I almost felt asleep during the game. I was tired today but decided to watch, but somehow I just didn't enjoy watching but was too lazy to turn it off. I am not kidding.

I mostly agree with Elmago, here are my key points:

1. C.Ronaldo is officially the world's worst big game flop. He was absolutely horrible. Real had time and space for positional attacks in the first half. Kristina managed to fail at almost all dribbles, fail at almost all passes. He didn't create a single threat. Made a bad miss too.
Pato usually gets ripped apart for playing 10x better than Kristina did today. Even Kaka who lacks regular football did more in 20 minutes than Kristina.

2. Ramos. What a class defender he is. Maldini was right that Ramos is his heir. While Pepe and Marcelo run around like headless chickens, Ramos saved their asses time and time again with his sublime positioning and tackles. If I could take any defender in the world to Milan, I would take Ramos.

3. Pepe and Marcelo are not defenders. They were a joke to watch. Horrible positioning. They relied on sliding tackles and raw power to defend and failed more often than not.

4. Looks like Mourinho is screwed. He has build this squad for 2 years, built it around Kristina and it's now obvious he has made a horrible mistake. Kristina will not help Real in big games. What can he do now? Replace the main 90 million star.
I think he can only patch up the holes in attack in defense by building a new squad with new players. But will he be given the chance? No.

5. Real is still a very strong team. They will still be extremely challenging opponents for any team in Europe today. But teams like Bayern, Milan and even other major teams can beat Real on their day.

6. Barca? I seriously don't know how current Milan can beat them. We would need our best squad + reinforcements + a game of our life.

I really honestly believed that this would be Madrid's chance to beat Barcelona but I was clearly wrong. Even with a gift of a goal in the first 30 seconds of the game, Madrid STILL couldn't finish Barcelona off. Cristiano displayed some terrible finishing by his standards, while Messi, despite not scoring, had a monster of a game..especially when he shrugged off about 4 Madrid tackles before sliding the ball through for Sanchez.

On another note, I have this feeling that there's a problem between David Villa and Pep. I really expected him to start but Pep opted to go with Sanchez instead. It makes sense because he would do more tracking back and pressing but I'm still surprised Villa didn't start. Guaranteed you'll start to hear some rumours this summer.

Milan v Barca? No comment. Let's just say we have some work to do.

(12-11-2011 12:53 AM)fLame Wrote:  I mostly agree with Elmago, here are my key points:

1. C.Ronaldo is officially the world's worst big game flop. He was absolutely horrible. Real had time and space for positional attacks in the first half. Kristina managed to fail at almost all dribbles, fail at almost all passes. He didn't create a single threat. Made a bad miss too.
Pato usually gets ripped apart for playing 10x better than Kristina did today. Even Kaka who lacks regular football did more in 20 minutes than Kristina.

2. Ramos. What a class defender he is. Maldini was right that Ramos is his heir. While Pepe and Marcelo run around like headless chickens, Ramos saved their asses time and time again with his sublime positioning and tackles. If I could take any defender in the world to Milan, I would take Ramos.

3. Pepe and Marcelo are not defenders. They were a joke to watch. Horrible positioning. They relied on sliding tackles and raw power to defend and failed more often than not.

4. Looks like Mourinho is screwed. He has build this squad for 2 years, built it around Kristina and it's now obvious he has made a horrible mistake. Kristina will not help Real in big games. What can he do now? Replace the main 90 million star.
I think he can only patch up the holes in attack in defense by building a new squad with new players. But will he be given the chance? No.

5. Real is still a very strong team. They will still be extremely challenging opponents for any team in Europe today. But teams like Bayern, Milan and even other major teams can beat Real on their day.

6. Barca? I seriously don't know how current Milan can beat them. We would need our best squad + reinforcements + a game of our life.

Great Post

Kristina

The Barca team last night is a much different team than the ones Milan played. I really don't think any teams in this world can play with Barca if all things are equal. True that CR7 flopped again, but the rest of them really can't do much against Barca.

I was sitting at home watching this game and just think, damn this Barca team is too good for anyone if they play in full force.

I watched the game and like Xudong, I didn't enjoy it at all ...

Both defences were bad, very bad, there were a lot of missed passes (with teams of that caliber, you can't expect to see so many passes being missed), no real tactics ... Mourinho's tactics with this Real Madrid seemed to be "take the ball, sprint, send the ball forward, all sprint and try to take it". The only good thing was the high pressing, but yet, starting to make this pressing at the first minute meant that they would be ruined physically at HT.

And I disagree with most of you, some people thought Barcelona was very good, etc, I don't think so, they just took profit of the mistakes of Real Madrid. Seriously, there are times in a game when you need to breathe and let the ball to your opponent, change the rythm, and Real Madrid never did it, they just pressed the defence until all their own players were tired, and Barcelona didn't need to do much.

I still think if we play against Barcelona again, we can beat them ...

(12-11-2011 12:53 AM)fLame Wrote:  I mostly agree with Elmago, here are my key points:

1. C.Ronaldo is officially the world's worst big game flop. He was absolutely horrible. Real had time and space for positional attacks in the first half. Kristina managed to fail at almost all dribbles, fail at almost all passes. He didn't create a single threat. Made a bad miss too.
Pato usually gets ripped apart for playing 10x better than Kristina did today. Even Kaka who lacks regular football did more in 20 minutes than Kristina.

2. Ramos. What a class defender he is. Maldini was right that Ramos is his heir. While Pepe and Marcelo run around like headless chickens, Ramos saved their asses time and time again with his sublime positioning and tackles. If I could take any defender in the world to Milan, I would take Ramos.

3. Pepe and Marcelo are not defenders. They were a joke to watch. Horrible positioning. They relied on sliding tackles and raw power to defend and failed more often than not.

4. Looks like Mourinho is screwed. He has build this squad for 2 years, built it around Kristina and it's now obvious he has made a horrible mistake. Kristina will not help Real in big games. What can he do now? Replace the main 90 million star.
I think he can only patch up the holes in attack in defense by building a new squad with new players. But will he be given the chance? No.

5. Real is still a very strong team. They will still be extremely challenging opponents for any team in Europe today. But teams like Bayern, Milan and even other major teams can beat Real on their day.

6. Barca? I seriously don't know how current Milan can beat them. We would need our best squad + reinforcements + a game of our life.

Interesting post especially for someone like me who didn't see the game.

I won't comment specifically on this match, but I wanted to comment about your last point (6). This Real is a great side with a lot of really good players. However, this Real isn't a side built to beat Barca (despite the fact the press wants everyone to believe this).

I say this because they're a team that doesn't have the characteristics to counter Barca. They need tactical discipline, but they have very few players who have any real tactical intelligence. They need to be physically imposing, which barring the odd player like Pepe (who has no discipline anyway), I don't think they have a player that's particularly dominating physically. They also need to constantly press Barca intelligently, which is impossible when the players don't have the tactical intelligence and physicality to do this.

On the other hand, whilst we or Athletic Bilbao are not as a good as Real, both teams can be tactically disciplined and look to press opponents. Barca struggle when faced with certain tactical problems, such as being pressed at the back, which is why Boateng was key for us in both Barca matches (in the first we did well until he went off injured) and teams exploiting their wide areas when their wide men push up, which Real aren't great at doing.

This doesn't mean I think we're better than Real, as I think their other qualities such as their vertical movement and direct pace is a huge problem for us. I simply think we're better equipped to face Barca than Real.

Actually, I'd even go as far as saying I think we have what it takes to neutralise Barca if it wasn't for Messi's individual genius, as he seems unstoppable.

(12-11-2011 11:07 AM)ACMILAN1983 Wrote:  I say this because they're a team that doesn't have the characteristics to counter Barca. They need tactical discipline, but they have very few players who have any real tactical intelligence. They need to be physically imposing, which barring the odd player like Pepe (who has no discipline anyway), I don't think they have a player that's particularly dominating physically. They also need to constantly press Barca intelligently, which is impossible when the players don't have the tactical intelligence and physicality to do this.

Agree completely. This + Kristina flop is why Real lost.

As much as I love to agree with some of u stating Milan is a side who could neutralize Barca....but I think that's abit much. Real might have made mistakes.....but that's part of the game. U really can't expect any teams to not make a mistake in the match, that's the same as saying how can someone miss a PK. When Barca played against Milan, they were at full strength, Ofcourse so was Milan, but at the end Barca came out the better team in both ties. Despite the 2-2 score, Barca dominated in all aspect of the match. While it seems like Milan was unlucky to lose the 2nd tie, but I still think Barca pretty much controlled the match.
The other factor is motivation, for a Barca player, playing against Milan is a lot different than against Real.
Anyhow, I still believe Milan can beat Barca, as every teams will have their off day.