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Seedorf’s five steps to resuscitate Milan
The Dutch legend will have a difficult job in trying to turn around Milan's season. These are the five main issues he will have to tackle in order to succeed
by Mohamed Ezzat
Defensive weakness, offensive problems, no harmony in the starting 11 and unemployed players to be valorized. Clarence Seedorf, an authentic debutant on the bench but hugely revered by Berlusconi 's family and many Milan fans, has a very hard task in front of  him. These are the 5 steps that the new Milan coach will have to make to set Milan back on track.

Giving new life to the young and old stars. Milan has a long list of players such as Stephan El Shaarawy, Riccardo Montolivo, Antonio Nocerino and several others more that in this past season have been subject to a position change. Take for example Montolivo whose position in the midfield has been changed several times and that got him away from his known level of performance. Similar problems (without considering injuries) to the ones encountered by the Italian-Egyptian young talent El Shaarawy. 
Putting those players in the correct position in the field while giving them enough freedom to enjoy the game will make them produce more beautiful football and, at the same time,  will help technically the team performing up to their max.
 

Selling useless players. This process already started with the loan of Alessandro Matri to Fiorentina.  A move that will unload the club's salary cap in order to make new signings. The salaries' issue is a theme that the management will have to face: as we wrote on Serieaddicted.com Milan had a 52.5 € M total salary cost after 19 games.  The rossoneri are at the top of the table, yes... in the expenses table.

A technically strong starting 11. The starting eleven's average technical level at Milan does not represent the fame of the club.  I'm thinking about players like Zapata; he should go to the bench or even be sold and replaced with a more skilled defender as Adil Rami.  Daniele Bonera is now 32: for him it’s time to leave. He can be easily replaced by a player like Mattia De Sciglio, who is younger and with a vast room for improvements. The same logic can be applied to the midfield with the arrival of Keisuke Honda and Kakà (he is not young, but he is still such a big talent) and the offensive side as Giampaolo Pazzini is fully recovered and signed a new contract with the club.

A good starting point for Clarence Seedorf could be not repeating the mistake of Max Allegri: buying new players without using them. Milan is in the running in three competitions: rotating and shifting players to reach the ultimate starting eleven will be a good preparation for the next season.
 

Fortifying the defense line. We can recap the problem in one sentence: the defensive line has been squandering the effort and the achievements reached by the offensive line.  The last example is the game lost at Sassuolo (4-3 for the black-and-green), a game sprinkled with defensive mistakes by both Bonera and Zapata, that makes you wonder why the club signed a player like Adil Ram,i if the coach is not going to use the French international defender!
On the other hand,  Ignazio Abate’s imminent return will partly solve the problem and will help, with De Sciglio and Rami to cover Emanuelson when he advances as Serginho or Jankulovski used to do in the past.


Offensive Effectiveness. Seedorf is using a 4-2-3-1 formation, a scheme that gives him 5 players in the midfield to keep possession of the ball.  The Dutchman's idea is to use Pazzini as a classic striker with Mario Balotelli behind him with more freedom and with Honda playing on the right and Kaka on the left giving them enough space to create long distance shots. Montolivo and De Jong will instead guarantee more defensive depth and coverage.

Tuesday, January 21 st, 2014
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