Thank god for Thursdays, I didn’t have a chance to polish this tactics piece for Tuesday so another day of the week that starts with a T is OK by me. Really didn’t mean to rhyme there, maybe the win on the weekend has made me delirious, who knows…

My focus here is to hash out what made Allegri’s 4-3-3 from Sunday so different than Leo’s last season, which was often times porous, slow, and ineffective.

I want to start by mapping out Leo’s 4-3-3, as you can see in the diagram the ten outfield players cover a lot of space but the deployment of the formation leaves gaping holes in very attractive attacking channels for opponents. There is by no means nothing wrong with this formation, but its success depends solely on the players ability to keep their shape and to be individually talented enough, both offensively and defensively, to cover their space and quickly join into the attack.

When Leo relied on Seedorf to play the LM or RM role, he often times ended up in advance of Pirlo, forcing his opposite midfielder to cover ground behind Pirlo. So our midfield line of three, which was supposed to cover the entire field horizontally now looked like a vertical line of three creating acres of space for opponents to attack into. Throw in some marauding fullbacks and you have classic recipe for disaster. Players caught high up in the attack and opponents countering with pace and numbers leaving CB’s of any caliber at a disadvantage.

Fast forward to Allegri’s 4-3-3, the deployment of the attack was more compact centrally, but the actual playing shape of the team was more compact up the pitch as well. In classic Arrigo Sacchi fashion, Allegri wanted to make the field smaller for both his team and the opponents. This was the cornerstone of Sacchi’s Milan and appears to be the foundation that Allegri is choosing to build his Milan on. Yes, this system also requires a certain amount of tactical know-how and the ability to play quickly and more directly to maximize the number of players in the attack, but Allegri proved that this Milan is in fact capable of all those keys to success. Yes, the opponent was Lecce and often times their central midfielder players dropped so far deep that Pirlo was left wide open with acres of space, but with Milan’s new look attack, team’s will be forced to respect Ronaldinho, Pato and Ibra making that kind of space available more often than not.

The idea of a compact formation is nothing new, but if done properly can be devastating to an opponent’s tactical game plan. By moving the defense further up the pitch the moment Milan loses possession it puts every player in close proximity to the opponent allowing them to pressure the ball easily; but more importantly gives the opponent little to no space to operate or move the ball forward. Of course a good play-maker and a pacy forward can break this lack of space with a well placed killer long ball, but asking a team to make a bit of magic is far better than giving up acres of space on the defensive side of the ball! Opponents will then be forced to result to short, quick, lateral passes in which our midfielders can pounce and keep the ball well away from our goal and more often than not in the attacking third. A simple yet effective game plan that when deployed properly can have excellent results as seen here!

Simply put Allegri just added a bit of tactical know how to a classic formation to get this team firing on all cylinders. Will the desire and intensity last the entire season? I can’t quite say, but considering the fact that on the bench we have Robinho to cover Pato and Ronaldinho. Flamini, Rino and Boateng to cover in the midfield finding fresh legs and ball winners should not be a problem. If you don’t want to pressure the ball and fight for the cause, there is someone else waiting to take your place young or old! Add in the fact that Milan is playing with a new found directness towards goal and a speed I have not seen them play with since I was a child, the future looks a bit brighter than first thought.

FYI: There won’t be any updates until Monday or Tuesday. I am traveling to Cape Cod for a preseason soccer tournament which will make it very hard to post and the lack of news with the International break will make it all the worse. So I will leave you to your own devices, God help us all! If I can get something together before I leave it will post on the weekend.

Before I get my tactics piece up tomorrow, I need to rant. This is not necessarily a positive or negative, but more a meandering strand of thoughts and mixed emotions from easily the craziest week I have endured as a fan of this Club.

A few weeks ago, we were effectively left for dead, our only notable transfers were Sokratis and Boateng, neither World beaters, and our team looked out of sorts. New coach, new system, and players coming to training out of shape and mentally under prepared. But as preseason went on things started to change, a sense of pace was instilled in the tactics and as the first game drew near even our transfer news started to get “faster.” In the span of around 72 hours Milan had pulled of two of the most amazing transfer market coups this decade basically getting Zlatan and Robinho for a steal, but more importantly far less than they are actually worth! We may have doubted Berlu and Fester, and while I am still not sold on their shiny presents for the fans, the moves must be applauded.

Let’s be frank here though, at least for myself I need to be honest; I don’t like these players, neither of them. When I look at guy like Kaka, the humility, the demeanor, and the mentality on and off the pitch are all the things you look for in a footballer. When I see Robinho and Zlatan, I see, in a sense, the anti-Kaka, and while I don’t think this is terrible, I fear a bit the cohesion and chemistry of a team with so many egos. The one thing that always cures a problem such as this one is winning, and going from mid table flounders to very real contenders in less than a week should help. It needs to be said that both Robinho and Zlatan will most likely feast on the Serie A minnows, but the true test will come in the CL group stage and see if Allegri and his shiny new toys can get the job done.

Was a bit sad to see Borriello go, but this helped alleviate the sadness. So now we move on with a new look Milan, an attacking Milan, not really my cup of tea, but who knows maybe in a few months we will have Inter in our wake and even a defensive minded guy like myself will be a believer…but only time will tell.

On a side note, I am still learning and struggling with the new comments system. This is a change for a lot of sites here on the Offside so we are all getting used to it. My comments will no longer show my name but my profile ID/USERNAME gb383, until I can find way to change it! If you are having problems let me know I will try and make sure all comments are approved from regular readers and that we can avoid a lot of spam going forward.

If your new to the Italy Offside, usually the Monday after the Serie A weekend I’ll put up a post called “The Weekend that was in Serie A” where I’ll try to mention the weekend’s best stories, including some bad attempts at humor and very simple analysis. So, Serie A finally arrived. After the terrible World Cup for Italy and the summer months of anticipation, the league we love most finally began this past weekend. It’s a good thing, because the last two weekends for me have consisted of turning on EPL games, and then turning them off after 5 minutes because I got bored. No league excites me like Serie A does. Give me a dull, defensive, tactical 0-0 between two small Italian sides than Chelsea or Manchester United hammering some newly-promoted team 6-0 any day. I just hope there are people out there that feel the same way, or else I just look like a nut. Also if your new to the Italy Offside, and this is like the first day of school for you, my name if Francesco. I’ve been in charge of the Italy blog here since the spring of 2008 and I enjoy writing incoherent drivel about Serie A that people like to read. At least I think people like to read it. It helps me sleep at night. Welcome to the Italy Offside, and if you learn at least one new thing about the calcio world every day here, my job is done. Anyway, here’s the weekend that was in Serie A’s opening kickoff:

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Milan pulled off arguably the greatest transfer in Serie A this summer. Back in May some articles reported that Milan might have been interested in the big Swede (they had tried to get him in 2006, but Inter were faster and beat them to the deal), but it finally became reality the past week. Galliani and super agent Mino Raiola (there will be an article on him sometime this week) managed to talk Barcelona down to a loan deal with forced option to buy in the summer of 2011 for only 24 million. That is some deal. The move made Milan fans instantly optimistic about the upcoming season, but nobody should get their hopes up just yet, despite the 4-0 rout of a scared, newly promoted Lecce side. Ibrahimovic was presented at half-time (pictured above) and said in his funny sounding Italian, “Remember this: I want to win everything and I’m here to win everything.” Milan fans everywhere hope he’s right. In the meantime, I have happily added this song to my ipod.

Juventus starting where they left off: losing…

Yes, Juventus have tried to enter a new era this summer by creating a whole team from nothing, and yes, 6 of the 11 starters yesterday were new signings, but very poor first outing by la Vecchia Signora. Gigi Delneri’s side never really threatened Bari all game, and the new signings didn’t really shine all that much. Juve fans that thought the team’s problems would be fixed immediately with all the new changes are wrong. This team needs time to gel, and much more work has to be done by Delneri to get the squad to play the football he wants. They might bring a few more signings in before tomorrow’s deadline to improve the situation. But hey, look at the bright side Juve fans, last season Juve started brilliantly and look what happened. Maybe the reverse has to happen this season.

The newly-promoted sides

Lecce and Brescia had poor outings overall, being dominated by Milan and Parma. Cesena was the surprise of the weekend, holding Roma to a scoreless draw at the Olimpico, with ex-Roma goalkeeper Francesco Antonioli the hero. Cesena looked like a good side, but their attack lacks severe quality besides Giaccherini and despite the presence of Serie A’s footballing god Erjon Bogdani. Their defense looked shaky at times too. We can’t really judge Lecce from yesterday because Milan was better in every aspect, while Brescia seemed like the same Brescia you see every season in Serie B, no improvement.

Sebastian Giovinco

The pint sized fantasista was one of the best performers of the weekend. Giovinco was the man of the match against Brescia this weekend, providing a splendid assist on the first goal and had a hand in the second. Late in the game he was taken off to a standing ovation. Can this be the season Giovinco finally explodes? Throughout the years number 10 type players have always flourished with a Gialloblu jersey on, and this season could be yet another example. Are Juve completely sure they made the right decision in letting him go, especially since it was so evident yesterday they had nobody on the pitch that could provide a spark?

Sampdoria taking out their anger on Lazio

Sampdoria were heartbroken after they narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Champions League group stage, and manager Mimmo Di Carlo wanted them to transmit their anger into an excellent performance against Lazio. He got them from his squad, who after an even first half went on to score two in the second half and get their first 3 points in front of their home crowd. The first was scored by Cassano on a penalty won by Daniele Dessena and the second was a nice volley from Guberti. Di Carlo is hoping they can take that momentum into the next game, which is a big one against Juventus.

First sacking of the season

Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly because it happens all the time in Serie A) we had our first manager sacking of the season in this first weekend. Bologna manager Franco Colomba was let go by new Bologna owner Sergio Porcedda. Why? He said that Colomba was not agreeing to the project put forth by the club. It took you all summer to realize that Mr. Porcedda? So, Bologna’s youth team manager was in charge of today’s game with Inter and Porcedda said a new manager will be announced on Wednesday. According to reports it will be Alberto Malesani, the man who knows how to use the word cazzo</em efficiently.

Speaking of Bologna-Inter…

The Rafa Benitez era in Serie A started with a goalless draw today. Great point for Bologna considering their coaching problems. Inter shouldn’t be that worried, they’ve started the past 3 seasons with a draw (and who has won the scudetto in the past 3 seasons?) and still players are working hard to get back into form. At least we’ve seen over the past few days that the players on Inter are in fact human.

Mesto’s Goal

The Genoa winger’s match-winning, improvised bicycle kick goal was definitely the best goal of the weekend. Watch it here.

Fiorentina-Napoli

For me this was the most exciting game of the weekend. It was a very open game and both sides looked to attack. In the end, a draw was the best result because of the even play. However, on replay, Edinson Cavani’s goal did not cross the line, further pushing the debate of goal line technology. Fiorentina’s new signing Gaetano D’Agostino did well pushed up to his old trequartista position, and scored a great volley. Good game from two teams who may be direct competitors for European places this season.

Serie A goes on break

Even though it just started, it’s already taken away from us for a week! Prandelli’s national team start Euro 2012 qualifying this weekend and have games on Friday and Tuesday against world powerhouses Estonia and the Faroe Islands (what’s with UEFA’s weird new scheduling? It always used to be Saturday and Wednesday). So Serie A will return the weekend of September 12th.

Live game updates on twitter

If you didn’t know already, the Italy Offside is on twitter (link below). This weekend I experimented with tweeting live updates of games from the weekend. I did Udinese-Genoa and Bari-Juve this weekend. I don’t know if anyone noticed or even liked it, but I’ll continue to do it. So if you can’t watch a Serie A game on the weekend for whatever weekend, visit my twitter and read live updates as the action is happening. Also on my twitter I tweet other calcio news and updates daily like transfers or random thoughts. So if your interested in that, follow me.

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A few months back without seeing the Serie A fixture list I made a commitment to cycle 100 miles for a Multiple Scelorisis Charity event, well that day had to unfortunately be the same day as Milan’s opener so forgive me if I am a little behind. Couple the ride with the start of the High School soccer season and my weekend got a little more hectic than I anticipated, but I watched the game last night, and got another fast forward viewing in to see if I had not in fact gone crazy from what I saw!

Before we go absolutely bonkers and anoint ourselves Serie A and CL champions, we need to put our feet back on the ground. Lecce is fresh up from Serie B, and following the second goal they looked completely demoralized. Take nothing away from the shear speed and intensity in which Milan played the first half, but I don’t think we will play another team all season who affords Pirlo or Ronaldinho so much space and in turn do not exploit the space left from shifting midfielders. However, with all that said, what Milan did in the first forty-five yesterday was absolutely fantastic.

Much of last year I complained about balance and how when Seedorf was in the midfield it made us weaker on the defensive side of the ball. For Seedorf to work in that role Ronaldinho would have to track back and hold up attacks, and what did he do? Absolutely that! Ronaldinho won more balls yesterday in forty-five minutes than he did all last season. He dropped back, he harassed players in possession and he no longer looked like a player on a foosball rod, HE MOVED. His extra effort proved exactly what Milan can do when that guy is on his game. Again, granted it was Lecce, and so much time and space will probably not be a weekly occurence, but he took his chances, made his runs, and gave a minute of reprieve and consolation to the fan boys fighting so hard for his honor. Simply put, if Dinho can show that much effort game in and game out this team will in fact be extremely dangerous.

The same can actually be said for Pirlo yesterday who also looked like a man possessed. It appeared that tactically Lecce was OK leaving him with acres of space making his job easier, but also the work of Ambrosini, who could float more forward than having to stand ten to twelve yards from Pirlo. Milan absolutely dominated the midfield, and because of that Pirlo was able to make his bread and butter long raking passes wide and inside on more than one occasion. Again, as I said with Ronaldinho, I don’t expect so much time and space every week, but his touch, his vision, and movement were absolutely vintage. Sadly, I don’t have the same heaping amount of praise for Seedorf who despite working very hard seemed lost time and time again, and out of position for the rest. His movement centrally seemed to visually confuse Ronaldinho and Antonini on more than one occasion and forced Antonini to “stay home” on defense more often than not, leaving our streaking LB out of the attack, which makes you wonder what will happen when he can occupy that flank leaving Ronaldinho even more freedom to go inside?! Borriello was also dissapointing playing with the weight of the Zlatan transfer on his shoulders, and unable to score despite provided his help on the first two goals. That weight is no longer an issue as it appears Aaron of the Juve Offside will get his wish with Borriello going to Juventus on a pseudo loan deal with interest from Napoli and Liverpool as well. Why not stay and fight for a place in a crowded fixture list is beyond me!? I also don’t get why we want to help out Juventus so much!?

The MOTM for me had to be Pato. I think we forgot how dangerous and special the kid can really be when he has a bit of freedom and is fully healthy. He popped up both right and center yesterday and his movement off the ball was top class forcing a wide eyed Lecce defense to bow down to his superiority. Yes he still couldn’t pass the ball if you were five yards away from him, but his running and finishing earned him high honors yesterday.

I want to talk a bit about Allegri but will save my discussion for a tactics piece on Thurdsay comparing this 4-3-3 to the one saw with Leo last season. But he needs to be commended for making this team play faster than I have ever seen them play, and play with a directness that resembled an EPL team squeezing the life out of their opponent. At first glance I wasn’t pleased with Seedorf or Bonera, but as soon as the whistle blew and everyone was flying towards the ball even Lecce looked surprised at this new pacey Milan. Not sure if that kind of intensity will last the season, but it lasted the better part of the match yesterday breaking not only Lecce’s will to play, but their resolve as well. It is a physically demanding style of play so the subs bench needs to be on notice as Boateng, Pippo, and Rino all saw time yesterday and will most likely deployed often as to make sure the team is firing on all cylinders and able to maintain such a torrid pace.

All and all, a statement game to start the season with both Juventus and Roma dropping points and Inter still to play. With a week off already it will give Allegri to fine tune his masterpiece and more importantly give Zlatan a chance to get re-acclimated with the Serie A. Word around the rumor-mill even has us linked to Robinho, but I think Zlatan is enough considering our glut of strikers and KJH still NOT on his way to Germany. Not to mention adding a tempermental Brazilian to our already tempermental Brazilian, Ronaldinho, may prove a bit of a chemistry issue seeing that Dunga used Robinho in place of Ronaldinho this World Cup. If we do in fact consider ourselves contenders following yesterday’s performance, I think a versatile back would go a long way in the depth department or even a midfielder that would prevent Allegri from having to turn to Seedorf in more defensive minded midfield matches. I will try and elaborate more on this, this week but back for sure on Thursday with a tactics piece.

I have to admit it is virtually impossible to write a proper preview for the Lecce match with an 800lb gorilla named Zlatan sitting in the room. This doesn’t bode well for me, and it doesn’t bode well for Milan either. The first match of the season should never be taken lightly as it sets the tone for the season ahead, and while a long season does in fact follow, if the scudetto is decided by a point or two, a loss early can be a deciding factor.


I will gladly admit I was all for Zlatan early in the transfer window, the idea back then was that Ronaldinho would be sent to the MLS, KJH sold for a sack of nickels, and Allegri moving this team forward into a new era. Instead we stand here now, with Zambrotta as our starting RB, Ronaldinho to sign an extension, and the only real significant first team purchase as Kevin Prince Boateng, who once acclimated will most likely replace Flamini in the starting lineup. We didn’t do enough to the rest of the squad to justify Zlatan, and we certainly won’t be doing ourselves any favors by spending two years worth of penny pinching on one single player with questions still on the table such as: What happens if Antonini is injured, suspended, or rested? Who plays when Zambro runs out of gas? Do we have anyone who can actually replace Pato in the starting eleven, and provide that kind of pace? Can Seedorf still go a full 90 in a CL match? If Nesta doesn’t make the full season can Sokratis be counted on?

These are not simple questions, these are questions that make or break a team competing on two fronts, and spending a big chunk of change that could have bought 3 or 4 players to solidify the squad just makes far more sense to me. If you have been following the blog at all yesterday, there was some top class discussion about the merit and value of striker if the team behind can’t win possession. Not to mention how does the inclusion of Zlatan affect the balance on the pitch? Can Milan really play with Ronaldinho, Pato, Pirlo, and Zlatan on the pitch and expect to defend a counter? Frankly, I don’t believe so, and should the deal go through, we will certainly find out…

Now onto more pressing matters, until Zlatan shows up here, for more than twenty four hours, he is not a Milan player. If past history has taught us anything (Suazo, Zlatan!?, and Cissokho) a deal is not a deal until that fella is on the pitch! There is a match on Sunday against Lecce, coached by a shrewd and wily Gigi Di Canio, who is not afraid to put his boys out on the pitch to gain a result. Lecce proved capable of scoring last season in Serie B, sometimes in bunches, and newly promoted teams always come out firing on the first day, this is not a match that should be taken lightly.

I find it rather ironic that Leo started last season with a 4-3-1-2 to disappointing results, and now Allegri may do the same. I do however feel it is far more likely that he uses Leo’s 4-3-3, an ironic fact as well. Outside of the GK, which is still up in the air for me at least, the squad will most likely be Zambro, Nesta, Silva, Ants, Ambro, Pirlo, Flamini, Dinho, Borri, Pato. We have discussed and analyzed the merits and short comings of this formation time and time again and I hope that Allegri chooses a more compact deployment than the acres of space left by Leo’s design. It will certainly be interesting to see, but more importantly will go a long way in proving Allegri’s merit and worth for such a high profile coaching position. With a new season always come excitement, apprehension and the hope for success, but Sunday will go a long way in proving or disproving all of that!

If you missed any of the week long season preview, check it out here…

If you have been around long enough you know I hate predictions, and this year is no different, but I figured I would take a crack regardless. If you missed any of the preview pieces they can be found here:

Season Preview Part I: Max Who?
Season Preview Part II: Two Real GKs?!
Season Preview Part III: Oddo’s Revenge
Season Preview Part IV: Midfield Changing of the Guard
Season Preview Part V: The Pato-Borri Show

Now onto the predictions…

First and foremost I am staying grounded about our AC Milan. I don’t expect magic this season, in fact I don’t expect much at all. The team will certainly have some growing pains to contend with and injuries to starters gives us a bit of a drop off in talent on the pitch. While our bench is certainly serviceable it is young and lacks the depth of a team like Inter or even Juventus. As I look at the additions by team’s like Juventus, Genoa, and Lazio. I wonder how competitive we can be against those sides while still attempting to move forward in the Champions League. Fourth place should be a goal, but a Europe League spot is probably much more realistic. I have never been much of an optimist, so that is not going to change any time soon…

My scudetto goes to Juventus, they have added a strong list of players in Bonucci, Pepe, Krasic, and Aquilani on loan. They have depth almost everywhere and a wily Serie A tactician in Gigi Del Neri who gets the most out of teams wherever he is. They also don’t have the rigors of the CL so expect them to push and push hard to dethrone Inter.

The other 3 CL spots go to Inter, Palermo, and Lazio with Genoa in fifth place. Before you go crazy about Palermo, they were very close to fourth last season and did well in beating us and Inter. They are fearless, and despite losing Cavani, their defense is intact and a good season from Miccoli may earn him a place in Prandelli’s Azzurri, he is playing with something to prove. Now onto Lazio, a team always capable, but lately under performing. Losing Kolarov hurts, but adding Hernanes alongside Ledesma will help the attack which was rather toothless last season. Coupled with Reja on the bench for a full season expect Lazio to make some noise.

So where are the usuals Roma, Fiorentina, and Sampdoria? Well frankly put losing Prandelli is crippling to Fiorentina and it will take time for Sinisa to make a difference. Same can be said for Sampdoria who will have a promising future but a tough year adjusting, but it is Roma whose addition of Adriano may prove more harm than good! Their ace in the hole is still the tinker-man and while they are used to quiet transfer windows, this one was just to quiet.

Leading scorer goes to Pazzini and the biggest surprise of the season is going to be Giovinco at http://parma.theoffside.com”>Parma who will get a chance to prove his worth.