AC Milan general spiel 2.0

[San Paolo]

When Thiago Silva was ruled out of yesterday’s trip to the Santiago Bernabeu through injury, the odds were already against Milan achieving a positive result against Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid. It has been proven time and again since the start of last season that when either the Brazilian or his centre back partner Alessandro Nesta are missing, the Rossoneri are often a defensive disaster against an even half-decent side.

The failure to find an adequate back-up to the outstanding duo, coupled with the persistent problems at full back with the ageing Gianluca Zambrotta and tactically hopeless Luca Antonini, will continue to compromise Milan’s chances despite their brilliance further up the field. Daniele Bonera, who deputised for Silva, is simply not good enough wherever you play him. Twice he positioned himself suicidally in front of goalkeeper Marco Amelia – once it resulted in Mesut Oezil’s deflected goal and on the other occasion he could have conceded either a penalty or another goal as Pepe steered a Ronaldo free kick rebound wide.

When you contain holes at the back, it is of paramount importance that the midfield protects and supports the defence. Massimiliano Allegri ensured this wouldn’t be the case by selecting a midfield three of Seedorf-Pirlo-Gattuso. The trio have a combined age of 97 and – despite the latter’s recent renaissance - do not possess the energy, enthusiasm and discipline to work as a three against top clubs. Especially away from home. As has been echoed by Goal.com’s Kris Voakes, Milan must always select either Kevin Prince Boateng or Mathieu Flamini to provide the legs and lungs. Had they done so last night, it would have been a much closer game. Allegri must recognise this immediately, and once he does he needs to be strong enough to drop an elder statesman like Seedorf who for too long has picked himself.

This is not the only criticism that can be directed at Allegri’s door. Although Milan have started the season reasonably impressively, and are well placed in Serie A, the former Cagliari boss has not excelled with his substitutions. Allegri has often taken too long to execute in-game changes. Yesterday, the Milan front three barely got a kick in the second half, yet it took until the 70th minute until Robinho was finally summoned from the bench. Likewise, Seedorf was having one of his notorious off-days – when Seedorf plays bad, he really does play bad – yet the Dutchman remained on the pitch for the whole 90 minutes.

The ability to make the right substitutions and tactical tweaks often separates the good coaches from the great ones – look no further than Claudio Ranieri for evidence of this – and Allegri has already started to develop a reputation as someone who is a little too slow to react. With Frank Rijkaard having just been sacked as Galatasaray coach, Allegri cannot afford to commit the same mistakes he made last night.

[vtec]

[RomaShield27]

Who wrote it? Whats the source? Does it have a title?

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The AC Milan Audi A3: http://www.beautifulgear.com/2010/10/th ... n-audi-a3/

[San Paolo]

yeah sorry i forgot to add it into my post, i copied the article from here

[San Paolo]

Pato knows where we went wrong

"Milan striker Alexandre Pato is trying to pick the positives from defeat to Real Madrid, not that there were many to choose from after going down 2-0 at the Bernabeu.

"This defeat will help us understand our errors," he told the press.

"We suffered too much and perhaps we started off with tension and fear.

"You need character in these games."

And Milan will have to find a moving metaphor for the return at San Siro if they are to hold out hopes of winning.

"We want to get back on track and you will see we will play a great game next time,"concluded the Brazilian."

so not the fact that the front 3 were Invisible, out of form or just useless and the midfield was the same fucking midfield from 2004 then tender Alex?

[p_maldini_3]

losing 2-0 to a team that has a lot more resources to choose from isn't that bad. the entire team played like shit, which is one of the few times we have seen that. but they better pick themselves up and learn that every game is different and must be approached differently, allegri should learn that lesson before anybody else. he was lazy in motivating the players and himself.

the worst part is knowing that if our players showed up yesterday, we would've won the game, without a doubt.

[The MAN]

http://www.football-italia.net/oct21g.html

Awesome if this happens...attack is not the problem, its midfield...looks like Seedorf will be benched and rightfully so..Rino should follow suit as well..Allegri needs to crack the whip on the old guard particularly and the the team in general

[vtec]

agreed that this is needed.

[San Paolo]

Milan CEO Adriano Galliani has opened his transfer toolbox and is ready to carve out a January move for Lyon defender Aly Cissokho.

Milannews.it reports coach Massimiliano Allegri has asked for reinforcements at the back - an area that needs tweaking.

The coach has told Galliani he wants Cissokho of Lyon, who was close to joining the club last year before the move collapsed due to what Milan claimed were medical reasons.

However, Cissokho is seen as the ideal medium to add confidence and strength to the Rossoneri defence.

Signing him will be tough though as Cissokho is unlikely to leave Lyon for less than €15 million. The French club also seem reluctant to sell.

[San Paolo]

Juventus' injury problems in defence have forced Luigi Del Neri to look for new additions, and he has touched upon Milan's Daniele Bonera.

Tuttosport reports Del Neri is planning a new wave of transfers in January - a move confirmed by Giuseppe Marotta on Thursday when he claimed the club would strengthen.

And the first area is the defence. Armand Traore is still injured, Fabio Grosso has been banished to the margins of the squad, Zdenek Grygera is out for a month after sustaining an injury against Salzburg, and Paolo De Ceglie has not been performing to the standards expected.

Del Neri is now ready to confront the problems and force the club into making the right additions. Grosso is likely to be used as a makeweight for Bonera, who has played little at Milan.

Such a move was on the horizon during the summer, but it never took off. New talks are planned for the winter transfer window.

Napoli's Fabiano Santacroce and Bayern Munich's Martin Demichelis are also on the list.

[The MAN]

Bonera LOL...send that scrub away for free even, we'd be automatically weakening a rival....he's pathetic, he's nowhere close to being Milan material, heck, I'd rank Favalli well ahead of him, sure he was old when he played for Milan, but even there he was a fairly competent defender when he played more often than not, I kind of miss him... Forza Favalli!

[vtec]

we should just call him boner

[The MAN]

Hahah good call, I'm amazed how we all missed this nick, that's a good one man!

[p_maldini_3]

i think sokratis deserves another chance. he's not as big of a boner as bonera.

[p_maldini_3]

also, paulo henrique of santos (aka ganso) isn't renewing his contract. i know we've been on his ass for awhile, the same way ronaldinho has been sitting on his own ass for awhile, but we really should make a move for an attacking midfielder who can play in the middle. ronaldinho just can't cut it.

apparently, word on the playground is that robinho will start in dinho's place, and we'll play a 4-3-3 which should, theoretically, come out on top against napoli's 5-3-2/3-5-2.

[The MAN]

[p_maldini_3]

yepes = storari 2.0

sokratis got overwhelmed because of a very weak midfield, his positioning may be suspect, but he holds the trump card in pure physicality. he deserves another shot, allegri is not good at picking the best starting XI.

[vtec]

i do not like the layout of the new homepage

[p_maldini_3]

carlo at his best:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... ccess.html

[The MAN]

astute observation there 'tec, about one month late, but astute nonetheless

Carlo is my favourite coach of alltime (with Sacchi) so I hope in the future (say 5+ years from now) he's back, maybe start a new cycle. Basically I want him to return when there's none of his old players left in the team to get a completely fresh start...who knows maybe this will happen or maybe he won't coach Milan again, nobody knows, at this rate I doubt he'd return to Italy anytime soon

Hey about Dinho, you guys know my opinion of him but I don't mind him being benched if it means the asses of Rino and Seedorf are firmly rooted on the bench for the next while...if that happens, it means Allegri is giving underperformers their just treatment...that I consider to be a positive change...my problem with Robinho, and you guys also know what I think of him, is that he's an overrated piece of shit who's only good for maybe 15 minutes, at best, so really I don't think we have a better alternative right now for Ronnie unless we change the shape of the team or we have a solid purchase in January (and no, Kaka is a downgrade)