Evaluating AC Milan's Options for Wingers in Sinisa Mihajlovic's New 4-3-3

Since the October international break, AC Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic has lined his team up in a 4-3-3 formation.

It's been a departure from Mihajlovic's usual modus operandi. For the latter part of last season with Sampdoria, he had used a 4-3-1-2 formation. He kept that philosophy intact when he arrived at Milan this summer, using the formation for the first seven games of the season.

But Mihajlovic used last month's internationals to engineer a change. Part of the switch was reactionary. The Rossoneri had just been annihilated 4-0 by Napoli in the San Siro—a change was probably necessary just to get over the shock.

Injuries also made it necessary. With Mario Balotelli on the shelf with a hip injury that the club announced Tuesday (h/t Football Italia) is going to require surgery, Mihajlovic only has two proven strikers—Carlos Bacca and Luiz Adriano—at his disposal. If he were to start them as a pair it would severely limit his in-game flexibility. By starting a single forward, the Serbian can better adjust to the demands of a given match.

While that move has given him flexibility over the striker spot, it leaves some questions on the wing. Milan has an absurdly large squad for a team that isn't playing in Europe, but that depth is in numbers only. Very little of it is of high quality, and even less of it comes in the form of pure wingers, which leads to questions as to who Milan's best wing combination actually is.

Really, the only true wingers on the team's roster are Alessio Cerci and Jeremy Menez. The latter isn't in the picture at the moment given his long-term back injury. Cerci, though, is an interesting case.

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The 28-year-old arrived in Milan on loan this past winter, only half a season after making a €15 million move from Torino to Atletico Madrid. He barely played in Spain, appearing in only six La Liga games and two Champions League contests and starting none of them.

Coming to the Rossoneri in an exchange of loans with Fernando Torres, he was used mostly as a sub by Filippo Inzaghi—and always on the wing.

That Cerci has been glued to the wing the last few years is surprising considering how successful he was at Torino two seasons ago when Giampiero Ventura moved him inside and played him as a seconda punta. He scored 13 goals and added 10 assists, easily his best season as a pro. The way to get the best out of him seems pretty clear.

But he remains on the wing under the new regime as well. After being relegated to three late sub appearances early in the season, Cerci has started all five games on the right wing since Mihajlovic made the switch.

The left-footed Cerci has had dangerous moments, like when he hit the post against Lazio, but on the whole has been unspectacular. According to WhoScored.com, he's only averaging 1.1 shots per match, 0.9 key passes and 0.8 successful crosses. Of his nine shots this season, none of them have hit the target and only one has come as close as the post, with four more being blocked.

But without a real alternative on the roster for the right, Cerci is going to be the starter going forward.

The only real alternative is Suso—the latest in Milan's long string of talented youngsters who never play—but the young Spaniard came up as an attacking midfielder and only really moved to the wing last season under Inzaghi. Cerci is the only known quantity.

On the other side of the field, there are even fewer natural options. With Menez out, the top choice is Giacomo Bonaventura.

Bonaventura has been the best player on the team so far this year and has had success since the switch—including a man-of-the-match performance after notching two assists against Lazio.

However, the 26-year-old is a natural trequartista, and it's showed in his play since the formation change. He constantly drifts inside to set up play, leaving the wing to be occupied by his full-back or not at all.

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It looked like he would be the only option until last Saturday, when M'Baye Niang took the left-wing spot when Bonaventura was suspended for the home game against Atalanta.

Known more for his famous miss in the Champions League against Barcelona in 2013 than anything else, Niang, now 20, played excellently for 60 minutes before a lack of match fitness—it was his first game of the year after missing almost three months with a fractured foot—saw him fade.

But the quality he displayed before that point was refreshing, and more importantly, it offered a viable second option on the left. Viable is the key word here, because Keisuke Honda, the final potential piece of the winger picture, has not looked a viable anything so far this season.

That could be important. Nigel de Jong is injured, as is Andrea Bertolacci. Against Atalanta, Mihajlovic flanked Riccardo Montolivo with Juraj Kucka and Andrea Poli—a pairing that is long on grit but short on skill, something that showed when La Dea dominated the majority of the contest.

If it becomes necessary to move Bonaventura back to a box-to-box role, Niang's play on the left would become crucial. It's not necessarily the best role for him—his defensive liabilities could present problems—but the France under-21 international now provides a badly needed alternative.

At the end of the day it's yet to be seen whether the 4-3-3 is truly the answer to Milan's problems. Running it with so few true wingers could yet prove problematic. If they need to shift back to a strike pair before Balotelli returns, Cerci could be used in the same way he was in Torino, allowing several players to return to their best spots.

Until Mihajlovic deems such a move necessary, though, Bonaventura is a must-start on the left side while Cerci seems the only real solution for the right. So long as the 4-3-3 stays, that combination should be on the top line of the depth chart.