GdS: How Milan became comeback specialists and the worries it provokes | OneFootball

AC Milan have developed a knack of coming from behind to win games under Sergio Conceicao, and they are hoping for a top four spot as the ultimate comeback.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, in the beginning there was Paulo Fonseca who proclaimed that he wanted a ‘dominant, courageous, attacking team, that doesn’t leave the opponents thinking, with a strong identity’. It was rarely seen, leading to a change in head coach.

Conceiçao’s team are no more dominant and in fact they have been described as playing like a small club, sitting back and waiting for counter-attacking chances rather than trying to impose any kind of style.

The Rossoneri side who at the start of the season wanted to defend by running forward, now accepts – sometimes knowingly, sometimes because of the disastrous approach – to set up camp in their own half, leaving the initiative to the opponents even when the opponents are technically inferior.

This attitude has generated a consequence that the fans were not used to seeing: when Sergio’s Milan wins, they often do so with a comeback. It is a situation that offers two very different points of observation, as well.

Firstly, if you find yourself forced to recover from a deficit, it means that up to that point something hasn’t worked. Above all: comebacks are not an exact science, it cannot be considered a sustainable way to win games Not for a top-tier team with important ambitions.

The number from which these reflections start is of a certain importance: out of the 19 games with Conceiçao on the bench, six have come by turning the game around. In practice, it happens on average once every three games.

In the list we find Como (twice), Parma and Lecce in the league, then Juventus and Inter in a crazy Supercoppa Italiana brought home starting in both games from disadvantageous situations (even a two-goal deficit in the case of the derby).

Why do Milan find themselves chasing so often, after bad starts? The first thing that catches the eye is the approach to matches. The Rossoneri have put together a long list of horrible first halves over the course of the season.

There is an evident awareness of the limits of the game, i.e. that this Milan perhaps does not have a sufficient number of technical players to guarantee the total dominance that Fonseca spoke of, but it cannot be reduced to a counter-attacking team. A situation that transmits insecurity.

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Then there are the individual errors, in some cases the result of fear and in others dictated by the foolish moments of some players. Milan exited a Champions League where they had one foot and a half in the round of 16 also (but not only) due to amnesia of individuals.

Other times the amnesias are collective, or at least of the department. The Rossoneri put themselves in the position of defending badly when they have the ball and attack (the so-called preventives), providing their opponents with six-lane highways.

In short, there is not a single cause that often leads the team to have to fix the result. In the meantime, however, in the last two games the gap from fourth place has dropped from 11 to 6 points. This would also be a comeback, and it would be the most sensational of the season.