EXCLUSIVE Berlusconi meddling with Milan again, wants to play a Trequartista!
The two names being bandied around are those of Giacomo Bonaventura and Keisuke Honda, two of the Rossoneri's best (and most tired) performers this season.
The issue, however, is not with them, but with the fact that the trequartista is likely outmoded in modern football. The idea of having a Number 10 would be to have him serve the strikers better (which is what Berlusconi thinks), to dispose of someone who can run and create space between the lines and force either a midfielder or defender to come out to mark him and open a gap at the back.
Trouble is, the likes of Diego Simeone have already found an answer to this: to squeeze the defence and midfield together, and make it impossible for anyone to pick up the ball and turn in those kinds of conditions.
This has gradually forced creative players to move to the wings- which is where Bonaventura has always played, especially in his time at Atalanta. Jacky is a technical player, one capable of beating his man, but why would you play him in the middle when he can double back and mark in defence on the wing? The idea is that he's a fake winger, more of a playmaker who can help out at the back too. Does Berlusconi know that most teams now dig a trench in the middle of the park? The same can be said of Keisuke Honda, who has really turned things around this year.
Playing three at the back wouldn't be a solution, either, as not having two speedy wingers would quickly create balancing issues, a problem Mihajlovic mostly managed to solve. Either way, the playmaker wouldn't be able to just create: whoever he is, he'd have to track back and line up with his two colleagues in the middle, or risk condemning the Rossoneri to losing a cog in many key passages of the play.
Ultimately, the most damning indictment of Mihajlovic's sacking as a Berlusconian whim is the fact that new manager Cristian Brocchi is unlikely to make many, or indeed any, changes. Except for the trequartista, that is.
Giancarlo Padovan (@gia_pad), translated by Edo Dalmonte @EdoDalmonte
