Week 7: Hellas Verona - Milan (Sunday, October 19th - 15:00 CET)
#41
somebody got the hightlights or full game would be even better? cant find them..
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#42
(10-20-2014, 11:51 AM)Beppe Wrote: somebody got the hightlights or full game would be even better? cant find them..

http://livefootballvideo.com/fullmatch/i...ac-milan-2
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#43
(10-20-2014, 10:55 AM)ACMILAN1983 Wrote: That's part of my problem and where I disagree. I didn't think the midfield was solid and I think they were compensated by good performances elsewhere. The midfield is where Verona had the most joy too, both in terms of space and also statiscally. On Essien, his positioning was a big problem, but it was technical errors off the ball that also really disappointed me, for example things like him getting turned by an opponent (I remember this happening at least 3 times) because his body position and distance to the opponent was completely wrong.

I fully agree. Since last season I have been saying that our midfield has been a big part of the reason why we've struggled defensively, and mainly that has to do with the quality of the players. De Jong is excellent, but Poli contributes with little except his work rate, Muntari and Essien are incredibly inconsistent, Montolivo (now injured, of course) doesn't know how to defend, and Saponara has yet to prove that he is good enough to be a regular.

Yesterday we almost let Verona back in the game. A big part of the problem was that we wanted to control the game at 3-0, which would normally be a sensible thing to do. But to do that, you need to have midfielders who are good at both keeping the ball and winning it back. We had neither, and that is the reason Verona were able to put a fair amount of pressure on us.

I do think that the club has realised this too, so hopefully over the next two transfer windows we will see some new quality midfielders join the club. Things seem to have fallen into place for us in attack and defense, so I feel like the midfield is the missing piece of the puzzle. If we get that sorted out, I think we could be back to fighting for the title.
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#44
(10-20-2014, 11:51 AM)Beppe Wrote: somebody got the hightlights or full game would be even better? cant find them..

http://www.lastminutegoals.org

I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.
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#45
(10-20-2014, 02:10 PM)devoted_dm Wrote: I fully agree. Since last season I have been saying that our midfield has been a big part of the reason why we've struggled defensively, and mainly that has to do with the quality of the players. De Jong is excellent, but Poli contributes with little except his work rate, Muntari and Essien are incredibly inconsistent, Montolivo (now injured, of course) doesn't know how to defend, and Saponara has yet to prove that he is good enough to be a regular.

Yesterday we almost let Verona back in the game. A big part of the problem was that we wanted to control the game at 3-0, which would normally be a sensible thing to do. But to do that, you need to have midfielders who are good at both keeping the ball and winning it back. We had neither, and that is the reason Verona were able to put a fair amount of pressure on us.

I do think that the club has realised this too, so hopefully over the next two transfer windows we will see some new quality midfielders join the club. Things seem to have fallen into place for us in attack and defense, so I feel like the midfield is the missing piece of the puzzle. If we get that sorted out, I think we could be back to fighting for the title.

I think the biggest problem is we often crowbar certain players into the midfield rather than building something with any real cohesion. For example, Essien's being asked to play a role in front of the defence, but doesn't have the qualities to perform this role and imo there are reasons why he was sooner trusted to play RB in his career than in front of the backline.

In this match, you then had Muntari and Poli, the former being a player known for his lack of discipline (he actually did ok this time), while the latter is a solid player if he's got others around him with real leadership skills and the ability to dominate games. That's the problem though, you had a midfield made up without leadership figures, players out of position or lacking discipline. These attributes don't gel well together.

De Jong is very good, but for his qualities he does have weaknesses, mostly tactical and I think that's why his best has generally always been when used alongside a player with better tactical awareness (i.e. Van Bommel).

On Montolivo I think you underestimate his defensive qualities (something I've argued with Revolver about), but overall I don't think he's always the most consistent or always capable of being the leader he needs to be as captain.

I'm not sure other areas have fallen into place yet either if I'm honest. The defence was mostly up against Toni, a tall physical player, which suits CBs like Alex and Rami. I'll be interested to see how they cope against smaller, quicker opponents or those who are known for movement off the ball. In attack, I think the side's seriously lacking a CF who can be relied on to score.

In this respect, I'm curious to see how the side plays against Fiorentina next match, although they have been pretty poor this season so far so it might not be the best test.
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