Empoli - Milan

I hear you ACMILAN1983. As for Kaka, he cannot be expected to single-handedly do things by himself all the time. Once in a while he does it, especially in CL games where there is more space, but on a regular basis, my only expectation is that he plays as a classic trequartista and links our midfield to our attack. I thought he did his job quite well yesterday. The only problem is if our midfield is unable to provide him with quality balls, there is only so much he can do. Secondly, if our attackers dont make good runs and dont finish, there is also so much he can do. So overall I'm quite happy with Kaka's contribution this season. What I am worried about is our squad depth because if he gets injured (which he is bound to be) we are in deep trouble. God forbid, if he gets a lengthy time off, what are we going to do? Who in our current side can replace him? Or, do we actually have a replacement?

As for Seedorf, I partially agree with you. His work ethic is horrendous. He tends to be slow and he is lacking in energy. The problem, though, is that Clarence was and still is an attacking midfielder, who we converted to a left sided midfielder. His attributes are his passing, vision, long shot, dribbling skills----all while going forward. He is not the type of player we can expect to run up and down the pitch, put in hard tackles, make runs, etcc.....In short, he is being played out of position, which may have worked well three years ago when he was younger and more fit, and had more to prove. But it's no longer working today. I think we need somebody dynamic for that role, a typical midfield dynamo who can do it all---Gerrard I think would be best, but also someone like Diarra (who as we all know is now at RM), or maybe even a younger Patrick Vieira would do. But I think in the end it all depends on Carlo. I am a big fan of his, but my only criticism of him would be that he has his so-called favourites and they seem to be the players who always play, no matter what. In this case, it's pretty obvious Seedorf is one of his favourites.

As I said before that Dida and Olivera are symbols of bad luck and...................Now if a said what i am feeling I would certainlt get a permanent ban .
Anyway we won without them in Coppa Italia match despite conciding 2 goals so why the hell they are in the team????? They are the 2 worst Brazilians playing in Europe and unfortunately they both are AC Milan player which makes me sick . Simply kick both of them out of the great AC Mialn side withoout paying them a single peny . Also let me say this "That Gutless forward (Olivera) wont socre a single goal till next year"

Originally Posted by mzk57

As I said before that Dida and Olivera are symbols of bad luck and...................Now if a said what i am feeling I would certainlt get a permanent ban .
Anyway we won without them in Coppa Italia match despite conciding 2 goals so why the hell they are in the team????? They are the 2 worst Brazilians playing in Europe and unfortunately they both are AC Milan player which makes me sick . Simply kick both of them out of the great AC Mialn side withoout paying them a single peny . Also let me say this "That Gutless forward (Olivera) wont socre a single goal till next year"

First of all, I think it's your post that makes other people sick..You call yourself a fan? I feel sorry for you, dude..

Oliveira was among the best players on the field in Florence..He's improving in every match and it's only a matter of time when is he going to actually produce..A little bit of luck on and off the field and he should be all right..

What's with the Dida thing? Have you even watched the match? He was seriously tested only once and didn't conceed any..Defensively, we were very good, it was the other areas we had problems at..

I agree with some people here, Seedorf is for some time below his usual standard, and that seems to hurt us more than we thought..He looks very slow, often gives balls away too easily and the positioning isn't good either..Don't know, maybe he should be benched in some matches to come, I think Seedorf himself shouldn't think he's irreplaceable..

mzk, if oliveira scores a single goal, will you not post on the forums for 2 months?

Originally Posted by rt9

I hear you ACMILAN1983. As for Kaka, he cannot be expected to single-handedly do things by himself all the time. Once in a while he does it, especially in CL games where there is more space, but on a regular basis, my only expectation is that he plays as a classic trequartista and links our midfield to our attack. I thought he did his job quite well yesterday. The only problem is if our midfield is unable to provide him with quality balls, there is only so much he can do. Secondly, if our attackers dont make good runs and dont finish, there is also so much he can do. So overall I'm quite happy with Kaka's contribution this season. What I am worried about is our squad depth because if he gets injured (which he is bound to be) we are in deep trouble. God forbid, if he gets a lengthy time off, what are we going to do? Who in our current side can replace him? Or, do we actually have a replacement?

I can't disagree too much here. I definately don't expect Kaka to do everything, but I think it's up to him to impose his game when on the field, which he didn't manage against Empoli. However, he did manage to get a couple of nice passes through to Cafu, who like I said wasn't as effective as he was in the past.

As for Seedorf, I partially agree with you. His work ethic is horrendous. He tends to be slow and he is lacking in energy. The problem, though, is that Clarence was and still is an attacking midfielder, who we converted to a left sided midfielder. His attributes are his passing, vision, long shot, dribbling skills----all while going forward. He is not the type of player we can expect to run up and down the pitch, put in hard tackles, make runs, etcc.....In short, he is being played out of position, which may have worked well three years ago when he was younger and more fit, and had more to prove. But it's no longer working today. I think we need somebody dynamic for that role, a typical midfield dynamo who can do it all---Gerrard I think would be best, but also someone like Diarra (who as we all know is now at RM), or maybe even a younger Patrick Vieira would do. But I think in the end it all depends on Carlo. I am a big fan of his, but my only criticism of him would be that he has his so-called favourites and they seem to be the players who always play, no matter what. In this case, it's pretty obvious Seedorf is one of his favourites.

Actually, Seedorf is a strange player imo. His favoured position is in the attacking midfield role behind the forwards, but personally I've always thought he did better as the water carrier in our side down the left. Truth is, I have no answer as to why he's playing so poorly this year, because though he's always been inconsistent, he always showed flashes of brilliance in the past. Nowerdays, we're lucky if he gets a decent shot of free kick off at goal, otherwise his contribution has been reduced greatly. Personally, rather than looking for external talent to fill the role, if we are to insist with the current system, then I'd like Gourcuff to play that role a few times, as he's done well so far.

Originally Posted by Zed_darkx

i will surely do that.........but that wont change gila hittin the bar wud it??

I was wondering...maybe Gila was bewitched?

Originally Posted by Hitman

Dr. Milano - I was wondering do you have two girlfriends also? I cannot understand why some people can support two teams... Although Milan sucks at the moment, I would NEVER support any other teams...

Why do you think that people cannot support 2 teams? I support 2 teams: Zenit Saint-Petersburg and AC Milan, and I really cant say which one is more important for me. Many people support one home team and one international.

I just had a thought...I think we should, as long as personnel allows us to, play with just Pirlo and Kaka as creative players in the middle, with two enforcers infront of the defenders..right now, we only really have Brocci...but when we can, we should play say, Brocci and Rino, or Ambro and Rino...why u ask?

Well, to allow Pirlo to get more involved in the attack. He has a good shot from distance, and has the calm that we need on the ball, close to the box.

While we play with one defensive back, and one attacking, overlapping back...sort of like this:
......RO....Gila....
........Kaka.......

........Pirlo.......
...Rino.....Brocci.....

DWB*...CB...CB...AWB**

*= Defensive Wing Back
**= Attacking Wing Back

I did see the game, and it was frustrating..we controlled the play, but, as was the case at the start of the season, we cant seem to make it happen in the final third.

Kaka isnt given any space in the Serie A, so he cannot play his best game, even though I thought he looked a bit tired, he did play well vs Empoli.

I think it is quite reasonable for our management to be grateful for a point away to Empoli...face it, we are Milan in name only at this point, and names mean nothing on the pitch.

We just need more refinement in the final third, and I think moving Pirlo up may give us this.

Gourcuff really should play more as well...Clarence needs like 2 weeks in Suriname to rediscover his "hunger" for the game, and learn how to move into attack quickly.

AHaha excelent thinking warro!!

I like it, Pirlo would have the whole court at the palm of his hands
Btw, I think Kaka played really well in the last couple of games. Moreover, wouldn't we love to have "that" Ze Roberto Carlito said he wanted at Milan? Would he not be the ultimate Seedorf replacement? I just went off topic here

Problem is we dont have anyone who can do the attacking fullback role the way that formation needs. With Gatusso and Brocchi in the team we would have no attacking threat and even less width.

well this is a great counter attacking formation, if you just swap Rinno and Brocci's positions. this setup has great rear strenght and its able to pressure the opposing team to give up the ball mid pitch, just where Pirlo happens to be. Now imagine Pirlo with the ball, starting a counter attack,..... three people open.....Kaka, R.O. and Pippo......

ps.edit: or we dont even need to swich Gattuso and Brocci

What looks really horrible is that we cant seem to pass 5 nice passes in a row. We again look like we dont have any game plan. We do look like a volelball team, like someone said.

I hear u K77SH C....but I made this very assessment in my post...well not for the WBs, but for the DMs...I have to agree with you though, personnel is limiting at present with regard to this formation...plus Tas...if we have one of RB or LB coming forward, it gives him 4 passing options.

This is getting better the more I think about it..let me see..where did I put Carlo´s mobile # again?

Originally Posted by Warro Bantan

This is getting better the more I think about it..let me see..where did I put Carlo´s mobile # again?

Hehe, good idea, but if Carlo wanted to do so he could have done it long time ago.
He saw Cappello using Vieira-Emerson, Mourinho using Essien-Makelele , and now he's seeing Mancini with Vieira-Cambiasso(Dacourt) , or Real Madrid with Emerson-Diarra.
It's nothing new, and it brings success in modern football. It won't hurt if he gives it a try !

I've been stressing that for a while Warro. Putting Pirlo in advanced position may be what we need now more then ever. Pirlo has been poor this season, although not poor in that way, but poor by his high standards. He does the simple stuff and relieves the pressure by taking care of the ball, but does not contribute offensively a great deal. That is exactly what we need now as Kaka doesn't seem to follow his CL performances in the league for whatever reason. Putting Pirlo further up the field may relieve some pressure from Kaka as well as the teams will now have to warry about Pirlo just as much as they warry about Kaka. Another point is that we also saw what Pirlo can do when given the freedom to push up during the WC. Carlo needs to give him the same freedom, because right now things aren't just working they way we want them to. Things need to be changed so they can start working well again, and we can't wait any longer for them to start working well on their own. Of course, they might start working on their own but we can't afford to lose any more points.

K77SH C....you are right that we might be losing some attacking threat but we are also moving Pirlo up to roam in the opponent's half which is a pretty attacking move. I agree however, and I think that formation will only work good with a good attacking if not two attacking wing-backs. Now though we don't have that luxury of great attacking wingbacks but we might as well still try it out. One thing is for sure, it will give us more defensive stability and it will push Pirlo further up the field.

Tas...it would be better to switch Brocchi and Gattuso as we need Gattuso on the side where the more attacking oriented wingback will be. In this case Warro put him on the right, so Gattuso has to be on the right as well.


Just a question.........how do most of you feel about a 3 man defence? Because like I said, I think we need to change stuff, and although Carlo will never use 3 in the back it might be an option for us.

ex. --------Simic/Bonera Nesta Maldini/Kaladze
---------------------Brocchi
------Cafu--------------Pirlo------------Jankulovski
-------------------------Kaka
-----------------Oliveira Gilardino

ex. ----------- Simic/Bonera Nesta Maldini/Kaladze
---------------------------Brocchi
--------------------Gattuso Pirlo Gourcuff/Seedorf
-----------------------------Kaka
-----------------------Oliveira Gilardino

nefremo...I wonder if we should move this to the formation thread?

Anyhoo...the three man backline was tried last season if I recall correctly, usually when we were playing minnows who defended with 15 man in their own half.

I think Carlo has shelved this idea this term, as we no longer have Stam, in whom he had faith to operate with a three man "D"..but yes, I like the idea.

As much as many of us hate to admit it, with Serginho and Kaladze out, we have been seriously impacted...and as such, Carlo´s options are limited, and our performances/results have reflected this...