State of Affairs: Backline

By: Gianfranco | May 27th, 2008

I am going to take a state of affairs for each position at Milan and then hopefully onto a state affairs for Serie A and UEFA.

Backline…

Historically Milan’s foundation and building block for some of the best clubs in history.

Presently the biggest questions mark and void on the squad. Even with Paolo returning it leaves the backline overly seasoned and very little youth to strengthen themselves for the future. The youngest defender currently seeing first team football is Bonera, and he is 28, you can see the problem.

I also don’t believe that there is a problem with our veteran players on defense but they need to used less, and mixed in with more youth. Milan have always had fantastic success with raising defenders in the club, and the youth products of Marzoratti and Darmian are not exception. There is no reason why these youngsters can’t get first team football alongside the likes of Nesta, Maldini, and Oddo to become successful worldclass defenders.

I want to start this discussion though by advocating the retention of Oddo. Oddo is a very solid defender and one of the few who can really haul it up the wing as is expected from Carletto. With this said selling Oddo may not be in the club’s best interest, yes his crosses can go into orbit at times, and his play last season may not of been his best, but we all know what he can do and what he is capable of. You can never have enough defenders and he is one of the ones you do not want to get rid of, for fear of not finding a comparable replacement.

The question then becomes who is a comparable replacement? Well for me Udinese is a great place to start with Dossena and Zapata. The likelihood of both players making their way out of Udine and to the San Siro is unlikely but sneaking one of them out should not be a problem and should in fact be a priority. I prefer Zapata here, but Dossena is no slouch, you have to figure if Milan can get one of those fellas and Zambrotta as well, it will hold them over nicely.

With the potential of growth from the youngsters, and the chance of sneaking Evra away from ManU when his contract expires next season, as long as Fester plays his cards right he has the potential of rearming the single treasure that is the Rossoneri, the defense.