UCL Final - Milan vs. Liverpool... Athens, May 23rd

As redconn said above, we played Man Utd off the park this season at Anfield. We totally bossed the game. BUT we failed to score.

It's sad to see some people say that we are a long-ball/physical team. You don't get to a CL Final (heck 2 in 3 seasons) if you can't play football.

I would not be at all surprised to see Liverpool dominate parts of the CL final.

Milan will not enjoy the harrying/hassling that we do. Milan won't get time on the ball - something that they enjoy and base their game around. Think back to the Milan v Bayern game, in the quarters. Bayern gave you a hint of what we will do. Only we do that much much better.

On a sidenote - I'm not sure how I feel about all these reports of heavy rain being predicted across next week in Athens.

I never said you'll couldn't play football. But you must admit your side is more of a physical side than a technical side. I'm not doubting the class of players like Alonso and Gerrard but most of your matches are won through grit/detrermination and not necessarily "outclassing" the opposing team. You can correct me if I'm wrong cuz I must say I haven't watched MANY liverpool matches this year. But from the few I saw(especially the Chelsea match) that was what I saw.

Originally Posted by zlatanov

you edited the post where you said "keep up with the conversation" ... and you were constantly online at that time so don't play the innocent games with me ... I read the original content.

no one is claiming to be right all the time but you have to at least come up with an argument to prove a point wrong, not simply one of your blah blahs

also, this is forum and all members are free and expected to post whatever they want whenever they want, as long as it abides to forum rules ... you have no right and you are not in the position to tell anyone whether they can be part of a discussion, especially when this is taking place in a public thread, opened to anyone.

regarding the bold part above - This is your last warning about interfering with moderators' duties on this forum ... and this is referring to your past endevours here too when you have tried to provoke mods with baseless accusations by accusing them of ... baseless accusations and personal vendetta towards you ... and those cases did NOT concern me but other members of the admin team, so people here should not be worried that this is a case of a mod getting personal with a forum member and exploiting his position.

Rest assured that mods here do have better things to do than bother with attention seeker's like yourself and if someone is on your back then there is a good reason for that ... change the attitude and you will see how everything else will change too.

I am sying it again - this is private forum, with its own rules and policies, and that anarchic stuff that is taking place at the R&B forum where people are doing everything but killing one another is not gonna happen here ... and for that moderation is required as well as cooperation by all members ... your attitude, however, is only making this more difficult rather than facilitate things ...

other members, good members at that, have been barred for less than what you have already done, now and in the recent past before you started bugging admins with ridiculous requests and stopped posting for a while.

so, again, consider this an official and public warning and most importantly, the last one.

you said it yourself... all highlighted in bold...

i am free to post whatever i want whenever i want... and the content are definitely not against the rules at all...

and you yourself have no right & definitely not in the position to tell anyone whether they can be part of a discussion...

so now i am an attention seeker?

what happened to all the members bein' free to post whatever they want whenever they want as long as they don't break any rules?

or is it that you are tryin' to tell me that i am an exception because you cannot handle me bein' hostile?

as for R&B forum... ask yourself why you couldn't survive there... you were a newbie... not a mod... not a senior member... and all your opinions were thrown back into your face... you couldn't handle it... and decided to stay in the comfort zone here... where you are a moderator... a senior member... etc... lolz... need i say more? lolz...

Originally Posted by Mystik

I never said you'll couldn't play football. But you must admit your side is more of a physical side than a technical side. I'm not doubting the class of players like Alonso and Gerrard but most of your matches are won through grit/detrermination and not necessarily "outclassing" the opposing team. You can correct me if I'm wrong cuz I must say I haven't watched MANY liverpool matches this year. But from the few I saw(especially the Chelsea match) that was what I saw.

I agree with what Mystik, and maybe carlo too, said about Pool's style ... that, however, should not be seen as undermining their value as a team as many teams have achieved success namely with a moretactical, closed and physical approach to the game, especially Italian teams.

Of course there is always that odd example - the 2-0 win vs CHelski at Anfield - to show that Pool can play some "open" football too and not rely solely of tactically wearing down the opponent.

hallo i'm from greece and i have a ticket for the final.....my e-mail is [email protected] if anyone is interest just send an e-mail

zZZz, you've broken rule 4 by first being rude to Zlat (I saw the post Zlat has referred to before it was edited) and then ignoring his warning.

Originally Posted by rule

4. Members who insist on continually and repeatedly being rude and disrespectful should expect consequences. If a warning from a forum moderator or Administrator is ignored, further action will include a temporary barring from the site, or a ban.

Now, back to the game, it's a tough one, but one I do expect us to dominate. Physically, Liverpool are strong and will use this factor to impose themselves and stop us from playing. Technically, they aren't particularly brilliant, but have some talented players, Alonso being one I respect.

Essentially, wide areas will be important as both on the left and right they have some good players. Riise has an excellent left foot, whilst Gerrard (who I suspect will play on the right) is an obvious threat. In the middle, I think we'll have to expect players on our heels everytime we get the ball.

Up front, Crouch, Bellamy and Kuyt all pose different threats. Kuyt for me is the most talented of the 3, with intelligent running and team play. Crouch is an obvious threat in the air and Bellamy has pace. However, none should pose a great threat if we cut off supply.

In defence, Liverpool are a kind of mixed bag. Carragher is a tough and solid player, and has a fair amount of experience, so he'll be vital to them. Agger is young and has never played this kind of game, so in that regard we might be able to take advantage. Full backs are solid and like to push forward, so we have to be careful, but at the same time they aren't actually better than our fullbacks, so we should be able to handle that.

Benitez will probably aim to keep things tight with a tough pressing game. I suspect the aim will be to try and stop our midfield from functioning, so we have to be well prepared. I don't think Liverpool have any greater quality going forward than other teams we've faced this year, but they will try to use the physical qualities and pace to try and power through us, probably trying to get crosses into the box.

I don't think there's much in our game that has to be different to the Man U game. Ambro will be vital for us in midfield due to his physique, ability in the air and solidity. He is a massive bonus for us this year. Pressing Liverpool back will benefit us greatly, as I doubt they'll be able to handle the pressure.

Gila or Pippo will have to perform the same duty they had against United and cause the defence trouble by dragging them around the pitch. Movement is key as Liverpool are well disciplined, and so we need to drag players out of position as much as we can.

This year Liverpool are quite a lot stronger than they were a couple of years ago. However, I feel confident we can beat them, as technically in every area of the pitch we are at least equal to them.

Benitez is the biggest threat Liverpool have, he is a top quality manager. But I think Carlo is smart enough to tactically cause him trouble (Carlo this half of the season has been undoubtably the best manager in football, never seen him do what he has). Benitez plays the traditional Italian game of solid defence and stop opponents playing while taking something for yourself. In this respect, I feel more at ease as we should know their game as well as anyone.

I have more to say, but for now I'll only post my tactical view ahead of the match

FORZA MILAN!!!!!!!!!!

The closer we get to the match the more nervous i get.

Originally Posted by zZ[-_-]Zz

you said it yourself... all highlighted in bold...
as for R&B forum... ask yourself why you couldn't survive there... you were a newbie... not a mod... not a senior member... and all your opinions were thrown back into your face... you couldn't handle it... and decided to stay in the comfort zone here... where you are a moderator... a senior member... etc... lolz... need i say more? lolz...

zlat and the other MODs spend far too much time trying to rationalise with you, and make you see sense. imho

Grow up or get chucked out.

And NO, you don't have any God given right to post what you want. Some kind soul/s actually constructed this website and are paying for the server/host. You are merely a guest. Now show some respect or go sling your hook elsewhere.

Originally Posted by Milancelotti

The closer we get to the match the more nervous i get.

this is quite understandable, mate.

Barcelona supporters told us the very same thing.....as did Chelsea.

Originally Posted by Mystik

I never said you'll couldn't play football. But you must admit your side is more of a physical side than a technical side. I'm not doubting the class of players like Alonso and Gerrard but most of your matches are won through grit/detrermination and not necessarily "outclassing" the opposing team. You can correct me if I'm wrong cuz I must say I haven't watched MANY liverpool matches this year. But from the few I saw(especially the Chelsea match) that was what I saw.

sorry Mystik, I wasn't having ago at you. Indeed I don't think I read your previous post. I was commenting in general terms.

You're right, we don't have the Kaka's of this world to call upon. but if you want to see total football - check out our 2-0 hammering of Chelsea this season...or the game at Anfield, where we played United off the pitch. They were cowering and trapped in their own half for large parts of the match.

sorry for straying away from the topic but have to make some things clear:

Originally Posted by zZ[-_-]Zz

....

what happened to all the members bein' free to post whatever they want whenever they want as long as they don't break any rules?
....

this is exactly the part which your posts didn't live up to.
Look at Dev's post for the exact rule that you broke ... and again, what is happening now is closely related to what happened a month or two ago, so we are not talking about an isolated incident.
Anyways, by the looks of it, it will be up to you from now on.

as for forum... ask yourself why you couldn't survive there... you were a newbie... not a mod... not a senior member... and all your opinions were thrown back into your face... you couldn't handle it... and decided to stay in the comfort zone here... where you are a moderator... a senior member... etc... lolz... need i say more? lolz...

on that forum I use the same nick so everyone willing to see if the above is true, can do so easily.
still not sure why you have to come to such lows and say something like that when anyone intereseted is just a click away from finding out the truth for themselves ... don't wonder if people don't take you seriously after something like that.

Originally Posted by rome1977

this is quite understandable, mate.

Barcelona supporters told us the very same thing.....as did Chelsea.

while we were nerveous, ManU fans were making jokes right up to the 22nd min of the first game

Originally Posted by ACMILAN1983

Now, back to the game, it's a tough one, but one I do expect us to dominate. Physically, Liverpool are strong and will use this factor to impose themselves and stop us from playing. Technically, they aren't particularly brilliant, but have some talented players, Alonso being one I respect.

Essentially, wide areas will be important as both on the left and right they have some good players. Riise has an excellent left foot, whilst Gerrard (who I suspect will play on the right) is an obvious threat. In the middle, I think we'll have to expect players on our heels everytime we get the ball.

...................................

Benitez is the biggest threat Liverpool have, he is a top quality manager. But I think Carlo is smart enough to tactically cause him trouble (Carlo this half of the season has been undoubtably the best manager in football, never seen him do what he has). Benitez plays the traditional Italian game of solid defence and stop opponents playing while taking something for yourself. In this respect, I feel more at ease as we should know their game as well as anyone.

I have more to say, but for now I'll only post my tactical view ahead of the match

FORZA MILAN!!!!!!!!!!

agree with virtually everything you said Dev.
The best way to deal with the areal threat Pool forwards represent is reducing the good balls they get to a minimum.

As always the game will be decided in midfield and it will be very important to not leave such large gaps of space between defense and midfield we gifted ManU in the first 15 something min of the 2nd half at SS (Pirlo was really struggling then, I think) because Pool's midfield will surely capitalize on that with players like gerrard and Riise being able to get themselves in good positions and taking hard shots at goal ... and a strong forwards like Kuyt and Crouch are likely to create not one or two of those situations by holding off the ball for an onrushing Gerrard, for instance.

Benitez is a very shrude tactician - reminds me of Capello - but I think Carlo is the more flexible of the two in his tactical approach and is more likely to come up with a way of dealing with Pools likely attempts to stifle Kaka and Seedorf, while Pools strong midfielders will have to deal with a more compact and physically stronger midfield Milan has been using this year ... with players like gattuso and Ambro in the middle, I think Pool would no longer have physical advantage in the middle of the park.

Ambrozini would make a real difference in a game like this one, I think, and I believe that he is what we needed most in that Istanbul game ... hopefully, he will not have any problems now.

Originally Posted by rome1977

this is quite understandable, mate.

Barcelona supporters told us the very same thing.....as did Chelsea.

Did most the teams in the Premiership tell u the same thing?

Thought so

The only thing that worries me is that it takes us time to get in to games and we always leave it harder for us. For example first leg at Celtic it was a draw and we left it hard for us with Kaka scoring well into extra time in the second leg. Against Bayern Munich we messed up at home when the game should of been beyond Munich, we had to go to Bayern to win and we did. Same goes for Man United we didn't do as good as we should of at Manchester but we bounced back at home. Now this is the FINAL, there aren't 2 legs and we need to show what we do in the second leg first time.

One thing I love and hate about Rafa is I haven't the slightest clue how we'll play and who will start

Even against the better sides we don't have a first XI

The only 'definites' are

GK: Reina

RB: Finnan
CB: Carra
CB: Agger

that's it

After that Riise and Gerrard will play but whether Riise is in defense or midfield is a mystery and Gerrard can be either right or middle.

4-5-1 or 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-4-1? who knows
either 1 or 2 of Alonso, Sissoko and Mascherano
Strikers could be any one of Bellamy, Kuyt or Crouch or all 3

it drives me nuts but it's always for a well planned reason - we just have to have faith Rafa get's it right and he has done most of the time