Allegri's system

[ACMILAN1983]

I've been thinking a fair amount recent discussions and rumours and have been thinking more and more we'll see a change of approach next season. Allegri said Boateng could work in midfield and in a wide area, rather than central. Also, given he's spoken of Muntari and Montolivo in central positions, I wouldn't be surprised if we were to change from our 3 man midfield to another midfield altogether (i.e. 2 central midfielders). Looking at our attacking lineup too, this could work given that most of our forwards naturally like to push wide. Also, Nocerino's an odd case, as while he's been successful this season there are doubts as to whether he can start regularly, particularly in big games. Also, he's more offensive than defensive and therefore might benefit us in a role with slightly less defensive duties.

From this I think we could naturally move to a 4-2-3-1. Ibra works as natural front man, but would be supported by 3 players behind. This line would be composed of midfielders and forwards, as well as a new trequartista. In front of the defence we have solid midfielders, who can act/are ball players. So what we might see is...

------------Abbiati-------------
Abate---???------Thiago------Urby/Antonini/Didac
----------???----Montolivo------
---Boateng----???----Cassano---
--------------Ibra--------------

Note: ??? are positions we presumably
want new players for.


With this we'd naturally press higher than we currently do as well as have more width in the side. We also have Pato, Robinho and El Shaarawy, all of who are capable on either the left or right, along with Cassano. Nocerino and Traore, like Boateng can work in a wide position too, which would stop his defensive duties overwhelming his capacity to go forward.

Montolivo, Muntari, someone new and Ambro would be good cover to the 2 CM/DM roles in the side. Our biggest stumbling block would be the trequartista role, which we currently don't have a natural suiter for. We'd need a new player here, with Boateng, Urby and Robinho (and probably Cassano) all capable of filling in every so often.

This system again places a lot of emphasis on Ibra, but at least in this he'd have more support pushing forward from behind and from out wide. Ideally, we'd have an alternative to Ibra up front, though Pato can also play centrally too.

I'm not saying we will see this happen, but if it does then I can see a natural progression for us to adopting this system. Berlu might initially have issue with 1 out and out forward, but I presume we'd play at least one of Pato, Binho, Cassano or El Shaarawy with Ibra, so we'd still have 2 forwards on the pitch.