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Chievo come to town a bit wounded, with only four points out five matches, they are by no means the worst team in Serie A at the outset. Then again, it is a young season a few rough spots can make this much worse as Milan can attest to. The reality of Milan and Filippo Inzaghi is that in order to get back to winning ways there needs to be some consistency in both the formation and the tactics and until that happens Milan will continue to struggle. The 4-2-3-1 was a failed experiment and I personally struggle to understand how last season's Clarence Seedorf nightmare didn't prove with most of us already knew. Then again Pippo tried it his way, still sucks...
The 4-3-3 seems to work outside of the lack of balance in midfield and when the defense is performing as bad as Milan this should be an issue for concern. If Milan had the personnel you would argue a 4-3-2-1 is the way to go with hard midfielders in the three line and attack minded midfielders in the two line to make things happen. That potentially leaves a guy like Menez on the bench, a difficult prospect, considering he has been our dangerous player despite being the most selfish at times. It is a difficult question and one that should be easier to answer to then this. But this AC Milan were meddling from management and over zealous self belief trumps any form of work ethic and effort to find a solution.
If were Pippo I would throw caution on this day and push the XMAS tree that made him a star:
Abbiati; Abate, Zapata, Alex; MDS; Poli, NDJ, Muntari; Bonaventura, Honda; Torres
The problem with this lineup is that it keeps Menez and SES off the pitch, one could argue that both can be depoloyed in the attacking mid line, but for a team leaking goals the mission should be stifle the midfield. Defend first, as a team, and attack later. You can always eek a point with a clean sheet you can't guarantee victory when you concede. SES has the work rate to make this happen, and I can argue that he should be played, but Keisuke Honda and Giacomo Bonaventura are playing well. At defense Adil Rami has been a bit of a headless chicken and I think the calming presence of Alex and Zapata may be beneficial.
In Pippo's case this won't be popular but popular doesn't always win matches. So the question is what is more important...