Switch in tactical system will benefit the Brazilian.
“Our relationship with him never ended, he was always in our hearts. We knew, sooner or later, that we would bring him home,” Adriano Galliani told the media on Thursday morning.
AC Milan’s vice-president was speaking at a press conference to welcome Kaka back to the club, after his four years in the Spanish capital saw him fail to replicate the kind of form he displayed in his first spell in Italy.
The 31-year-old revealed he is looking forward to “re-finding the joy of playing football” after being greeted by a frenzy of Milan supporters over the past few days, and while much has changed since he was last at Milanello, he could still yet have a vital role to play in the club’s future.
Having sold Kevin-Prince Boateng to Schalke last week, Galliani revealed that his departure ultimately paved the way for Kaka to return. While that may have come as a surprise to many, it is a move that could be a stroke of genius as far as Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri is concerned.
After being summoned to a meeting with Galliani and owner Silvio Berlusconi at the end of last season to discuss his future at the club, it was made clear to Allegri that Milan’s style of football had to change, and with that there must be a tactical switch.
The 4-3-3 will be disregarded this season in favour of a return to the 4-3-1-2 system that Kaka excelled in during a decade in which the Rossoneri practically won everything on offer.
While the Brazilian will have lost a step of that devastating acceleration which made him so key to Milan’s attack, his creativity and technical ability in the trequartista role will bring much needed class and craft to a position that has been starved of such attributes for several years.
With Kaka pulling the strings in a more withdrawn role behind two pacey and dangerous attackers in Stephan El Shaarawy and Mario Balotelli, comparisons can instantly be made with Roma’s Francesco Totti.
The talismanic Giallorossi captain continues to reinvent himself and remains a vital part of the club despite turning 37 later this month, but by being deployed in a similar role he is able to see the game in front of him and dictate attacks without necessarily having pace.
It could be a similar situation in which the Brazilian will find himself in this year, fitness permitting, but while supporters will accept that this isn’t the vintage Kaka of 2007, he undoubtedly has plenty left to offer now that he has arrived back home.
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