Two strikers, in Milan, are Inter's intellectual property, with the club having registered trademarks around the theme.
Milan? one striker at a time. Ibra, Giroud, Gonçalo Ramos. Allegri even tried to sell Leão as a number 9, creating a Milan without a proper striker. The last truly great Milan attacking partnership remains Inzaghi-Shevchenko: an extremely high level. And what if all this changed with Nicolò Tresoldi and Gonçalo Ramos?
How would Tresoldi and Ramos play together at Milan?
A Milan with two strikers would be unusual. Yes, Ramos has the characteristics to play alongside another forward. He works for the team, can move around the pitch, and has the technical ability to put a teammate through on goal. Of course, at PSG and with Portugal, he has been accustomed to playing alone, with Kvara, Barcola, Doué, João Félix, Pedro Neto, Bernardo Silva... Tresoldi also plays alone at Brugge: a lone striker in a 4-2-3-1.
Their coexistence is certainly not impossible on paper, but it would all need to be studied. What would their Milan look like? It would have to be reinvented. Probably a 3-4-1-2 tending towards a 3-5-2, with a genuine attacking midfielder (let's say one of Pulisic or Cisse?) or an atypical one like Rabiot.
It would be a very aggressive team, with two strikers who work hard without the ball and lead the pressing. High-tempo football and transitions. Amorim would have to find a way to bring out the best in them, and a couple of wide players who can deliver crosses easily would be useful.
Milan would look to find their two strikers quickly, and Modrić would be a great help in this regard. From there, it would be interesting to see their combinations through the middle and understand which of the two (Tresoldi) would attack the space behind the defence more often. Against teams that sit deep, Amorim would have one more solution.
The Unknown Factor
Problems? One above all. Milan's playing system brings out the best in those who know how to occupy the attacking midfield areas. Alphadjo Cisse, Diego Moreira, Christian Pulisic. They have different characteristics, but they are all good at exploiting the spaces created by the 3-4-2-1 and Ramos' movements. If Milan played with two strikers, the management of those spaces would change, as pointed out via La Gazzetta dello Sport in this morning's print edition.
Playing every three days would help with rotation, but some players would see their minutes drastically cut. Moreira could find space out wide, while Pulisic and Cisse would end up looking at each other with the expression of someone who knows that if one plays, the other sits on the bench. Considering that they have been Milan's best players this autumn, that is not ideal.
