Maldini: Milan are unbalanced

Paolo Maldini believes the defeat to Bologna was unlucky, but realises “Milan’s biggest problem is balancing all these attacking players.”

The Rossoneri unveiled new signings Ronaldinho and Andriy Shevchenko on Sunday in a 2-1 home loss to recently promoted Bologna.


“Unfortunately we started where we left off last season,” sighed the captain. “I don’t think we deserved to lose, as we had the better of the play and just failed to convert our many chances.


“There is a structural difficulty when facing teams who come to San Siro and focus on the counter-attack. We were also unlucky.”


The challenge of putting so many attacking figures in a starting XI prompted Carlo Ancelotti to switch to a Roma-style 4-2-3-1 system in the second half, but this left them open to Bologna’s counters.


“Balance has to be found between players, systems and even the level of form on any given day. It’s not easy to play that many attacking players and I think that is the biggest problem for our Coach.


“It all depends on how the game develops. If you can take the lead, then it all changes and for a forward-thinking side like ours it leaves extra space to run into.”


The Rossoneri have changed a great deal over the summer, investing heavily in Ronaldinho, Shevchenko, Marco Borriello, Mathieu Flamini, Gianluca Zambrotta and the returning Christian Abbiati.


“Those who join this team must accept competition,” added Maldini. “This side has been at the top of its sport for 20 years now and a player has many advantages playing for Milan, but also this disadvantage of fighting for places.


“We now wait to have all our players back to full fitness and are training to be ready for Genoa, so we can take back those points we missed out on in Week 1.”

Channel 4