Between 2003 to 2007, Milan was blessed with a midfield that was by far the best in Europe, featuring Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf, and a certain Ricky Kaka, all of whom were in their prime.

While Gattuso was an out and out defense minded midfielder, Pirlo and Seedorf were very much orchestrators in the middle of the park who weren't known for their defending or hard tackling; rather, they were known for their sublime technical play, ability on the ball, and ease at which they picked apart the opposition. This Milan under Ancelotti was a joy to watch and dominated Europe like few have done in the past.

Fast forward half a decade. The milan midfield now, for whatever reason, is completely unbalanced: Nocerino, MVB, Ambrosini, Gattuso, Flamini, Muntari and Strasser are all defensive midfielders, while only a 36 year old Seedorf and Aquilani are left to share the creative burden.

Now comes the crucial question- is the reason we have been playing 3 DM's Allegri's fault, or rather Galliani's? One one hand, Galliani has loved to purchase defense minded midfielders- Nocerino, Muntari, MVB and now potentially Traore. Is this because Allegri has requested these types of players? Or perhaps because these were the only midfielders out there available for free/cheap?

Whatever be the case, there is a crazy imbalance, lack of quality and creativity in our midfield currently. If Ancelotti could make a midfield of 3 creative midfielders work with a similar system, why on Earth are Galliani and Allegri love playing 3 DM's so much? That is the reason why we look like a relegation threatened team when we play the bigger sides, and why are record against them is so poor.

Do you think this trend will continue into next season? Or do you think the imbalance in midfield will be ironed out with departures and arrivals? Who's fault do you think the 3 DM formation is?

One final note: against a team like Bologna at home, why on Earth do we play 3 DM's? Against Barca it's one thing but Bologna?

muntari,nocerino,flamini are not DM. they are b2b midfielders. we rate them as DM because of their lack of creativity/goal scoring instincts. but they are not DM

as for your question, im gonna have to say its allegris fault. hes the one who demands these players. Remember, Allegri is building this team to be a bully, a physical presence. A running driving force to tire the opponent out by always pressing them. Thats why Andrea Pirlo left. Cuz he aint that.

Also, its not like as if we dont have any midfield creativity. its just that hes so stubborn at always choosing the same fkin players. and that what i have against him since day 1. he aint a bad coach. but damn hes stubborn.

Merkel,Aquilani,Seedorf is more than enough creativity for me in the Mid. Injuries have played a big part in our season and it seems to me that its always the creative ones that get hurt Allegri has to work with what hes got, and for now its now much. so ill say, its his fault because hes the one who demands these types of players, but its also not his fault that hes kinda handcuffed in his choices.

I, like everyone else is very surprised in Nocerinos work this year. Hes got 10 goals which is amazing yes, but to my eyes he should be a Bench player. isnt a great tackler, isnt creative, just a pure runner.

a guy like Aquilani has to always be in the Starting lineup, but he has to be flanked by 1 powerhouse Destroyer (like the good old Gattuso days) and 1 horse (definition of horse for me is, KPB)

so ya thats my opinion Its kinda, sort of not kind of allegris fault if you know what i mean and hes a stubborn B*stard

yea whether it is b2b or DM... i think physical presence and workrate is the only advantage there, but the midfield so badly lacks creativity and ability to dictate and orchestrate the team, whether that is to spread ball, to keep possession or to provide quality ball and service for the forward to finish it. that is what it is lacking in our team, and this problem is pretty much existent in CL. and now its becoming a problem for us domestically as well at times, or should i say quite frequently.

whoever keeps the possession will rule the game, this is the universal truth in football and so many times we have seen successful winning team do that, like our team of last decade did exactly that, barcelona does that. thats what made us successful and thats what barcelona is making them successful. and if we give ball away and allegri just thinks having DM with two b2b players will give us enough strength in attack and defense thats wrong. i havent seen at all during allegris helm that we are keeping possession most of the time, even if we were winning.

im getting fed up nowadays that this is becoming such a frequent mentality and approach to the game.

i just wonder by the end of the season whether allegri and technical directors briada even discuss the entire season and what is needed in the team. because big clubs always do and should be doing.

if allegri keeps on playing wtih this tactics, and not having possession, we will never ever do well in CL.

maybe domestically its ok but never ever in CL.... and this will obviously lead us to making the entire team park the bus and not playing a good posession game in big stages.

I think to be considered "box to box" you need to be good going forward, as well as good defending... Flamini and Muntari are crap going forward, while Nocerino, despite his goals, is pretty mediocre.

I dont expect how Allegri expects the ball to get from the defence to the attack with a midfield of Muntari, MVB and Nocerino... and our trequarista is 36..

KR10 wrote:I think to be considered "box to box" you need to be good going forward, as well as good defending... Flamini and Muntari are crap going forward, while Nocerino, despite his goals, is pretty mediocre.

I dont expect how Allegri expects the ball to get from the defence to the attack with a midfield of Muntari, MVB and Nocerino... and our trequarista is 36..

yeah man this midfield need more brains than physical ferociousness. should allegri do that, im fully convinced, team will much better

I dont care if its 3dms are not,Nocerino-Mvb-Muntari is without a doubt the worst mid of top teams,even inter has a better mid with cambiasso,poli,guarin and sneijder

I think the blame has to go to Allegri on this. I admire him and think he is doing a good job with the team, but we have so much more potential. Allegri is stubborn, I agree with that statement completely. It is really hard to judge him with playing the same players at the same time though. With our injury plagued season there were MANY MANY times where he really had no choice.

We need some more creativity in the midfield, if we don't get that this summer, I am calling it from now, we are screwed in the CL. We will get top 3 in the league but nothing more. I feel bad for our strikers because they are the ones who need to create and finish! If Ibra had better support behind him, the number of more goals he would score would be ridiculous. He has 20+ goals and more than half of those, he created.

It was nice to see Cassano and Aquilani against Bologna, the minute they came on the field you could see some more creativity start to spark but by than it was too late. It gets extremely frustrating seeing the ball launched in the air almost every time we have possession and pray Ibra controls it and finishes. Why Allegri didn't start with those types of players I still don't understand.

Ganso wrote:I dont care if its 3dms are not,Nocerino-Mvb-Muntari is without a doubt the worst mid of top teams,even inter has a better mid with cambiasso,poli,guarin and sneijder

It should be

Nocerino - MvB - Aquilani
Cassano

I think Cassano would be better behind Ibra and there will also be Aquilani in the 3 man mid. I really feel Nocerino deserves to be in the starting XI. Remember he does have 10 goals and he runs forever. He definitely isn't a liability of any sort.

But I do agree with you Ganso, those 3 together in the mid is one of the worst for top teams.

+1 milan31, Ganso

absolutely spot on.... those 3 is the worst lineup i can think of, and like milan31 said thats how the midfield is supposed to be, one solely focused on marshalling defense thats MVB, one box to box as nocerino giving work rate focusing more on defense and occassionally help out in attack, and aquilani to spread ball servicing more for forwards.

thats absolutely kind of a midfield i want to see consistently.

my best possible realistic lineup for next season

-Nocerino-Montolivo-Aquilani
-------------Boateng------------
-------Ibra------------Cassano---

i said realistic,so no ganso

If players are injured, you can't do anything about that.

Conversely, when he has Merkel free and plays 3 DMs instead, that really annoys me.

Forza Rossoneri wrote:If players are injured, you can't do anything about that.

Conversely, when he has Merkel free and plays 3 DMs instead, that really annoys me.

Where is Merkel I thought he was in full training again!?

maybe his current approach explains one of the reasons why pirlo was allowed to leave. that allegri doesnt like playing with a playmaker who doesnt have to defend much. he just want player who defend much than attack in midfield.

I really fail to see how Milan has improved this season. Can we blame on Milan lab for so many injured players?Referees mistakes? Allegris conservative approach??Its such a shame,I think Milan deserves the scudetto more than Juve

red&blacklegion wrote:I really fail to see how Milan has improved this season. Can we blame on Milan lab for so many injured players?Referees mistakes? Allegris conservative approach??Its such a shame,I think Milan deserves the scudetto more than Juve

I think IF we don't win the Scudetto it would be the best thing for us. Maybe it will make Galliani realize WE NEED SOME NEW PLAYERS!

I won't lose hope on the Scudetto till the last week though, still plenty of games left, so you never know..

The only positive thing I can see about using the 3 DMS midfield is that we are flooded with creativity upfront; Ibra, Cassano, Robinho and SES are all creative, he relies on the attack to create rather than the midfield, that means that against small teams, where we control the play our attack will have all the time in the world to create, however against big teams we can't control the game and our attack will be inefficient.

With all the rumours of us not purchasing Aquilani, it makes sense that Allegri is not playing him so that he doesn't reach his 25 game quota. I feel bad for Aquaman, he's so much better than Muntari.

Another question- why is Allegri so against playing a second striker(Cassano/SES) in the AM position, especially when Boateng is injured?? Emanuelson and Seedorf are clearly useless there

If we're actually not playing Aquilani simply to avoid buying him then I'll be furious. If we're not playing him for reasons other than the on field benefit of the team, then how can we justify not purchasing him for 6 million? He doesn't need to be a long term starter, however we need depth and tactical flexibility to grow, he offers a hell of a lot more than Muntari long term.

If we keep Muntari and let Aquilani go, that would just be embarrassing and it would be really scary to think of the future of Milan

MUNTARI MUST GO.

I have a feeling that the only reason he is there is that he played at Portsmouth when Boateng was there.