AC Milan have long been attempting to fix their midfield, however, they have not had any real, consistent success in recent years.
Building a team is very difficult to do, and you can make points about which position is hardest to recruit. Many feel you are only as good as your defence, whilst others see it in reverse, the attack being the most important. Without a good midfield, though, both are weak.
Since the collapse of the midfield consisting of Ismael Bennacer, Sandro Tonali and Franck Kessie, Milan have been trying to mend it and return their midfield to that level, but there has not been any prolonged positivity about their attempts.
Of course, there are a few good midfielders at the club currently, but there is still a need to invest in the midfield, and there probably will be for a bit longer.
One idea that crept up in January, according to reports, was a move for Marco Verratti, according to Calciomercato.com. The report states that the Diavolo, among others, such as Juventus and Barcelona, made attempts for the midfielder who now bides his time in Qatar, but there were no successful bids.
Playing for Al-Arabi in Doha, the midfielder is largely away from the market radar, and whilst there were contacts with the player, there was never any ‘real interest’, so it seems the search for an answer in midfield will continue.
If money was the sole ambition in football, Verratti would be the poster.
He could have left PSG on several occasions to move to Barca, Juventus or ManCity, but instead he stayed because PSG offered more money.
Then, at 30 he decided to go and play in Qatar for even more money, like he didn’t make enough money already after 12 years at PSG.
Would take Verratti over Bondo, Fofana, Musah and RLC anyday, our midfield is laughable apart from Reijnders, such a shame we let Moncada destroy a perfectly good midfield and build the joke it is today, sell all except Reijnders and replace with any of Ricci, Casadei, Fabbian, Rovella, Miretti, Prati
Agree, Moncada is a joke he destroyed our whole team and brought every garbage French player to our team.
This is the way. Of course Tonali is my main man but since he’s gone, there’s was plenty of chances to get either of those with Casadei the latest missed opportunity. Incompetent clowns. Ricci-Rovella would be a balanced duo in the middle but not realistic at all. Prati is someone I’ve been following for some time. Knowing this bunch of incompetent chimps running our recruitment department, we’ll be getting some random kid from Belgian or French league, Ricci will end up in Inter and Prati will go to Torino for peanuts.
All Italians? But, do you watch the Italian national team? Can’t you see that the entire national team, especially the midfield, is average.
Inter Atalanta and even Fiorentina have quite a few Italian players in their squad and look how they’re doing (better than us). Instead, let’s have all foreigners and finish 8th, great idea.
problem is the non-Italian midfielder we’ve is even worse than some Italian mentioned above
Idiotic. Verratti is a bygone.
The reason Kessie, Tonali and Bennacer worked is the same reason Pirlo, Gattuso and Seedorf worked so well – everyone had a defined role and skill set and they were all complimentary to each other.
None of which we are currently seeing in our midfield. We have attacking mid in Reijnders. Bondo and Musah also both forward minded mids that drift ahead and leave spaces behind. So that when we push forward and the other team counters, there are open spaces right and left and middle to be exploited and we concede.
Poorly built midfield.
We need a RVB type at cm.
Comparing Seedorf, Pirlo and Gattuso with Kessie, Bennacer and Tonali is ridiculous.
Seedorf, Pirlo and Gattuso actually played together at the same time in the midfield on the pitch , so you can say that they complimented each other.
Kessie, Tonali and Bennacer rarely played together. It was 2 of them playing while the 3rd (Bennacer) was sitting on the bench, and would come in during the game to replace one of the 2 starters. During the final stretch of the scudetto season, Pioli, to protect Kalulu and Tomori in defense, decided to bench Brahim and play with 3 midfielders at the same time, and the 3rd midfielder was Krunic, not Bennacer.
Milan midfield doesn’t work because there has been 3 different coaches in less than 2 seasons. All 3 inter midfielders are forward minded. Hakan was a CAM and a winger at Milan, Mikhitaryan was that, plus a 2nd striker during his career. And their midfield function flawlessly, because they all do everything, they all defend and attack.
This. 100%.
Seeing how wasteful the proceeds from Tonali were spent, I feel even more strongly now that we should have never sold him.
Moneyball proof wrong.
It’s how the coach treatment and pressure.
Look at CDK explode in Atalanta. Verrati needs couple months to be 100%
I’m shocked the combination of non-soccer people and an algorithm could not build a midfield….