[Jack Sparrow]

Hello,

So this has been sometime coming. We have a lot of discussion on the forums about what our team is doing right and what it's doing wrong. People on here having different ideas on how we should play, how we should line-up, who needs to go, who needs to come in etc.

So here is your opportunity to have a go at your own tactics piece. Perhaps it might be difficult to make it as elegant as something from zonalmarking (what a wonderful site), so make do with dashes.

I'll first set the ball rolling by giving you the tactics piece from the man who makes the decisions:

This is Allegri on Milan-

Milan will refresh their lines in the summer as many players that carried the club for years are leaving – players like Gennaro Gattuso, Alessandro Nesta, Filippo Inzaghi and probably Clarence Seedorf too.

The Rossoneri have already confirmed the signings of Bakaye Traoré from Nancy and Riccardo Montolivo from Fiorentina and Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri says how he intends to use his squad next year.

"Montolivo can play in front of the defence or on either side in a 3-man midfield. He could revive the regista position," he said. "The alternative to the regista position is Muntari. Traoré will play on one of the sides in the midfield. Emanuelson will play as a left back next year. He could grow and develop well in that position.

"De Sciglio is ‘da Milan’ (Milan quality) and he can play both as a right and as a left back. The next season will be great for Mexes. I’m sure that he will perform well. Boa or Robinho will be used as the trequartista.

"The squad next year will consist of 25 players and I hope that our head athletic trainer, Daniele Tognaccini, will stay. Tognaccini (whose contract ends this summer) has been here for 14 years and has done a great job. If he doesn’t stay here, then we will still be in good hands. With the departure of all these players, Milan have lost quantity, quality and moral values. But we will continue to have clear rules in the changing room.

"Next year we will start over with Ibra, Boateng and Thiago Silva. There is no danger that they will leave. We will be counting a lot on Pato next season. He had a sabbatical year due to all these injuries. Robinho to be sacrificed? At the moment no one is in danger of being sacrificed. My future? I’m 100% sure I’ll stay."

Milan’s rating from La Gazzetta dello Sport for the 2011/2012 season (screenshot from La Gazzetta dello Sport)
Milan’s season was rather a disappointment as they finished it without winning any trophy – they lost the Scudetto to Juventus and got knocked out of the Champions League after the legs with Barcelona in the quarter finals.

"How I would rate this season for Milan? I would give it a rating of 6,5. We were at a rating of 8 before the Barça matches and after that only a 5, in my opinion," the former Cagliari Calcio boss added. In order to stay at Milan for a long time, you need technical and physical qualities as well as great moral qualities.

"It won’t be easy to replace these champions that have now left Milan. A player like Alessandro Nesta is born every 50 years. Along with Franco Baresi, Nesta is the best defender in the history of football. Filippo Inzaghi is a monster. He knows the characteristics of every single defender in Serie A. Even vs. Novara, Inzaghi knew perfectly well what he had to do in order to put the defenders in difficulty. I preferred not to talk much after the Novara match, because it was a day that was dedicated to the players leaving Milan."

Allegri, who also said "Mario Balotelli has to mature" when asked about the prospect of the troublemaker joining Milan, will now be on a vacation before trainings for the next season resume on the 8th of July.

So, from the dog's mouth, it seems we're looking at:

-----Ibra/Tonio/Pato-----Pato/Tonio-----

--------------Prince/Robbie--------------

--Noce/Monty---Monty/Ambro/Sulley----Traore

Urby----------Silva--------Mexes-----------Abate

-------------------||ABBIATI||----------------------


Bench:SeS, De Sciglio, Bonera,Flamini,Merkel, Strasser,Amelia

The same 4-3-1-2.

Can't say I'm thrilled. But oh well! I just see us being tactically rigid again, next season and depending on players instead of the system to make us winners.

On the tactics note, do read this delightful piece from zonalmarking. I especially like this quote from Martinez, who is one of the fore-runners to manage Liverpool:

"When you play a 4-3-3, you rely a lot on the full-backs to get high up the pitch. You shouldn’t look at a system as away to win a football match, it is the players that play the system"

Excellent point...and at the moment, I'm not sure if we have the players to play the system. I really feel it is perhaps time we looked at the 3 man defence and what it gives us.

But more on that later when I get enough time to come up with a tactics piece.

Meanwhile, feel free to post your own tactics piece. And try to keep your fantasy mercato transfers to a basic limit. It is really doubtful we are getting anyone more that Traore and Montolivo.

[X-Offender]

I'm going with the gazzeta link since that is the ony official source. It states the following:

1. Galliani was in Man City
2. Pato's final offer had been thought fit by Milan, but they only needed to see if the player was ready to move. This has for the past few years been the policy. We do it with Sheva, Kaka and now Pato.
3. Pato turned down the offer.
4. Therefore hypothetically we didn't have money to pay City.

The gazzeta article was on January 12. My article which you state as old, was from the BBC and dated 25th January.

Anyway I'm tired of this discussion. You're going to insist your hypothesis is correct, while I will not agree. So leave it.

FWIW, I'm glad Pato is here instead of Tevez.

So, you basically agreed with what I've been saying. Pato was very close to being a PSG player and Tevez was very close to being a Milan player. That's all I needed to know. Thanks.

Are you telling me Pato wanted to go but Berlu didn't let him? BS.

That's what the big man said, otherwise he wouldn't have taken all the credit for canceling the move, when Pato had said on an official note the day before that it was him who turned down PSG's offer. I don't know exactly how things went, but what's evident is that without Berlusconi butting in, Pato would be playing for PSG now.

This post has been edited by X-Offender: May 21 2012, 01:20 PM

[Jack Sparrow]

So, you basically agreed with what I've been saying. Pato was very close to being a PSG player and Tevez was very close to being a Milan player. That's all I needed to know. Thanks.

Hee..let's say it is complicated. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Cassano being injured meant we needed a striker. Tevez throwing a strop meant we had a chance to land a bargain. But to land Tevez meant we needed Pato. But Pato backed out so nothing happened and we didn't want Tevez badly enough for Silvio to fork up money from his own pocket (as he has done for R99, R80, Sheva etc.)

In the end, for me personally, things worked out great. I love Toni Cassano our Mad Genius.

[X-Offender]

Hee..let's say it is complicated. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

But I was fairly correct. I wasn't having a "reality distortion field" or anything. You guys were speaking as if I was making things up. That's not cool.