i think you're slightly off in assessing our first team. He wants to play smilar to 1982 tele santana team. Santana was his coach at flamengo (i thkn it was flamengo) and considered the guy who rejuvenated the 'joga bonito' idea. The way i define it is really skilled individual played with almost errorless team passing,. the only real philosophical thing ive ever associated with it is skill, technique, intelligent attacking football over strength and rigid defense....
I don't think I was off at all. Take the part in bold - how can Milan pull this off with only one player who can pass the ball in midfield? Midfield is the key area of the pitch when it comes to determining the style of football you can play.
The things Leo has specifically mentioned on more than one occasion has been 1. play faster and 2. run move off the ball and 3. start attack out the back faster
Again, I come back to the midfield. Movement off the ball requires intelligence. If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it and every player could attack. Movement off the ball gives Pirlo options to pass to, yet only Ronaldinho and Pato offer anything in the way of clever off-the-ball movement. Huntelaar can, but his best work is done in the penalty area, and Pirlo is not usually close enough to reward his work here.
Playing faster requires players who can pass the ball. It is all well and good saying "OK, I want you to play faster, move the ball quicker", but again you need to be able to pass the ball. We have one player who can do that in midfield.
When i look at our starting 11 against juve i saw only 1 gaping hole, fbs. Huntelaar grow up in a dutch 4-3-3 as a Cf, he knows what to do. Ronaldinho if he can get to full fitness obviously is the posterboy for this system. Pato is brazilian and grew up this way. Flamini, though not highly creative had his best success with arsenal, where he ran ALOT off ball, passed well. Pirlo, pep guardiola called him closest player to him and wanted him as there DM or deep lying playmaker. I saw it in small doses, but when this team moves and oplay faster, pirlo looks miles better because he is 1 of the best at spreading the ball. Then you got gattuso who is what he is,. but he is nonstop energy, and u dont see him trying to dribble by 5 defenders, he generally knows his limitations. And 1 thing i saw which i didnt know about was T.Silva's ability to start attack from back. It was the fastest I've seen milan play, held good possession, mounted good attacks with some bad luck in the final 3rd + the fact huntelaar wasn't familar w/ pato and ronnie (that will change with some more training)
You've named two players - Thiago Silva and Pirlo - who can pass the ball effectively. How do you expect the team to fulfil all of this change in style with two players, both of whom are too far away from the opposition penalty area to make the difference?
The real hole is FBs who can push. Zambrotta could in his day but not anymore, janku is okay but still a liability.
In many ways though, the only way its gonna be successful is if ronaldinho can rejuvenate his career, which is risky to tie your success to 1 man. (well and of course staying healthY).
Could we improve our first team? Absolutely. But can it play the style? I dont think its unrealistic to think we cant play at the minimum faster, and move off the ball more. I think 1 of the biggest undoings towards end of the Carlo era was how static we would look at times....
Full-backs further up the pitch would help, it would give Pirlo more options. The way you are talking, you would think it solves all the problems.
We were static under Carlo because he played with Gattuso and Ambrosini in midfield. What else do you expect? They are defensive midfielders. The only movement came from Kaká and Pato, occasionally Ronaldinho. All of whom were in the attacking third. No wonder we were static.