Given AC Milan's success against the top teams in Serie A so far this season, a trip to Lazio was seen as an opportunity for Filippo "Pippo" Inzaghi's to quiet recent criticism. Instead, the club capitulated in the second half and succumbed to a 3-1 loss at the Stadio Olimpico.
It was a familiar story on Saturday night as Jeremy Menez scored early on the counter before Milan crawled back into their shell and unsuccessfully attempted to protect their lead. While Lazio deserve credit for their attitude and approach throughout the game, it was matched by yet another bitterly disappointing performance from Milan.
The Rossoneri lacked any attacking threat for the most part, and their defensive display was a shambles at time with Philippe Mexes encapsulating that prior to his moment of madness.
The Frenchman is astonishingly still one of the top earners at the club despite being inept as a player and having a temperament that has been a liability for years. Both were on display in the capital on Saturday as after a poor performance, the 32-year-old was sent off and proceeded to prove that he is indeed a disgrace to the club.
At a time when Milan are already struggling, Mexes' fight with Stefano Mauri will be seen across the world and will only further damage the club's image. Ultimately, this is the fault of both the hierarchy and Inzaghi for continuing to have faith in him.
Inzaghi's changes in both personnel and set-up proved to be unsuccessful, with Riccardo Montolivo producing a disappointing performance despite being restored to his favoured role as the defensive midfielder in front of the defence.
The midfield looked average at best, the forwards failed to involve themselves in the game enough and goalkeeper Diego Lopez prevented what could have potentially been an even more disastrous result.
Nevertheless, as discussed in mid-week, Inzaghi doesn't deserve the blame for the latest mess that Milan have become. The club's management, owner Silvio Berlusconi and CEO Adriano Galliani, have gambled twice on rookie coaches (with other being Inzaghi's predecessor Clarence Seedorf) to sort their mess out and on both occasions it has been doomed to fail.
This squad lacks the mental strength, talent and cohesiveness to be considered a top three side in Italy -- the finish needed to get back into the Champions League. As explained previously, nothing will change unless drastic moves are made starting from the top and ending with this squad.
With a Coppa Italia clash against the same opponents next week, Lazio's manager Stefano Pioli and his men will be relishing their trip to San Siro as he admitted that his half-time talk "was easy." The coach added that he didn't need to tell the players anything given that they knew the game was there for the taking.
Despite Mexes' apology, speculation was rife after the game that Inzaghi's time as Milan coach was coming to an end. If he doesn't survive this crisis, Berlusconi and Galliani are as much to blame as with the players on the pitch on Saturday night. It is becoming a sad story for Milan which just continues to repeat itself.