What Will Be AC Milan's Strongest Defence in the 2015/16 Season?
Ever since the 2012 sale of star defender Thiago Silva, the soft underbelly of AC Milan has been its weakest point. That's been hard for fans to swallow. Since the 1970s, this club has seen the likes of Franco Baresi, Billy Costacurta, Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini patrolling the back before Silva took up their mantle. There is a tradition of defensive excellence at the club.
The current roster certainly isn't living up to the past, but which of these defenders gives Milan their best unit? Using the players on the roster as of July 18 and not assuming any transfers, we're about to take an in-depth look to answer that question.
For all the upset over how the team has been playing defensively, the full-back corps is fairly good and the starting slots should be fairly easy to predict.
The right side will almost certainly be manned by Ignazio Abate. The 28-year-old is sometimes maligned for the simplistic nature of his crossing technique—hit the ball in the general vicinity of the middle of the field and see if someone is there—but he turned out a career-high six assists last season, all the more impressive considering the fact that he was limited to only 21 starts due to injury.
While not a volume tackler—WhoScored.com clocked him at 1.4 per game last season—he has good positional sense and intercepts 2.1 passes per contest. Discipline is also a key for him—unlike some of his teammates, he avoids the book quite well, garnering only five cautions last year.
On the opposite flank will be Luca Antonelli. The Milan youth product returned to the team in January after spending eight years at Parma and Genoa. An excellent defensive talent, he has shown more contribution to the offensive end as well, scoring three times at Genoa last season (along with an assist) and tacking on another goal—against Juventus no less—when he returned to San Siro.
If either of those players goes down, young Mattia De Sciglio will be ready to take his place. He can play on both sides, although his strength is on the right. Last season was a down year for him after exploding into prominence and drawing comparisons with Milan defenders of yore. This will be the year he has to prove himself, unless he may find himself out of the team.
Cristian Zaccardo, the other reserve full-back, should only play if all the other options are dead.
With the flanks pretty well taken care of, we turn our attention to the 500-pound gorilla in the room. I speak, of course, of the center-backs.
Since Silva went to PSG and Nesta to the Montreal Impact of the MLS in the summer of 2012, Milan's center-backs have been abjectly horrible. They have bled unnecessary goals and are the single reason Milan is in the position it is in. Try leading the league in points lost from a winning position and then you'll see how difficult it is to finish above 10th.
There are five center-backs on the roster right now. Three of them saw significant time last year under Filippo Inzaghi, one was marginalized and one is a new arrival.
That new arrival is Rodrigo Ely. The 21-year-old Brazilian came up in the youth system of Brazilian club Gremio before joining Milan in 2012. He spent two years on loan and another as the property of Avellino before returning several weeks ago. He's unproven, and given the amount of cards he's racked up in the lower leagues, it may be a good idea to bring him along slowly. He certainly isn't a regular starter here.
Cristian Zapata is an interesting case. For some reason, he was completely shunted to the side by Pippo Inzaghi, but he's still thought of highly enough by the Colombia coach Jose Pekerman to have started all four games the team played in this summer's Copa America.
That a full international on a high-level team was so completely ignored last year is surprising. He's had his moments of brilliance and failure at Milan, but he's still worth a good look and should at least be given the opportunity to prove himself this summer. That said, he has so much ground to make up that he's not likely in this equation.
The other three men vying for the jobs are Gabriel Paletta, Philippe Mexes and Alex.
Mexes was out of contract at the end of the season but was surprisingly given a one-year renewal. There were reports from Italian transfer guru Gianluca Di Marzio (h/t Football Italia) that team president Silvio Berlusconi went over new coach Sinisa Mihajlovic's head to give him the extension personally.
Mexes is a frustrating player. On his best days, he actually plays quite well. The problem is that there's no way of knowing whether that's the player you're going to get. And if he's off, he's a mental mistake—and a red card—waiting to happen.
The last two men in the mix are probably the ones who should be starting regularly. Alex is getting old and can get burned by speedier players, but he's still excellent when the ball is in front of him and can be a calming presence at the back.
Gabriel Paletta was hampered last season by injuries, the unsettled defensive setup under Inzaghi and, before his January arrival, the rapidly deteriorating situation at Parma. But the season before, he was magnificent. He easily had the best season of any center-back in Serie A in 2013-14, and with consistent playing time and a consistent partner, there's no reason to think he can't rediscover that form.
Spots in the starting XI is obviously very much up for grabs this season, especially given the sieve-like qualities of the defense the last two years. None of the players available to Mihajlovic are of the level of a Baresi, Costacurta or Maldini, but if they're fit together correctly, they should at least be able to improve the team's performance.
That's why a line of, from left to right, Antonelli, Paletta, Alex and Abate is the best one he's going to have available to him to ensure that his team stops goals.
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