Time for youth

With Milan’s lost last weekend all but extinguishing any faint hopes Milan may have had of winning the Scudetto, there is now not much left to play for. Now, all Milan can really do is make sure that they retain their current position in the table . With only four matches remaining this should not be difficult for Milan.

All things considered then, for Milan, the last remaining four matches of the season present a great opportunity for Leo to blood some of Milan’s younger players. The likes of Albertazzi, Adiyiah, Zigoni and Verdi are all promising young players with their success in the Primavera Coppa Italia a testament to this. Such players should be given a chance to play in the remaining games no matter who it is Milan still have to play.

It may be argued that such a move may put Milan’s current position in the table in jeopardy. But such an argument has to be absolutely refuted when time and again this season we have seen Milan’s old guard commit one horrendous error after another. Here the main culprits have been Favalli, Oddo, Jankulovski, Bonera (though not really an ‘old’ guard) and even Dida despite some recent good form.

It really is not a concern at all if these players (the old guard) are given their deserving orders of being told to watch from the sidelines whilst some younger, motivated and hungrier players from Milan’s youth ranks take their place and perhaps show the ‘old’ guard what it means to play with heart. For quite frankly, enough is enough. The aforementioned old guard simply do not have any more motivation apart from their incredulous will to play on to just so they can keep picking up their excessive wages week in week out.

There are some promising youth players coming through the ranks at Milan who seriously could not do worse than some of the performances we have seen from the likes Oddo, Favalli and, well, you know who they are.

In particular, Albertazzi is a promising young full back who should be a starter this weekend against Palermo. Why not? Bonera is injured, there is no Nesta of course and both Kaladze and Favalli are injured. This leaves only Massimo Oddo, who played at centre back last weekend, as the only option. But given that it was Oddo who was responsible for letting Pazzini in to score the winner and given that Oddo is prone to such errors on regular basis, playing Albertazzi cannot be as absurd a choice as it may seem to some. Playing Albertazzi instead will help give the young lad some much needed experience and confidence that will only aid in his development and this can only benefit Milan in the long run and perhaps even next season.

In midfield there are still only a few options for Milan and for this weekend’s tie, Leo has Pirlo, Seedorf, Flamini and Gattuso to choose from so expect the former three to make up the midfield three.

But in attack, there is again an opportunity for Leo to blood some youth. Two players that have been selected in the squad and should definitely be given a chance this weekend is Adiyiah and Zigoni.

There was much hype when Adiyiah was signed in January yet unfortunately he has not yet made his competitive appearance for Milan. But Adiyiah has much promise and being a natural wide attacker, Adiyiah would fit in seamlessly on either the left or the right side of attack.

Here a similar argument to the Oddo/Albertazzi is put forward and rather bluntly also. Here it is. Since Mancini is, these days, an
utterly hopeless player as shown by his epically inept performances for Milan this year, it is not unreasonable to propose that Adiyiah play instead from the start.

After all, Adiyiah not only promises much for the future, but his FIFA U-20 World Cup Golden Ball award puts him in the same club as one of today’s more illustrious stars in Sergio Aguero and arguably the best player of today in Lionel Messi. Here Adiyiah is in good company and if he can develop into half the player that Messi is, then Milan surely have a winner so he should be given him his chance sooner rather than later.

In addition to the call for Adiyiah to get a chance and from the start is the plea for Zigoni to also be given his chance. Though this is not to propose Zigoni, like Adiyiah, should start even though Borriello is injured. But Zigoni has shown much promise and is physically already able to match it at the top level. An appearance from the bench should be on the cards.

For this weekends’ tie, given Borriello’s absence which is a concern considering his recent form, it should be Huntelaar that gets the nod up front. The Dutchman, who has struggled this season, may not be part of Milan’s future with interest from the EPL growing. So whether or not he intends to stay, what is sure is that Huntelaar at this current time will be very keen to perform in order to either enhance his chances in Milan in the future or perhaps to impress Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger. For this reason, it will be a good decision to play Huntelaar who still has much to play for.

Despite such calls for Leo to ring in some major changes, it most likely will be a familiar old Milan side that takes to the pitch this weekend against Palermo. Blooding the youngsters in order to help Milan in the future may not mean much to a coach who is more than likely to be moving on next season. Leo will instead want to ensure Milan claim third spot for the sake of this own reputation and for this reason Leo will not be none too worried about taking chances with youth.