, are seen as significant as former captain Maldini had resisted all efforts by the club to appoint him in ambassadorial roles. He always maintained that he disagreed fundamentally with the culture at the club and how the club was run from the top down. These moves were further supported by the appointment of the former Arsenal executive Ivan Gazidis as the CEO of the club.
So, off the pitch matters appear to be improving but what of on the pitch? Since November 2017 former midfield enforcer Gennaro Gattuso has been coach at the club, previously he had worked with the youth team. Just over a year on, however, the jury is still very much out on whether Gattuso has the tactical acumen and ability as a coach to take Milan on to the next level.
In this feature, we will take an in-depth look at the tactical issues facing Milan and Gattuso at the moment before identifying three alternatives that the club may turn to should they decide to make a change.
The tactical issues
This section should perhaps be prefixed by the assertion that Gattuso and Milan have suffered from a lengthy injury list over the first half of this season. With that said, however, even with a fully fit squad there is a definite sense that the club would still struggle tactically under Gattuso.
Whilst the side remains relatively strong defensively despite having conceded 19 goals in 18 Serie A games at the time of writing. The back four is well drilled and compact in the defensive phase, The main issue with the tactical setup this season for Milan comes further up the field in the final third.
The headline transfer deal for Milan in the summer saw them sign the Argentine forward Gonzalo Higuain on a season-long loan with an option to buy from Juventus. This signing was initially heralded as a coup for Milan, considering that Juventus has spent €90M+ to bring the forward to Turin from Napoli. To this point in his Milan career though, we have not seen Higuain provide the goal threat that was expected. In his age 31 season this should not come as a surprise as he has lost what little pace he possessed in the first instance.
Attacking Issues
With Higuain leading the line, keeping the youth product Patrick Cutrone consigned to the bench or the wing, Milan have very little mobility in terms of movement across and around the defensive line. Whilst his pace has regressed we have to concede that Higuain still possesses fantastic movement in the confined spaces of the penalty area. In order for this to be a factor in the attacking phase though, Milan needs to create pockets of space in the final third.
In order to create these spaces, Milan have to stretch the defensive structure of the opposition horizontally, forcing them to spread out across the width of the pitch. In order to do this, we would need to see the wide forwards for Milan play with width in the attacking phase. Instead, the likes of Suso, in particular, look to drift inside into the half spaces or even the central areas of the field. This congests the central areas of the pitch and allows the opposition to play in a compact block that will deny Higuain the space that he needs to be successful.
Having the wid
