I doubt we will switch to 3 man defense although I am fan of it...but still, it looks almost perfect on paper:
............eto'o.......milito
.................sneijder.
zanetti..motta..cambiasso..maicon
........frog...samuel...lucio
chivu is ideal for 3 man defence, cordoba would do well too, and even zanetti can play it.
nevermind, Welcome Gian, make us proud!!
Frog is the problem here Cro. Just isn't as agile/movable as Lucio is. Lucio ain't a tiny 1.70m superagile defender either, but he's great on the ball, and for his years his overall quickness is good. Frog will have problems there(no way he will be benched) as it was seen with Gasp at Genoa. He was still decent there, but definetly his best position is central one, with someone on the side next to him.
To be honest I never feared much of Genoa. Maybe the reason for it was that 5-0 result that stuck to my head. They were always very offensive team, and truth to be told Preziosi did fuck him last year when he bought a lot of guys Gasperini didn't want, that forced him to change system to 4 men defense, and then to being fired.
And obviously I fear of his stature, which might be a problem for bigger egos. Hopefully that won't be a problem.
An italian coach for a change though, which we didn't have for a while now. That will deffinetly be interesting.
He has expierience so that is good, and his work with the youth ain't bad. I expect Motta to play better(if only healthy), who played probably his best season at Genoa in Italy. For Milito I wouldn't hope for much.
What else... the 3 men defense is very exciting for me, as I became very big fan of those formations lately. Incredible formations once you have wingbacks who can run forward and back for the whole game. That is our problem though. We need at least 1 very dominant wingback, and we would have it, if only Maicon wasn't in Madrid with his head since last summer. I don't see this guy in Criscito. My dream was Isla, but with our mercato policy...
Sneijder a bit limits us to few formations. 3-4-1-2, 4-2-3-1, or 4-4-2 Diamond. 3-5-2 might work, if a wingback on his side will be focusing more on the defensive side, but still wouldn't put too much deffensive work on Wes. Deffinetly 3-4-1-2 is great formation for a trequartista... BUT, Wes ain't a typical trequartista either. So it will be interesting to see how it will work.
Personaly, despite those problems(wingback, Wes and Frog) I would try with 3-4-1-2. Maybe a bit selfish but...
Wish the board wouldn't leave him on his own like they did with Benitez. Every coach needs his reinforcments, to complete his view of the team, and I hope somehow, by some magic turn of events he will be given those. If not, I think we should focus on SerieA next season to win scudetto back from milan, and CL treat only as secondary, as it's clear we don't have squad to compete on every front anymore.
Anyways welcome again, looking forward to his first words especialy on what tactical approach he will take (hopefully some journo will ask him that)