AC Milan general spiel 2.0

[The MAN]

Dinho has to come on for Robinho immediately IMO.

BTW. Our fullbacks stink. Antonini really started this game badly and finished a bit better, Zambro it's the other way around

[vtec]

our fullbacks do stink, and that includes zambro.

i thought rino played well, and pushed up more than i would have liked him to.

i don't think our lineup is too defensive, as we've been forced on the defensive too many times. except on the goal, we defended well, and nesta just screwed up there. pirlo is playing ok, although making mistakes. seedorf has had two assists, but has also given the ball away a couple of times. robinho has just stunk it up and must come off. zlatan has been good. thiago has been good. flamini, meh.

[The MAN]

MotM
























Moron of the Match

[vtec]

i thought he was the motm for ajax

[The MAN]

I was really frustrated with seeing Ronaldinho get 0 minutes while that moron Robinho stayed the full 90. I have no idea what the fuck Allegri is thinking there. I have no issues with subbing out Flamini, not Rino, for Boateng, I suppose the Frenchman doesnt have the legs for the full 90 so this is a positive change. The other 2 changes were too late to make an impact. I'm just baffled at seeing a matchwinner like Ronaldinho getting no minutes at all...Allegr messed up there.

For their goal, I take it as more of a great striker move than bad defending by Nesta..in fact, Sandro was the only one who was trying to get it back while 2 players (I think Rino and Antonini) just laid down hoping to get a block....that all said, for a game at least, Nesta may not have been the best in the Milan backfour, Thiago had a monstrous performance IMO, looked in control.

Seedorf faded in 2nd half, Pirlo was generally OK as was Rino...however, when all 3 are having OK games at best, it's hard for Milan to be dominating and that's what happened..Zlatan is a fucking champion tho, we havent had a fucking true world class striker like this since Shevchenko v1.0

Overall, I felt this is a game we could've won....at the same time, we could've easily lost it as well...an away point to Ajax is not really a bad result, some regrets for sure...I don't give a flying fuck about finishing 1st or 2nd...recent years in CL have shown it does not matter that much in the grand scheme of things...we just need to qualify ASAP...the Madrid games are coming up, we need a split in this at the very least.

[maro]

Aiax, Milan, Real Madrid - that's a pretty flippin' brutal group. If you can take 4 points off Aiax you should be fine, but milord that's a tougher group than our lot have.

[p_maldini_3]

i didn't see the match, so i can't really comment. but an away draw to ajax isn't that bad. but allegri needs to get his tactics straight, and robinho needs to step up and live to his name. he's playing without confidence it seems.

[The MAN]

Robinho living up to his name? You mean the overrated flop of a name he's already made for himself at Real and Shitty? He's sure living up to it already.

I always viewed him as a bench player who can give u a spark for 15-20 mins....still furious at Ronnie's drop and anxiously awaiting Pato's return in the meantime.

[p_maldini_3]

just watched the highlights, robinho's mind is there, but his execution is horrible. i'll put that down to lack of match-practice and lack of confidence. he is a good player, very skilled on the ball and very much a player that is made for milan. he can play better if he puts his mind into it.

ronaldinho getting dropped today is interesting. his lack of versatility is more of a hindrance to allegri than what he brings to the table. if allegri continues with this, which is not impossible, we can say goodbye to ronaldinho in the winter.

pato's injuries have to do with the fact that he's grown 6 inches and gained 10 pounds of muscle in the past 2 odd years. messi had the same problems and went through the same amounts of injury lay-offs in the early years of his career. pato's recovery rate has also been improving, before he spent nearly a month and a half off at a time to recover, now they're saying he should be back for saturday's match.

i can't wait to see pato in full form. i have never seen a player like him before. he adds so much to the team when he's around; but when he isn't, we suffer so much.

[The MAN]

I'm not a big fan of Robinho before he joined Milan, you can dig up my old posts for that, I really view him as over hyped, but since he's a Milanista now, I support him, but today he just fucking stunk with a capital S. You get fucking 5 millions a year to miss a chance like this?

Dinho not leaving. You can take this to the bank. Silvio has a hard on for him and will not let him go.... for me I like Ronnie alot but give him no blanket support like Silvio. That said, Ronaldinho is our most capable player bar none. Against Lecce he was magical, I wonder if his contract situation is affecting him....simply put, I take a lazy half-assed Ronaldinho over a Robinho at 100%

I was reading the same medical explanation about Pato's situation and I have to wholeheartedly agree. If Pato can become half as Ronnie was at his prime with Barca I will be a happy man indeed,

PS. Galliani made a point to complain about ref, and I agree he was not good. He was dishing out yellows like crazy in 2nd half, some of them were right but others were not. Furtheremore, that quick FK by Pirlo set Pippo free on goal yet the ref chose to replay it, BS call. A tie was a fair result overall but still

[vtec]

we do have an absolutely deadly group. is it 20 champions league trophies between the teams? that's one of the toughest groups ever, since even auxerre are no joke. that's why it's essential to take as many points as we can from each game, and while an away draw at ajax isn't terrible, we could and should have done better.

tactically, i didn't think there was much wrong. the substitutions were perhaps questionable, and their timing could have been better. the one that wasn't questionable at all was boateng for flamini, which was spot on, since flamini wasn't in form, was on a yellow, and gattuso was having another excellent game, though not quite as good as on saturday.

however, robinho should have come off early in the second, and ronaldinho would have been a good player for that. i thought seedorf played alright in the second half, though subbing him off wasn't necessarily bad. i would have preferred if it was robinho who came off, though. also, pippo should have come on earlier.

nesta was solid except for that one mistake and thiago was very solid, so that pairing looks good. abbiati had another good game and he's been very good so far this season. there was nothing he could have done on that goal.

also, our fullbacks do suck.

i think i disagree on ronaldinho being our most capable player. pato has the raw skill that can win a game on his own as well. pato is a more direct player than ronaldinho and i think has more of a killer instinct. he is like a more refined and deadly version of shevchenko. if we can hold on to the boy, he will be a star.

[The MAN]

Yeah its a brutal group...getting out of it should our priority, as I said I dont care much about 1st or 2nd, I think this Milan is just as likely to eliminate a top team in the knockouts as screwing up against a small team.

Agreed on the assessments there...I'm a big fan of Pato, don't get me wrong, he's thje future of the team but but will he be like Sheva? I hope so but it's tough, Sheva was a machine though he was a little more mature when we got him so Pato got some time.

I didn't like our system, apparently it was a 4-4-2 not 4-3-1-2 (Seedorf said this)....it's good to mix it up but I think 4-3-3 suits us more.

How good will Suarez look out wide in a Milan 4-3-3? The guy is a stud and would be a perfect fit for Milan IMO.

[vtec]

i am a big fan of suarez and agree that he is a stud. i wold have preferred him over robinho for sure, and even over ibra.

that said, and i am still not an ibra fan, he has been stellar for us thus far, so good on him. i still would have preferred it had we spent the money on a good player's who's not an asshole, but at least the money wasn't wasted on him, which is more than i can say about robinho.

[San Paolo]

[vtec]

i don't think the ref was bad against that, to be honest. he wasn't a good ref, but did not favour either side. when he reffed the madrid game last year, however...

[San Paolo]

HQ/HD Photos from last night are up

[RomaShield27]

Good news...

The European adventure's over: David Beckham concedes he won't play for AC Milan - or anyone else on the continent this season

www.dailymail.co.uk – Last updated at 3:09 PM on 29th September 2010

David Beckham has admitted it is highly unlikely he will play in Europe again this season. The England midfielder has spent two loan spells at AC Milan in the last two years after the end of the Major League Soccer season in the USA.

Beckham, 35, says that it is unlikely he will pursue a similar move this time as he needs to get back to full fitness after his ruptured achilles. He returned to action earlier this month for his MLS club the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Asked about returning to Europe on loan again, Beckham told www.fifa.com: 'I don't think so. I'll never say never, but after my injury I need to really focus on getting my full fitness back.

'Physically I need to get myself back in order after a very long time out of the game. I can't say for sure, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.'

Beckham still has an eye on forcing his way back into the England squad despite manager Fabio Capello appearing to hint that his international career - where he has won 115 caps - may be over.

'No, I wouldn't say that,' sad Beckham when asked if football had seen the last of him in an England shirt. "But whether it's over or not is not really down to me.

'I want to continue to be available to play for England. That's all I can do. I am passionate about playing for my country and I have been for 15 years now.

'Ever since I was a little kid all I ever wanted to do was to play for my country. Whether the road is over or not, I don't really know, but I will continue to work hard to get my fitness right because that's the important bit at the moment. Once I've done that, we'll know more.

'I hope England continue to push on and keep bringing young players through; this is an important thing for the future of English football at international level.'

[San Paolo]

Gonna miss Flash Dave, although he would have no real place in our team this season with KPB and Flamini both ahead of where he would be in the pecking order.

[p_maldini_3]

ronaldinho flashed his balls against lecce, but he choked on some for the next 5 games. benching him was a good idea. he needs to move more and do more if he is going to be effective.

also, lecce has been the only team that has played with 2 central midfielders against us (in a 4-4-2), all the other teams have played with 3 midfielders, of which one is always marking pirlo. eventually, pirlo's markers get sick of of marking him and he is able to pull out a brilliant pass, like the one against genoa for ibra to score and the one for seedorf to pass to ibra in yesterday's game.

pirlo, so far, has been most effective at the end of games, when the player marking him tires out. it's no surprise that gattuso is dishing out, this is a wild guess, more passes than pirlo; or at least that is what it seems.

pirlo is still the key to our game, and ronaldinho needs to step up if he is to deserve a starting spot on the team.

[San Paolo]

Chelsea will have to prepare for Sunday's clash against Arsenal without manager Carlo Ancelotti following the death of his father, Giuseppe.

The Blues boss flew out to his homeland earlier in the week to be with his father, who passed away at the age of 87 on Wednesday night.

Ancelotti will remain with his family in Italy for the funeral on Saturday before returning to London to take his place in the dugout at Stamford Bridge.

The Italian's backroom team, which includes coach Ray Wilkins, will take charge of preparing the Premiershit champions for the crucial clash against the Gunners prior to his return on the day of the game.
Condolonces

Chelsea suffered their first defeat of the season against Manchester City last weekend but still hold a four-point cushion over Arsenal after Arsene Wenger's men suffered a shock home reverse at the hands of West Brom.

A statement on the club's official website read: "Carlo Ancelotti's father Giuseppe passed away in Italy last night aged 87 with his son at his side.

"Everyone at Chelsea Football Club sends our deepest condolences to Carlo and his family. They are all in our thoughts at this time.

"The funeral will take place in Italy on Saturday. Carlo will return to London for Sunday's match versus Arsenal."