http://www.football-italia.net/68605/official-milan-sign-luiz-adriano

Thoughts?

It's Luiz, not Luis.

It's like calling Christinith, Christina. She don't like to be called that brev.

Luiz Adriano hours after Bacca went official .

The vast majority of the 'easy-obvious / tap-ins' goals that our strikers used to miss the last 2 years are going to be scored now , starting from next season . This season and the previous one , even if we created opportunities for our strikers , they missed too many chances they should have scored . At the very least , a forward worthy of Milan would have . Well , we just secured that and also! the depth of our forward line with Luiz Adriano . And Adriano means no Matri at all , obviously. I'd say , very good news indeed.

Luiz Adriano is guaranteed goals. His finishing and first touch is very good and he's decent at link up play . Will make Pazzini look like a Serie B forward. Really happy we got him , actually . We will always have someone who can actually finish his chance at any moment come next season , no matter who's playing .

No.Matter.What

At this point , the words of the Presidente , that Milan is after 3 strikers are all but confirmed. The cherry on top is supposed to be Ibrahimovic , but that will be a particularly difficult move to pull off . The plan is probably this :

Ibra-Bacca and Adriano with Niang for back up and rotation . And they will be playing quite a lot , because Bacca runs too much in games and he will 100% need to be rotated/subd at times and Ibra , if he does eventually come , is 34 , he will have his rest here and there. There will be more than enough room for Adriano , and also Niang .

There won't be room for them , doe ; There's no doubt whatsoever now , we can expect Menez and Cerci to be sold . Ibra-Bacca-Adriano-Niang is more than enough for the forward line , with SES to fill , if ever necessary . More than enough for the 4-3-1-2 .

Anyway , Adriano isn't a world beater by any means , but he's a very good CF who can score important goals for Milan. Big question is , just how many ??? If Ibrahimovic returns , he will be a depth option , along with Niang . If not , Bacca-Adriano is obviously our attacking duo... however , it will require some very balsy midfield to pull it off .

As far as i can see , i am sure Ibra is our n1 target for the summer , everything makes sense with Ibrahimovic . Any of the two next to Ibra would be a fantastic scenario , imho . For the moment , i am very pleased with our mercato tbh . We're finally getting in-form players , with a plan in mind , players that will suit each other , never mention all the youngsters and the fact we got an actual coach.

Hype is rising

Don't call me James wrote:It's Luiz, not Luis.

It's like calling Christinith, Christina. She don't like to be called that brev.

Changed.

Dante, you really think we'll still get Ibra? This signing kinda made me think Bacca-Adriano would be our front line.

But yes, as you said, I'm getting more excited for next season by the day. If we get Witsel and Romagnoli I'd say we'd be looking very good indeed for CL spots.

Also congrats on the signigns. I rate both Bacca and Luiz Adriano. Going in the right direction.

I am not sure if Galliani can make it happen , if i am to be totally honest , but i am sure he will try . I have no doubts that Ibrahimovic is part of the 3 strikers that Berlusconi said . Both Bacca and Adriano make sense next to Ibrahimovic , together ... it remains to be seen i guess. They would certainly need time to create an on the field bond , let's say.

Bacca and Adriano are more or less the same type of CF , the difference is in the personal characteristics of each player. You don't exactly need 2 poachers who expect the final pass all the time ... one of the two will have to make sacrifices in order for it to work. Well , they aren't just poachers , Bacca works a lot off the ball and Adriano is really good at holding the ball and decent at link up , but it remains questionable if they would be a viable duo , at all times that is .

Seeing as our target is a CL place , i am almost convinced the plan is Ibrahimovic - Bacca .

Ibrahimovic is the link to everything in the final third , because neither Adriano nor Bacca can even remotely do the things that Ibra can pull off . In fact , next to Ibra , both of them will have the time of their lives really . Not only they can expect quality last-passes from him and fantastic link up play in order to finish off chances , but all the headers and tap ins are going to be theirs , in comparison to the last time Ibra was around .

Ibra may be a CF , but his play is nothing like a pure target man , he's much more than that if he must. Which is all Bacca and Adriano are . And frankly , with Ibra next to either of them , the pressure will be less on them and they will be more relaxed and play like they know how , they won't be over doing it to impress or achieve results.. that's just Ibra's thing and he doesn't even feel pressure doing it.

I can really go on about how awesome Ibra-Bacca , or Ibra-Adriano , could be . And if 20m for Bertolacci , 30m* for Bacca and 8m for 6 months away from free Adriano is any kind of indication , the moment Milan gets the ok that Ibra can go , it will be the moment we will sign Ibrahimovic , no matter what they will ask for a fee and no matter how much Ibrahimovic will want.

PSG just got rid of their FFP issues , they are free to spend. Ibra is 34 on 12+ a year and they have Cavani . I am eagerly anticipating PSG making their moves in this transfer market ; getting a big star means Ibra to Milan might become possible , especially if they reinforce all over the place like they are expected to.

It will still be very difficult , but it could actually happen . And finally , something last but not least . Leonardo said Ibra needs to be happy and play wherever he feels happy , at this point in his career . He specificaly said he won't be the same player otherwise , which imho , it is a huge sign a potential transfer isn't out of the question .

If Ibra wants Milan and PSG has a great mercato , Ibra to Milan is possible this summer. Aways very difficult , but possible . I definitely do not exlude Ibrahimovic because of Adriano , on the contrary , i think it's a sign that the ground is being prepared for Ibrahimovic .

If we can't land Ibrahimovic in Milan , then it will be trickier... Adriano-Bacca could work without Ibra , but the AM and one of the two , would always have to sacrifice something in order for it to work .

Just like Shevchenko used to do for Inzaghi , or Crespo . The thing is , not sure who of Bacca-Adriano could pull of being a legit second striker , that's why i am convinced they are meant to be fighting for the same position , the two of them. They are similar as players and , next to Ibra , any duo makes so much sense .

I still remember Ibrahimovic saying out of all the forwards , he preffered to play with Inzaghi , who was a world class poacher . It makes things simple and effective at that . With 2 pure 9 up front , someone will have to adapt no matter what and the midfield would have to be sublime to provide support as much as they can .

With Ibra next to either of them , even Poli can attempt a long-ass through ball and find Ibra's left leg or something ... and you would have Ibra being Ibra there , making things happen. Do the same with either Bacca-Adriano and it's questionable if they could even get hold of the ball..

anyway , we'll see obviously.. but i remain optimistic , as of now . I think the very least we can expect is a strong push for Ibrahimovic , but only after PSG make their moves. Ibra's case will be clear in mid-late August , i doubt we will know before hand .

How im feeling right now =

#Richboyz

It feels like we have spent more this summer already than the 3 previous years put together ffs

Still 1 more forward , 1 more midfielder and at least 1 more CB to go . If they have any brains left after all of this , get Darmian too

If this was last year or a year before that. You can bet that we wouldnt have signed Adriano and would just wait for him to come for free in january FFS.

Anyways, Nastasic + Darmian would be amazing signings. I would be ecstatic with either one of them at this point.

I hope the last signings would include Ibra, Witsel, and Laporte.

Dante wrote:It feels like we have spent more this summer already than the 3 previous years put together ffs

Still 1 more forward , 1 more midfielder and at least 1 more CB to go . If they have any brains left after all of this , get Darmian too

Ibrahimovic(Niang) - Bacca(Adriano)
El Shaarawy(Suso)
Bertolacci(Bonaventura) - Witsel(Jose Mauri)
Montolivo(De Jong)
Antonelli(De Sciglio) - Romagnoli(Mexes) - Nastasic(Paletta) - Darmian(Abate)
Diego Lopez(Abbiati)

Do you think you will get half of those players

Welcome

Not sure about this signing. He is a good player but I hope management does not forget defence and midfield again.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

Dante wrote:It feels like we have spent more this summer already than the 3 previous years put together ffs

Still 1 more forward , 1 more midfielder and at least 1 more CB to go . If they have any brains left after all of this , get Darmian too

Ibrahimovic(Niang) - Bacca(Adriano)
El Shaarawy(Suso)
Bertolacci(Bonaventura) - Witsel(Jose Mauri)
Montolivo(De Jong)
Antonelli(De Sciglio) - Romagnoli(Mexes) - Nastasic(Paletta) - Darmian(Abate)
Diego Lopez(Abbiati)

Do you think you will get half of those players

pls we rich

nah , i don't expect them to come actually

but we will get 1 more striker , a midfielder and at least one CB more , since Rami left . All these players are potential targets we are after , maybe except Darmian , who is just my wish entirely.

All the rest are on Milan's list and if they want to come , money won't be the issue tbh . Ibra and Witsel e.t.c will be difficult , but it's not out of the question imo .

@ As for Laporte , he's 20 years old with a buy out clause of 40-50m , what was it . There's simply no way Milan would spend that kind of money on him , completely out of the question. One can offer that money for Hummels ffs , or other top CBs... don't even bother with Laporte , this is just media bs.

Still can't believe we chose to pay for a player, in full, rather than wait for his contract to end in 6 months

Says a lot about this campaign IMO

Dante has perfectly summarised Galliani's master plan. I am concerned about what will happen if we can't get Ibra but in any case I'm almost certain he will arrive. It may come very late in the market however but if he's not in Milan with two days left, expect some of the greatest headlines in French history to be made.

I feel that if we went forward without Ibra, it would be Adriano who would be the more useful of our two new forwards, however with a smaller price tag and a likely place on the bench to begin with I don't think he'll be able to generate the momentum to bench Bacca but it will be great to have a reliable forward on the bench to bring on after a few years of misery.

Adriano will only be considered a bench option with Ibrahimovic here . Elsewise i am not really sure what may happen . In any case , Bacca - Adriano ... it is questionable if it could work sufficiently , at least sufficient enough for a top 3 finish that is .

Ibrahimovic simply has to be the basis for this all to work , elsewise we may as well even drop the 4-3-1-2 from week 1 tbh. In any case , Ibra or not , a 3rd and final forward will come . But if it's not meant to be Ibra , we can expect the alternative to be far below Ibra's level , captain obvious point , but it remains very important . Damnit , it will most likely be Menez stay and play SS , and how well that is going to work . Better hope Ibra comes .

As for Ibrahimovic , i still don't understand what the French have against him . I really like the French , but this threatens to change things , how can anyone in their right mind want Ibrahimovic out of his team / league / whatever their issue is

Sadly there were a few Milan fans of the same type , here and there , guess there are gems everywhere.. i mostly laugh at these things , but when i think it more seriously , i just conclude these people should honestly rethink what they know about football , cause it's pretty obvious they don't know wtf they are talking about . I mean , the Milan fans of that side got their wish alright and we all know how well that turned out , there was even a Milan-funeral after his sale ffs

All i wish for this summer , is that the French fans who want him to leave PSG/Ligue 1 , get their wish granted . Let it be ffs , let it be . Let's see how better their team / league is going to look without Ibra in it .

La Republicca claim that PSG would be willing to part with Ibra for 10m (they're the ones that broke the Bee story first)

Not sure how would they know this in particular , seems more like an educated guess to me.. but i surely wish they know what they're saying .

10m ?? pff , give them the money and run . We gave 8m for Luiz Adriano , 10m to get Ibrahimovic back makes me smile right now .

I really wish Ibrahimovic returns , but i think we won't find out before August really . PSG have to make their moves first .

To be honest I think it's more a reaction to Ibra clearly not liking France. He's the star of the league and yet he's spent half his time talking about how much he misses Milan and Italy.

If he weren't to come, I certainly wouldn't want us to play both up top together. You can't possibly hope to bring in someone of Ibrahimovic's quality but switching to the 4-3-3 at least allows us to use all of our signings in their proper positions and then search for a true upgrade at RW instead of our ill fitting short term fixes in the position. I'd have suggested the 4-2-3-1 if not for Bertolacci's purchase, though I think we'll see it used still as a formation to chase a result in the final quarter of an hour.

We're still left with the same issue of service but we've plenty of time to fix it. Just like Bacca at Sevilla, Adriano's used to having the ball laid on for him in the box by Shakhtar's endless stream of interchangeable Brazilian attacking midfielders. I do think he's actually a bit more clever than Bacca when it comes to his link ups which might give him the edge in Sinisa's books but the first chance to succeed will go to the more expensive player.

I wish Ibra would join early as that would make it easier for us to sign other players and would give Miha enough time to develop his team ahead of the start of the season.

Well , one can't blame neither Ibra nor the French then , Milan and Italy

Still find it ridiculous tbh, read there was a poll where the majority of PSG fans wanted him out , incredible really.

As for 4-3-3 , how does it allow us to use all our signings? Bacca and Adriano can only play as the CF in 4-3-3 , not sure if they have what it takes to play elsewhere. Unless you mean one of them as back up of course. The thing with the 4-3-3 is that we need wingers , no matter how strange it sounds .

You have one SES and that's it . Cerci is more of a SS nowdays , certainly won't make 3rd with Cerci at right wing all season .. then there's Menez who could , theoriticaly at least do it , but the dude thinks he's always playing the lone sriker up front , it won't even be 4-3-3 with him . Then there's Honda and Suso , big nope , unless we want to have a repeat season . I'd have Quaresma from Porto right now and play him there , than see Honda on the right wing again , fed up .

And as if that isn't enough , 4-3-3 with De Jong at anchor , yeah , it didn't work so far , it won't magically change next season either . 4-3-3 needs a very high quality midfield and not ball winners and long ball 'specialists' that we currently have , except Bertolacci maybe . Let me tell you a midfield we would need for the 4-3-3 , Kovacic/Eriksen-Montolivo-Moutinho , with wingers SES/decent back up and Insigne or Lamela on the right , again with a decent back up.

This would still leave Niang with no playing time as well , or back to the usual BS at right wing again . 4-3-3 is the biggest nope for next season , tbh.

At least the 4-2-3-1 the wingers opperate differently and the play will be much more straight forward and less reliant on talent and individual brilliance to pull it off , maybe then you could have a player like Honda at the right wing , here and there... but we still won't be making top 3 like this .

4-2-3-1 , and only without Ibra , could work if we got 1 very strong winger for the right wing and at least 2 back up options. Still you have to sell Cerci , Menez and Honda anyway , because they clearly can't give their best in a proper 4-2-3-1 . Honda could play AM , but he's too slow and unreliable at tight spaces . Whatever the case , with Honda as a regular you don't make top 3 finish , period .

Agreed on Adriano . As for the service , i hope the final midfielder is Witsel , he'd be a fantastic addition to the midfield. I read Russian teams will have to play more Russians or something next season and Zenit have too many foreigners right now , very likely that Witsel is on the go .. If the price is all that halts that deal , i expect it to be sorted out eventually. Witsel would leave Montolivo and De Jong to fight it out at anchor , which is fine with me.

Bertolacci-Monty/NDJ-Witsel will be more than enough to be honest , no matter how questionable it seems right now. Let's not forget the coaching of this season . Things will change . I expect certain players to be like new signings this season , just their mentality getting a boost will make a serious difference , let alone all these players around them who are by all means massive upgrades to the likes we had this season .

I think if Emery's 3 DM Sevilla with Banega in front of them provided enough support for Bacca to score like he did , well then , i am pretty sure Bertolacci-Montolivo-Witsel with Antonelli/De Sciglio LB can certainly do the trick . If only we were as combative and precise as Sevilla .. with that midfield and attack ?? We will be in for a treat if Mihajlovic does a good job tbh . Ibra and Witsel will take this team to the next level , Galliani simply must make these transfers happen .

•MilanDevil• wrote:I wish Ibra would join early as that would make it easier for us to sign other players and would give Miha enough time to develop his team ahead of the start of the season.

Excellent point and i certainly wish so myself , however it's well known it won't be easy and it certainly doesn't just depend on Milan , or Ibrahimovic , for that matter .

It's all about PSG . They must make their signings and hope they get a big star for the summer . Even then nothing is certain , they must be persuaded to let Ibra go . Leonardo hinted at it actually by saying Ibra needs to be happy to be the player he is . And if he really wants Milan , there will be something sooner or later .

Sooner is unlikely imho , but on the other hand , you never know .

I was taking one of Bacca and Adriano to be a back up in the 4-3-3 as one will essentially play that role in the 4-3-1-2 in any case. They'll play in their proper position but from the bench.

The reason I made the comment however was Bertolacci. He's made really for the three man midfield. Even if he does end up playing behind the strikers for us, Mihjalovic will interpret the position very differently to a typical number 10. Could he play in the 4-2-3-1? Yes, I think he could, but we'd be using him quite differently to what he is used to. In the same vein, our prospective signing Mauri is tailor made for a three man midfield, not that I could care less if the system we use doesn't fit him. He's not good enough to worry about accommodating.

If we moved to the 4-3-3 we'd certainly need further purchases. I wasn't meaning to say that our market could finish merely that it suits the qualities of those we have brought in. We'd need to bring in a very good RW and then back ups for both flanks and really another two midfielders in my eyes, but I expect Ibra's arrival in any case so it's a futile point.

In the 4-2-3-1 we again have to make several changes, with one of our new strikers again resigned to the bench. Our purchase of Bertolacci would seem a bit pointless however. Really we're now built for the 4-3-1-2 but if we can't get Ibrahimovic then who assumes his role? You know my opinion of Menez well, I simply want him out regardless of our formation. Cerci's a good player who ironically suits our new system but I don't think he's good for the dressing room and I'd like him moved on. The probable solution would be to move El Shaarawy up and have Bertolacci as the 10 but then we're suddenly short on depth should one of those two players get injured. There are other options to fill those roles but certainly none of the names we've been linked to could fill the role adequately.

I'm not concerned though as we've a long time in the market to sort this out. Zlatan will come when he comes and another midfielder would be great. Service is an issue still but I'd rather close Romagnoli or another defender soon just to have an assurance of balance in our market. I don't think you should take chance creation too much for granted though. Emery may have protected the defence with Mbia and Krychowiak but Sevilla have tremendous width courtesy of their aggressive fullbacks and were excellent at winning the ball high up the pitch in Europe to punish sides on the transition. That continual pressure for the back four both when they had and did not have the ball allowed Bacca to score so many scrappy goals. Miha's a task master but we'll need to see a huge lift in the energy this side brings to the park before I rest easy again about making opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net for either of our strikers.