AC Milan general spiel 2.0

[RomaShield27]

Nesta and Pirlo back for Milan
Friday 11 February, 2011 –

Max Allegri has confirmed that Alessandro Nesta and Andrea Pirlo are back available for Milan ahead of this weekend's game against Parma. Milan have suffered without the veteran pair, drawing each of their last two games in Serie A.

“Luckily a long week is over, one in which many things have been said and written,” Allegri said. “It almost seemed as though we were third or fourth, but there is only one team at the top.

“From tomorrow onwards the Scudetto will be decided so now there is no possibility of making mistakes. This mustn't make us nervous, but conscious that we have our destiny in our hands.

“Parma have great technique with Amauri and Crespo. They are a great team with a lot of goals in the legs of people like Giovinco, Candreva, Valiani and Dzemaili. Perhaps, it's not a fundamental game, but it is decisive for the story of this season

[San Paolo]

we need to sit there asses on the bench so they will still be okay for the Spurs game on tuesday night!

[San Paolo]

Brocchi has just been on ESPN saying how Milan are always the club he holds dearly in his heart because we gave him everything and made him who he is today, we taught him vaules he didnt know when at Inter like respecting and playing your heart out for the shirt, we treated him like a member of a family and he will always be grateful for it. he seems like a genuinely nice and caring guy.

[p_maldini_3]

PIRLO SPRAINED HIS KNEE TODAY IN TRAINING.


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WHAT THE FUCK DAMNIT AAAAAAAAAAAARGH

[vtec]

[San Paolo]

a sprain? for fucks sake! how long will he be out for this time! dammit!

[San Paolo]

Latest: Pirlo ruled out for 6 weeks. Injury worse than expected.

[p_maldini_3]

Massimiliano Allegri ready to unleash rejuventated Milan on Tottenham

The coach was a shock appointment but Spurs should be wary of the man plotting their Champions League downfall

AC Milan's Brazilian coach Massimiliano Allegri Massimiliano Allegri had only two years of Serie A coaching experience before joining Milan but the team are top of the table. Photograph: Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images

When Silvio Berlusconi thinks about appointing a new manager at Milan, there tends to be one fundamental requirement. Are the Rossoneri in his blood?

Since the president broke the mould in 1987 with the appointment of Arrigo Sacchi, a former shoe salesman who never played football professionally, he has gone, almost every time, for a former club favourite. True, he has brought in coaches from outside the family but only men of high standing. Fatih Terim, Alberto Zaccheroni and Oscar Tabárez had impressive résumés, even if the first and last would survive only a few months in the job.

Massimiliano Allegri is different. His appointment as Leonardo's successor at San Siro last summer was greeted by raised eyebrows. The sum total of his top-flight managerial experience was two Serie A campaigns with Cagliari, in which the Sardinians finished in mid-table both times. In 2007-08 Allegri worked in Italian football's third tier, leading Sassuolo to promotion.

Allegri's playing career was unremarkable and his links to Milan went no further than a brief trial in the summer of 1994. He was an attacking midfielder at Cagliari when the Milan manager, Fabio Capello, invited him on a pre-season tour of the US. It did not work out for Allegri, known as 'the anchovy' because of his wafer-thin frame.

But his coaching work at Cagliari advertised him as the coming force. He was voted by his peers as Serie A's manager of the year for his excellence on a tight budget and, happily for him, he found that Berlusconi and the Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani were in the mood for a change.

It has worked. Allegri has Milan, 4-0 winners against Parma on Saturday, sitting atop Serie A and looking forward to the Champions League last 16 first-leg tie against Tottenham on Tuesday.

Regular Milan watchers see the parallel between Berlusconi's appointment of Allegri and that of Sacchi three decades ago. Berlusconi gave Sacchi his big break after two successful seasons at Parma who were then in the lower divisions. Sacchi's Parma had beaten Milan in the Coppa Italia. When Sacchi faced the inevitable questions about his qualifications for the job, he coined the immortal phrase: "I never realised that to become a jockey, you have first to have been a horse." He would become one of the greats, and is still the last man to coach a team to successive European Cup triumphs.

It was clear that Berlusconi and Galliani felt Milan needed fresh ideas and impetus – a rebuild – after eight years of Carlo Ancelotti and one more under Leonardo, who was promoted from the role of technical director and, as such, brought a degree of continuity. It was decided, after much debate, that the club must look outside the Milan family.

Allegri was chosen, in part, because of his desire to play attractive, attacking football, which was instilled in him by his mentor Giovanni Galeone, under whom he played at Pescara in the early 90s. Galeone, with Sacchi, was seen as one of the most innovative Italian coaches of that era.

Allegri has used a 4-3-1-2 formation, in which Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been partnered by Robinho or, more recently, Pato, with Robinho dropping to the creative role in behind. But Allegri's outlook has changed since his playing days, when his thoughts were only creative and a maverick streak ran through him (he broke off his first engagement a matter of hours before the wedding).

Allegri has evolved from a 4-3-3 at the start of the season, balancing the team with industry in midfield. He sees no room, for example, for Clarence Seedorf in the midfield trio, using the Dutchman further forward. Allegri, 43, has come to prize defensive solidity.

He has brought a more tactical approach, increased physical preparation and greater discipline, as illustrated by his treatment of Ronaldinho. On Allegri's first day in charge, Berlusconi descended upon Milan's training ground, Milanello, to declare that Ronaldinho was the best player of all time and one that he intended to keep at the club. The message to Allegri was clear: find a way to accommodate him.

Yet Allegri could not tolerate the Brazilian's reluctance to work hard. He phased him out of his plans and, last month, sold him to Flamengo. Allegri showed that he was no yes man and even Berlusconi admitted that the decision to move Ronaldinho was right.

Confronted by plenty of dressing-room egos, Allegri has simply tried to treat everyone in the same way. He is polite yet firm, a mixture of Ancelotti and Capello. He demands focus and commitment. So far, so good.

[RomaShield27]

Gareth Bale hasn't travelled with Spurs, and now they might also be without Van der Fart:

Spurs sweat on Van der Vaart as midfield crisis looms
– Monday February 14 2011

LONDON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Tottenham Hotspur travelled to Italy on Monday with something of a midfield crisis and desperately hoping Rafael van der Vaart would be fit for Tuesday's Champions League game with AC Milan. Gareth Bale, who scored a hat-trick last time Spurs were in the city, when they lost 4-3 to Inter in the group phase, misses the last-16, first-leg match with a back injury, while Jermaine Jenas is suspended.

Luka Modric is struggling to make the starting side as he recovers from an operation to remove his appendix less than two weeks ago, piling the pressure on Van der Vaart to overcome a calf strain that kept him out of Saturday's 2-1 Premmier League win at Sunderland.
"I have got to see how Rafa is," manager Harry Redknapp said of the Dutchman, who has been in superb form this season.

The return to the first team of Nicko Kranjcar, who has scored the winning goals in Spurs' last two games, also gives Redknapp an attacking midfield option.

"Niko deserves his place in the team," Redknapp said after the Croat's second successive sweetly-struck winner. "He's a top player. He practises, he spends time after training every day. Every day, he is on the training ground after he finishes doing a half-hour's practice."

[San Paolo]

bad calf? a few kicks from Gattuso to it should slow him doen eh? i have football tomorrow night so will miss the last half hour of the game, hope we give a good strong performance and don't dissapoint or show ourselves up and more importantly, shoot ourselves in the foot again like we did last year.

[p_maldini_3]

http://futfanatico.com/2011/02/14/zlata ... gue-making

[vtec]

i'm pretty excited about tonight's game, to be honest. gotta love the ucl

[vtec]

we're at 52 points, 13 games remain. from those, i expect to pick up some 23 points, losing against rube in torino and roma in rome, drawing inter, napoli and udinese, and a couple of others. definitely some tough games there. however, those 23 points should be enough to give us first place with 75, unless inter or napoli go on an absolute tear from here on.

[San Paolo]

Feeling so nervous about tonight, i know its a game over two legs but damn if we lose or draw with Tottenham, i wouldnt be able to bear it.
in other news BBC blogger admits he got it wrong.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philminshull ... prove.html

[vtec]

my sentiment is similar to that guy's, in that the two players are beginning to win me over, but i disagree with him in dismissing cassano's previous games as mediocre. he has provided a much-needed spark since joining in every game he has played.

[San Paolo]

i hope they turn up tonight, this game is vital really, screw this up and we will have a right job on at WHL

[RomaShield27]

Line-ups: Robinho-Ibra face Spurs
Tuesday 15 February, 2011

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robinho and Clarence Seedorf start as a decimated Milan welcome Tottenham without Gareth Bale in the Champions League. The Round of 16 kicks off this evening at 19.45 UK time at San Siro, but January signings Antonio Cassano, Mark Van Bommel and Urby Emanuelson are cup-tied. On the treatment table are Massimo Ambrosini, Andrea Pirlo and Kevin-Prince Boateng, so Thiago Silva has to be pushed up into midfield.

This leaves space at centre-back for Mario Yepes and Alessandro Nesta, the latter making his comeback from a shoulder injury at the weekend. As Cassano is unavailable for this competition and Ronaldinho has been sold to Flamengo, the best option in the trequartista role is Seedorf. It leaves Alexandre Pato on the bench, as with so many players missing from midfield, Coach Massimiliano Allegri prefers to play it safe rather than use Robinho behind Pato and Ibra.

Tottenham are missing their star player, as Bale has not recovered from a back injury and didn’t even make the trip to Milan. Peter Crouch and Rafael Van der Vaart have recovered from their back and calf problems respectively to start, but Luka Modric is still not 100 per cent fit after having his appendix removed. Steven Pienaar keeps his spot and not the reported starter Niko Kranjcar. Jermaine Jenas sits out a ban with the injured Ledley King, Tom Huddlestone and Younes Kaboul.

Milan: Abbiati; Abate, Nesta, Yepes, Antonini; Gattuso, Thiago Silva, Flamini; Seedorf; Robinho, Ibrahimovic

Milan bench: Amelia, Pato, Papastathopoulos, Oddo, Jankulovski, Merkel, Legrottaglie

Tottenham: Gomes; Corluka, Gallas, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto; Lennon, Palacios, Sandro, Pienaar; Van der Vaart; Crouch

Tottenham bench: Cudicini, Pavlyuchenko, Modric, Defoe, Bassong, Kranjcar, Woodgate

-----------------

No Pato in from the start? Has Allegri bottled it here or what?

[p_maldini_3]

arrrrgggghhhh we must win tonight! forza milaaaaaaaaaaaan!!

[juventino_italiano]

I knew Juventus sucked, but i never expected Milan to suck it up so badly....losing to Tottenham, thats a disgrace if you ask me...
Wow Milan really suck...enjoy your last match of the CL next week....

This update is for tec...the cunt

[vtec]

it would be awesome if next year in the champions league italy was only represented by milan, napoli, and lazio.