AC Milan is still a leading contender to win the Italian Serie A, but we’re starting the limitations of this squad, namely a lack of creativity linking midfield and attack.

The team still plays the classic diamond preferred by former coach Carlo Ancelotti, a formation with a deep lying midfielder at the base of the diamond, two ‘shuttlers’ on either side who actually play fairly narrowly (practically the only width in this formation comes from the fullbacks), and a trequartista – creative attacking central midfielder – at the tip of the diamong.

Kevin Prince Boateng is not a true #10, but he was given that role last season for very good reasons, but things have changed dramatically since then. Boateng is a hard running, powerful midfielder with a dangerous shot and underrated technical abilities. When he was assigned to play at the tip of the diamond, the team’s midfield was talented, but old. The three midfielders playing behind were generally a combination of Clarence Seedorf (35 at the time), Massimo Ambrosini (34), Andrea Pirlo (32), Gennaro Gattuso (33), and Mark Van Bommel (33). All good players, but sadly lacking the legs they used to have.

Boateng provided the youth, the drive, the running, persistence that none of them could. Rather than linking midfield and attack with craft and guile, he used what you might call youthful exuberance.

With so many slow players in the midfield, it was critical that Boateng be given that central role so that attacking movements could flow through him.

But now, with additions like Alberto Aquilani and Alberto Nocerino, the AC Milan midfield is much younger and more energetic, so Boateng isn’t needed to compensate.

Because he is not terribly creative, the wily striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is having to try and generate some creativity himself, which is all well and good but now the team’s target man striker is hanging out in midfield and not in the penalty box.

Boateng was never intended to be a long term solution as a trequartista. His best role is as one of the ‘shuttlers’ where is constant running will connect base and tip of the diamond and provide some hustle in the battle to control the center of the park. But until the team finds itself a proper #10, Ibrahimovic will continue to drop further from the goal mouth in order to generate offense and their current #10 will still find himself running at the opposition defenders without a good idea of how to create space and opportunity for his teammates.