Giovanni Galeone has spoken about the debut of Marco Giampaolo, and said his Milan is more suited to a 4-3-3.

Matchday 1 of Serie A is already behind us and the Rossoneri find themselves three points behind Inter, Lazio, Napoli, Atalanta, Torino and Juventus, after losing 1-0 to Udinese on Sunday evening.

Milan looked miserable against Udinese and produced one of their worst attacking displays of recent years, failing to register even one shot on target.

One of Marco Giampaolo’s mentors, Giovanni Galeone, spoke to Tuesday’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport to give his views on the start of Giampaolo at Milan.

“Marco, I told you this when you were at the beginning and I repeat it now: let your imagination go, because if you don’t risk it becomes predictable,” the 78-year-old Galeone said. “How much did I suffer from Giampaolo’s first Milan game? I was very bad, I won’t hide it. I was in Udine but I preferred not to go to the stadium or visit Marco, I was afraid of bringing bad luck. It was a bad start, there’s little to say, but his starts are all like this: at Ascoli, Siena, Cesena… it takes a tremendous effort.

“How do I explain it? It takes time to understand what he is asking for. He wants his mechanisms to be perfect, but assimilating them is not easy and the players end up losing their playing time. Milan never had a shot on target against Udinese? And in the friendlies they scored little and won even less… Giampaolo, especially in the first months, works a lot on the defensive phase because he doesn’t want to suffer counter-attackers, everything must be calculated. In doing so, he didn’t create and conceded the goal anyway, from a corner.

“If he’s denying his principles considering he said he wants to change things? Perhaps in a month and a half he should’ve realized before that things were not going well. He’s trying a lot of players out of position because he couldn’t train them all together. But if you ask Çalhanoğlu to play when he doesn’t fully know your football then you risk things.

“The Suso trequartista experiment seems to have already been set aside? For me he’s not a #10, he can only play on the right. If Milan are more of a 4-3-3 team? With the current squad, yes. Maybe they can adapt to a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-2-1 to put Piątek in a position to do better. I think it’s the road Marco will take, widening the game with fullbacks. But then, there’s a problem with the men.

“I understand the club’s philosophy but Milan need two big players with experience to raise the team’s credibility, also in the locker room. A midfielder and a top international player to add the leadership that is missing. I’m thinking of Emre Can or Nemanja Matić from Manchester United, and Mario Mandžukić. If Ángel Correa doesn’t have these qualities? We are not discussing things technically, but he is not a leader.

“How is Giampaolo experiencing this moment? He is a sensitive person, and this is his great opportunity, it’s inevitable that he suffers. But he will come out of it thanks to Boban and Maldini, they have chosen him and will support him.

“Brescia on Saturday are particular opponents also because they represent a very delicate chapter of his career? I stay on the pitch and say it’ll be difficult. The newly-promoted sides, in the first Matchdays, coming off a league they won, that of Serie B, and they are still carefree.”