AC Milan head coach Massimiliano Allegri could be forced to adapt and try a different formation due to the lack of full-backs.
Milan begin their preseason tour properly on Wednesday with a game against Arsenal in Singapore and, at present, there is a lack of natural full-backs in the squad. Alex Jimenez, Alexis Saelemaekers, Davide Bartesaghi and Filippo Terracciano can play there, but surely will not be first choices.
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One area where the Rossoneri are well covered is at centre-back where they have four options who will all hope to earn a starting spot. Fikayo Tomori and Strahinja Pavlovic started in the intra-squad game against Milan Futuro the other day, while there are also Matteo Gabbia and Malick Thiaw.
Three-man defence?
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Allegri began his second spell at Milan by making it clear that he wishes to proceed with a 4-3-3 formation. As mentioned though, without proper full-backs it will be hard to play a four-man defence.
The piece states that the Italian would be ready to dust off the formation Sergio Conceiçao used in his last few matches, which was the 3-4-3. This is, of course, while waiting for potential reinforcements from the mercato, with Pervis Estupinan seemingly getting closer.
I like the idea of that, especially that Milan doesn’t have fullback, and both Jimenez and Saelemakers can be a better fit for wing-backs rather than fullbacks.
But there is a huge hole in this plan: Milan doesn’t have enough central midfielders. He wants to play with 3 defenders, having only a total of 4? And zero information about Milan inquiring for any additional one.
I think this is just a temporaly solution. It wont be a problem the lack of defensive subs because it will only be like this for a few games
they say 3-4-3, when it is really a 5-2-1-2 , especially under allegri who likes compact defensive shapes…we played this formation once or twice during the second half of last year…did pretty well with it if i remember correctly
With salad and Jimenez it’s our best option.
No way Allegri will play like this. Basically you have no midfield and play with 4 wingers. No serious coach plays like this
Saelemakers was often used as a right wingback in 3-4-2-1 or 3-5-2 with an AS Roma that finished ahead of us, so I guess with a more defensive left wingback this “might” work.
I’m not a big fan of this either, but I guess that a 3-4-2-1 will allow us to focus less on acquiring quantity and more on quality (not like that will happen though).
Well yes but there is a difference between a 343 and a 3421 where a 3421 offers more stability in midfield. When Roma played 3421 they played with Pellegrini in the attacking line who prefers to be central on the pitch and who contributes to defending. Neither Rafa or Puli can play that role. We simply don’t have the players to play with 3 in the back. Maybe 352 with Rafa as second striker could work but I don’t see Allegri trying that
What? Pulisic almost plays at RB sometimes, in our defensive phase. Now he can’t defend in midfield? Sorry but that is nonsense. Pulisic can play AMC and contribute to defending more than Pellegrini. He is better than Pellegrini in both phases, attacking and defending.
Ok I respect your opinion, but confident Allegri will look at things differently. Expect Loftus to start in a 433 with Bartesaghi getting his chance to show his worth and either Alexis or Jimenez on RB. 343 would put Ricci and Fofana vs Zubamendi, Rice and Odegaard and we would never survive this. Is what I think
In 2020/21 when Chelsea won the UCL they sometimes used a 3-4-2-1 and Pulišić played there scoring and assiting against Real Madrid.
Leão is another problem though, I admit that.
It makes sense to use 3-4-3 temporarily, as soon as we complete the team Max will go with 4-3-3.
When we had the personnel to play 3 at the back we barely did and now we don’t have the full backs for a 3/5 at the back and we planning on doing so lol 😂 usual stuff of the club. I guess at a stretch you can say Salad can be a left wing back….a major stretch too
This just looks like another joke of a season building up.
And they expect Champion’s League with this ?
And Modric ?
Too many coaches in here
Milan has 4 center backs and 6 players in the middle and now they will play with three center backs and two midfielders 🤣🤣🤣🤦🤦🤦🤦. The formation is chosen and it’s 4-3-3 and I don’t know why you’re all pretending to be smart. This is not a Sony Playstation
Changing formations as the season goes by (and sometimes even within a single game), as long as you’re actually prepared to execute it well, is a major weapon in nowadays football. Allegri will primarily opt for 4-3-3, but having plan B and plan C would only prove beneficial in the long run. There were some positives in Conceicao’s 3-4-2-1, as we saw a visible progress in defence, but there was also an apparent issue with creativity, because Pulisic and Rafa had different roles and couldn’t perform at their best.