Leonardo leaves Milan exposed

At Old Trafford, Leonardo’s Milan was insipid, naïve, reckless, poorly organised and almost any other damning adjective you’d like to throw at it.

Afterwards all the attention was on David Beckham’s return to his former club. The former England captain might have only played for about 30 minutes but so bad were his team-mates that he was arguably Milan’s best player. The 4-0 scoreline did Milan justice.

That said it seems unfair to simply blame the players. Leonardo once again was caught out tactically in an important game against high-class opposition.

Jose Mourinho had done it to him twice already this season and now Sir Alex Ferguson has outsmarted the Brazilian as well.

When Gary Neville sauntered forward unchallenged before wasting his shot by hitting over the crossbar in the seventh minute it was already clear that things were going awry for Milan.

Six minutes later Neville again found space on the right side of attack and crossed the ball in for Wayne Rooney to open the scoring.

There’s always something wrong when Neville is finding acres of space to attack.

Though it's no surprise when Milan plays a three-man forward line including Ronaldinho against high-class opposition, the Brazilian’s lack of defensive diligence will become a liability.

This was coupled with the visiting side's formation practically willing Manchester United to seize midfield.

With the Red Devils playing Fergie’s now often seen 4-5-1, which becomes a virtual 4-6-0 when Wayne Rooney drops deep, this was a relatively easy task.

Manchester United took advantage of the space Milan was leaving in front of its defence for the third goal.

Andrea Pirlo allowed himself to be drawn into his side’s defensive line, giving Paul Scholes the time and room to thread the ball through for Park Ji-Sung to score.

The excuses seem to be endless for Milan. Leonardo put the result down to “the strength of the opposition”.

Others pointed to Milan’s ageing stars but lets remember it was a Manchester United side that included Scholes and Neville that defeated Milan.

Then come the inevitable references to the absence of Alexandre Pato and Alessandro Nesta through injury.

However, I don’t think the inclusion of either player would have made much of a difference.

Without any reasonable service from an outnumbered midfield, Pato would have struggled to create any more than Klass-Jan Huntelaar did.

Meanwhile, Milan’s exposed defence would also have left Nesta at the will of the Red Devils just like his replacement Daniele Bonera - and in the second half Massimo Ambrosini -was.

If you want to defeat Manchester United you need to win midfield. Barcelona showed this in last year's UEFA Champions League final and Man City boss Mark Hughes almost surrendered the game at Old Trafford last September when he pushed Craig Bellamy out wide.

Milan however didn’t heed this lesson and went ahead with its preferred 4-3-3 formation and got the rollicking such naivety deserved.

So not for the first time this season Leonardo left his side vulnerable to a mauling.

It’s only because of the patience afforded by Silvio Berlusconi’s continued disinterest in his pet project that the Brazilian’s future at the club isn’t coming into question.