The San Siro is poised to go up in flames tomorrow night when Milan take on Barcelona once again in this season’s Champions League Round of 16 tie.
To say that Milan are underdogs would be an understatement of massive proportions; Barcelona have been masters of all they surveyed for majority of this season whilst the Rossoneri’s start to the season would not have been imagined by even Allegri’s worst detractors. The team has been slowly building momentum for a while now and whilst now 3rd in Serie A, the team is yet to convince that they are on THAT level yet and one feels this challenge comes a tad too soon.
However this is a challenge that must be faced and the onus falls on Massimiliano Allegri to fashion out a suitable stategy on how his team takes on the Catalans. In six tries he’s never gotten it right and with infinitely better teams in each of his previous attempts, this would be the toughest yet ;and with limited individual brilliance in this team a superb technical and tactical performance is going to be needed if the Rossoneri are not to end up red faced after 90 minutes.
DAI!!!!! DAI!!!! DAI!!!!!
So how should we approach this game; after countless tactical tinkering in the early part of the season featuring every formation under the sun, Allegri finally settled on a 4-3-3 which has powered our renaissance thus far. The 4-3-1-2, which had been the mainstay of Allegri’s first two seasons as Milan manager was discarded because it did not bring the best out of this current team. The 4-3-1-2 heavily relies on the trequartista for all creativity and with Allegri redefining that position by putting workaholic Boateng over there, that burden fell on Zlatan Ibrahimovic upfront.
What this meant was that the traditional trequartista duties were shelved, instead making the Ghanaian the first line of defence whenever the ball was lost. He was tasked with pursuing possession aggressively whenever it was lost upfront and he often harried the opposition’s most creative player. The problem this season was without Zlatan to carry the creative burden, the team was left toothless in attack since Boateng could not conjure up any no 10 magic, and Allegri employed the 4-3-3 as a means of getting the best out of everyone, especially Stephan El Shaarawy.
The problem is for a game like tomorrow’s, where Milan are going to be on the defensive for majority of the game, it makes little sense to position two men wide behind a central striker. It’s highly likely 70% of the game is going to be spent trying to win the ball, and the best bet would be packing the middle to try to restrict the slick passing movement of Barcelona. A reversion to 4-3-1-2 also gives us the opportunity to task Boateng to stay strictly in the middle to try and stop attacks from the source, instead of sticking him wide right.
ALLEGRI'S UNORTHODOX TREQUARTII
Allegri’s new definition for the trequartista in going to be more important tomorrow than anytime else since he took over, and his ‘chosen one’ Kevin Prince Boateng would be crucial if we are to get anything tomorrow. This unconventional need for a workhorse at the no 10 position is what enabled Allegri to play Urby Emmanuelson as a trequartista, and he did a mighty fine number on Andrea Pirlo in last year’s ghost goal game. Something similar like that would be needed tomorrow in a game that resembles Mission impossible so much we might need Tom Cruise for that trequarti role.
Personally I never liked Allegri’s 4-3-1-2, I always reckoned it made us too narrow and a tad predictable, but I realise it has its uses and this game looks like one of them. It’s not often I agree with Berlusconi and Gianfranco in one day, but in this case I have to realise the wisdom in these assertions and hope Allegri does too.
Luckily for us, nobody expects much from us so we can relax and try to enjoy this game. Our little renaissance could use a massive boost, and nothing boosts a team more than the biggest scalp in football now. It is unlikely, but we are Milan, and we are nothing if European powerhouses, so write us off at your own peril.
But that we had Balotelli!! *sigh*.
MY PROJECTED XI (4-3-1-2)
Abbiati
Abate, Zapata, Mexes, Constant
Montolivo, Ambrosini, Muntari
Prince
El Shaarawy, Pazzini
Nii Smiley Byte
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