In the summer, AC Milan spent much of their time pursuing Youssouf Fofana. So far, the midfielder has been growing – given he joined the club not fully 100% – but he does not have a deputy, so the Rossoneri must act.
It seemed like Milan were willing to settle for a move for Fofana next year at points of the mercato, but it was deemed that his arrival was necessary, so the Diavolo took the plunge and signed the French midfielder.
Perhaps, a questionable decision given the Rossoneri paid nearly double what they had initially tried to for a player with less than a year on his contract. However, he is beginning to show his value to the club already.
Against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night, he was superb. Not only was he good in the defensive phase of the game, but he also looked to drive Milan forward on a few occasions, and he had a few decent chances to show what he could do.
There is a downside to his signing, though. The Rossoneri do not have an alternative – which has already been scrutinised.
Saying a player is ‘too good’ is never a bad thing, but Fofana’s role is one that is difficult to play well, but with no deputy, his minutes will stack quickly – a dangerous game to play with a player who has only just returned to 100%.
As a result, Tuttosport (via Milan News) states that Fofana is alone in his role due to Ismael Bennacer’s injury, and a January incoming is quite likely with the Frenchman ‘working overtime’. However, the Diavolo would have to part with a non-EU player to get their favoured target Johnny Cardoso – who was an interest for the majority of the summer.
Cardoso would look good at the Yankees stadium alongside Pulisic and Musah.
We have too many midfielder, sell someone first before buying
Enough with the US contingents we aren’t building a USA b team here. Let’s get a Brazilian owner I think that will help so we can get all the Brazilians here while we sack Emerson
Brazil does have the 7th most billionaires in the world, right behind us at 6th. They don’t have interest in owning football clubs though. Brazil has more billionaires than Japan.
They must have known it’s not a profitable business
Well again we are a day late and a dollar short!
What happens if Fofana, Theo, Pulisic etc get injured? We are f-cked
The summer was the time to address midfield. Players like Hojbjerg and Amrabat were available for cheap, those options are gone now.
I guess we could ask Juve for a loan with option like we gave Kalulu, somehow I think they would laugh in our faces
They keeps buying midfielders and for some reason not a single one of the is the right fit for what we need.
I’d start looking at the people buying before giving them any more cash to use. This is ridiculous.
We need an experienced sporting director. It’s becoming a farce!
With the money spent and the sheer number of players bought and sold since the scudetto we should have both a strong and balanced squad, yet here we are still plugging huge holes.
The incompetence is staggering!!
Their best idea is let’s revamp the midfield. And next summer. Let’s revamp the midfield.
And then they, supposedly, want to play a certain way (some possession bs) but buy players for a different way of play (ball carriers who excel at quickly carrying the ball).
Square objects into round holes.
We might gel and start performing for a while but I don’t see us consistently winning. Lack the balance for it.
Yeah we may end up with a good first 11 but as soon as they go down we are goosed.
It is all just made up as we go along, like playing Tammy and Morata
Then you take leverkusen game 4 example, he only made 2 subs ffs. Ruben and deers aren’t doing jack shi, at least give musah 20 min. Some fresh legs etc. nope..
Getting Ricci for the winter would be amazing, but considering his price and the probable competition with Manchester City, that would most certainly won’t happen. He is Italian so no need to sell in order to accomodate him and would allow Fofana to play in his natural position.
Prati is an interesting alternative and is cheap. He is young but he got a lot of minutes since he is playing with Cagliari.
Any other DM (Danilo, Cardoso,…) would require us to sell/offload a player in order to meet requirments (probably Bennacer). Is it possible with this new UCL format to register a new player instead of an existing one ?
Next summer, we will need a lot of revamping in the midfield (yes, that again). We will have to sell/offload Bennacer, Pobega and Adli. I think we should consider selling Loftus-Cheek as well since he doesn’t seem to fit anywhere and I’m willing to wait a bit for Musah but otherwise we will need to sell him as well. Reijnders and Fofana (so far) are the only players I would maintain
Then we will have to decide once and for all are we gonna use a 4-2-3-1 ? a 4-3-3 ? or this new 4-2-4 ? This is very important to decide which midfielder are we gonna target.
If we’re gonna stick to a 4-2-3-1, we will need 2 (starter and deputy) of:
1/ attacking midfielder since we’ve already established than neither Reijnders, Loftus Cheek nor Pulisic are quite fit for that role. Our options (I’m not looking at the price right here) are IMO Samardzic, Koopmeiners,… I would also monitor Lewis Ferguson to see how badly he was impacted by his ligament tear.
2/ Pivot. Forget competition with Reijnders, we need either someone who can give him a good run for his money and/or someone good in defense so Fofana can drift forward. I think Ricci would still work here, maybe we should also monitor Bernabé,…
If we’re gonna use a 4-3-3, maybe we can maintain Loftus-Cheek since he is a natural mezzala and having Fofana, Reijnders and Loftus-Cheek as 8s is good. But we will need a true CDM (and his deputy), someone like Nottingham’s Danilo, perhaps Cardoso as well,…
Finally if it’s going to be a 4-2-4, we will mostly need strikers (one of whom should be able to drop deep like Morata). As for the midfield, it’s going to be the same double pivot as above, but maybe we could a player from Porto who were playing a 4-4-2 under Conceiçao.
But that’s just my opinion
What a farce. This is beyond incompetence. They sold a midfielder who fit our system of play, in order to buy bunch of midfielders who don’t fit anywhere and are mediocre at best. A 60 million farce.
Anyway, I’m just glad that these “doom&gloom told you so” articles are becoming frequency here. But I’ll still be pointing it out myself as well, just for the sake of it.
This Milan management is clueless and they don’t know how to build a team. They let Kessie and Tonali leave and now we have a midfield problem? No sh!t Sherlock.
Until Milan get an experienced Sporting Director this team will always look incomplete and dysfunctional. I don’t even understand why we signed Musah and Ruben Loftus Cheek if Pioli and Fonseca coaches they hired wanted to play 4231. These players don’t even fit into this formation.
So unless Milan make up their minds on how best the use the players they currently have and what formation works best we will continuously have to sell midfielders. That’s the problem.
Because the players we have currently are more suitable for a 433 but yet for some strange reason Fonseca is refusing to use them in this formation.
We have now loss 3 games 2 in the champions league (Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen) and 1 in Serie A to Parma and we drew to Torino and and Lazio playing 4231.
So that’s 5 negative results this season using 4231 and yet Fonseca hasn’t abandon this formation that is clearly not working for the current players in the team.
If Fonseca sticks with 4231 then Milan will need to sell Musah and RLC. Something I don’t believe these clowns will do.
So before they start targeting players these stooges need to decide what formation they will play and what players need to be sold or kept in the squad. Smh
Completely agree about formation.
Decide what we are doing, perhaps have the coach speak to those selecting players and either adjust the squad or the formation to suit each other.
We are 1 or 2 injuries away from being in huge trouble (Fofana, Theo, Reijnders)