Summer Mercato 2010

Oh for sure the time when we see three defending against R80 is gone.
My post wasn't negative but was to point out that a counter attacking team or one with a packed midfield can still launch their own pushes if we are not careful with the balance.

Originally Posted by Reza

Oh for sure the time when we see three defending against R80 is gone.
My post wasn't negative but was to point out that a counter attacking team or one with a packed midfield can still launch their own pushes if we are not careful with the balance.

Which is why Allegri would prefer Antonini helping out 'Dinho on the left flank whilst Bonera hangs back to cover defence. It's sort of like basketball, where when one player gets pulled out of position, the entire defence shifts to compensate. Same goes for the midfield, methinks. T. Silva will push up whenever necessary (with his ball skills, he can definitely play the DMF position), Ambro and whoever will run back to help cut off the runs. We've been playing this kinid of football for years now. It didn't quite work in the past couple of years because the team was ageing, but now we have the younger legs to track back if necessary, same as 5 years ago.

Everyone here is discussing whether our midfield or some other area is weak, but I say we have the necessary resources to compensate for any weaknesses we might have. Plus, Allegri is not an idiot. He's a very tactically sound man. The friendlies we played in preseason might just be friendlies, but our opponents were still the quality opponents we know them to be, and yet with many youth players on show, we still managed respectable draws against, well..... pretty much all of them.
The mentalities there for all to see: if you can't beat them, just don't lose to them :P

Originally Posted by Tony75

I think with the attacking quartet we have it takes a bit more presure off our mid to score goals, and also forces opp mid to drop abck a little further to help their def allowing our mid more space to play in.

Of course teams might then drop a forward too, but this then allows more space for Silva & Antonini to make forward runs.
Basically we've given Allegri a selection headache in the best possible way, but we've given every other coach against us a tactical problem.

Can one player match the speed and dribbling of Pato?
Can one player cover the passing and creativity of R80?
Can another def match the frame and touch of Ibra to stop him feeding other forwards or vice-versa?
IMO no team has enough good def, even inert to handle this 3, and if we get a mid to follow up the 3 in att - Seedorf, Pirlo, Boateng, Merkel that causes even more problems.

Tony75, this is a brilliant post.

We have to play other teams, and the our new options will impact on them. Teams will simply not be able to use man-to-man marking on us. Teams simply will not be able to mark Ibra, Pato, Ronnie, Pirlo and Seedorf at once. Anyone of them are capable of creating a goal at any time.

I think with Papa and Yepes and even Gooch and Zambro as backup defenders we have good backup.With the forward line like we now have the creative aspect will not be almost totally on our midfield and Pato running way too much having to beat 5 players and only managing to beat 3..lol , but Boateng is a powerhouse and playing with some of players he does he will become technically better , and if Flams realises he play's for AC Milan and isn't Brock Lesnar then that will be practically 2 new players obviously Prince is new.

Silva and Nesta are like a wall and Nesta is like a good wine if you know what I mean , I don't think the centre of our defence will be any problem our mid is competent and not as bad as people think , and our attack my god its ridiculously fantastic 4-2-fantasia anyone...lol I think our problem will be the wingback positions now Im not going to say anything about who we should of got because we did well.

But can you imagine if with the team we have we had a left and right back as good as say hell even capdevilla , well maybe not him but Zambro or Grosso of 4 years ago then I would think we are the sh1t.
But I was smiling all day at work woke up at 6:00 am knowing i was working 13 hours and didnt care because we got those 2 players can't remember there names.And Im pumped for the coming season.

There is one option. Papa moves into the centre and Thiago at leftback. I have no doubt he would be amazing!

Must admit, I prefer Thiago in the centre with Nesta. I look forward to seeing Papa tried at rightback. I don't trust Bonera, Zambrotta and Oddo in the big games.

Originally Posted by K77SH C

There is one option. Papa moves into the centre and Thiago at leftback. I have no doubt he would be amazing!

Must admit, I prefer Thiago in the centre with Nesta. I look forward to seeing Papa tried at rightback. I don't trust Bonera, Zambrotta and Oddo in the big games.

If it came down to it. I'd try Silva, Nesta, Papa, Antonini.

Silva would imo get about 5+ goals a season from rb with his forward runs.

Against inert and in Cl big matches I wouldn't play bonera, zambrotta, but they'd be Ok for every other serie A match.

I wouldn't play oddo in our training games, never mind real matches.

I hope Abate continues to develop.

Watched a highlight from Milan training match that Allegri and Tassotti played in as well. Tassotti still plays in the same manner and intelligence, whereas Allegri kept trying killer passes that mainly failed, but it shows the vision he had on the field, which imo is what a player needs to become a goos coach, along with other qualities that are innate or can be learned.

We've got 2 strong CB's, some average ones (Sokratis, gooch, Bonera) but only 1 competent FB (Luca). why don't we just forget about FB's and experiment with a back three? especially against slow teams that use only one attacker. (i've said the same thing, more or less, in another thread but the mercato is the most active on MM....)

You need players to have better tactical understanding to play with 3 defenders and it can affect the space in midfield for players to operate in esp the likes of Pirlo and it puts more defensive responsibility on our mid which lacks a genuine wc def mid.

Three backs formation is also pretty unbalanced, give more space for opponent. 4 backs is ideal IMO, can be defensive minded form if all 4 players stays behind or offensive oriented one if the fullbacks support the attacking forces.

if we had a 2005/06 Gattuso still i would say we would be able to scrape through with a back 3 but like Tony said we would pressure the midfield more than we should really have to.

Tony, I think Thiago will get 5 from centreback, probably 7 or 8 from leftback with loads of assists.

How is Abate doing in the training games and is he playing as a fullback? Where do you watch them?

Shegs, I think you underrate Sokratis, he is exceptional. Much better than Gooch and Bonera. Yepes seems pretty good too from what I saw in pre-season.

Go to youtube for games. type in Milanello in search and find posts bt Maestro21. He deos most of them.

I think Abate needs to convince Allegri a bit more, but I think he has pace, adntime to do so.

Originally Posted by Tony75

You need players to have better tactical understanding to play with 3 defenders and it can affect the space in midfield for players to operate in esp the likes of Pirlo and it puts more defensive responsibility on our mid which lacks a genuine wc def mid.

We could play a 5-2-1-2

-----------------------------------Amelia---------------------------------

----------------Thiago Silva--------Nesta-------Sokratis-----------------

-------Abate----------------------------------------------Antonini-------

--------------------------Flamini------------Pirlo/Ambrosini---------------

-------------------------------Ronaldinho/Pirlo/Robinho-------------------

----------------------Pato-------------------Ibrahimovic

I think that could work. 3 center backs with the two widebacks that don't have to help on defense because Flamini would help out back there. I dont know about you guys but I am using this formation on FIFA 11

And if someone in the defense gets injured we could play with 2 center backs again. Pretty balanced formation. A realistic problem is if Pirlo ventures forward, but guys like Ambrosini who are more defensive won't do that. Or maybe even Gattuso

Really nice the idea of shifting Silva to the right or left fullback or even in front of the two CBs but as long as the partner of Nesta still below Silva regarding the quality, I choose Silva as CB. CB first then fullback, I think that's the rule of priority. So, for now Sokratis as fullback not Silva.

Originally Posted by Siregar

Really nice the idea of shifting Silva to the right or left fullback or even in front of the two CBs but as long as the partner of Nesta still below Silva regarding the quality, I choose Silva as CB. CB first then fullback, I think that's the rule of priority. So, for now Sokratis as fullback not Silva.

You could play like Mexico did in the WC with Rafa Marquez playing ahead of the two center backs. Kind of like a stopper