StavroginMontella has been mostly using a 4-3-3 last season for his spectacular adaptation of tiki-taka, but he now seems to have switched to a strange hybrid of a 3-5-2 with the 4-3-3.
It's basically a 3-5-2 in which the RM (Cuadrado, Joaquin) has fewer defensive tasks than the LM (Pasqual, Marcos Alonso), and in which, as a consequence, the SS moves a lot in the upper left area of the pitch, whilst the offense will now have Mario Gomez as its central striker.
The pivotal part is the all-quality midfield in which starters are confirmed (Aquilani, Pizarro, Borja Valero) with the addition of more quality backups (Mati Fernandez and the newly acquired Ilicic and Bakic, all former trequartistas turned CMs).
Position by position:
GK: Young Brazilian Neto is still the starter on paper, but strong rumours have the club going after Julio Cesar who comes from a good season for the relegated QPR.
RB: Tomovic was the starter last year but Roncaglia looks better for a 3-men defense. The Argentinian is probably the better player, but the Serbian is more consistent. We'll see.
CB: Ahmed Hegazi as the back-up to Gonzalo seems a risk to many, but the young Egyptian really looks confident he can be part of this ambitious squad.
LB: Last season's Savic-Compper couple at this position has been great.
RM: Both the Colombian phenom Juan Cuadrado and the experienced Joaquin (former Malaga player) are more at ease in purely attacking roles as RWs, but Montella's peculiar formation and style of play seems to let them play in a 3-5-2 without caring too much of the first half of the lane.
CM (right): Aquilani's backup will be Ilicic, at least this seems to be the risky intention of Montella as he put the Slovenian attacking midfielder/forward in this (very unusual for him) position. Ambrosini the former Milan captain, adds toughness and international experience.
PM (pivot midfielder): I don't call it DM (defensive midfielder) because it would really be wrong, since David Pizarro is the first playmaker of this all-quality midfield. marko Bakic is a young Montenegro trequartista whom Montella wants to turn into a playmaker; he already did that with Francesco Lodi in Catania, with success. Still, the market window is open...
CM (left): Borja Valero is the soul of the team. His "todocampista" virtues will be backed up by young Uruguayan Matias Vecino, a very promising talent with the same capability to provide box-to-box quality, playmaking, all-around intensity and genius assists.
LM: Captain Manuel Pasqual had a tour-de-force last season because there was no valid backup in the squad. This year, instead, he will have to fight for the starting spot with Marcos Alonso whose offensive prowess in the left lane has impressed many during the summer camp.
CF: Mario Gomez. Nothing to add. The only problem now is with his possible backup. No other central striker is available in the squad and Montella is willing to turn Olaksandr Jakovenko, the former Anderlecht winger, into one.
SS: At the moment it's a toss-up between Adem Ljajic and Giuseppe Rossi. The Serbian youngster has been beasting in the last part of the season, providing regular goals, assists and a remarkable workrate. Pepito is coming back quite well from his long injury though, and in terms of offensive talent he can't be deemed inferior to Ljajic. The solution of the dilemma may come from Adem Ljajic not wanting to renew his expiring contract, which would quite likely lead to his immediate sale (Fiorentina fans pray it won't be to Milan, but rather abroad). In this case Rossi would be the undisputed starter and Montella would be left with Brazilian youngster Ryder Matos as his backup, unless someone would come in during the remaining part of the transfer window.
05.08.2013
