On Matchday 2, Massimiliano Allegri is already thinking of making changes to his AC Milan set-up, including a new formation.
The 3-5-2 trialled against Cremonese did not work, Milan looked disjointed, and lost poorly. However, this is not the only idea that has been trialled in pre-season. As well as his favoured three-at-the-back, Allegri also tried a 4-3-3.
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Despite this, it seems the Italian will not use either formation for this weekend’s game against Lecce, at least not traditionally.
New ideas
According to this morning’s edition of Corriere dello Sport (via Milan Posts), the Rossoneri will be set up in a 4-2-3-1 system, which has been practised at Milanello through the week.
In this idea, Pervis Esupinan, Strahinja Pavlovic and Matteo Gabbia would line up, as well as one of Fikayo Tomori or Koni De Winter; it has previously been suggested that the Englishman could play in this role, and he did in pre-season.
Ahead of them, Ardon Jashari could get his debut, partnering Youssouf Fofana in the midfield pivot, whilst Luka Modric would be deployed in an advanced role.
Alexis Saelemaekers would then play on the right, whilst Christian Pulisic should start on the left with Rafael Leao still out. Confusingly, despite him being linked with an exit, Santiago Gimenez could then lead the line.
This or the 4 3 3 makes the most sense with nkunku incoming. But Ricci needs to start in that double pivot.
Ricci on the bench again?
Well seeing as Jashari just got injured maybe Ricci will get his chance now. It’s up to him to prove himself.
Next week it will be the 4-4-2. After that the 4-3-3. Then, back to the 3-5-2. Pioli, Fonseca and Conceicao say hello.
No Ricci again. Surprise, surprise.
As I said before, Ricci was not Allegri signing. He was signed by management only to get the media of their backs about tge lack of Italian players in the team.
Allegri wanted Xhaka and is not a fan of Ricci.
“Reports: Ricci operation on pause as Allegri and Tare express doubts the latest
Oliver Fisher
3 months ago
Doubts over Ricci
According to what MilanNews journalist Antonio Vitiello is reporting, however, there are now doubts about Ricci. He states in his video that the operation is on stand-by and there is a high probability that the deal collapses.
Milan were very close to reaching an agreement with Torino in the last few days, but Massimiliano Allegri is not convinced he is the right profile tactically for the midfield that he wants to build.”
Then why use him all preseason? And he was one of the consistently well performing players. Why sideline him now. I guess he will start tomorrow as in the conference Allegri said Jashari is knocked out.
Because it took a long time for Jashari deal to be done, Modric was with Real Madrid at the club world cup, while Fofana was out of shape or dealing with injury.
He had no choice but to use the very few avaliable midfielders he had at his disposal.
And as you said, he might be forced to start him because Jashari got injured.
Everybody knew that wise guy.
Ricci was planned since February.
He is a great player, and Allegri was a terrible choice for manager.
Allegri is doing his best to sabotage us with RLC and Fofana
Asking also for dinosaurs like Rabiot and asking for Vlahovic so we can line up Juve’s pockets.
Ricci a great player?
The standards for who’s considered great nowadays are very, very, very low if Ricci is considered a great player.
He is a great player, much better than trash like Loftus and Fofana
Any normal coach coaching Milan would play Modric-Ricci-Jashari midfield except for this pathetic dinosaur Allegri with this love for pathetic workhorse players
Being a better player??? than Fofana and RLC doesn’t by default makes him a great player.
100%
Lmao, yes RLC, Fofana and Musah all showed a lot more than Ricci in preseason. A load of c*ap boasted because you don’t like Italians. And your hate for italians is you being an offended little twat because 80% of AC Milan community are against this American ownership. Why do you even follow AC Milan?
You are mentally ill
Fofana, RLC and Musah were dogsh*t
I bet you got fooled by their goals
Ricci is a DM, he’s not there to score goals but to keep the team ticking and help the defense
You tard should learn to read sarcasm. It’s as obvious as I can make it lmao.
My good friend teddy bear continue to respond with emotions instead of using his brain.
Ii posted a report where it says that Allegri doesn’t see Ricci as a fit for his style of football. Its Allegri that doesn’t use Ricci, not me.
Its the American ownership that signed Ricci, not the Italian coach Allegri.
And as I recall, just like me, you wanted Rovella, not Ricci.
But, you are known to flip flop based on what fits you to complain on a certain day.
Milan is the most popular Italian club around the world, not in Italy.
I don’t have to rate today’s bum generation of Italian players to be a Milan fan.
Try for once to stay on subject instead of being all over the place like your emotions.
Do you still rate Bennacer higher than Reijnders?
I bet the response will have to do something with ownership.
I like Italians, I just think the the current crop of Italian players is dog sh!t, with few exceptions (Gigio, Bastoni, Barella). The proof is in the fact that Italy has missed the world cup in back to back editions.
Facts get you emotional.
Using Reijnders to make a point when he’s the only player out of the 167 redbird recruits in three years to actually succeed 🤣 And he was sold at the very first opportunity of capital gain. But you can’t enjoy Milan DNA and this management at the same time, it’s one or the other yeah. Traditions, bandiere and San Siro with ultras singing versus Offwhite jackets and rainbow colored jerseys.
Even Rejndiers was a failiure until they saw that he plays good as an AM in his national team scoring goals, and not as a DM as what they played him in Milan originally. They literally got one right by chance.
Apparently Pulisic, who led the team in goals and assists last season and has been top 3 in Serie A since he arrived as well as being our most consistent player has not been a success in Bart’s mind. I wonder why that is?? Any guesses? Ted and Bart always competing for the most ridiculous comment.
So it was not you sh*tting on Ricci every other post this preseason? A player who’s capable of passing only backwards? Ok, I’m delusional. Rovella is a DM which we chronically lack for the past two seasons so it’s only natural I wanted one. If he’s Italian, even better. Ricci is another profile much needed in this team and it was evident from the preseason. You know, the one where he only passed backwards. Don’t let the reports of his good performances and statistics fool you. Reijnders as much as he scored, he was one of the weakest midfielders I’ve seen, nowhere to be found in defensive play. So yes in terms of being a midfielder I rate Bennacer higher. In fact wasn’t Bennacer a 50 million player not long ago? You know when he won Scudetto? Right, you ungrateful lot don’t care about that anymore. And today’s bum generation of Italians, well I see them do much much better in their respective clubs. In fact most of them will play CL coming season. But hey we’re global and diverse and sell 30 different shirts and keyrings for 150 euros while pounding our chest on summer plusvalenza and be stuck in midtable.
Oh absolutely I don’t think that Ricci is a good player.
You see Teddy 🧸, unlike you, I stand behind what I say. I don’t flip flop.
Ricci can only pass sideways and backward. Thats why I wanted Rovella who is also Italian BTW.
And , as i prove with what I post that got you triggered, Allegri didn’t want him either, and its Allegri that keeps him on the bench for Fofana, RLC and Modric, not me.
I Don’t put much stock in pre season so you shouldn’t let pre season statistics and good reviews fool you. They didn’t fool Allegri.
When it comes to Reijnders and your flip flopping, as I told you before, you spent 2 seasons sh!tting on him and you did it agaim here “Reijnders as much as he scored, he was one of the weakest midfielders I’ve seen, nowhere to be found in defensive play.”. But, when Reijnders got sold for 70 mil, bonuses included, you said that stupid Milan sold him for cheap.
How is one of the worst midfielders you have seen getting sold cheap for 70 mil? Oh thats because, according to you, Milan should get more money from sales because they are 7 time UCL champs. 😂😂😂
Did anyone offer 50 mil for Bennacer or you think that he was worth 50 mil because Milan inserted 50 mil release clause in his contract that no one ever thought of activating? 😂😂😂
Bennacer was a back up during the scudetto season. He played the same amount of minutes as Rade Krunic. Fact check me.
I don’t see emotional dudes like you getting triggered when Krunic gets sh!t on here.
You see i rate Krunic higher than Bennacer. Pioli did too. Thats why during the final stretch of the scudetto season when Pioli decided to play 3 midfielders, he used Kessie, Tonali and Krunic, not bum ass Bennacer. Fact check me.
The following season Milan defense improved when Pioli removed bum ass Bennacer from the double pivot and inserted Krunic next to Tonali. Milan knocked out Tottenham in UCL without Bennacer. Fact check me, spare me your emotions.
Reijnders might not have been good defensively, but he was awesome offensively. Bennacer was trash both defensively and offensively thats why he is currently a serie D player, unlike Reijnders who plays for ManCity.
Couldn’t care less about shirts.
Either you are a good player or you are not. I don’t care where they come from. The current generation of Italian players are terrible. I don’t know why the truth triggers people.
@Z you talk about emotions too much. That’s lame justification of your emotional spill of words here. I see you have time, so take some more and go back to check my comments about Ricci. I believe you should find them around January. I was always fond of him coming to Milan. But as usual you like to twist your words and lie. That’s that about flip floping. Also, since you like to waste your time here talking nonsense, twist and lie. Go back and see where I was vocal about Reijnders being sold for cheap. What I was vocal about is, we will never be able to build something on a long term when they’re selling players after a season in Milan. Fact check me.
You see you lose your energy lying and twisting your words about me and my comments. Weak and narcissistic. That’s why you and this ownership are a perfect fit.
Ted’s level of stupidity knows no bounds. Apparently our Italian coach is now anti-Italian as well for not starting Ricci.
Accuses anyone who questions our incredibly mediocre Italian players like Gabbia and Ricci of being anti-Italian and then in the same breath shows his clearly anti-American bias.
Oh look blog’s biggest coward who changes his name because of all the bs he was spilling here. One thing – statistics. They show Gabbia and Ricci are far from mediocre. But keep up with your nonsense. You’ll soon be changing your name again.
What statistics would those be Ted? Says the word statistics and then shows none. Brilliant stuff . Oh no, Ted found me out… What gave it away, the k? Sherlock Holmes over here.
@Mk, it’s evident for everyone to see what kind of a dysfunctional person you are but I won’t do homework for you. Google it. Or maybe just try and read an article on this site every now and then.
The k? No, the usual nonsense spilling and weak character triggered when someone talks bad about your surrogate father Gerry and his clowns.
Right, so in other words you can’t backup your claim. Don’t bring up statistics as your defense if you don’t actually have any.
If you had brain Ted you would be dangerous. Instead you are just kind of amusing. It’s kind of like getting a look inside the mind of a modern day Neanderthal.
@Mk, so don’t start spilling your usual nonsense bs when you don’t bother to look up the data and have an actual discussion. Stop making a f00l out of yourself and change your name again already.
Ricci looked great all preseason. not sure what the fuss is about or why Allegri didn’t field him against Crematorium …
Clearly Allegri must be anti-Italian. According to Ted’s logic anyways.
@Z’s little cuck is triggered. Rent free baby.
He should have had a formation in mind before signing and the market should have been built around that. Ricci and Modric are great signings but then the market turned chaotic. Too many sales with no guaranteed replacements and seemingly no system of play in mind. We created unnecessary gaps in defense, not to mention the delay in signing a striker. Abraham, Morata, Jovi, Okafor, Camarda all gone and no one has come in. Figuring things out this late instead of sticking to a clear plan from the start is going to cost us. Everything the team worked on in preseason is out the window now. We’re wasting the extra time and advantage we have of playing once a week.
Jashari is injured
Why does this site always seem to be behind on news?
The article is obvious nonsense. Allegri said Jashari is out, got injured. So he isn’t playing. Maybe that was the plan, but 100% not anymore.
This is a system that makes more sense. Please keep Fofana as far away from goal as possible!
Fofana should be on the bench
Now, that’s almost far enough!!!!!
With zero right back on the team. Wonderful.
We signed Athekame but Allegri is a mentally ill @sshole who won’t even give him a chance
He just made the club waste money
Spoiled c*nt
I know a Neufchâtel fan. He said that Bâle fans were shocked that Athekame was recruited for a hefty 10M. He was playing at the regional level not long ago. He wasn’t a key player for Bâle. Don’t believe the hype, this guy is a huge, huge gamble and shouldn’t start for a team like Milan.
I don’t have any hype. But I want to see him play and judge for myself.
And the ones I am pissed off about is Jashari, Ricci getting benched.
De Winter also from all I heard is a solid CB but Allegri not even considering him even though we spent a lot of money on him. De Winter cannot be worse than Tomori for example.
I don’t have any hype. But I want to see him play and judge for myself.
And the ones I am p*ssed off about is Jashari, Ricci getting benched.
De Winter also from all I heard is a solid CB but Allegri not even considering him even though we spent a lot of money on him. De Winter cannot be worse than Tomori for example.
Brother you need take a breath and relax, we just played one game, it’s a long season and its normal to take some time with young and new players. We all know the fans gonna throw them under the buss if they come on and make mistakes.
Why do we even change coaches when they always come back to 4-2-3-1? It’s a proven fact that system only works for our star player (Leao) and to a lesser extent Pulisic who prefersr the semi-winger/semi-No.10 position. The midfield and the defence, however, are completely exposed and unable to form a compact structure. Besides, we have no alternative wingers, so it makes to sense to rely on 4-2-3-1 with Okafor sold and Samu on the way out. Allegri may have tried different tactical approaches in training, but I’m very doubtful he will repeat the same mistakes as Fonseca and Sergio. The latter realized his mistake later on in the season and partially fixed the defensive issues by fielding a more balanced 3-4-2-1, but it was already too late for heroic by that point.
No, for Leao a 2 striker formation is best as proven this entire pre-season
Leao is limited as winger, and as a lone striker will be isolated
Best formation for us is 4-3-1-2
Athe-DeWi-Gabbia-Estu
Modric-Ricci-Jashari
Pulisic
Leao-Nkunku/Gimenez
I agree with all those comments but I think people are blowing things out of proportion. It is normal for managers to keep testing formations and combinations for the first few games (5 – 8 games after pre-season). Let me make clear that I am not pro Allegri and was against his re-appointment but now he is here and there is not much to be done. What is most concerning to me is the way he uses players within the formation. Fofana and RLC was never gonna work. Fofana is not and never will be a box-to-box midfielder. It seems that he is using the players that have played through pre-season. I am sure though that with time, we will see Ricci, Jashari etc. Lets give the guy some time to work and figure out his sh*& and the results will show by game 10 onwards. Whether good or bad – we dont know – but lets hope for the best.
You only think this is normal because you’ve gotten used to mediocrity
You should figure this stuff out on pre-season
Fact is that Allegri tried to push his 3-5-2 bullsh*t onto Milan and management rightly refused to build a dinosaur team for him
They got him technical midfielders like Jashari, Modric and Ricci and this guy plays with trash like Fofana and Loftus and keeps begging for Rabiot
This @sshole even keeps claiming that Jashari is a regista when he is not a regista he is very much a combative b2b mid
I get what you are saying and I totally agree with the formation issue and RLC and Fofana. In fact RLC should have been sold this transfer market in my humble opinion. But you only are able to prepare a team during pre-season when you have a full team at hand and the blame also goes to the management for not completing deals quickly (like Napoli did with the majority of their transfers). Allegri did not have that and at the same time many coaches struggle at the beginning of the season trying to find the correct recipe. The formation vs Cremonese was ridiculous I agree but all we can do is trust that he will eventually find his starting 11. There are many examples of coaches who experimented with formations at the beginning of their season – Conte in Chelsea tried 4-14-1 before switching to 3-4-3. Pep with city. Ancelotti with Milan in the early 2000s before he chose the 4-3-1-2 formation, Klopp with liverpool and the list goes on. Yes ideally, he should have figured his SH&(* out earlier but sometimes you need competitive games to do so with a full team.
LMAO 🤣🤣🤣 good lord I’m running out of popcorn 🍿🍿🍿🍿
Sometimes i get baffled at the comments some of us make. Its just the 1st match of the season and you guys expect new signings to start? its natural to start with the old guard and gradually bring in the new guys as the old guard underperforms, that way, it is fair enough even in the eyes of the players.
2ndly, when dealing with a stubborn management like ours, a coach can deliberately get a bad result to force their hands to give him what he wants before the transfer window closes. Had we not lost to Cremonense, we wouldnt be talking about another CB now and we will still be waiting for Harder because in managements eyes, we are set for the season already. that 1st loss is what has forced them to move in the transfer market again before it closes
True, but it was so bad and to my eyes there were significant tactical issues. Allegri does not risk the team playing wide which is what you need to do against teams packing it in. The outside mids/defenders were wide but 30 yards up the field with no overlapping runners.
It’s like we don’t learn our lesson.
Just like 2 years ago, bought a bunch of players with zero planning and not functional to the system. Don’t get me wrong, yes Puli and Reinjders HAPPEN to turn out to be good signings on an individual basis.. eventually. And that’s two of out 20 and counting.
Same this year….352? Ok….that’s a wingback-heavy formation….where are the subs for our wingbacks? Why then sell one of the best wingbacks to pick up a more defensive full back in Estupinan? (PS I wouldn’t have mind having both … sometimes you need to be more defensive as needed). Also, in this formation you take away both Puli and Leao’s best attributes. So really that formation is a bust, based on current personnel.
343…same as above 352 for the wingback problem but it MIGHT help out Leao and Puli. Also, with that formation you only need 2 midfielders likely more defensive and we have a bunch of mid midfielders. Complete waste of players in the middle. Plus no real target striker. But that’s what you get when you don’t plan properly.
433? Where’s our DM and the sub for him? Ricci is a mezzala/central midfielder, he played that way in Turin. He just happened to be aggressive in the tackle so people think he’s a DM. But a true DM he’s not. However while this formation does help out Leao and Puli, we don’t have the target striker for the formation as Giminez, another poor panic purchase in the winter with no planning or future thought, is a poacher.
4231? Back to the old stuff….helps out immensely Puli and Leao, but once more we have no CAM. Ok, maybe Nkunku but his injury record is sus. MUne Modric can play there but he’s not a pure cam and he’ll definitely need a sub. Plus we have no real double pivot players. I dont think any of our mids can even play there maybe bar Modric (?!?).and Ricci …maybe 🤷♂️. It’s why we moved away from that formation in the first place into a formation (433) where we didn’t get the right players.
History is doomed to repeat itself and here we are. One game into the season and we Giampaoloed it already. Never had the right personnel for what Allegri wanted to play and now we’re pivoting, pardon the pun, to something else where we also don’t have the personnel. And I watched ppl here comment like let Tare (who we’ll no doubt have to cut some slack only because he’s new) cook. Two steps forward, one step back. At least we have a sporting director now, right?
Allegri is just weird.
It has always been 433 or 4231.
Why would you play leao or pulisic as a striker with 352.
If you wanted to play 352 from the very moment you were appointed as a coach might as well sell leao and pulisic, 2 out of 3 best players from last season.
And his obsession on vlahovic reminds me of matri.
I never like allegri, not even when he won the scudetto with us.
Who knows he may not even make it to christmas.
Allegri was a relevant manager 10 years ago. He is now a dinosaur.
Yaaaa… it wasn’t the formation that cuase d the problems max. It was the brain dead choices in the lineup. Modric was probably about ready to pull a Kurt Cobain after playing next to rlc and fofana that long
Yes the 4-2-3-1 is the best formation for Acmilan all we need is that Modric our 10 should be active three points is sure for real.
if anyone thinks Allegri would ever field Leao, Nkunku & Pulisic as well as a striker, I don’t know what to tell you
Ricci had a fairly good pre-season. I’m sure he will get plenty of minutes this season. Everyone here gets so hysterical. Allegri will find the right combination. He needs to do it fast though.