The days of Serie A being an ultra-defensive league seem to be in the past as a number of teams will line up with three or more forwards next season.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) write today, 14 out of the 20 teams in Serie A will line up with three or four attacking players. Not all of them are forwards, but almost all of them spend a lot of time beyond the halfway line.
While that might not be enough to define Serie A as a league devoted to going ‘full speed ahead’, it seems that there is some courage and some willingness to dare seeping in, like in other leagues.
The conversion of Stefano Pioli to a 4-3-3 with the ‘Pu-Gi-Le’ trio of Pulisic-Giroud-Leao means that Milan are the big club that have changed their plans the most.
Pioli decided to move away from the 4-2-3-1 which won him the 2022 Scudetto and turned towards the three-man midfield and attacking trident with Chukwueze or Pulisic on the right, Giroud as centre-forward and Leao on the left.
With Pulisic the set-up can vary because the ex-Chelsea man loves to cut inside and slip between the lines like an attacking midfielder.
The Pulisic-Giroud-Leao trio totals 372 goals in official matches, excluding national teams, and expresses an indicative acronym. Chukwueze has 47 career goals, and more than the others has the physique and mentality to succeed.
If Pioli gets the chemistry right, Milan can take centre stage as one of the serious candidates for the Scudetto. However, that is easier said than done.
Having attackers and playing attacking football are two different things
they are going full city….
3-2-4-1 offense…
4-2-4 press back into a 4-4-2…
I appreciate the ambition…