The Milan head coach is like King Midas: whatever he touches turns to gold, or almost. The Rossoneri still rule the Derby, Champions League qualification now within reach.
Massimiliano Allegri is a winner: his résumé says so, and that’s history. He’s proving it again today with Milan, and that’s a present strongly oriented toward the future.
For the second time, the Rossoneri manager has tied up Chivu and Inter, who are (probably) destined to win the league with several rounds to spare and had been unbeaten precisely since the first Derby of the season.
Last week, with a reel that went viral on our SMIT Instagram page, we played on the idea that Allegri’s Touch—like a new King Midas of football—had helped Sal Da Vinci win the Sanremo Festival. Allegri had in fact said in a press conference that he really liked the song, just a few hours before the final night.
That was a very effective pairing of two episodes on social media (in terms of engagement), but one that was very difficult to prove—unless you appeal to the supernatural. That Allegri Touch was a “game,” if we want to call it that.
A game destined to become something else: today, the day after the Milan Derby, Allegri’s Touch can be presented in different terms, more related to football than to the supernatural.
On social media we’re relaunching it as a format—and it can’t help but work—but in reality the Livorno-born coach’s magic touch was very much there, and it’s a “magic” born of work, intuition, experience, and also a bit of luck… which never hurts.
When Fofana slipped a through ball into space for Estupiñán, the Ecuadorian winger’s unstoppable run (often criticized by pundits and fans) and his powerful, precise finish under the crossbar etched into the collective memory a moment destined to remain in the history of the Milan derby.
The protagonist nobody expected, surprisingly picked in the starting XI by Allegri, struck and sank the Nerazzurri aircraft carrier with a play of such athleticism, technique and power that it prompted comparisons which, just moments earlier, would have sounded irreverent—almost sacrilegious in football terms.
All of it just minutes after Allegri, from the bench, had shown the former prodigal son from South America the right path, shouting at him to attack the space inside the box.
It wasn’t magic—or at least magic alone can’t explain it. Allegri’s “Touch” on Estupiñán was, at the same time, vision, experience, trust, and maybe a hint of recklessness.
Because the Estupiñán we had seen so many times this season could easily have become a problem for Milan in the derby. Instead, he became the solution.
The ugly duckling turned into a magnificent swan, stealing the spotlight for the rest of the match as well, looking like a completely different player from the one we had seen up to that point.
And here comes the social media comparison. Impactful, of course. Built for likes and shares. Unthinkable, deliberately exaggerated, and perhaps still a bit blasphemous in football terms. But surprisingly plausible.
Compared to whom? Well, if you’ve made it this far, the least you can do is see it with your own eyes—maybe drop a like as well, and follow the SMIT profile.
L’articolo Allegri’s Touch proviene da Soccer Made In Italy.
