How Can Sinisa Mihajlovic Get His Misfiring AC Milan Midfield Back on Track?

For years, fans have pointed to AC Milan's defense as their biggest weakness.  Coming into the season, the unit had been repeatedly overrun for the better part of three years, ripped apart by opposing attacks or simply melting down mentally to concede some mind-bogglingly soft goals.

It came as a surprise, then, when the first two games of the year revealed glaring weakness in another part of the team, one that was expected to be much stronger.

Over the first two games of the season it's been the midfield, not the defense, that has proved itself to be Milan's weakest unit.  If Sinisa Mihajlovic is to coax an improved season out of his team this season, his priority needs to be to shore up this vital area.

The midfield is truly the most important phase of the game.  Great teams may have fantastic strikers, but their greatness is built upon the men in the middle of the field.  The midfielders are the team's engine room.  If they play well, the results on the field can be massive.  But if the mids falter, everything else falls apart.  The forwards get no service.  The defenders end up dangerously exposed.

Some of the best teams in recent memory have been built upon superlative midfielders.  Barcelona's treble team a year ago was built on the triumvirate of Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta and Ivan Rakitic.  Chelsea became a juggernaut in the English Premier League last year on a midfield that consisted of Eden Hazard, Willian, Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas.

Closer to home, of course, the fearsome foursome of Andrea Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio, Paul Pogba and Arturo Vidal propelled Juventus to total dominance of Serie A.  While Vidal and Pirlo moved on this summer, the team reloaded well with the likes of Sami Khedira, Mario Lemina and Hernanes.  Internal depth like Stefano Sturaro and Roberto Pereyra reinforces the team as well.

Once new players settle, the unit looks on course to continue to be one of the very best in all of Europe.

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Milan used to be this way.  When they last won the Champions League in 2007 their midfield was made up of Clarence Seedorf, Massimo Ambrosini, Gennaro Gattuso and Pirlo.  When they last won the league in 2010-11 that core was supplemented by the likes of Mark van Bommel and Kevin-Prince Boateng.

Now, the unit looks like a hodgepodge of players grabbed from anywhere they could be found, a far cry from the elite units of yesteryear.

The problem is balance.  There are too many candidates for minutes in some positions and too few in others.  That disarray—combined with some bad performances—has seen Milan lose the midfield battle, and the initiative in matches as a whole.

Exacerbating issues is the fact that Mihajlovic's 4-3-1-2 system requires some specialized skills—particularly in the regista and trequartista positions—that he doesn't have an abundance of.

That's particularly true of the deep-lying regista spot.  The position requires the vision to see the entire field, the composure and mental sharpness to compute it in moments, and the ability to make the best pass.

Nigel de Jong, who has been playing in that spot since Mihajlovic arrived, does not have those qualities.

The Netherlands international was one of Milan's best players last year, and he renewed his contract this summer rather than seek out Champions League soccer.  Many media outlets, including Tuttosport (via the Mirror), reported in early April that he was deep in negotiations with Manchester United.

But when it came time to decide, he stayed in Milan, where his new coach installed him in front of the defense.  Unfortunately, it's a terrible fit.

Yes, De Jong has, according to WhoScored.com, completed 86.2 percent of his passes, but those passes are short balls completely devoid of creativity.  The regista is supposed to be the triggerman for the entire attack.  Simple passes to the other midfielders isn't going to cut it.

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De Jong is a destroyer, not a creator.  His best role in this system is as a box-to-box midfielder who can cover the regista and make space for him, not to be the regista.

In reality there's only one player on the roster right now who has the skill set to be the true regista on this team.  Unfortunately, the mention of his name will make most Milan fans retch.

Riccardo Montolivo is about to start his fourth season with Milan.  He has played effective football for half a season.

The rest of his time with the club he has either been ineffective or hurt.  He's only played 10 times since breaking his leg in a pre-World Cup friendly a year ago.  Despite being the nominal captain of the team, he's been frozen out since Mihajlovic arrived in the manager's office.

That being said, no Milan player has the skills to play as a true regista besides him.  Montolivo's not the destroyer in front of defense De Jong is, but he's a very good defender and reads the game well to clog opposing passing lanes.

And then, there's his passing.  He's not Pirlo—but then again no one is.  He's adept at incisive shorter balls as well as longer passes.  He's the creative force De Jong can never hope to be.

Installing Montolivo in the regista spot will considerably improve the midfield as a creative force.  But that's not all that needs to be done.  There are problems higher up the field as well.

The box-to-box spots have been in flux the first two games.  In the opener against Fiorentina they were manned by Andrea Bertolacci and Giacomo Bonaventura.  A week later against Empoli, Bertolacci was joined by Antonio Nocerino.  Neither pairing has been particularly effective.

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Moving De Jong into one of these spots will instantly inject some defensive steel into a spot that has so far been unable to win the ball effectively.  The spot next to him is a question mark.  Bertolacci has so far proved completely unworthy of his €20 million price tag.  He has time to turn things around, but his play so far has been a negative rather than a positive.

Unfortunately, there isn't much in the way of replacing him.  Andrea Poli would be a good squad player if Milan were the Milan of old, but he hasn't proved himself worthy of a full-time starting role.  Bonaventura is passable in the role, but he proved against Empoli that his place is probably higher up as a trequartista.  Bertolacci is going to have to work himself out if there is to be improvement.

Bonaventura's place in the hole isn't guaranteed either.  He's got two other players vying for the spot: Keisuke Honda and Suso.

Both have started there so far this season.  Suso's 55-minute stint against Empoli yielded a pair of shots that were wildly off target and not much in the way of chance creation.  Honda's time on the field was abbreviated, as he was sacrificed after Rodrigo Ely was sent off half an hour in.

Of the three contenders, Bonaventura performed best in the role.  According to WhoScored's game stats, he was the only midfielder to supply a key pass, and his set piece delivery was a marked improvement over Suso's—indeed, his delivery from a corner kick produced the game-winning goal.

There is layer upon layer of complexity in Milan's midfield.  There is a lot of dead weight still to trim off, and a lot of shuffling needs to happen in order to get the right mix.  But it's clear that something needs to change.

De Jong simply isn't a regista.  Riccardo Montolivo, for all his faults, is the best man for that job.  If he does play there, it will allow the Dutchman to move into a more natural box-to-box role that will let him take full advantage of his talents and inject more creativity into the lineup.  That will take some of the pressure off Bertolacci and allow the trequartista battle to play out with a better setup backing them up.

If Mihajlovic doesn't start making changes, Milan could start losing the midfield battle long-term—and delay the team's rebuild even more.