[Forza Milan!]

I think he is referring to his tough fouls. He has been suspended several times now.

Yup

[X-Offender]

I've always said we should play 4-4-2.

Donnarumma
Abate - Gomez - Romagnoli - MDS
Suso - Pasalic - Bertolacci - Bona
Bacca - Niang

My only concern is Suso's stamina. Playing as RWM requires a lot of running, he might get tired too easily. Other than that, I think it's the formation that suits us best.

[Jack Sparrow]

We tried the 4-4-2 last season. I feel we struggled to penetrate and left Bacca isolated. With this new formation and playing style, we're definitely creating more chances.

[han2503]

We tried the 4-4-2 last season. I feel we struggled to penetrate and left Bacca isolated. With this new formation and playing style, we're definitely creating more chances.

Agreed on that.

I personally would go for a 3-5-2 formation because that would give us the most cover and limit the influence that the midfield has on the game, where as in a 4-3-3 it's essential that the midfield 3 control the game

I understand though that the defenders we have could struggle in a 3-man defense as they're not used to playing in that type of system.

That being said, I wouldn't go for a 4-4-2 either though, I think last season we tried it and it worked to a certain extent, but it has limitations and I don't think Montella will go for it.

I personally don't think this Bonaventura in midfield experiment will work in the long run, he's best further up the pitch. We have too many attack minded mids and all the ones capable of playing at CM are pretty bad. Bertolacci and Poli are disasters if you ask me, so x-off/Fillipo I wouldn't play either of them in the center of a 4-4-2. Bertolacci has proven to be physically weak and he's not capable of putting in the kind of shift that would require. While Poli just runs around aimlessly accomplishing nothing of note. Monto is basically finished but honestly speaking, do you think we can replace him with anyone from the selection we have? People are mentioning Locatelli, Pasalic and sky even mentioned Sosa being tried there. But I don't think Locatelli should be pushed in there playing such a crucial role. We know absolutely nothing about Pasalic and from the very little I could deduce using youtube vids as a reference, he seems to be more of an attacking mid than anything else. And Sosa is simply another Bonaventura, he can't play a regista role.

I agree with Fillipo that we have a mish mash of players that don't fit any particular set-up and don't really gel with each other either.

Once again the midfield has been ignored and we've just brought in random guys to fill in a very huge void. Montella will have to work some serious magic to try and get this lot to mesh together. Atm our biggest and most obvious weakness is that defence but it's so becuase of the midfield not providing any protection. If we could just bring in one player capable of pulling the strings we could maybe see an improvement

[Fillipo Simone]

Yes, we tried the 4-4-2 last season - and it didn't completely fail us, yes? Because the 4-3-3 has also limitations and in the long run I think it won't prove much better/effective. With the 4-4-2 last season Milan had at least games where we dominated and played really good. The first two matches this season tell me that we'll once again struggle to achieve domination and a cohesive unit. More importantly, I don't understand why we should play the 4-3-3, because it emphasizes the exact weak spots we have in our team: midfield and wings. This makes our team vulnerable. Napoli managed to capitalize on these points; other teams will do that as well. The defense per se isn't the main issue, it was the midfield and the completely inactive/not dangerous wings. So why would we play 4-3-3? What's the pro argument here again?

As for Montolivo, Han, at this point I'm open to try anyone, Pašalić, Locatelli, Sosa... Anyone. I don't think they can get much worse then Montolivo, but maybe better in some basic elements Monto isn't capable of doing any more?

[han2503]

Yes, we tried the 4-4-2 last season - and it didn't completely fail us, yes? Because the 4-3-3 has also limitations and in the long run I think it won't prove much better/effective. With the 4-4-2 last season Milan had at least games where we dominated and played really good. The first two matches this season tell me that we'll once again struggle to achieve domination and a cohesive unit. More importantly, I don't understand why we should play the 4-3-3, because it emphasizes the exact weak spots we have in our team: midfield and wings. This makes our team vulnerable. Napoli managed to capitalize on these points; other teams will do that as well. The defense per se isn't the main issue, it was the midfield and the completely inactive/not dangerous wings. So why would we play 4-3-3? What's the pro argument here again?

As for Montolivo, Han, at this point I'm open to try anyone, Pa�alić, Locatelli, Sosa... Anyone. I don't think they can get much worse then Montolivo, but maybe better in some basic elements Monto isn't capable of doing any more?

I meant that using the 4-4-2 we struggled to produce chances last season. Obviously we don't know how Montella would implement it differently to how Miha did, so it could work out differently. But with the way we're conceding goals, I wouldn't like to see us struggle to score as well on top of that

Anyway, we'll have to see. Montella could be reluctant to choose such a formation.

As for Monto, you're correct, but I don't think using either Poli or Pasalic would solve any of our problems. With Poli at least I'm pretty sure of this as he simply runs around like a headdless chicken for around 60 minutes then he runs out of steam and becomes an even bigger liability than he was when the game started.

[X-Offender]

With 4-4-2 last season we played our best football in years. We were comfortably 6th and in the Copa final. Then Miha got unjustly sacked and Brocchi changed formation to please Silvio's irrational demands.

4-4-2 is a surefire formation, because it's very basic in concept and any team play with it. It just requires effort and teamwork. Playing 3-5-2 would be a huge experiment that could go very badly for us.