AC Milan head coach Massimiliano Allegri engrained a 3-5-2 formation from day one of preseason, but is it still the best system?
In the past two games against Genoa and Fiorentina, Milan have found themselves having to throw bodies into the box late on to try and rescue a point against teams 17th and 18th in the table. In the end, they were able to keep the unbeaten run going with late equalisers.
Now that the Rossoneri have Christian Pulisic, Rafael Leao, Niclas Füllkrug and Christopher Nkunku all fit and available, there have been some calls to try a three-man attack as opposed to playing two up front in exchange for three midfielders and three centre-backs.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport pointed out, on Sunday afternoon it took a 4-3-3 with a Pulisic-Fullkrug-Leao trident to stretch things. Nkunku came on a bit later, and scored his third goal in two games. So, is it a sign of being the right time to change?
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So much hate for pulisic. 3 open goal misses ?really? Hyperbole much? They were Not open goals. Very hard shots at full speed and De gea the keeper. Pulisic trying to get sold when he looks over and Salemakers and RLC are his teammates.
I thought so. I was surprised to see this much blame on him. Like which of the Milan players would’ve even pulled those give-and-goes and getting there in the first place? RLc? Leao?? Gimme a break. Besides were every day misses. Not big chances
Max will not do 3 strikers. Regardless Como will be hell of a struggle. Not looking forward to game
The defenders are are not really good enough for back 4, allegri is obsessed with having bodies in the middle & the build up is slow as a result the team creates very few chances with no room for error.
If we play back 4
Barte -Gabbia-Tomori-dewinter
Best way to protect our goal and overwhelm small and mid teams is to setup in a 3241 with quick counter attacking.
Fulkrung
Puli/Leao- Jash- Puli/nkun- Salad
Rabiot – Modric
Pavlo- Gabbia-Tomori
Real life isn’t fifa but pep won like this for almost 3 years. Have 2 destroyer-controllers protectecting the back 3 (rabiot & d LCB can protect the left channel if leaving doesn’t track back properly, salad is fine on the right side).
Leao can do damage on the wing while pulisic/nkunku can push forward to support the striker.
What do think?
As I see it, the only 2 players a back 5 favours are Saelemaekers and Gabbia, who are both very average. Let’s not forget that when we were a decent team a few years ago, those 2 were on the bench. They shouldn’t be having a team built to cater to them.