AC Milan looked, for the first time in a long time, dominant on Friday night, and winning 4-0 is a testament to the performance. However, it now must be built upon.
Scoring four goals will always be a positive, and when keeping a clean sheet alongside it, there are positive questions to be asked. For Sergio Conceicao, most of them have been, so why has this not been trialled sooner?
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As Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) write, though, this was the earliest opportunity to change the system, feasibly at least.
Since before the international break, the Portuguese coach has pondered the idea of a change in the system, away from the 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 formation that Milan have almost exclusively used in recent years.
So, the ball began to roll before the international break, and whilst the idea was to test the side against Napoli potentially, it was stored away until now. Though it was not a case of analysing the system by video, it was about working with it – persistent training of the ins and outs.
In Udine, the side were clearly much more compact, though there was also more freedom on offer to those who needed it – Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao, for example, which the Portuguese spoke of post-game.
Of course, there are still flaws within this team, but the 3-4-3, though seemingly with more vulnerabilities on paper, ‘masks’ them.
Now, there is a hope for what can be achieved in the next few weeks with this new system, especially with difficult games on the horizon. There is also a lingering sensation, a feeling of what if, what if Conceicao arrived in the summer, allowed the time and clean slate to work out his side.
Media portraying him as some kind of a genius for using 343 when us, the couch experts, were crying for 343 for the last 2 years. Too little, too late. He could’ve kept his job and get us to European competitions if it wasn’t for his stubborness and ego. Now we’re bound for another (easily avoidable) year zero in the summer. Anyway, I just hope now they can at least have a strong finish to this miserable season and take that confidence and motivation for the next.
Hold up your balls bro, relax. Either business play bad football / Milan better than him. New Milan formation with the real test was next week against Atalanta / inter. If it works, go ahead. If didn’t work, the door always open bro. Hehehe….
A team can loose a match even when playing with the right formation.
Even a novice in coaching college can tell that this team is built for either a 3-4-3 or 4-3-3 formation.
We need consistency with this formation regardless of the match result.
Even the players are happy with the system.
The only worry for now is that we still don’t have a proper no. 6.
A very rough guy (a destroyer) who cover a lot of grounds and engages in serious tackles like Palhinha of Bayern Munich.
This formation is perfect for us because it can easily be transitioned to a 4-3-3 as either Theo or Jimenez can easily drop to LB/RB when defending. But that will then leave a midfield of Fofana, Reijnders and one of either Theo or Jimenez, and non of these is adept in breaking play.
A combative midfielder will support Reijnders or Fofana in the midfield when defending.
I say this because, a good coach will not not use a wing play against us, but instead tactically move the play to the wing as a smokescreen to eliminate the RWB/LWB to drop defensively, while returning the play to the midfield where no real tackler is present.
I miss Bennacer in this regard.
We have been calling for a no. 6 since our all-round action midfield of Kessie and Tonali left.
I see the no. 6 that you mentioned was Bondo bro. He can hold the ball and has physically same with kessie. He can be kessie+bennacer 2.0. and same as you bro, I miss player like bennacer, pirlo / tonali bro. Player who always wants to dribble the ball and distribute to forward.
Well, Bondo isn’t bad, to think that I completely forgot about him is something I should worry about.
But he’s been good for us.
But I still like the profile of Palhinha who’s not afraid to get dirty in a sliding tackle to win the ball.
And that’s the main reason I like Bennacer.
If a player like Palhinha or Bennacer is in a team I coach, boy, they always gonna play.
Bondo is solid no doubt. Palhinha is elite.
I’m still not sold on Conceição regardless of the formation change. His poor handling of the players especially Musah and his constant changing of the defensive pair is suicidal.
It’s time Milan upgrade to a coach like Conte who used the 343 formation at Chelsea and achieved great success with it.