Breaking Down What Carlos Bacca Will Bring to AC Milan's Attack

The summer of 2012 was the first truly outward sign of the financial distress AC Milan have suffered over the last half a decade.

It was then that the club sold both Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Paris Saint-Germain.  The pair netted €63 million combined—and they left sizable holes in both the front and back lines.

In the seasons that followed, neither hole was adequately filled.  And while the void left by Silva is still gaping, the investment coming Milan's way from Thai businessman Bee Taechaubol may have fueled the move that has finally given Milan the kind of player who can provide what Ibrahimovic once did.

Carlos Bacca wasn't the team's first choice, but he's going to be the first genuinely top-class center forward the team have had since Zlatan left the team.

The Colombian striker was one of the main engines behind the Sevilla team that won the Europa League the last two years running.  He's scored 34 goals in La Liga over the last two years and added 11 assists—the kind of output you'd expect from someone leading the line on a contending team.

The thing that strikes you when you look at Bacca is his decision-making.  His moves are instinctive.  There's no hesitation, no pause to think.  The ball is at his feet, then the ball is on its way.

Milan have seen forwards play like that in fits and starts over the last few years.  Stephan El Shaarawy did it during the first half of the 2012-13 season, and Mario Balotelli was similarly locked in during the second half of that year.  But for the last two years, such play has been sorely lacking, particularly this past campaign, when Jeremy Menez dribbled too much and Mattia Destro continually failed to find the target.

Hitting the target, of course, is something Milan's forwards didn't do often enough last year.  According to Squawka.com, the team only fired on target 47 percent of the time.  Jeremy Menez, the team's leading scorer, only hit the target 51 percent of the time.

By contrast, Bacca was clocked at 71 percent accuracy for Sevilla last season.  According to Squawka's shot chart, more often than not his misses were close.

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That accuracy is a product of Bacca's incredible movement off the ball.  Like his fellow new signing Luiz Adriano—who was covered in this column two weeks ago—he is fantastic at seeking out open space and exploiting it.  He puts himself into such good positions that there's really no need for thought when he gets the ball—the next move is a given.  Often it comes in the form of a ruthless finish.

Like Adriano, Bacca is not the kind of player who works off the dribble.  His detractors have often maligned his passing, but he can create chances—Squawka says he made 28 last year, including 22 key passes.  But he's not a dribbler in the vein of Neymar, Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi.

That means that Bacca is going to be largely dependent on his teammates for service.  The "trequartista" (No. 10) in Sinisa Mihajlovic's 4-3-1-2 is going to be especially important.  That player will most likely be Keisuke Honda, who played on the wing last year under Filippo Inzaghi but is naturally a No. 10.  If Bacca can get good service up the field, he can be deadly—but he needs to be fed.

This brings us to the biggest question regarding Bacca—whether or not he can play alongside Adriano, since the two are so similar.  They've played a few games together so far in preseason, and the results have been good.  Bacca has roamed the attacking third and used the ball more, while Adriano has been more of a pure poacher.

If that continues, the two signings will be top of the teamsheet most weeks.  If it doesn't, one or the other will play alongside the likes of Alessio Cerci or M'Baye Niang, who are more natural in the "seconda punta" (supporting striker) role.

In Bacca, Milan have a player who can potentially be a top-class line leader.  We haven't seen much from him so far in preseason, but remember that he's only played in two games after being given a longer break due to his participation in the Copa America.  His rough night against Real Madrid this week—he missed a one-on-one and his penalty in the shootout—merely represents him knocking off the rust.

Nothing is certain, but Bacca certainly has the ability to finally heal the wound that was left three summers ago when Ibrahimovic went to France.  This was an expensive buy, but odds are it's one that Milan fans will finally be able to look back on with fondness.  Their team finally have the line leader they've been looking for.