Progress: the process of improving or developing something over a period of time
I hate starting posts with a definition but this one seems applicable. I keep reading and hearing about this mystical progress, but frankly it is as invisible as Montolivo's match was yesterday. I understand the need for what happened yesterday, all your eggs in the CL basket coupled with the painful crippling fear of qualifying for the Europa League; but frankly I don't think that is the correct answer. For all the talk of progress, I don't see it anywhere, and what Milan did yesterday was the polar opposite.
There will be plenty of conversation surrounding the mission impossible to Madrid midweek later, but this idea of putting the team in place to loss to avoid Europa League seems a bit puzzling. It is probably merely speculation and frankly the team that was put on the pitch yesterday showed little idea of how to defend, pass, or let alone win. But for a team needing to build and grow, a trip to the minors of European Football is the perfect wake up call. Instead Milan continue on with this sense of entitlement and this silly notion that the ideal of "This is Milan" actually carries weight anymore.
Yesterday was not Milan, it was far from it. There was not even a shred of what Milan prides itself on, and the more I think about it the more concerned I get it about not really knowing what Milan's identity is anymore anyway! I could pick on the Urby's inability to defend, Monto's inability to start counters, the attacks complete and utter disappearance but that was all clear for all to see. Worse was the substitutions, they seemed aimless and with little direction. Those pining for Balotelli as a LAM/Winger saw firsthand that Balotelli's depth does not exceed beyond the work of striker, and his flashes of brilliance are only that.
No need to beat a dead horse here, the 90 minutes speak painfully for themselves, and Udinese has never been an easy opponent, but this was not a well thought out match. The knock was that Milan couldn't beat the big boys and were flat track bullies, seems even that now is a thing of the past. This sour mood can quickly be forgotten with an epic win in Ateltico but the last two weeks have left me with little hope.