Twelfth match without defeat between Championship, Italian Cup and Europa League, 6 wins and 1 draw in the last seven league games and fifth match in a row with clean sheet.
These are just a few statistics from Milan of Gattuso, a team that is only now beginning to show what CEO Marco Fassone and DS Massimiliano Mirabelli had built in the summer. A team that, in August, was seriously a candidate to fight for the championship after the pharaonic summer campaign, but the initial enthusiasm was immediately interrupted by disappointing performances and clumsy defeats, which have relegated AC Milan to the right side of the standings .
All this until the end of November, when it was identified in Montella the first responsible for the bad results. What he left was in everyone's eyes: team with poor physical fitness, few game ideas, new purchases that were struggling to be in the field.
Inheritance which was collected by Gattuso, one who was born and formed in AC Milan. Arrived on tiptoe, he too did not believe, in the first few days, what he saw. He also knew from the beginning that it would take time to find both physical condition and some games ideas.
Yesterday's victory at the Olimpico against Rome is the symbol that hard work always repays. Gattuso has brought enthusiasm, has changed the attitude of the various Bonucci and co., but above all has improved (and from time to time) the physical condition. The team seen yesterday ran more than double the opponents, and fought on every ball, even after 0-2!
Reasonable dribble, short team, external attackers who sacrifice themselves in both phases and many verticalizations, this is the Milan of Gattuso (or 'Gattusismo'). Milan gives the idea of being finally a big team, and the victories against Sampdoria, Lazio and Rome, make hope for a resounding comeback for the 4th place, the last profit to enter the Champions League and which Milan is missing from 4 years, an eternity. But do not tell him to Gattuso, one who would not sign the renewal of contract right now, for superstition. The season starts towards the most important phase, the final one, but in the meantime Milan enjoys the excellent moment and the right man at the right time, and as we say in these cases, the best has yet to come.
Source images: https://www.acmilan.com/it