Summer mercato 2009

According to his agent Agger has NOT signed a new contract yet.

It seems likely, though, that he will soon.

Originally Posted by K77SH C

He would be great, but I dont believe Chelsea will sell him. And Im not sure he would come to a team that hasnt competed for their domestic league in years and cant qualify for the CL when he is playing for a team that is on the verge of getting to their second CL final in as many years.

Milan need to stay clear of Mexes who is the most overrated defender in Europe.

Santacrocce would be my first choice and Zapatta next.

Ramos is the most overrated defender! Mexes is the second most overrated... I've never been to big a fan of signing Mexes, mostly because of the rediculess price that was reported, 20M'ish Euro's. Lately the reports seems to suggest a price around 15M Euro's though, probably because Roma wont qualify for CL, maybe not even Uefa Cup. If we could get him for something like that, then I wouldn't mind, though he doesn't seem like the best option.

Ramos has once again showed how "good" he is. Assist, goal, yelow, missed the ball at Henry's goal etc. He is all over the place. But from a defender(even if he is a fullback) you dont want that. You want a man who is "not on the field", but also the man he marks doesnt exsist. Like Cannavaro was once, or from fullbacks like Thuram used to play. Im 100% against Ramos AND MExes, who is also not a world class defender and is NOT able to sub Maldini (noone is of course, but we can do better then Mexes ).

The news about Hernanes and Inter is horrible coz Hernanes is a modern versatile player that will suit perfectly in Milan's stile. Specially if we are ready to play Flamini as a fullback next year.

Pirlo still doesnt look like he will be back to his best standards. Maybe its time we use him as Ferguson uses Giggs and Scholes - by dosing their apperances and saving their quality. That is why its important not to have "first 11", but "first 15" players. The scheme United is using past 2 years.

We can practically make a super team with 3 players bought: defender, forward and midfielder+ Yoan who can be free player + Thiago will play.

We also need to have in mind that Dinho showed he cant play anymore, that Seedorf can play for Ajax now and Pirlo cant play 45 games per year. While Beckham will be here in january. Our midfield HAS problems.

Originally Posted by mrki

We also need to have in mind that Dinho showed he cant play anymore, that Seedorf can play for Ajax now and Pirlo cant play 45 games per year. While Beckham will be here in january. Our midfield HAS problems.

Actually, no player in the world is able to play well in 45 games in a season and without getting any injury ...

Originally Posted by GeoTav

Actually, no player in the world is able to play well in 45 games in a season and without getting any injury ...

I think he was saying that Pirlo doesn't play any more good football.He can play 1 good game in 7-8 games.
I think he was not saying that he should play great football in 45 games(despite if he were capable), but he was saying that he can play good 7-9 good games in 45 games.
With litle words he is getting worse every season.
That was your meaning Mrki?

Actually over here in the UK there are heavy reports suggesting that Adebayor might be sold in the summer, personally I think he will be gone as he has been a shadow of the player he was last season.

Clichy is someone else who was linked to Madrid today and has been linked to Milan in the past, I think he would be great with Milan. He has been injured for sometime now and Gibbs has stepped up to the plate, to be honest no one has even noticed that Clichy is injured.

I am saying that Pirlo cannot be used in 45 games par year as he once could. 3,4 years ago Pirlo was capable of that, something today Iniesta and Xavi are capable of.

To get the best out of this Pirlo we need to use him wisely and in smaller ammount of matches. That doesnt mean he needs to be a sub, or he needs to play 15 games per year, but that means Pirlo needs more rest then he needed before.

Larger and more resious roster could provide us great Pirlo again. But if we play like we play now and we are addicted to Pirlo's passing ( aldough I saw best Milan when we played Flamini-Rino-Seedorf ) we will again overplay him and we'll get nothing out of Pirlo. And not only that, unfit Pirlo is a big danger for Milan's back 4. Specially if we know we'll not have world class backline like it was 4 years ago for example.

Using Pirlo is a smart rotation can do us some good, but we are torturing him and Seedorf, its obvious. They cant hold on to that rythm anymore.

And dont let this 5,6 good games fool you. We didnt play CL this year. With CL the tempo and the pressure will be much bigger. I dont see the current squad capable of playing such ammounts of games like for example United can do today.

But, we can fix it with just few smart versatile signings ( Hernanes ).

I don't think our players have problems with pressure. High tempo and many games, yes.

Originally Posted by mrki

I am saying that Pirlo cannot be used in 45 games par year as he once could. 3,4 years ago Pirlo was capable of that, something today Iniesta and Xavi are capable of.

To get the best out of this Pirlo we need to use him wisely and in smaller ammount of matches. That doesnt mean he needs to be a sub, or he needs to play 15 games per year, but that means Pirlo needs more rest then he needed before.

Larger and more resious roster could provide us great Pirlo again. But if we play like we play now and we are addicted to Pirlo's passing ( aldough I saw best Milan when we played Flamini-Rino-Seedorf ) we will again overplay him and we'll get nothing out of Pirlo. And not only that, unfit Pirlo is a big danger for Milan's back 4. Specially if we know we'll not have world class backline like it was 4 years ago for example.

Using Pirlo is a smart rotation can do us some good, but we are torturing him and Seedorf, its obvious. They cant hold on to that rythm anymore.

And dont let this 5,6 good games fool you. We didnt play CL this year. With CL the tempo and the pressure will be much bigger. I dont see the current squad capable of playing such ammounts of games like for example United can do today.

But, we can fix it with just few smart versatile signings ( Hernanes ).

I know your hierarchy in your bashing list ... it has changed since some weeks and I think it is:
1 - Ancelotti
2 - Seedorf and Pirlo
4 - Galliani

Am I wrong ?
The first three are in all your recent posts ...

Pirlo shows nowadays that he can still perform well (not amazingly well but, it is a good start) in many games in a row. Since he came back from injury, and after 2-3 difficult first games, he has improved and is constant.

When you write about Pirlo, you just forget too easily that he got injuries ... I don't know why but I'm sure you wouldn't forget this injury problem to explain the reasons of the bad performances of Kaka for almost 2 years (he plays better only since 3-4 games and has generally been bad since last season, except one game here and there).

Let's use your examples:
- Iniesta only played 21 games as a starter in Liga (he came 4 times from the bench). Basically, he played 1829 minutes in Liga.
- Pirlo played 22 games as a starter in Serie A. Basically, he played 1964 minutes in Serie A.

Xavi is the only one from these 3 who will end the season with 45 games (and even more actually).

It's what I said: no player in the world (or almost) can play 45+ games in a season, performing well at the same time for these 45+ games and not getting any injury. If we take Iniesta as some people like to compare him to Pirlo (whereas they are totally different), he couldn't play these 45+ games because he got an injury, like Pirlo. What is funny is to see that for the last 4 years, Pirlo and Iniesta played the same amount of games, approximately.

Originally Posted by mrki

Pirlo still doesnt look like he will be back to his best standards. Maybe its time we use him as Ferguson uses Giggs and Scholes - by dosing their apperances and saving their quality. That is why its important not to have "first 11", but "first 15" players. The scheme United is using past 2 years.

The question is what you expect out of Pirlo from. Otherwise it's hard to know exactly where you dis-satisfaction with him ever come from.

Originally Posted by Jeff

The question is what you expect out of Pirlo from. Otherwise it's hard to know exactly where you dis-satisfaction with him ever come from.

Its not easy to explain, its necessary to remember or to take a look at Pirlo's performances from past seasons to see that he is not on the same level even when he plays well in these past 3,4 games. That is what I expect from him.

To Geo I will answer later coz it needs longer explanation and I cant write right now. I will also explain the chart of the players/people I dislike so I can explain your "first 4" explanation Its all co-related. Last year Pirlo has no injury and the same problems were accuring in his game. Well ok, I will post later. Peace Geo!

P.S.

Geo how is Benzema playing lately?

tbh, I haven't found Pirlo's to be on amazing form. He does whta he needs to: hold the ball well, distributes the ball (even if it means that he is not going to be the 'assist' person), bump the ball up at the right place, take free kick (which has been terrible for years now anyway as with all other Milan players) etc.

So I'm still not sure what you expect from him, but anyway...

I think Pirlo need another player to share the gamemaker job. Now he is Beck, Milan's playing wonderfully with both of them.

I don't know if Gourcuff could play at this position (RCM) as he used to be positioned at ACM role, trying long shots and reaching the goal.

Seedorf can do, but he lack the motivation of Beck to do the defense.

Next year maybe I'll miss Beck...

Originally Posted by mrki

P.S.

Geo how is Benzema playing lately?

He's been terrible ... after a start with statistics like one goal per game played, he has just been unable to score any goal for weeks (he scored one goal 2 or 3 weeks ago, that's it).

His statistics are still decent but far from what people expect from him (and despite that, in France, they never bash him, so it's not in France he is going to improve mentally as he thinks he is a god and medias use him as the next big thing ...).

Ligue 1: 32 games played (27 as a starter) - 14 goals
CL: 8 games played - 5 goals

Decent ... but if I'm not wrong, he scored 12 goals from August to December, as well as his 5 goals in CL.

About Gourcuff, he seems to play again at his best. Impressive again and now decisive, I think he proves in the best way possible to the club that he mentally improved. He is the leader of Bordeaux (they won 3-0 tonight, he scored once and so Bordeaux has the same number of points than Marseille after 8 wins in a row, a serie started when Gourcuff started to perform well again).

About his playing time, he already took part to 48 games (Ligue 1, CL, UEFA Cup, French NT), so you have to add the League Cup and French Cup games he played ...

Originally Posted by GeoTav

He's been terrible ... after a start with statistics like one goal per game played, he has just been unable to score any goal for weeks (he scored one goal 2 or 3 weeks ago, that's it).

His statistics are still decent but far from what people expect from him (and despite that, in France, they never bash him, so it's not in France he is going to improve mentally as he thinks he is a god and medias use him as the next big thing ...).

Ligue 1: 32 games played (27 as a starter) - 14 goals
CL: 8 games played - 5 goals

Decent ... but if I'm not wrong, he scored 12 goals from August to December, as well as his 5 goals in CL.

About Gourcuff, he seems to play again at his best. Impressive again and now decisive, I think he proves in the best way possible to the club that he mentally improved. He is the leader of Bordeaux (they won 3-0 tonight, he scored once and so Bordeaux has the same number of points than Marseille after 8 wins in a row, a serie started when Gourcuff started to perform well again).

About his playing time, he already took part to 48 games (Ligue 1, CL, UEFA Cup, French NT), so you have to add the League Cup and French Cup games he played ...

What's the French media's take on Gourcuff? Is the mood that he'll stay in Bordeaux, or do they think he'll return to us?