Winter Mercato 2011

Where is Bonera on the list?

Originally Posted by Gabriel489

I stated on another post that Pirlo is exp. What Albertini did 10yrs ago. Where there is just no room for him to play in the starting 11. Van Bommel and Emmanuelson are better fit for Milan with the current front trio of either Ibra, Cassano, Pato and Robinho.

I disagree. This team lack of offensive and/or creative players. We don't have fullbacks who are ABLE to attack (not only going forward but also deliver crosses, make through movement, etc) and no creativity in midfield.

The forwards will be useless if we don't have player like Pirlo except we play as a unit (with very good team work) like we saw before Pirlo came to play as left CM. This team needs creative midfielder and until now there is only Pirlo who can play there (maybe Merkel, maybe).

I just miss how we play with Pirlo as left CM. He had so much freedom there and we could look how the change of his position gave advantages for our striker.

Regarding Ganso, what kind of injury he has? Is it a serious injury? Are there similar type of injuries that happened to young players? I mean if this injury could influence his performance later? Like the injury of Kerlon?

Originally Posted by gregorio

Brasileiro!

Can you tell me more about this kid, Lucas from Sao Paolo (trequartista)?

Every site says Galliani is working on to bring him to Milan!
This guy is relatively young (18 years old), cheap (I think less than 10 million euros) and seems to me similar to Neymar!
What I have seen about him on Youtube he is very fast, good dribbler, and has good vision! I like this guy and his tricks very much!!!

I know, everybody is talking about Ganso (who is a very good player, with good vision, but I think he is slow and not a good dribbler) and Neymar (who is awesome), but they cost too much and almost the same age!
We have to grab a talent before they hype him, like Inter did in case of Coutinho, and Juventus did with Piazon!

If you have to compare Lucas with Piazon and Coutinho, who would you think will become the biggest star?
And how would you compare him to Ganso and Neymar? Is he far behind them?

I like the idea to buy him, when he is relatively cheap, and spend the money (we should spend for Ganso) for rejuvenate our defence!

im not sayin this just because i hate inter but coutinho isnt going to be world class.

Originally Posted by Siregar

Regarding Ganso, what kind of injury he has? Is it a serious injury? Are there similar type of injuries that happened to young players? I mean if this injury could influence his performance later? Like the injury of Kerlon?

As long as his injury ain't dental, I think he is fine.

Originally Posted by Gabriel489

As long as his injury ain't dental, I think he is fine.

Well, I don't think there will be problem with his transfer to Milan regarding his injury what I mean if the injury could influence his performance since I thought that Milan would sign him this winter (but move to Italy in June). I read other news and it said that Milan will evaluate the next six months of his form. So, I think it is safer compared if we paid now with very discounted price but with much higher risk. Of course I hope that his price won't raise so much compared with what Milan have agreed (that's what I understand) with the company, people own Ganso's contract.

Originally Posted by Siregar

I disagree. This team lack of offensive and/or creative players. We don't have fullbacks who are ABLE to attack (not only going forward but also deliver crosses, make through movement, etc) and no creativity in midfield.

The forwards will be useless if we don't have player like Pirlo except we play as a unit (with very good team work) like we saw before Pirlo came to play as left CM. This team needs creative midfielder and until now there is only Pirlo who can play there (maybe Merkel, maybe).

I just miss how we play with Pirlo as left CM. He had so much freedom there and we could look how the change of his position gave advantages for our striker.

Not really, as guys like Boateng, Flamini and Merkel all provide great off the ball movement/actually runs into defender without the ball. This provide and create spaces for guys like Ibra and Cassano.

Under the current formation, the midfield trio must all be box to box midfielder. Pirlo might offer more in offense but his lack of def. Abilities or speed in recovering just does not fit into Milan. The only position he fits is the ACM spot but both Cassano and Robinho are ahead of him in that role.

Originally Posted by Siregar

Well, I don't think there will be problem with his transfer to Milan regarding his injury what I mean if the injury could influence his performance since I thought that Milan would sign him this winter (but move to Italy in June). I read other news and it said that Milan will evaluate the next six months of his form. So, I think it is safer compared if we paid now with very discounted price but with much higher risk. Of course I hope that his price won't raise so much compared with what Milan have agreed (that's what I understand) with the company, people own Ganso's contract.

Well, there is really no sure and safe way to sign any injury players. You gamble he will be okay afterwards with a discount price but he could very well turn out to be damage goods. I think Milan only signed 45% of Ganso, they still need to sign the Santos part.

OFFICIAL: Didac Vila is our player!

Originally Posted by Gabriel489

Not really, as guys like Boateng, Flamini and Merkel all provide great off the ball movement/actually runs into defender without the ball. This provide and create spaces for guys like Ibra and Cassano.

Under the current formation, the midfield trio must all be box to box midfielder. Pirlo might offer more in offense but his lack of def. Abilities or speed in recovering just does not fit into Milan. The only position he fits is the ACM spot but both Cassano and Robinho are ahead of him in that role.

Well, what I have seen from our games before Pirlo got his first injury (the game in which play without Pirlo and stressed our play on teamwork, movement by mostly by Flamini, Boateng and after Pirlo came back (before injury vs Roma), Milan played better and had more chance to win the game.

I like the characteristic of Flamini and Boateng but both can't hold Milan every game. Boateng was great but in other many minutes he just can't hold the responsibility of playing behind strikers.

Someone posted Jonathan Wilson's article yesterday about how to beat Milan(sorry I can't remember who). It was a good article, but I think taking the approach Wilson suggests could result in a double edged sword for Spurs. Basically, he's saying to press our wingbacks as much as possible and try to get into 1 on 1 situations with Abate and Zambrotta (or whoever). Whilst we will naturally struggle against width, especially if the Spurs wingbacks press double up on the wings, I do think Allegri has shown flexibility in our system to counter this.

Basically, against other teams who played wide players (i.e. Samp in the Coppa lately), we changed to a 4-3-3 with our two wide attackers trying to pin fullbacks back. With this we'll see our midfield shuffle across the pitch to support our fullbacks (Rino is excellent at this). By doing this we could in theory stifle Spurs in wide areas. In addition to this as Spurs generally like their wingers to push right up, we should find space in between the wingers and wingbacks (or if the wingbacks still push up, then they will leave gaps behind). If our three midfield can dominate their midfield duo (something Wilson mentions), then the game really is ours for the taking, even if it means our fullbacks won't push forward much to offer width.

Originally Posted by zakakhan

@Gabriel with his addition Milan's avg age cut down to late 2o's.... so we are no more aging squad. lol
since Galliani has this knack of signing WC player for virtually nothing, i'd love if he get Benzema in summer, then we could let Pato go........

Benzema for me is unnacceptable as a replacement for Pato. His goalscoring rate at Real is very questionable, but more alarming has been his seeming mental weakness and lack of versatility.

Originally Posted by Gabriel489

Pirlo is as good as gone as long as there is an offer. Pirlo leaving is a lot like how Albertini left, as there is just no room for them on the team.

I don't really see any parallels at all to be honest. In fact, I expect Pirlo's contract to be renewed and him to return to the first team when he's fit. Tactically, he offers us creativity and quality on the ball from central midfield, something we've lacked when he's out. In Jonathan Wilson's article (the one posted yesterday), it's mentioned how in Italy the trend for 4-3-1-2 has resulted often with 3 deep battling midfielders, which is also the case with us too. However, with Pirlo (and balance in the team) we have a more dynamic midfield with little reference point for opponents to stop our game and keep us pressed deep. We saw examples of this against Brescia, Bologna and at the start against Roma (before Pirlo got injured). This is clearly something Allegri wants too as he's used both Seedorf and Merkel in similar roles. At least for this season, Pirlo has definitely a spot in the first team.

Originally Posted by Siregar

Regarding Ganso, what kind of injury he has? Is it a serious injury? Are there similar type of injuries that happened to young players? I mean if this injury could influence his performance later? Like the injury of Kerlon?

It's a knee injury that required surgery (hence he's been out so long). His signing is a risk in this respect.

Looks like Chelsea had an agreement with Benfica over David Luiz for a sum around 20-30M but now it appears Benfica has decided to end the negotiations. There will be no sale of David Luiz.

So we can keep our hopes up.

Personally, I think just playing Milan wide can't beat Milan. Teams who play with a counter attack system with a good striker is where Milan will have problems with. Spurs might have Bale, Lennon ands company from both wings and guys like Modric and VDV in the middle, but they lacks a true striker upfront. Thus, Lennon and Bale can send as many crosses in, but Silva and Nesta can handle them with ease. What worries me is how they counter attack Milan! That's something that the team must work on as a unit t defend.

Originally Posted by ACMILAN1983

It's a knee injury that required surgery (hence he's been out so long). His signing is a risk in this respect.

Thanks. I just read Kerlon's name yesterday or so and suddenly fear comes to my mind if the injury could really influence his form negatively (I really hope not).

Someone said that we have now 45% contract of him (from the company who possessed it). Anyone can confirm?

Originally Posted by ACMILAN1983

Benzema for me is unnacceptable as a replacement for Pato. His goalscoring rate at Real is very questionable, but more alarming has been his seeming mental weakness and lack of versatility.

I agree, no way to replace Pato by Benzema, NO WAY !!

Anyway, I don't think Benzema is mentally weak, he scored goals for the French NT despite being criticized by Mourinho and not used in Real ... Now, he starts to perform more or less well. His main problem is his lazyness, work rate (or lack of work rate) and probably the fact he thinks he is the best player in the world !!

No need to have this kind of guy here ...

PS: And by reading my post, I could say "no need to have Balotelli here" too ...