It was announced on Friday that AC Milan have hired Massimiliano Allegri as their new head coach, and now planning can fully begin for a big summer.
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Allegri was in charge at Milan from 2010 to 2014, winning a Scudetto and the Supercoppa Italiana in his first two seasons and ending Inter’s run of dominance. His time ended after a 4-3 defeat to Sassuolo in the 2013-14 season, with Domenico Berardi getting all four goals.
Now he is back at the club 11 years later, and it was thanks to the quick work of Igli Tare, Giorgio Furlani and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. They were able to overcome competition from Napoli with a strong pitch to Allegri.
How Allegri’s Milan could look
With the official announcement having only arrived a few hours ago, we can obviously only talk about initial hypotheses of how the team might line up.
In between there will be the summer window and experiments on the field, but as of today there are two possible solutions that Allegri will adopt in his second experience at Milan.
The season just archived ended with Sergio Conceiçao’s three-man defence, but the former Juventus coach should start again with the four-man defence, according to Sky.
The first option includes a 4-3-3, with a central defensive pairing composed of Gabbia and Tomori, while Loftus-Cheek returns in the role of mezzala. At the centre of the attack there will be Gimenez, with Pulisic and Leao on the sides.
The second idea is a 4-2-3-1. Still a four-man defence, therefore, but with Pavlovic as a centre-back for a more physical midfield with the inclusion of Musah alongside Fofana.
The leader of the attack would still be Gimenez, supported by the trident with Rejinders as attacking midfielder, given the 15 goals with which he closed the season.
Of course, these are only ideas with the current group of players. The loss of Tijjani Reijndes, for example, would force Allegri to rethink his plans.