AC Milan general spiel 2.0

[San Paolo]

Former Milan Coach Leonardo has confirmed he’s taking a year out in order to work for English television.

He had been linked with the job of Brazil manager, while there were also offers from Flamengo and Serie A side Bologna.

“Football has given me so much. This year I want to have a different experience,” he told journalists as he received the Il Torrazzo award.

“I will go to England in order to work in television and I’ll study.

“However, next season I could make an important choice.”

Leonardo walked away from Milan after one year at the helm, having taken the team to third place in Serie A.

The Brazilian, who speaks five languages fluently, has already worked as a pundit for the BBC.

[RomaShield27]

Line-ups: Ibra debuts in Cesena
www.football-italia.net – Saturday 11 September, 2010

Zlatan Ibrahimovic gets his Milan debut against Cesena this evening, but it’s Robinho who is on the bench to begin with. The Swede is in the starting XI at the Stadio Manuzzi for the match, which kicks off at 19.45 UK time. Coach Massimiliano Allegri has opted not to introduce the Fab Four immediately, so Ibra is accompanied by Ronaldinho and Alexandre Pato.

Alessandro Nesta and Clarence Seedorf are injured, so Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Gennaro Gattuso step in. Cesena are not changing their 4-3-3 system for their first Serie A home game in 19 years. Also this evening Cagliari welcome Roma on ex-Milan striker Marco Borriello’s debut.

Cesena: Antonioli; Ceccarelli, Pellegrino, Von Bergen, Nagatomo; Appiah, Colucci, Parolo; Schelotto, Bogdani, Giaccherini

Milan: Abbiati; Bonera, Sokratis, Thiago Silva, Antonini; Gattuso, Pirlo, Ambrosini; Pato, Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho

[San Paolo]

Ambro going back to where it all started for him!

[vtec]

god, i am angry at half time, and i give most of the blame to allegri for his selections and tactics.

gattuso should be allowed to leave to rangers.

[p_maldini_3]

fuck allegri. fucking dumbass. cost us the game.

[The MAN]

Well that fucking blows....overall, I think attacking-wise we were OK, at least one of those 2 fucking Pato goals should've stood, but whatever..I'm counting the fact that we'd need a bit of time to see the attack gel, it won't click right away...defensively we look lost without Nesta, we have no replacement for him, plain and simple.

The lineup was wrong. Rino & Ambro in the starting lineup rarely works, I dont fucking understand the logic behind playing Rino when Boateng would've been a far better option..hope Flamini is back soon because I do not want to see Rino starting with Ambro ever again....its very disappointing but alot of big European teams struggled this weekend so the international break must have something to do with it...we need a win on Wednesday to erase this one, we cannot afford a mis-step like this one in CL

[p_maldini_3]

this was similar to the preseason games, where allegri told the midfielders that were flanking the regista to push forward at all times, leaving pirlo as the only midfielder covering the defense in case of counterattack.

gattuso should not have been in the starting lineup, plain and simple. this isnt 5 years ago where pirlo gattuso and ambrosini could work the midfield. this is a fucking ridiculous mistake that allegri is solely responsible for. didn't he fuking learn anything from leonardo the past season?

i don't mind losing a game, but if we fucking lose because of such a dumbass move, it is infuriating.

[The MAN]

Playing Rino is only one reason we lost it isn't the main reason the way I see it, specially with both Seedorf and Flamini out, it was only a choice between Rino and Boateng and unfortunately Allegri made the wrong one...

IMO the main reason is the attitude of the team, specially the attackers, they need to work a bit harder when we're dispossessed...regarding individual players, the defence was really not there with the absence of Nesta...Sokratis is just average, I hope this is only a bad game but he doesnt look that good based on preseason as well....I'd trade him,Yepes,Bonera, the American dude, Oddo and Janku all for one good fucking CB.

Also, I'd like Zambro playing on the right rather than Bonera, I have no idea what Allegri sees in Bonera that we don't...the combo of Rino and Bonera on the right is pretty atrocious if you ask me

[San Paolo]

something ESPN have done to show the average positions of our players in the match last night

[vtec]

wow, that makes no sense. what's bonera doing on the left in midfield? it looks like the graphic is not adjusted for the half-time change in sides, which is retarded.

anyway, for me, most of the problem lay in playing both ambro and rino in midfield and asking them both, especially rino, to push forward in attack. we all know rino is awful in attack and doesn't have the technical quality so it was no surprise that he killed all our attacks when the ball got to him; the main problem with that was that in doing so, there was no one to track back in time and stop the impending counterattack which fucked us. horrible tactics by allegri.

[maro]

I thought mk was telling me last week that the signs of difference in Allegri's side were there - with one of the most notable being the way the Rhino was being asked to get forward.

[p_maldini_3]

rino did go forward, but did jack shit. if you want somebody to go forward, they should have enough skill to do something with the ball, something that rino can't do.

i'm pretty sure zambrotta was being rested for auxerre.

ultimately, the loss was a good thing. it will teach the players that they need to show more humility in approaching games. cesena fully deserved their win, they were absolutely fantastic. they flooded the midfield and were fast on the break. gattuso was rolled over every time, i doubt he even won a tackle.

[maro]

I thought that was what I was trying to say, mk. I've seen Rhino being asked to get forward by both Leo and Carlo because in the modern game you need to be able to do more than the one thing in midfield and, of course, Rhino gets found out when he has to do that. As I've said before, Milan at their best were such a precarious balance - since to get the best out of Pirlo and Rhino you have to have the whole midfield set up to allow them to do what they're best at as much as possible and to have to do what they're not so good at as little as possible. I suspect we will see Prandelli and De Rossi struggling with the same problem for the Azzurri: Pirlo is a once-in-a-generation talent but he also creates certain tactical problems for coaches who have to get their teams to play around him.

[The MAN]

Agreed there, Rino should simply not be starting anymore unless its a Coppa Italia game or something like that, he was, even at his prime, excellent at only one thing pretty much and now he's aged he's lost that too. I don't mind starting Ambro out there as he gives a few things that others don't but not in a lineup like yesterday's...we had Ambro and Rino pushing forward and Pirlo staying back which is fucked up...also, if u want to use someboy like Rino on the right, put a fullback/winger who can attack and have Rino cover for him...maybe Zambro or Abate


I hope Allegri and the players can draw the lessons from this loss...losing in week 2 in Serie A is alright if it serves a wake up call, I never liked the statements from Ibra last few days, the guy won lot domestically but also a big mouth and needs to shut up a bit

[San Paolo]

Even Thiago has said in his press conference the team were too relaxed and never took the game serious last night, confidence is good but we stepped the fine line into arrogance and its come back to bite us on the ass, from now KPB or Flamini should always start with Pirlo and Ambro.

[The MAN]

Speaking of Thiago , I think he's doubtful for Wednesday, but Nesta will be back, as is Seedorf.

If Thiago is out and Nesta in, our defence will slightly be better at least than yesterday's mess...he's the leader at the back and organizes things well, that's one thing missing from Thiago's game but I'm sure it will come with time for him. Hopefully we can start both for Wednesday.

I'd stick with the same attack trio, to me they did not do a bad job in terms of attacking and creating a few chances, certainly improveable but considering they basically had only 2-3 days of training since Ibra joined, it's somewhat understandable...we did have a couple of legit goals called off lets not forget...let's keep it as it is, get the trio to gel for a few games, then after that we can start a bit of rotation with Robinho to make sure everybody gets a rest

[San Paolo]

lets hope Seedorf is in for Rino on Wednesday because otherwise we will get mullered week in week out with the awful static mid.

[vtec]

[p_maldini_3]

maybe i got confused maro, but what i was trying to say was that gattuso is pushing up more than before? thats what i feel anyway.

judging from allegri's post-match comments, i got the feeling he was indirectly saying that the team was relying on the previous strategies rather than listening to him.

who knows, it'll be awhile before we can really see allegri's mark on the team.

[vtec]