Well,let me ask you this.
What did you expect out of Leonardo this year?
They sold their best player in Kaka and basically did nothing to re-inforce the squad, and he has managed to get a decent season out of Ronaldinho.
The average age of that squad is ridiculously high, and he has managed to squeeze everything out of them that he could.
What were the pre-season expectations of this squad. At best, 3rd?? Some prognasticators had them at mid-table, considering what he was left with.
Add in the fact that he works in a pressure cooker in Milan, and it is his first year as a coach.
I think he has done a lot better than what most people expected.
He's young, he's forward thinking, likes to play exciting football, and most importantly to a lot of people here, he is not Italian.
What did you expect out of Leonardo this year?
They sold their best player in Kaka and basically did nothing to re-inforce the squad, and he has managed to get a decent season out of Ronaldinho.
The average age of that squad is ridiculously high, and he has managed to squeeze everything out of them that he could.
What were the pre-season expectations of this squad. At best, 3rd?? Some prognasticators had them at mid-table, considering what he was left with.
Add in the fact that he works in a pressure cooker in Milan, and it is his first year as a coach.
I think he has done a lot better than what most people expected.
He's young, he's forward thinking, likes to play exciting football, and most importantly to a lot of people here, he is not Italian.
It's especially hard for a non-Milan fan and not a football expert to answer your questions. The Milan fans, who follow their team every week, can tell us more about Leonardo's tactical awareness, how he reads the game, how he makes the subs and how able he is to change the tactics during matches. But fans are often wrong and they can't see the things an expert eye sees, so we shouldn't take the words of the Milan fans for granted. They don't know how he conducts the preparations, his man management skills etc.
What I believe strongly, and not many will disagree, is that Ronaldinho is the main reason for Milan's (lets call it..) successful season. Now, the question is how much Leonardo has to do with Ronaldinho's "rinascimento" and how much the fact that Kaka left and the potential of playing at the WC has to do with it.
Leonardo is still an unknown for me. He's charismatic, he's passionate and he looks like someone his players love. Those are positives, for sure. But his inexperience and the relatively short time to judge him as a coach, leaves space for skepticism.
