Paulo Fonseca’s system in recent weeks has been a mixture between a 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2, but there have been questions asked about the sustainability of the formation due to a lack of proper depth at AC Milan.
Sustainability is a word that every Milan fan will recognise, considering the club have hammered the message home about the importance of keeping the club afloat rather than overspending heavily at a chance of success.
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However, sustainability must be maintained across the pitch as well, and currently, it is not.
Fonseca’s recent usage of his squad has been heavily scrutinised, especially considering he rotates players at the lowest rate of any team in Europe. If injuries occur or fitness issues arise, there are then questions about his system.
The reasoning behind the lack of rotation has been due to a lack of ‘correct’ profiles, and if Youssouf Fofana or Tijjani Reijnders suffered an injury, there would be a visible gap left in the squad. Ultimately, this leads to the question of sustainability.
As Calciomercato.com suggests, there are other fragilities to the system, notably an issue with the pressing from the wide areas, and this means the central midfielders are tasked with a heavier workload, which can create inferiorities across the pitch.
There is a positive to the system – Milan can quickly make numerical advantages easily as a result of their more attacking shape, and this can lead to fluid counter-attacks. However, these do not reap the rewards often.
Ultimately, the report suggests that the system carries more risks than positives, and for this reason, it is suggested that the 4-3-3 would be beneficial.
433 or 343 makes a lot more sense given the players Milan have in the squad. What’s crazy is that Milan coaches including Pioli insist on using a formation that is limiting the players and team cohesion.
At this level I would expect them to have a more clear understanding of the players they have at their disposal and use a formation that fits the players they have instead of insisting on playing a formation that they want which is limiting the potential of their players.
Musah and RLC will not find any space in a 442. Okafor and Jovic are more of a 2nd striker. Too many mismatch players in the squad that don’t fit the desired formation. Either Milan sell players like Musah, RLC, Jovic and Okafor and recruit players like Ricci, Nico Paz, Gimenez and Gyokeres for their 4231 or 442 to work.
When you already mentioning Pioli , he played 433 last season for a long time ,the whole first half of a season
Why will Milan sign Nico paz when they have Liberrali? This management have lot and the perfect replacement in Futoro. Why are they not using this players?
What is Flick doing with Barcelona B that Milan can’t do with Futoro? We just keep pumping money on transfers that will kill the future of our young talent. For Goodness sake use chakra traore on the wings in leao is not consistent. Chaka is still hungry.Liberalli wants to prove himself. Why did we sign Vos?
exactly i think fonseca needs to adapt how to the players style of play and not force his player to play the style he wnts
RLC actually played a lot of his career as a wide midfielder (as did Musah) although injuries have RLC not the same player…Musah’s defense would seem useful in multiple positions. This team needs counterattacks as it unlocks Leao, and whether wide or in the middle, having a ball-winner would give the forwards some chances without a full box. They are missing that aspect from last season…many of their goals came from counters for much of the season…
4-1-4-1 to be precise 2-1-4-1
NoLeftBack,
Pavlovic,
Gabbia,
NoRightBackCauseTheyDidntBuyAnyGood,
DM Fofana,
LM-musah,
AM’s Reinders and Pulisic ,
RM-chukwu,
ST Morata
no sabotage guys theo,leao,tomori,abraham , it’s enough from them
I think 433 will work better this season, especially with Morata.
They reason why it didnt is because our stikers (Giroud & Ibra) did not have the required mobility, understandably due to their age.
Additionally, the wingers were both touchline huggers (Leao and Saele/Chukwu).
That’s why an attacking midfielder was necessary. Everytime they tried 433 there was always a gap between the midfield and forward lines.
An optional 4-4-2 that I would consider is with a box-shaped midfield with Fofana and RLC behind Pulisic and Reijnders, and Leao and Morata/Tammy upfront.
I think it puts both Pulisic and Reijnders in their position, but downside is we don’t have any good backup for the two, and not enough midfielders in general. Also the formation really requires attacking fullbacks, and Emerson is much better at defense.
Still it would beef up our midfield, and also free up Leao from too much tracing back and staying on his line. Another upside is that this formation requires less specific players as compared to our current 4-3-2-1.
Please, how is Emerson better defensively? What are people writing here?
Lol, that’s the one thing you picked up?
Much better at defense than attack. As is not an attacking fullback.
Twin striker is better. Get back to Milan DNA. Stop wasting time with 433, Milan simply doesn’t excel well in this formation. Sell leao RLc musah to get the money to build a stronger team
Poor management,
With Fonseca and these defenders even with 811 we gonna leak goals.
They should change coach who can tactically set up defence and play some local players
You no matter what you want for Milan too bad we don’t have any management with your vision for the club. Until we start fielding our Local Futoro players we will keep spending money to fix some crazy positions
Gabbia, Tomori, Pavlo, Thiaw, Bartesaghi, Calabria and Emerson all fit to play CB.
Cannot understand why is Fonseca so stubborn here when he used 343 with Roma which was the turning point to their abysmal start of the season. 343 or 3421 are two only feasible system for the crop of players at disposal.
I like the 442 system the issue is our midfield.
Even with Fofana we still lack a proper DM who can sit.
Reijnders is not doing enough next to him.
We have no coverage for our defence and not enough link up play for our attack.
It’s also not clear what’s expected of the wingers. People criticise Leao but Pulisic isn’t coming back much either, and most of our problems have been down the right hand side where all our RBs have struggled.
Therefore it’d probably better to play 343 so that the central CB makes up for our lack of central midfield cover, the wider CBs can double up with the exposed FBs, and the wingers are free to do their thing.
Tomori Gabbia Pavlovic
Calabria Fofana Reijnders Theo
Pulisic Morata Leao
with:
Thiaw covering all three CBs
Terraciano covering both FBs
Musah covering both CMs
RLC and Okafor covering across the front 3.
Keep it tight. Keep the rotations limited to the above 16 players bar injuries.
Give it a good go.