AC Milan general spiel 2.0

[maro]

Milan's problem for the past two or three years is that there's been no balance to the side, no equilibrium - in short, there have been no players who do more than one job, who attack and defend. And now you've gone and made this situation twice as bad. When you attack, it will be four against 11 and when you defend it'll be 8 against 6. You guys are fucked. I doubt you'll get relegated, but perhaps.

[maro]

And Ronaldinho always starts the season well, threadmund - becuse no-one else is quite match fit either and the pitches are in better condition to play on. Give him some pie-munching over the International break while the other players are doing the things professional athletes do and he'd be back to looking like a chubby dentally-challenged rabbit in the headlights.

[San Paolo]

gazzetta has the probable line up as

================abbiatti===========
===Bonera===Nesta===Thiago====Antonini==
=============Ambro====Pirlo============
========Pato=====Dinho======Robinho===
================Ibra==================

with this stronger teams would rip us apart, no hustle in the team apart from Ambro, hope this isnt the way we are going and the brazilians are used in rotation to keep them all fresh.

[p_maldini_3]

i don't think allegri is that stupid to try that line-up. if he is, then we give him too much credit.

maro, allegri has already made his mark on the team. or at least you can notice the subtle changes, like telling the outside midfielders to push forward which resulted in ambrosini's assist on pato's first goal and gattuso's brilliant ball control that led to inzaghi's goal, both happening as a result of pushing forward that was nowhere to be seen under leonardo. it's no surprise that ambrosini was the first one off, despite the fact that taking seedorf off would've been the more orthodox move if you want to kill the game, ambrosini ran his socks off pushing forward so much. it seems that he's told seedorf and pirlo to play behind the ball, while ambrosini was just running forward and 'occupying' space, creating a distraction rather.

he also has reverted back to the 3 man midfield that worked so well under ancelotti, which means that we will be defending with 7 rather than 6. that will help us in the long run, because last season we gave up so many goals when midfielders made runs into the box that were unchecked by the midfielders who were pulled out of position trying to cover the exposed fullbacks. it doesn't negate the fact that pirlo hardly ever tracks a player back, but i'm sure the extra man will count for something.

it'll also be very interesting to see how he implements boateng into the first team, he's leaving a mark on allegri, who has praised him after both matches he's played in. i think he will be our hybrid midfielder, attacking and defending. he is a monster of a player, he is a faster version of ambrosini.

also, i want to add that ronaldinho made, attempted rather, 2 runs behind the defense. i have never seen that before. that has to count for something too.

[maro]

Yes, mk, and no doubt your gf's tits look fuller and rounder when they're tucked into a padded bra.

[vtec]

[vtec]

[vtec]

[maro]

If you're going to be relying on brilliant ball control from Gattuso breaking forward you're more fucked than I'd thought.

[RomaShield27]

[San Paolo]

quite apt for Milan now.

[The MAN]

[p_maldini_3]

i think it's more of a push-up bra rather than a padded bra.

the point was that gattuso would never break forward under leonardo to find himself in a decent position to create a goal-scoring opportunity, which he aptly provided. gattuso was running forward like crazy, he even won a freekick 30 yards from goal when he was trying to win a long pass from pirlo. who would've thought that pirlo would be beaming long balls to gattuso 30 yards from goal?

[maro]

I've seen Gattuso used in that role by both Ancelotti and Leonardo, mk. It's just that he almost always looks like a fish out of water in that role because he doesn't have the technical quality. That's been your biggest problem for the past three years or so - Rino and Pirlo are brilliant at one aspect of midfield play but weak in other aspects. Which means the balance of the team has to be absolutely perfect to allow them to express their strengths without exposing their weaknesses. Rino getting beyond Pirlo has for me, along with the fact that your wing-forwards were asked to do no tracking back last year, been the single clearest emblem of what's been awry for Milan. Push-up bra or otherwise.

[p_maldini_3]

stop bursting our bubble maro. i think our midfield 3 will be ambro-pirlo-boateng, which i think should be enough balance for that.

galliani admitted that allegri asked for an external attacker to back-up ronaldinho and pato, so he got robhinho. it's good to know that allegri's opinion was valued and taken into consideration, i'm sure allegri is more than ecstatic at the lineup he has now.

[vtec]

i don't think ambrosini should be there ahead of flamini despite having a greater aerial presence

[maro]

I wonder if Allegri will try Flamini as a fullback again? He doesn't have the technical quality going forward I don't think, 'tec, even though his work-rate is excellent. Alongside a Fabregas he looked brilliant for one year but only for that one year. And Fabregas and Pirlo are, of course, quite different kinds of player.

[vtec]

we shouldn't need him to go forward, though, but cover for antonini instead. god knows ronaldinho/robinho/pato won't be doing any tracking back, so his role would be that of a destroyer. on the other flank, boateng would have to do more pushing forward as bonera is not the greatest attacking option down the right.

[p_maldini_3]

flamini constantly gets out of position, that's why i'd want ambro in there. although our ideal midfield would be flamini-pirlo-boateng, i wonder how that would work, as long as pirlo isn't the only midfielder that is covering the defense once we lose the ball, i think it would work.

[Carlo Romano]

'Tec, there isn't a lot wrong with the Gazzetta dello Sport 4-2-3-1 in that you have to forget what Robinho and Ibrahimovic did for others and find out just what Berlusconi's twin "gifts" to the fans can do for Milan, and it may as well be sooner rather than later.

I can imagine some people thinking you can't play Pato, Dinho, Robinho and Ibra all together. I would, not only as I say to see what they do together but to take advantage of the fact that Dinho is on form just now. If that format doesn't meet expectations it can soon be changed...


Maldini, let Flamini compete with Ambro for the privilege of being Pirlo's playing partner. It can only be good for your team!