Pato and Ibrahimovic lacked support

I had the same feeling as those thousands of Milan fans at the San Siro on Sunday night who left their seats early. A feeling of resignation, hopelessness and defeat even before the final whistle was sounded. It was by no means the worst Milan performance ever, but, it was far from the best.

We kept possession well enough, this we are always capable of doing. But, even before Inter decided to close up shop after they went ahead shortly after the break – in no small part thanks to Ignazio Abate’s horrendous error – did we struggle to really penetrate theirefence and create clear goal-scoring chances. And this has been a recurrent problem throughout the season.

The reason for this, in my view and I have repeatedly said this so much so that I must sound like a broken record now, is that we do not have the right kind of player needed to play in behind the strikers.

If I were to choose one player who we do have to play this role it would be Ibrahimovic. He has great technical ability, great vision and a passing range to match. Presto! We have the solution. In fact, he played this position against Paris Saint-Germain a couple of weeks ago and he did not do all that badly.

Unfortunately, Allegri does not share the same view. He prefers to stick the Swede up front thereby making him rely on the players behind him to give him the ball in dangerous areas. This they rarely did against Inter. Pato, even more so than Ibra, relies on those behind to feed him. And same again, rarely was he provided the service needed to make use of his attributes.

Many times this season we have been able to rely on Antonio Nocerino and Kevin Prince Boateng to get forward and create havoc. They have even notched up a not-too-modest tally of goals between them. Aquilani’s contribution has also been significant providing more assists than any Milan player aside from Antonio Cassano. However, against more experienced heads like Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso and Thiago Motta Prince and Nocerino struggled to be effective in attack while we were without Aquaman.

The one player that played in the position that could still create danger by interchanging between Inter’s midfield and defensive lines was Urby Emmanuelson. That is right, the left-back-cum-winger who is now playing in one of the most demanding and crucial roles in Allegri’s system; that of trequartista.

To say that the Dutchman was all at sea against Inter would be an understatement. So many times did he turn into trouble, rarely did he beat his man and never was he ever going to be able to unleash Ibra or Pato in front of him because it is not what he is known for.

I have long argued that using Urby in this role is ridiculous. Going by his display on Sunday night, I feel somewhat vindicated. Urby is not a trequartista and should not be asked to play this role, ever.

Even Kevin Prince-Boateng, who at times I have questioned the use of him in this role would have been a better idea. After all, in the last derby of last season he played admirably in this position and even got on the scoresheet. Why Allegri chose to play him deeper in midfield when he is at least a little more proven than Urby is a complete mystery and one that perhaps is partly the reason why we were defeated.

I do not bemoan the fact that Inter played a rather negative game. They knew Milan like to play keep ball and they also knew that if they could stifle our channels of attack principally via Boateng and Emmanuelson, than Ibra and Pato would be left stranded up front and this is exactly what happened.

It does not seem that Milan will dip into the market this January to bring in a player like Ganso, Kaka or someone other of the same ilk, as much as we need them. And this is most unfortunate.

If Arsene Wenger was watching this game I would say he would be very confident of eliminating us again from the Champions League. All of a sudden it is 2008 all over again; so much for progress.

Sure we are domestic champions this time round, but, in 2008 we were European champions. In any case it does not matter what was won last season, it matters if we are to improve on our performances from last season or not and it is questionable whether we will.