- you dont seem to be affected by that one bit, you prefer Robinho to Pato ?

Not really, but I don't think it's fair to Robinho considering him scrap paper like you did in your comment.

It's pretty obvious that Robinho would be the one to leave imo.

And it's not like we're going to get a truck load of cash for Pato atm. It would be really bad business for the management to sell him now. Not to mention the fact the both Berlu and Galliani seem to be 100% behind Pato. No matter what you guys think of him. Berlu reiterating that Pato should be playing more, just this weekend says a lot imo.

And who knows? Maybe we'll keep all 5, loan El Shaa and Pippo seems to be heading for the exit as well. Those are 5 top notch strikers right there, is it too much, maybe, but it also could turn out to be very beneficial for us should they all be kept happy. For me, I don't consider Robinho a striker, he's an in betweener. Playing him as an out and out striker is causing major finishing mishaps. He might have missed a few last season when he was playing the AM position but some of the sitters he's missed this season are just astonishing.

If we don't buy an AM this summer, than no doubt all 5 should be kept, with Robinho being made a permanent option for AM imo

Keeping 5 players for 2 positions happy is nearly impossible. Most teams struggle to keep 4 decent strikers happy. That's without the fact that Ibra is too important to drop.

Yeah, it's more like four strikers for one position, considering Ibra is untouchable like he should be. Keeping them all happy, I can't see it. It would meaning changing strikers every game. I'd rather have a consolidated trio instead. So yeah, one between Pato and Robinho should leave.

You guys seem to be forgetting the injuries. Pato spends half the year out, anyway, give or take a week or two. And I don't think Ibrahimović is untouchable. In the sense that the guy needs regular rest, and should come from the bench of not at all when we play smaller sides. More often than not, the Swede burns out come the crunch time.

In fact, if we are aiming for the biggest prizes this year and next (Europe), he needs to last the distance.

Even if you consider all possible negative scenarios, five world class strikers are too much. Especially if you consider their egos, too.

I hear ya, but it would be a disservice to whoever that gets the nudge. 14 goals for all three last season, all three (Pato, Ibra and Robinho) have done their part this season too, up till now anyway. The only solution I see is if we play three forwards each and every match, or either Cassano and/or Tevez starts playing in the hole, the AM position.

And this is discounting both Inzaghi and El Shaarawy. Anyway, apart from Pato everyone can play in the midfield.

Well, in that case, it should be:



A sort of an offensive christmas tree formation. I'm sure it would make Berlusconi very happy.

It makes me happy. I'd say go for it if we do manage to land Tevez. Much more dynamic!

Agreed, with Cassano and Robinho rotating accordingly (or starting when necassary due to injuries and tactical reasons). The midfield would offsett the fact that we'd be so top heavy. I think by playing those 3 we could afford to drop the creatve CM (Aqui).

similar to the wonders its working for napoli with lavezzi,cavani and hamsik, totally agree mate.

Yes, and bring him in the second half, after 60 minutes or so depending on the match situation. If Seedorf says goodbye at the end of this season, and we don't invest in a proper AM then this could/should be our first choice formation. Versatile and hardworking, plus with Pato upfront, lethal.

PS. Change your keyboard, Han.

I love it. KPB and Nocerino can pressure hard defensively. Ibra and Tevez can both drop back to midfield to receive the ball and make plays. This much firepower should demolish any domestic competition. My only slight worry is getting bogged down in midfield against real top European sides but with all that skill up front scoring shouldn't be a problem against anyone. Just need for the three to gain some chemistry. That is if Tevez comes at all haha.

Are you guys for real with this? That's never ever going to work.

If Tevez does the Robinho and act as a hidden trequartista, then it can easily work. Boateng would also be moved to his original position, which is a plus. I mean, right there you've got a rock solid midfield and a top heavy attack. The only problem is that it's completely different from Allegri's current strategy. Does he have the will (and balls) to change?

No, disagreed with all.

The three man attack doesn't work with Pato. His workrate is too little for that.

Moving Boateng to RCM means taking off Aquilani who is our creativity force in midfield. Now there's a lack of creativity in midfield. Besides that Boateng is poor in defending. So you would have only 3 midfielders, and 3 at most are good in defending.

In short: against any proper side we will get smashed. Leonardo style.

The three-man attack is perfect for Pato. Having Tevez and Ibra will create much more spaces for him. He plays with the same formula for Brazil after all, and he usually does well.

As han said, for this kind of formation, sacrificing Aquilani is acceptable. Even if we are depriving ourselves from our only creative source, that's just too attacking power for any opponent.

And if you think Boateng is poor at defending, then I say that he's totally being wasted in attack. The guy is a box-to-box mid for crying out loud! He's no trequartista and he's no winger and he's no striker. RCM is the IDEAL position for him. That formation can work ESPECIALLY because it suits the midfield to a tee.

With Leonardo we had Pirlo, Ambro and Seedorf, Ronaldinho and Pato, and the latter three NEVER tracked back to defend. Here you've got three classic midfielders, two of whom can both defend and attack. And then if Tevez does the Robinho like I mentioned above, we won't be vulnerable to strong opponents.

Who's the playmaker in that team? Just Ibrahimovic?

When you don't play Boateng as AM (which he does well), then it's either him or Nocerino, which should be Nocerino, unless you have an AM (and not 3 forwards) who's creative (which is not the case).. I remember lineups with barely creativity... it end up awful.... now you got the legs, but you need both legs and playmaking... maybe Van Bommel can step up and do the playmaking then?

Also Van Bommel's defending is not super strong anymore, and he needs to make up for poor defending from Boateng, yes he is not good at it, and for the 3 forwards (even if 2 track back, it's big difference from playing with 4 mids)

Playing with four midfielders is not very popular nowadays. You'll notice that most teams play with either 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. It's not necessary to field many role midfielders if the team plays as a unit. Allegri has managed to achieve this.

Playmaking is important, but I've seen Inter (where the only playmaker was Sneijder) win the Champions League beating the toughest opponents. They relied on muscle and pressure to win their games, rather than ball possession and creativity. With that line-up, we can do the same thing.

Anyway, if it was up to me, I'd sign a proper trequartista and play him instead of Tevez in the hole. But not Boateng!

And who will be our Sneijder?


Ah ye, cuz others do, it must work for us also better than 4 mids.

Meh..

Ibra.



It might, it might not. It's still worth trying.

@ Chu, I personally find all your points invalid because you're trying to insist on Boateng playing the AM position. He's simply not that, he's wasted there and putting all the creative responsabilties on Ibra because he simply does not support the 2 strikers as a proper AM should.

Boateng needs to be moved back, especially if Tevez comes.

As for Pato not being a hard worker, it depends on how he's deployed by Allegri, and playing at the head of a xmas tree does not mean you have to be a hard worker either, as long as you have the proper support, than all Pato would have to do is make the runs to receive the ball and open up spaces for Ibra and Tevez.

This. +1

Ye.... not quite yet.... lolzzzzzzzzzzzz

If you can't see the difference between a midfield lead by one of the best playmakers, and two footed also, Sneijder, and a forward who is capable of some playmaking, with having a midfield with close to zero creativity (even Inter's midfield with Sneijder often missed creativity, let alone if Van Bommel is your most creative midfielder, and at the same time the most defensive one), then I'm sorry, but it's not good for my health to continue this.


Boateng plays AM for Milan some time now and does it well. Since Ibrahimovic and Aquilani are creative, but not the fastest players and all, Boateng is a nice add to it. With someone like Boateng it's why we can get so much out of Ibrahimovic and Aquilani.


Ye, and instead of our only creative mid, right? Milan has struggled pretty much every time when they play without a creative midfielder. If we are talking about what most teams do, they have always one or more playmaking midfielders. And Tevez doesn't add the same as Boateng. Boateng is a midfielder, and does still offers more than a hardworking tracking back forward. And that change + Boateng in the midfield 3 makes the team defensively weaker.

You guys are so obsessed with moving back Boateng that you guys don't wanna nor can't see how well Boateng as AM preforms/works. And if anything, it is Boateng deeper in midfield which need to be proven, not him as AM, because that has been proven. He is a good option at AM. Of course, I wish we got someone like Özil there rather, but ye, can't have everything I guess.


If you play with only 3 midfielders, and 3 forwards, better all forwards work hard and track back. Pato usually does close to nothing when it comes to this. For a reason the 3 forward thing never worked with Pato, but did sometimes without Pato. If you wanna 3 forwards, Robinho must play over Pato.

I can't remember what good team had success with no creative midfielders, and our midfielders we have are not good enough to make up for missing the 4th midfielder (unless no Pato, but Robinho, else no shot). Teams like Barça who are the popular ones with the 3 mids, 3 forwads, have much better midfielders than Milan has. Because Barça can keep possession very well, unlike Milan especially with the no playmaker midfield. Also defending wise, Boateng is meh at most, Van Bommel is also not super reliable anymore...

Actually, Ibra has much more vision than Sneijder, but yeah, Sneijder is more suitable since he's a proper trequartista. You do have a point, but like I said, it's worth trying.

@ Chu, I'm really not going to bother writting a huge post, you're trying to tell me that dropping Aquilani is a terrible idea, while insisting on a combative player to be played in a position which neccessitates a creative player.

Many teams play without a creative player in the midfield 3, we're not talking about Barcelona here. If you have that much creative power in attack than a strong midfield who will transition the ball quickly to those attackers is what's needed. And it's not like VB, Boateng and Nocerino are complete headless chickens on the ball, they're not Ambro/Rino type of players where they cannot do anything with the ball aside from pass it a meter or so sideways.

There is a creative player needed, but in midfield there's not? Right on...

And what teams play with no creative mids?

I didn't say there is no creative player needed. Our midfield for me is the diamond i.e those 4 players. And the position that neccessitates a creative player the most is being filled up by a box-to-box guy.

The 3 man midfield can do without a creative player, but the AM position can not, and this is what we're doing and why we rely so much on the strikers to create the goals.

In an ideal world, Aquilani would be ok playing behind the strikers so Boateng can be moved back, this is not the case. So Boateng is being lumped into a position where he's wasted as a player while for the team it works in a negative way because he doesn't provide proper support. And I don't know if you've noticed this, but the type of goals he used to score last season have stopped, simply because it's not as easy as it was for him last season to run into the box from that position since teams know how to mark him out and push him wide. Thus by coming in from a deeper position he would be harder to mark, (like Nocerino, who gives teams headaches running into the box from deep, imagine Boateng with his better speed, shooting, skills; doing what Nocerino does)

Also, last time I checked you didn't care about what other teams did...

This. I'm pretty sure MvB, Noce and Boa can move the ball without problems. They might not provide the usual long pass or through ball, but they're pretty skilled players, so it wouldn't be a problem playing them together.

The AM is not an AM anymore when it's Ibrahimovic. Then it's a forward. I believe any good team has a creative midfielder. You didn't answer my question what team plays without a creative mid. I think you didn't because you think. Try to prove me wrong.


I don't. You guys are the one who want this line-up without a creative mid because apparently other teams also have no creative mid in midfield three. I am the one who doesn't want to try this out you guys are suggesting. You guys are the ones who want to because other teams play with three forwards. So it seems like your blind, so I gonna say it in caps: YOU GUYS CARE ABOUT WHAT OTHER TEAMS DO, I DO NOT.

Every team is different. Sure, we should study our opponents and learn from them, but that does not mean we've got to copy them and kill our innovates.

In one line you're saying you don't care about what other teams are doing and in the other you're asking me to name which team plays without a creative midfielder. I don't feel like I have to answer it since you're contradicting yourself and twisting it to suite your own argument.

As for Ibra, Tevez and Pato, Tevez and Ibra are very creative forwards, who work twice as hard as most other AMs. If we play the diamond than whoever plays in the hole will form part of he midfield, just like Robinho does when he plays there, simply because that is Allegri's system.

Simply insisting on Boateng to keep playing the AM position won't take us anywhere as he's just not doing what needs to be done from an AM.

I'm not contradicting myself, you are being extremely stupid.

The only reason I asked that is because you say there are teams that do that: which is an attempt by you proving your own point. Now, I didn't believe that was a good point. So I asked you to name an example, so that either you couldn't or I could use your example against you again.

And you still didn't answer it, lolz. To me you only prove you talk out of your butt.

Can't feel bothered to read the rest if you're being that stupid.

Errr....attack the post..not the poster buddy. You need to tone it down a bit.

To your entire post. Nice try at insulting me. I won't retaliate with my own jibe as that would mean dropping to your level. Piece out, talk to me when you want to debate like an adult instead of a child throwing insults when he's backed into a corner

You really think I was trying to insult you?

Lolzzzz... all I said is you were being stupid... BEING stupid, oh noes, the horror, the pain......

But if I can't even make a proper discussion with han anymore on here. Then my time here has past.

Calling someone stupid is always an insult. Just because you're not agreeing with me does not mean I'm stupid, especially seeing as most posters agreed with the line-up posted by x-off, and that is what we're discussing atm. Does that mean all those people are stupid because they don't view things as you do??

You're the one that reduced the discussion to petty insults my friend. If you cannot handle someone disagreeing with you than obviously you shouldn't be on a forum since it is built on people having differing oppinions and discussing those different oppinion ins a civilised manner

Both formations are feasable,it's not a right and wrong situation IMO.It depends on some factors:

-Boateng might not get accustomed to his new role,or he might explode.
-Tevez or Ibra might not go back and work hard as much as we need them to.
-Allegri:assuring that the system would work well and efficiently with balance.

Our current tactics aren't that bad,but having a plan B also will not hurt.A formation for the champions leauge and a formation for the leauge.The formation with Boateng as attacking midfield provides us with a high work rate formation,and depends on the creativity of our strikers,and the insertions from midfield.

While,with the 4-3-3,the balance might decrease a bit.But,hey...Ibrahimovic has been everywhere for us this season.He defends on corners,pressures defenders,goes back on freekicks...And no matter how much Kurt keeps harping about Tevez's personality;his work-rate on the field,and willingness to work for the team is second to none.(when he actually gets on the field ;p)

To sum it up,both are good formations.And,it would be nice if we can alternate them depending on the opponent.

Hope this settles it

Sure, but apparently you're stupid for thinking the formation x-off posted would work

omg, han, that's not even the reason i said you were being stupid

it's about the part you think i contradict myself, that i was the one that cared bout what other teans do which is both false and ironic

i thought i explained that clearly.....

and there's nothing wrong with being stupid; everyone is at times

I think you're missing the entire point of it chu. No matter what you think of my oppinions argue them with valid points, not call me stupid in retaliation of me contradicting you. In reality it only makes you look bad. And if you think I'm the only one who has a problem with you throwing the word stupid around at people, check the post jack made right after you posted that. It's clearly something which is not accepted, had you said thast to another poster who took offence and reported you, a mod would have had to take action. I myself laughed at it because you made my points more clear when you resorted to name calling Someone else wouldn't find it so funny

that's the prob here: you think that, but that's not the case

and it wasn't about your opinion, but you not understanding the following no matter how often I tried to explain it:



and then you come with this I am contradicting myself and twisting it to suite my own argument, it annoyed me that you didn't understand it and came with bs talk about me - it's more insulting to say I did that to suite my own argument, in my opinion more than saying one being stupid when he actually is being that at that time

I mean, if you don't take the gentle way to ask me first what I meant, instead of coming with that BS talk about me, then I would have been more gentle too. Now I just didn't care one bit about that.

but of course, as long you don't use bad words, you can say all the **** about others you want to. It happens all the time on this forum by most posters, surely the active ones. I seriously am annnoyed by the attitude here.

I don't care if I look bad, because I would welcome my own departure here very much, and might will very soon. No point really to be on two Milan forums anyway, I guess. The irony is I am considered by most people to be one of the nicest posters there (it showed during forumers awards). That's what you guys (attitude) do with me here...

Again, you don't get it chu, so let's stop it, me feeling that you are contradicting yourself and you calling me stupid is not the same thing or me saying that is worse than you calling someone stupid. And I don't know in which universe it would constitute as such.

I still feel you are wrong in your ideas in regards to Boateng and where he should play and that is the main point of this.

I did get it, han, I get it all. Just not showing it enough, because I don't necessary agree and tried to explain something you still didn't get.



Here we see you mentioning other teams playing with no creative player in the midfield 3. You used what other teams do as reason why Milan should do that - X-Offender's line-up - (also). This means you were the one who cares about what other teams do. I didn't (instead I said I don't think it would work for Milan even if it works with other teams - because they have better midfielders than we do have for example, I said). I did wonder though what teams you had in mind. I couldn't think of one, so your argument was not really strong to me. I needed examples, so I asked for them. How was that me caring what other teams do?

And no matter how often I tried to explain this, you failed to understand and talk about me contradicting myself, and twisting stuff, and refusing to answer the question. So I was like WTF?!!?! And got annoyed by it. It had NOTHING to do with you wanting to play a certain line-up. (It had to do with HOW you responded to it. - The last zillion posts weren't about the line-up / how we should play anymore.)

I think we're just going around in circles chu. I'm reading back through the posts, and you do have a point (see I'm a big enough person to admit that), I think I might have misunderstood something you posted due to the way it was worded and it seemed like you were using other teams to make your point, but after reading it carefully twice over I get what you were trying to do. That being said, you never tell someone they are stupid, and that is the entire point of my last few posts. Sometimes written words lose their meaning when you're just reading them instead of listening to someone say the actual statement.

Anyway, to answer that question I'll name 2 teams. Chelsea, who play Ramires, Meireles and Romeu/Lamps/Mikel. None of those are creative players, they're all runners who provide energy from deep. Man U also usually play with 2 holding mids and rely a lot on Rooney dropping deep and spreading play to their wingers.

Barca go to an extreme, while Real use Xabi Alonso as a holding mid as well that distributes the ball to their forwards. They rely on Ozil, this season Di Maria somtimes due to Ozil's form, for creativity

I think we can all rest the case now.

Let's see,he's in great form atm...only if he can keep it up.

I hope he can. The Robinho we've seen against Arsenal would be nothing but welcome in the future here at Milan.

Robinho has changed his jersey number to 7, which was available after Pato took Inzaghi's 9.