Funny how we gave him the #22. I always thought we'd keep up with the tradition started by Kaka.

Only need the one Musacchio Pippo

Hmh?

This guy has really impressed him. Amazing reading of the game...I actually now wonder if we play 4 in the back and Bonucci being a shoo-in, who is going to sit on the bench.

That would be Romagnoli.

I think so too scarily. But just imagine - Romagnoli is our great white hope. Romagnoli and Bonucci in the centre. Ital-Milan etc etc.

http://www.milanfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8683

He's given such a good impression he deserves two threads.

Corrected

Once Romagnoli is fit I can see Montella shifting to a 3 at the back, to leave any one of them on the bench would be a shame

But I don't get it, really. You guys think we can shift back and forth with 3 defenders then 4 defenders in a line as we please? Take Romagnoli comes back in two weeks. Then Bonucci got's suspended for red, and what, we shift back to a 4 line? Or Musacchio gets a knock for a month. We instantly shift back? I seriously doubt this is a good approach. If we're gonna play the 3 back line, we should play it no matter if one of the starter defenders isn't available. It's a very old approach and needs much practice and repetition. A 3 line will only work if everyone is highly connected and in order to achieve this we ought to stick with it and also try mix in Gomez and Zapata.

Hmm, good point

Problem is, Montella hasn't implemented it yet this season aside from a couple of minutes vs Bayern

He won't. We will always play 4 at the back and maybe three in the attack phase with someone shifting up.

Mussachio and Romagnoli being injury prone mean, this isn't a totally bad idea. Zapata can play left back in a pinch, though we've never tried him there.

You mean right back? Zapata is right-footed.

I remember him playing LB for Udinese. I guess he plays both sides.

I'm pretty sure he played RB for Udinese.

CB. RB. LB. He's done the lot.

Let's all forget the fact that he can't pass and play him at LB/RB, sure.

And why would we want to play Zapata in the FM positions anyway, we're well covered there. If we play a 3 at the back though we do need to bring in one other CB once Paletta leaves

We will? You don't think Gomez and Zapata will suffice?

Anyway, somehow I got the feeling that we ain't gonna play the 3 line defense.

If we play 3 at the beck it's cutting it a bit close, especially since we'll have a lot of games next season

We'll see about the formation, but it's baffling that we would forego it when we have the players to fit seamlessly into it while they'd be ill-fitting into a 4-3-3