Milan´s UCL Woes

Mods, not sure where I should have put this: Discussions or UCL threads...so u can do the moving if necessary

Good article on us in the UCL from the guardian:
http://football.guardian.co.uk/Colum...647840,00.html

Day of the journeyman: Milan woes let Liverpool dream

Kevin McCarra
Tuesday November 22, 2005
The Guardian

Most managers would hail Milan as the greatest club in Europe, genuflecting before the reputations of Kaka, Andriy Shevchenko and even the 37-year-old Paolo Maldini. Opponents, however, are less willing to drop to their knees. Carlo Ancelotti's side were humbled on Sunday as they lost 3-1 at Fiorentina. It was not Shevchenko who was feted but Luca Toni, the journeyman turned marksman who scored twice to take his Serie A total to 15 so early in the season.

He has a bewitching yarn to tell. He is now with his ninth club and no other headline-hogger of the Italian scene is in a position to reminisce about his days in division C1 with the likes of Lodigiani. His real impact in Serie A only came once he had helped to get Palermo promoted there and even they were in a rather uncouth haste to bundle him out of the door when there was £7m to be had from Fiorentina for a player who had turned 28.

It is astonishing that the strapping and fairly orthodox striker should be bagging goals at a rate that makes him the heir to Gabriel Batistuta at the Stadio Artemio Franchi. Milan will wince at the fact that he has enriched his reputation at their expense, particularly since he did so with headers at set pieces.

As it happens, Ancelotti's men were in gleaming form and had reeled off eight consecutive Serie A wins before they set off for Florence. The fallibility, however, smacks of last season's Champions League final in which Liverpool made their torrid comeback from a 3-0 deficit. If there were any residual doubts, Toni's exploits must have clinched the argument that there are too many veterans among the corps of Milan defenders.

That, all the same, may not be the most difficult or lasting problem for Ancelotti. No matter how much accomplishment there is, the rigours of a modern season at the highest level leave a residue of vulnerability in even the costliest squads. Should Milan, with Jaap Stam suspended, lose in the Champions League at Fenerbahce tomorrow while Schalke 04 record a home win over PSV, Ancelotti's squad will be bottom of Group E, two points adrift of the Turks and the Dutch. With the side perilously close to elimination, the coach would be on the verge of the sack. His troubles, none the less, serve the valuable purpose of reminding us that modern football is much less predictable than we like to complain.

Since a group stage was introduced to the European Cup for season 1992-93, 10 different clubs have taken the trophy. Of those, two have done so on more that a single occasion. Even then nine years separated the Milan triumphs of 1994 and 2003. Only Real Madrid, rattling off the successes of 1998, 2000 and 2002, raised the possibility that glory might be a biennial affair at the Bernabéu. That sort of grandiose ambition is gone now, destroyed when the theory was exploded that a gathering of galácticos would ensure domination indefinitely.

Achievement is more mobile than the pessimists supposed. Even if it is it depressingly hard to imagine the European Cup returning to, say, Belgrade, it has roamed through 10 cities in seven countries since 1993. If there is a measure of variety, the tournament admittedly does not present us with quite so many figures of grandeur. When the European Cup was purely a knockout event the supposed risks of sudden-death contests were reduced by the lighter workload and the certainty of some very easy ties for the greater teams. It was a less competitive era, even if we ought to be grateful that the ease of that era allowed Real Madrid, in the 1950s, and Ajax, 20 years later, to leave us with undying images of elegance and imagination.

The European Cup is no longer like that. In its contemporary incarnation it drains teams dreadfully despite the fact that the second group stage has been abolished. Though outstanding footballers are depleted in the process, people should be more willing to appreciate the advantages. If the competition did not take such a toll on major clubs such as Milan, who already find their domestic leagues taxing, there would have been no hope of a less-heralded side such as Porto prevailing even with Jose Mourinho in charge.

There are also beneficiaries closer to home. While a harassed Milan succumbed to Juventus in Serie A last season, Liverpool's bumbling mediocrity in the Premiership left them hungry and fresh in the Champions League. Rafael Benítez did not intend it, but the same pattern may make them a threat once more as they defend the trophy.

What I find telling about the rising crisis at Milan, is our decision not to reinforce our back line at all this off season...this being an area that was so obviously in need of reinforcement, that a blind man could see it.

The fact that we didnt do so, reinforces in my mind, that San Paolo, who for many here is peerless, and above all blame, represents for Milan, an element of the galactico policy...and because he is reluctant to sit on the bench, and is an icon at Milan, we failed to replace him, or even to buy an understudy.

Let me hasten to add that I am not blaming Maldini for our "potential" crisis, I am just saying that his continued presence has contributed to an unjustified overconfidence in the quality our back line.

Now, we all sit on the edges of our seats, holding our breath as we await the outcome of a first round UCL match, which will determine our fate in the competition. The last time this happened to Milan, we had a team that really was in no way near the talent level this current Milan side boasts.

Well, Berlu can munch on prawn sandwiches, or whatever aristocratic Italians dine on when watching football matches, while I suffer, with no appetite, as my beloved team looks on its way out of Europe...and in the first round at that! Thanks Berlu for getting Gila, Kaka, and all the other players that without your checkbook, we could not have signed. Now please, please, for Christmas, can you buy us a quality defender?

All is not doom and gloom, as we should be able to get a win in Istanbul, my point is that it should never have come to this.

Now I read that we are looking for defensive cover in Jan (channel4.com)...fat chance of finding quality defensive players not cup tied.