@Dante I agree with you but my proposition is only a temporarily solution. We know that Balo is a game changer and our team at the moment is not great compared to others; I find that placing him in a role close to the midfield allows him to use his abilities more. Like you have pointed out, the team is not a complete unit, which is why we need to depend on certain individuals to carry the team in the mean time, these include El Shaarawy, Taarabt, and Balo.

On the other hand, your proposition is a long term solution which would require the management to work better and provide us with a better team so that we are not dependent on certain individuals.

Seedorf seems to be the coach that understands Balo the best. He understands that he is under a lot of pressure and most criticism is unjustified. I hope we keep him, as I believe that he can help Balo become the player we all know he can be.

•MilanDevil• wrote:@Dante I agree with you but my proposition is only a temporarily solution. We know that Balo is a game changer and our team at the moment is not great compared to others; I find that placing him in a role close to the midfield allows him to use his abilities more. Like you have pointed out, the team is not a complete unit, which is why we need to depend on certain individuals to carry the team in the mean time, these include El Shaarawy, Taarabt, and Balo.

On the other hand, your proposition is a long term solution which would require the management to work better and provide us with a better team so that we are not dependent on certain individuals.

you say you agree , but i dont think you got my point   

Balotelli lacks the attitude and the determination required to play as an offensive midfielder . He has too much of an ego and far less altruism in him to be usefull for this particular role . It's not only technique that makes such a player ; most of all is his play style and even more than that , much more than that , his mentality .

He theoritically speaking , has the quality to make it through , something that is very much required to help in the creation of dangerous goal scoring opportunities. Alright. However , i am not emphasising on his skills in this discussion , because it's something irrelevant when said player doesn't have the right mindset for the role. It's about the mentality of said player ; his unwillingness to sacrifice himself for teammates by instinct and not out of orders or necessity , his unwillingness to pressure like teammates do , make him a player without true altruism in his play and that's something which instantly makes him a no go for that particular role . He's still not the best decision maker either , wherever you place him and you cannot have that there , not in that role.  

Skilled and capable he obviously is , but i struggle to think who can force such a player with such a mentality to occupy and see through such a serious and responsible role . It's a far-fetch , that only if Balotelli himself wanted would happen. And he doesn't , from what is known by his opinion of himself as a player and in general lines , his plays on the field.
 

An egomaniac like Balotelli who's above all still a show-off on the ball , a player who , when he finds himself outside the box , likes to dribble and then shoot from afar , isn't an ideal candidate to even try and band aid our course till the end of this season. You need a player like Kaka and Honda there , though Honda needs to improve his play if he wants to be a starter.

So to conclude my thoughts more carefully. Balotelli doesn't see himself in this role , because he likes to finish off chances himself and occasionally make interesting plays outside the box . If you reverse this , he won't be happy and that's not even the biggest downside , he lacks the attitude to give the role justice and avoid being a burden for his team defensively at the same time. He's a pure CF , with every meaning of the word. That he could utilise his speed and control of the ball outside the box doesn't make him suitable for the role you talk about , rather make him a more complete CF who's not useless out of the box.

That's what he doesn't realise in his fullest of potential yet , imo always , i am totally against that his role is something else than the CF of the team , as of now at least . Even if Seedorf somehow forced him to be closer to the midfield than to the box , he would simply hurt the team more than he would help it on the road. It wouldn't be long untill he faced organised midfielders who would do real work to shut him down.

And if his frustration by the lack of support from his teammates is so obvious at times , just imagine how he would react if he himself couldn't operate like he would like . All that i feel are enough arguements to suggest that Balotelli is a player who's meant to contribute 80% of his football inside or near the box. Anything else is a bonus to the team and not a variation of the player Balotelli .

Perhaps 20 years ago Balotelli could be what you wanted , but not in today's football . Egoistical , alien to alturism players of high skill who had the ball even at halftime on their feet was valid back then , but modern offensive midfielders or more complicated players such as those who can alter between that and false 9 have to be more than that. And Balotelli , isn't even remotely close to be such a player for Milan , especially when he's needed wayy more in the CF role and on top of that , lacks the overall mentality to be of much help there. In my opinion , he would do more damage than help for the team and i find that's important to note ; you don't only need skillfull players making plays , you need a cohesive unit more than anything. Balotelli isn't a player who likes being a part of an organised unit , say in a structured midfield ; he's a soloist , who likes to make other's efforts fruit , so his ego gets to fruit.

That's his character , that's his mentality and that's how he has and continues to use his skills to make plays . Changing that would make him unhappy and unsettled . What Milan could do and maximize his potential near the midfield so , in part , you could maybe see what you want from Balotelli , is if Milan decided it's time to invest on making this team closer to his level of quality. You would see a more willing Balotelli then , for everything.

Now , i didn't mention this earlier as a proposition to make Milan be less dependant on a individual . No , even though Milan has to vastly improve this Milan roster regardless of what we all think , i said it particularly for Balotelli , so that we could be , finally , to be able to depend on him. When Balotelli feels he has a great team behind him , a team that can be on par with him and a team that doesn't expect the world from him , Balotelli shall be much more willing to be a proper teammate and eventually become a real top player for Milan.

Creating a better team behind Balotelli , a team that is competitive with or without him , will free him of many burdens and pressure and will obligate him to feel he has to be helpfull , in order to deserve their praise and respect at the end of the match. Mediocre players and finished ones do not inspire anybody to be better , or do better , at the end of the day.

@Dante, your long posts will kill someone some day   

To summarize my points; I agree with you that Balo is a natural CF however our team can not support him, therefore, I suggest that he temporarily plays in a false 9 position which would put him closer to midfield so that he has more space to take his chances on goal. This positional change should only occur if our management does not upgrade the team next season.

The position that I want him to occupy is a false 9 like Forza has suggested, but I also want him to have a more free role in that position, something like Aguero and Suarez. You highlighted his frustration due to lack of service and even Balo himself said that he moves to the wings because he lacks the support. These points support my argument that we need to give him a more free role that can get him more involved, especially since he is one of our top players.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that I agree with you that, naturally, Balo is a CF but if we don't upgrade our team, we will have to try and get our top players more involved due to lack of quality in other parts of the team.

yeah , i know i have to stop this pos long posts , i feel for you for having read that

I could agree that perhaps , temporarily and selectively , maybe it could work positively against certain oppositions that rely too much on organised defence.. Perhaps there it could prove usefull . I disagree it's viable though , by any means , and regardless of how we invest for next season.

Balo is the player he is and he simply won't accept such a change . Balotelli could play the part in games though , if only periodically. Idk what else to tell you , Balotelli is too static off the ball to give the role justice and with Montolivo , Muntari or Essien being frequently behind him.. damn , it will be very bad how i imagine it , but who knows

And there's also Kaka , where will you play him? on the sides? with Balotelli walking around in the middle ? defensively it sounds bad , but if you could explain it to me , how you envision it , or.. i don't see it

It's basically the exact same thing as we have right now except that Balo is outside the box with a more free role rather than being inside of it. Balo often does get outside the box during games and he does pretty well since he will get the ball more often and thus, can take more chances on goal. I want him to start in this role rather than change to it midgame, since we don't have the players that can support him in his natural role.

Kaka will also have to move closer to the midfield and will have to depend on his technical ability rather than his physical ability; we all know that he no longer has the speed to trouble defenders throughout the game.