GILA Monster Shakes the Monkey Off His Back

Gila monster shakes the monkey off his back

Alberto Gilardino finally broke his goal-scoring duck this weekend, but some of his critics are yet to be convinced.

By: Paolo Bandini

Typical - you wait 171 days for a goal, and then two come along at once. To be fair they do say that an adult Gila monster can go a whole winter without eating, but after a five-and-a-half month goal famine in Serie A, Milan's Alberto was beginning to look decidedly worse for wear. When he finally broke his duck yesterday, threading the ball through Fernando Muslera's legs for the fourth goal in Milan's 5-1 rout of Lazio (he would add the fifth nine minutes later), Gilardino scarcely managed to hold back the tears as he was mobbed by his team-mates.

"There's been a summer in between," he protested when he was reminded of his lengthy drought after the game. "I can't exactly score when I'm not playing!" His demeanour betrayed him - the trademark haunted eyes and perma-frown giving way to the relieved look of a man who has cast not so much a monkey as Donkey Kong's obese chain-smoking uncle off his back - but the point was not without foundation. A more generous pundit might point out that Gilardino had actually only gone eleven games without a goal, if you include his Champions League strike against Manchester United on May 2, rather than simply his league goals as many chose to, and that in six of those matches he was on the pitch for 25 minutes or less. He played the full 90 minutes just twice.

Sadly constant criticism is a state of play Gilardino has had to become accustomed to since joining the Rossoneri. Having cost Milan €24m when he joined from Parma in July 2005, and having arrived on the back of consecutive 23-goal seasons, expectations were immediately placed somewhere between optimistic and totally unreasonable. A first-season haul of 17 league goals in 31 games - above the traditional strikers' benchmark of a goal in every other game - was greeted as a barely acceptable first effort. Last year's 12 in 30, meanwhile, were practically enough to get him hounded out of town.

Over the summer a significant section of fans campaigned for him to be sold, or even traded for Internazionale's out-of-sorts Adriano. When he returned this season one particular section of Ultras - "on strike" over various grievances with the club - heckled him and Dida mercilessly. Although said Ultras broke their strike last month, generously raising a banner saying: "Dida and Gila: We Forgive You", the grumbles have continued. Many Rossoneri fans have been counting down the days until ineligible Alexandre Pato, and injured Ronaldo become available, and Gilardino can be dropped.

Of course, the criticism is not entirely unjustified. This is a Milan team founded on Champions League success above all else, and it is here that Gila's record is flimsiest - having struck just twice in 21 matches. Furthermore, there is a growing sense that the striker is what American sporting terminology might dub a "tweener" - a player with undisputed talent, but one lacking the ideal skillset to fit any specific position. Despite being 6'1 and a decent header of the ball, Gilardino lacks the strength to be a target man; despite decent pace, good instincts and sometimes exceptional finishing, he lacks the wits and ruthlessness of a pure poacher.

There are those too who would contend, with justification, that Milan's move away from 4-4-2 towards 4-4-1-1 has hurt him, but for all the technical analysis, the concern lingers that Gilardino's greatest weakness might come down to mental frailty and an inability to deal with the fans' expectation. Even dating back to his time with Parma his starts to seasons have always been slow - last year he didn't open his account until October 28 - and it is worth noting that his first five goals for Milan all came away from home.

Less obviously relevant, yet in some ways equally revealing were his actions during the "Vallettopoli" (showgirl-gate) scandal last year. Photo agency owner Fabrizio Corona had been earning a tidy income by effectively setting up celebrities and sportsmen, introducing them to attractive young ladies on their nights out and then promptly taking incriminating shots.

Because they were "his friends", Corona would then offer to sell the photos exclusively back to said celebrities, hence keeping them out of the magazines.

Gilardino himself was soon snapped in one such (by-all-accounts rather innocuous) photo and promptly bought it back, yet when the police cottoned on to the scam he remained loyal to Corona, informing him of the police's investigation after he had been questioned. Corona was still jailed, yet the meekness of Gilardino seems staggering. Whether he feared Corona or was simply remaining loyal to a "friend" who had blackmailed him, his actions seemed out of step with the selfishness and "arsehole" qualities great strikers are traditionally required to possess.

Nevertheless, for now Gilardino, and indeed Milan, pick up a much needed boost, claiming only their second win of the season and in doing so avoiding their worst start to a campaign under Silvio Berlusconi ownership. It was a composed performance - Milan shrugging off both referee Emidio Morganti's baffling decision to wave away a penalty his assistant had rightly signalled for just minutes in, and Stefano Mauri's 23rd-minute equaliser - to systematically take apart Delio Rossi's side. Even Dida, not at fault for the goal, put in a solid performance, making five saves on his first game since the farce at Celtic.

Then again, they'll need many more similar performances to catch Inter, who moved three points clear after dismissing Napoli with far more ease than the margin of victory might suggest. The scudetto, of course, is a long way from decided but the Nerazzurri's attacking depth is ominous.

Source: The Guardian