roma vs MILAN

This upcoming week will be very interesting indeed.

Without the duck, we will be losing a very important asset. I fear that we will have to change formation, some how.
The players who could fill Pato's POSITION, are probably Mancini, Becks and Abate.
Probably the player most natural to the position is Mancini, since that is basically his natural position (or so I think). But I am not so sure about his form and condition, and that injury, at the moment.
The alternative would be Becks or Abate, but they simply don't offer enough going forward in that position. THey can adapt to it, but they don't perform at max there.

I would be all for a change in formation, but "testing" it for the first time in such crucial games is not ideal. It would be interesting to see Ronnie in the trequartista role. I've noticed that we have been most dangerous when he slides into the centre, he gets the attention of not only the winger who follows him in, but also the central defender or DM, which opens up a lot of space for the forwards or pushing midfielder. I don't know what difference it would make if he starts his movement from the middle.
Ronnie in the trequartista role would mean playing a 4-3-1-2, à la Ancelotti. With Ambro and Flamini to Pirlo's sides. But that would mean playing Hunter and Borri upfront. Imho, that is a waste of a player/position. Neither of them will help enough in the build-up play and possession.

Originally Posted by kastriot

P.s Everybody here when trying to prove a point in regard to how good Rino is use the Man UTD game...doesnt anybody remember the CL Final 2003,deep in extra time..Rinho running all over the pitch chasing Juve players.

I remember that very well, when deep into extra time, 115-116 min, slow, 30-40 m back pass was played to Buffon and Rino sprints from his box to the opposite box to chase the ball. I will always remember that moment. My heart was as big as a mountain.

@ LebRn

Ok, Gattuso couldn't play the ball, so please tell me how Pippo Inzaghi became one of the best penalty-box strikers ever?! He couldn't play the ball too. Or is it only determination? No mate. There's something more than that. Inzaghi was never great football player, but he had (has) unmatched football intelligence, unmatched sense to get into right position, to get rid of his marker, to anticipate the path of the loose ball... Same Gattuso. He couldn't do nothing just with determination and stamina (I would add pace here). Beside that, he was great reader of the game and great tackler of the ball. I remember many occasions when Gattuso sprints 30-40 meters to make a laser accurate tackle. He had intelligence, he didn't just chase the ball like a headless chicken.

Football is not just technical skill mate. Nor physical skill. Tactical skills are as important as technical ones. There as many technically talented players produced every year, but the player who has that "something" that Inzaghi has is born in every 30-40 years.

Guys, this is the Roma vs. Milan thread...

If you really want to discuss Gattuso's legacy, we have a thread for him in the PLAYERS section, please...

And to add my 2 cents, remember he always said things like "Pirlo makes my job easy... all I have to do is steal the ball from the opponent and give it to him... when I see the things he does, I know he's a football player, and I'm something else... he can see things on the pitch I can't see"

And his little book "those who are born with squared feet, don't die having rounded feet"

He's a rugby player that kicks the ball, so what? Most of the elite teams in the world always wanted him, and we can't deny he will always be a Milan legend.

And with this I leave it to you to continue discussing Gattuso in the PLAYERS THREAD.

Thanks.

Cruyff once said this about Pippo "Look, he can’t play football at all, he just knows how to get in the right place" and now someone here claimed that Gattuso

was never a FOOTBALL player

.

He scored over 300 goals and topped the most prolific European Competition goalscorer of all time? So what! They're just tap-ins.

The other guy won every trophy worth winning in club level plus a WC? Srew that! He is a

machine, he could run, close, hunt anyone down.. but he never could play with the BALL

This way, only Van Basten and the likes are footballer. Tolstoy summed it up perfectly, “It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.”

ok forget it....

for now, i'm just hoping that nobody gets hurt on int'l duty and everybody is fit....except for Roma and ManU players

Originally Posted by LebRN

ok forget it....

for now, i'm just hoping that nobody gets hurt on int'l duty and everybody is fit....except for Roma and ManU players

Let us add Inter players ..

I have a bad feeling about letting three of our players go on international duty... it has been approx. a month of consecutive games every 3 days for them. Risky bsns.

dear milan
i love you
please win this game
i am sick of all the inter, manure, madrid fans calling you
grandpas ! i am also sick of learning italian abuses to throw at them..
i really hate it when i play shows wearing a milan shirt and get laffs
i really hate those m*other*fu*ckers who say sh*it about milan
can you all please win against roma and manure so i can thro dirt at everybody else
i know you guys are great no doubt but i just want that proved to every other loser
m*other*fu*cker in the world

no matter who wins serie a or champions league
for me Milan is the only champion.

COME ON MILAN !!!

What's the point of using the asterisk when you type down the whole 'sacred' word SomeDevil

Anyway, looks like all our players came out of the international friendlies uninjured. Now let's focus on Roma

I watch Peleggati on Milan Chanel the other night..He said(and was very firm) that Mancini will start in place of Pato saturday night...so no formation changes for this game, most probably nor for the Man Utd game.

La Gazzetta also says Mancini will be starting. But more than 48 hrs from kickoff, I take it with a pinch of salt. However, just looking at the player names, Mancini does look like the obvious replacement for that role. What remains to be seen, however, is his form and condition. He has been out for a few weeks now, and let's face it, he wasn't in the form of his life when he came here. One asks oneself if it wouldn't be wisest to play someone who is fit and on (somewhat decent) form instead, even if the role isn't exactly his and he wont be offering similar options as the Duck. (I am referring to Becks and Abate). Leo seems to be very confident about Mancini, especially given the circumstances.

In the midfield it looks like, and I hope, we will be seeing Ambro and Flamini. This is to me the best choice, since they are untamable lions running around, and they can offer something in the build-up play. Sure we aren't talking Fabregas, Xavi, Iniesta.. but they can put a good pass through. Two defensive midfielders should offer enough cover to Pirlo, Dinho and our fullbacks.

For fullbacks, Bonera and Janku are listed on La Gazzetta. Now while Bonera is borderline useless going up, he is a good defender. On the contrary, Janku cannot defend even if his life depended on it, and in all honesty, isn't so dangerous going up either. And he has a proneness to making stupid mistakes. The alternative would be Abate and Bonera (LB), but playing Bonera on the left might be a worse idea.

Roma-Milan, i convocati. ROMA:Andreolli, Santos, Mexes, Pizarro, Vucinic, Taddei, Motta, Faty, De Rossi, Riise, Baptista, Perrotta, Tonetto, Cerci, Julio Sergio Bertagnoli, Burdisso, Toni, Doni, Brighi, Cassetti, Menez.
MILAN:PORTIERI: Abbiati, Dida, Roma; DIFENSORI: Abate, Antonini, Bonera, Favalli, Jankulovski, Nesta,... Oddo, Thiago Silva, Zambrotta;CENTROCAMPISTI: Ambrosini, Beckham, Flamini, Pirlo;ATTACCANTI: Borriello, Huntelaar, Inzaghi, Ronaldinho.

Oddo (Not sure if he's been called up before?), Antonini and Zambrotta back, no Pato, but it seems it's just a precaution. To bad though, scoring against Roma is his thing.

Mancini is not in the squad...that can't be good news as we have no proper replacements to play on the right wing....

Leo says Pato's injury is not as good as they hoped it would be. I dont know if that means he will miss Man U or not.

Oddo's been in the squad for 3 weeks now but hasn't made an appearance yet. Let's hope to give Zambro some minutes to regain match fitness.

I'd probably start with:

----------------------Abbiati--------------------------
Bonera-------Nesta----------Thiago----------Antonini (if fit else Zambrotta)
-----------Flamini-------------Ambrosini---------------
----------------------Pirlo-----------------------------
----Abate----------------------------------Dinho------
-----------------------Borriello-------------------------

I think the defence and midfield is pretty much self explanatory based on form of late. Jankulovski can be argued for LB, but I think Antonini and Zambrotta could use a game ahead of Utd and are more solid than Janku. I also want Flamini as I think he was great against Fiorentina and could be extremely useful over the next week.

The only other questionmark in the side is Abate. Beckham can play there but I think Abate's more direct and with instruction to move into the box and not just hug the sideline he could be more threatening.

Originally Posted by hitmannq8

Mancini is not in the squad...that can't be good news as we have no proper replacements to play on the right wing....

Leo says Pato's injury is not as good as they hoped it would be. I dont know if that means he will miss Man U or not.

Oddo's been in the squad for 3 weeks now but hasn't made an appearance yet. Let's hope to give Zambro some minutes to regain match fitness.

But it can also be seen as a good chance to prepare the game against Manchester (they say Pato will be there, but I'm sure he won't start IF he is called for the game) with the same formation set ...

And we did 2 months without Mancini during the injury of Pato, we can do it one more game ...

great to see antonini and zambrotta both back, we sure need a left back especially for the ManU match so i hope each can play a half or so tomorrow.
With Mancini's absence, i'd rather see Abate than Beckham, he deserves it much more and can offer much more...otherwise, i'm not that against a more central Dinho & Hunter-Borri/Inzaghi upfront

by the way, so happy that Totti is out
then we should only worry about Vucinic and Menez (if he plays)