AC Milan fans may already know how the team is going to line up with Paulo Fonseca at the helm thanks to a big hint from Zlatan Ibrahimovic on social media.
As highlighted by Calciomercato.com, the Swedish executive shared an image of himself sat on the bench at San Siro at the weekend and simply captioned it ‘4-3-3’, which many fans think was a hint to how the team will now play with a new coach.
Stefano Pioli has vacated the role and Fonseca is very close to being announced, with the call expected to come once Milan have completed their friendly in Australia against AS Roma.
Ibrahimovic is now the closest advisor within Milan to owner Gerry Cardinale and he does hold sway over things like the style of football and formation that a new coach will use.
With so many names being linked with the club, it is easy to see how a 4-3-3 formation will allow Milan to take a step forward in terms of competitiveness and start conceding less goals.
One of the focuses is on a defensive midfielder who can offer the defence some more protection, and that works better in a 4-3-3 than a 4-2-3-1. Youssouf Fofana from Monaco is heavily linked with that role.
A right-back is needed, with Emerson Royal and Tiago Santos linked. At least one new centre-back could arrive, with Lillian Brassier and Maxence Lacroix potential signings, and one of Joshua Zirkzee and Benjamin Sesko is expected to join in attack.
We only love to talk we don’t make moves finally bfre the window closes we will buy alternatives
Did you miss last season? We got all of our targets.
What targets are you referring to? Jovic and Romero who were on the verge of unemployment? Or Pulisic and Loftus-Cheek that Chelsea was happy to get rid of? Or Reijnders the midfielder who can’t defend, can’t score and can’t pass? Or Musah and Chukwueze that their respective clubs were happy to sell because they needed money? The management had no competition to sign any of these guys. Hopefully we’ll have a very different summer.
Wrong. Hopefully we will have as good a summer as we had last year. Almost all of the signings have contributed a good deal to the team. Pulisic was a Great signing. RLC produced. Reijnders was good and probably played more minutes than anyone. Jovic and Okafor made big contributions off the bench. Musah played a lot of minutes, and even Chuku came on towards the end of the season. A successful mercato by any measure. If we do as well again we will be looking good. But please don’t let that stop you from spewing all the negativity around.
Pulisic was a great signing I agree and he sold many jerseys as well but where was he in big games? No team was trying tu lure him anyway. Loftus-Cheek was average. Reijnders won a starting spot over Pobega, Adli and injured Bennacer. He even lost his spot to Adli at some point. Jovic contributed after four months of trying to get fit, which forced Pioli to rely on 37 yo Giroud every three days until January. Same for Chukwueze who needed six months to finally have some impact. I forgot Okafor, he played barely, as well as Musah. All these guys are good against inferior teams. All these guys would be buried in the depth chart at any European top club. Also I forgot Pellegrino who lost his starting spot at Salernitana where he was loaned.
We don’t have the same measure because we don’t have the same expectations I think. Such a successful mercato that the season was rated 5.5 out of 10 yesterday by professional media. This is Milan. You can root for Fiorentina, they are the most profitable team in Serie A.
Glass half empty VS glass half full. Because we didn’t bring in the likes of Modric, Gravenberg, etc last summer, our mercato was a failure… ?
I actually like all the players we brought in. I expect more quality out of them this coming season, especially out of Reijnders and RLC. Musah will need more time to develop given his age.
Of course there have been flops too, like Origi, B Toure, Lazetic, etc. But I am looking forward to the additions this summer.
Successful mercato by any measure??? LOL hardly
Chukuweze sucked for 8 months. One month of good play doesn’t erase that so he did not perform at all for a player of his caliber or experience – he was a bust. Let’s hope next season will be different – hope it will – BUT he has to beat out Pulisic and in a 4-3-3 – BOTH of those players cannot play at the same time.
Pulisic and Sportiello were great and Reindjers was solid.
Musah is raw and made many more mistakes than positive contributions and for the amount we paid for him (20M) he was not a success. I think he will be fine in a few years but he has lots of growing to do
Terracino, Pelligrino, Romero – contributed
nothing
RLC – inconsistent like he has been entire career – brilliant one game and non-existsent the next (often against the bigger clubs). We need more from him – consistency is key.
Okafor was pretty good considering he didn’t get lots of playing time but was positive when he played – solid
Jovic was ok – below average IMO – his goals only came when playing alongside Giroud – in a 2 striker system and could not (just like his entire career) lead the line as a sole #9. Take away the Coppa Italia goals and he had 6 in 38 games. Hardly prolific as the main backup striker. We can do better and the system doesn’t fit him.
So on the whole it was an average mercato IMO – 5.5 or at best a 6/10 – hardly “successful by any measure”
@juRO Yes, it was a success. Especially if you compare it to the previous 2 mercatos which were full of flops. Origi, Bakayoko, Ballo-Toure, Dest, Pellegri, Vranckx, CDK,etc…. Nearly all of the signings contributed and played valuable minutes except for the very young players who weren’t brought in to help right away but to develop.
ANd when you look at Okafor and Jovic’s production per minutes played, it’s quite good for both. They didn’t get a ton of playing time with the quality of players in front of them but when they played they produced well. Nothing wrong with having a strong bench. It’s depth that this team sorely lacked in recent years.
Except that Thuram guy that did OK for Inter
“Targets”… LOL.
Our incredible midfield last season:
Reijnders, Musah, Adli, Bennacer
you’re proud of these “targets”. Our midfield a few years ago when we won Serie A:
Tonali, Kessie, Bennacer, Krunic.
Reijnders is blind and can’t make a forward pass or play D. He wouldn’t even be in the top 4 midfielders from a few years ago.
Exactly how many goals and assists did our astonishing midfield create? Almost nothing the entire season and the few goals/assists were against bottom Serie A teams. Super horrible statistics ….. But hey, we hit our “targets” according to dum dum internet fans. Here’s a lollipop.
I can’t wait until we sell Theo and replace him with our next “target”.
I notice you left RLC out. Is that because he scored a bunch of goals?
Also are we still pretending Tonali was a great player even tho he is not on the team anymore? We don’t have to pretend any more. And Krunic…? Please.
Yes, Kessie was a beast, but Maldini let him leave for free.
Almost all of our signings contributed and played significant minutes. Hopefully we can do as well this time.
LOL. People here do act as if Tonali was a de rossi or albertini. He was decent but definitely not world class.
…”and one of Joshua Zirkzee and Benjamin Sesko is expected to join in attack.“
LOL…ya sure – will believe it when I see it
LMAO 😂😂😂….. bro it was success because they played minutes ?!?!? hahahahaha 🤣😅🤣😅. Wtf 😂😂😂
Up next, Romero ran on grass ….success
Chukwueze knows that a ball is round….success
LMAO 😂
Of course it’s 433, how else are we suppose to utilise all these midfield runners and ball carriers.
Don’t you find it weird that the system remains the same? The coach that was picked plays that same system? The players will be brought in to fit the same system even without Fonseca’s input? Because the mold is the same?
It’s literally minimum change…. so I ask why? Doesn’t compute. And no, it’s not because the management is cheap. Just can’t shake that something else is cooking behind closed doors… (or maybe I want to believe in it so badly to help process whats happening)
I don’t know
Hoping for Klopp after next summer!!
Fonseca is just a gap filler until next season, one can dream right?
I’m a bit more sceptical and I think that management also see that we now have players for 433. So they needed a coach who will know how to bring the best out of our crop of players and elevate their value. I think their preference indeed were Lopetegui and Fonseca from the start because they both play youth.
Management wants to elevate the value of the players so that they can potentially sell at high. Also when you raise the value of the team the brand value rises as well. And Cardinale has to show some results to his investors whi expect return on investment.
That’s my theory.
“I’m a bit more sceptical and I think that management also see that we now have players for 433.”
Now you’re being too generous. Our management has no idea what 433 even means.
“Our management has no idea what 433 even means.”
LMAO
Also when I look at whom we targeted for the midfield and even the names we’re being linked to (with the exception of Amrabat), none of the them can defend.
I guess the “algorithm” does give more points (or more likelyhood of selling for higher price ?) to midfielders who are more offensive oriented rather than defensive oriented.
When has a defensive midfielder last won Ballon d’Or? Yeah. Exactly. Overrated. Even by all algorithms.
Honestly I’m more proponent of a 4-3-3 rather than a 4-2-3-1. We no longer have players for a 4-2-3-1, and insisting on this formation will require an additional attacking midfielder, since Loftus-Cheek ain’t one.
Reijnders and Loftus-Cheek do better in a 4-3-3 and were signed on that basis, but the problem is that we didn’t bring a defensive midfielder and insisted on playing with inverted fullbacks.
A 4-3-3 with a good defensive midfielders, with regulars fullbacks, based on zonal defense rather than man-marking, with fast transition between defense and attack could work very well.
All foreign Milan. We are Inter now. We can no longer dislike inter because it’s what we’ve become.
Gotta stop with the Nationalistic propaganda. Times have changed. Management has changed. Adapt.
Didn’t have a problem winning the Scudetto with a majority foreign players, did you?
Winning with “majority foreign players” is definitely fine but losing with the same group isn’t. There’s a huge difference. And I would argue that some people (me included) would prefer losing with a “majority Italian players” than foreign ones. Why? Call me old-fashioned or sentimental or what ever. But Italian clubs should be more Italian. Remember the roots. I also think English clubs should be more English etc.
433 was the plan until Pioli decided after less than 6 games to switch back to 4231. It made no sense for him to do that but nothing Pioli does makes any sense.
At least with Fonseca we will see our players playing in their natural position and we will see an improvement with Musah and Adli.
These 2 were under utilized including RLC who is not an attacking midfielder. Often times RLC looked lost and out of position and he looked like he didn’t know what to do which cost us too many counter attacks when he loss the ball.
Too damn cheap to buy an Italian, this AZZURRI isn’t going to have one Milan player smh
Didnt rafa and theo do terribly under 4-3-3? Didnt pulisic and Loftus Cheek go on a goal scoring run when we went back to 4-2-3-1? I get that we dont have a proper DM or ACM but it seems like we played much better 4-2-3-1 than 4-3-3. Can someone confirm my hunch is factual?
Your hunch is factual, but what the problem IMO is not the 4-3-3 per say but that we decided to play a 4-3-3 with inverted fullbacks (meaning that the fullbacks tuck inside to play pretty much like midfielders) so that limited their contribution on the wings. Pulisic seemed ok but Leao was terrible since he was isolated in the wings and didn’t have his usual partner to play alongside him. Theo and Calabria were also terrible because they left huge gaps in the wings and in the case of Theo, he wasn’t able to make his usual runs and play with Leao as he usually does. RLC is not a true CAM, but in a 4-2-3-1 he was almost a support striker and played alongside Giroud !! In a 4-3-3 he was in his natural position. When we switched back to 4-2-3-1, Pioli abandoned for many games the idea of inverted fullbacks since we already had 2 DMs thus Theo and Calabria were able to play as they usually do.
Playing a 4-3-3 with regular fullbacks is perfectly possible, so in theory it should work.
They played horribly under the 3-4-3/3-5-2. 4 at the back suits their qualities best.
“Joshua Zirkzee and Benjamin Sesko is expected to join in attack.”
Sesko is not. Why keep repeating this crap given what RBL said about his fee? We are not paying €70+ million for anyone.
“A right-back is needed, with Emerson Royal and Tiago Santos linked.”
There is no chance either of these two journeymen are signed. Royal is the s*its of a defender. This is like that bs rumour linking Lenglet to Milan.
The formation and all balderdash related should be the least and last thing we’re worry about.
This is what it is
4 – 1 – 2 – 2 – 1
Bit of a month full so we all say
4 – 3 – 3
Prefer your take on the the 4-3-3
433 is not Milan DNA.
4312 or 4321 is our winning style.
We played many tactical formations in our history.
The 4-3-1-2 and 4-3-2-1 are Don Carlo’s tactical formation, which coincide with some of our best eras TBH and that he used to accomodate players like Pirlo, but no one besides him did seem to succeed at the highest level with it.