AC Milan vs. Barca (1/2 CL, 1st leg)

Originally Posted by Warro Bantan

I really am amazed at some of the preceding posts...mathematical formulae? Business theorems?

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we just need a priest bless and then we'll be perfect

Originally Posted by minhduc

You know that in business marketing/sales we heavily apply the 80-20 rule (meaning that you should spend 80 % of you energy/effort on the best 20 % customers and 80 % of your business yield will come from this 20 % customers)

This is so true for this point of the season, 20 % of your engery for the domestic league where to be realistic we should forget about the scudetto, 2nd position is reckon the 20 % yield, take away the 20 % energy spent on the Inter game we should spend 80 % of the energy on Barca game if we win that is 80 % yield.

This is how a businessman use math.

A quote from Donald Trump... "You're Fired!". Pareto's Principle huh??? Let's be accurate. Pareto didnt even come up with this formula. Some guy named Juran did so let's call it Juran's Assumption. Such an assumption only calls for mediocre efficiency and the security of such an assumption is only lukewarm at best.

The BizAdGrads are the only fools to even believe this nonsense. This lot ends up being succesful employees. I call this the business practice of lesser men. Either you'll be a very good noodle shop owner in Jakarta or a very efficient stock clerk in the back of an appliance store.

This is such a brilliant theory. Tell me... if 80% of our team only concentrate using only 80% of that energy for 20% of the game, I guess this means we will beat Inter and Barca. Heeehsooos...I own my own business and this has got to be the dumbest thing I ever heard!

Hey if you're running a small business, Pareto's principle might... just might make sense. That is, until a friendly WallMart or IKEA runs into town and corners the 80% open market any sensible businessman ought to capitalize on. Watch your 20% join them too while you're at it. You forget... we're AC Milan not "Empoli... who?", "Boavista who?", or "Ipswich who?".

Originally Posted by minhduc

I don't mind even if we are out of the CL zone if we win the CL. This is so desperate for this season. This is the fading side of the current team (may be among the best 3 squads in Belusconi era) if we don't win the CL this year I have a feeling that it take another 5 -10 years to build another team that is so competitive in CL.

That's nice. I guess if we're out of the CL next year, we should apply the 80-20 rule that very year and concentrate 20% of our effort in Serie A. Boy that will give us an 20% yield in Serie A. Better yet we can invest 80% of our energy into a competition we arent even in and 20% of us would be 100% satisfied customers.

Nice try Minh... Last time I checked, I dont believe AC Milan ever used this application before. If they did we sure as heck lost and 0% of us were happy about it.

FORZA MILAN!

When we sum it all up this is who Barca is missing........Xavi,Deco,MESSI,Motta id doubt, so is Beletti.... Without trhose 3 players that will for sure miss first leg, we simply need to get some kind of advantage for the second leg. Guly is fast and dangerous,but not as good as messi. They will miss decu in the middle for sure. And if Cafu and Maldini get fit....watch out.We are resting Sheva-Pippo duo also.

larsson injured soo...

Is it just me, or some of you guys and gals worried about Pirlo's play of late. I'm not just talking about the Inter game, but for the past few games, there has been or let me say I have noticed a considerable dip in form.
He has been non-reactive,making haphazard passes; simply playing badly. If you guys noticed, against Inter and even Chievo he was awful, a shadow of himself truly. To his defense he played most of the games in the season, maybe its fatigue! I hope he can recover for this two very important games coming up. Because truly, Pirlo is Milan's metronome, without him there and playing well, there is a noticeable lack of creativity, quality and continuity.
To play devil's advocate for a minute, and just for the purpose of ADULT debate; Vogel is an adequate replacement, and quite frankly better defensively:
Would it be wise for Carlo to start Vogel instead of Pirlo against Barca? Because, after the Lyon matches where he didn't play well, and his performances in the last two Serie A matches were well below par, I thought he would improve, and he hasn't.

i agree with you on Pirlo. I don't know why people are not criticising him as much as dida althought they both are doing bad in their deparments! Vogel should be give charge of his postion. Barca are going to come hard on us although they are not in the best of their shapes in La Liga. We cannot just rely on defenders to protect us everytime! we have to keep the ball in the front for attacks and reduce pressure on our defence and Dida! Vogel for sure should play the whole game!

i agree, ive been very dissapointed in pirlos performances, especially his passing, at one point i never imagined him play a pass wrong, this season hes just playing them really poorly and very innacuratley! its frustrating, im hoping vogel starts, pirlo really looks tired

Ambrosini would be a better solution than Vogel as a DM. But we all know Pirlo will play. Guly was FANTASTIC todaay for Barca, I've seen the match. Eto'o was fast as hell, and Beletti is back. So is MArquez and Edmilson. Still, we just need to make sure that they play against pippo-sheva-kaka as much as possible. Not loose positioning and always be patient in zonal formation. I dont think we have enough power for some big pressing in the middle.

Pirlo should definitely play against Barca. Say what you want about his form this season, but he's the only player we have who can play a precise pass from 40 meters (except Rui Costa, but he won't start the game). We would lose so much creativity in our midfield if he wasn't playing.
Vogel is good too, but I don't think this is the right match for him. We need players who can do magical things on the pitch against Barca, and Pirlo can, while Vogel can't. If Vogel was to play, I'd rather see him take Gattuso's place (and Gattuso was excellent against Inter today, so that won't happen).

Guys I absolutely love the way Pirlo plays, but hes been dissapointing me recently too. Today, however I saw shades of the Pirlo we all love. In the last few months hes been playing far too many long balls to the strikers, but today he cut that out and was passing to the rest of the midfield. Also Pirlo always plays best when he has Cafu's overlapping runs on the right of himto give him more options.

Another thing I noticed today was that when we defended Kaka was on the right, where Rino usually is and Rino was more central. Do you guys think Carlo is doing this with the idea of preparing Kaka, Rino and Cafu to crowd Ronnie out of the Barca game. I remember Carlo using this tactic against Nedved once with Rui out on the right. It was a genious move, Rui played one of his best games for Milan that night constantly dribbling and holding the ball up making Nedved help defend. I cant see Ronnie being able to get past Kaka with his pace and Rino with his aggression. Incase he does Cafu could always nip in and smile at him

One question is Kalac any good or not and if not why the hell did we get him. Dida's form is terrible!!

apart from the performance of pirlo and dida, the return of cafu is a blessing. with his absense milan has lost the powerful running in our right flank. Stam and billy did well to cover the position but they can't do what cafu do best. I hope Ancelotti will start serginho and cafu cause We can kill barca with their surging run and crosses. But only one of them should do the run up at a time.
Take out Ronaldinho and milan have suprerior players compared to barca.

I agree with some of the posters that vogel should get the start. We need the bite in the middle.(but i guess it won't happened)
The neutrals and barca fans believe that barca will prevail but we are Milan, we perform best during BIG games and the CL is our DNA.(3rd semis in four years)

Kalac is good we saw that in the BM away game (when Dida injured) and the domestic game after that (I do not remember). He is tall, good in the air, good against crosses. I feel more comforatble if Carlo plays Kalac in the Barca game.

We should not be worried that both Cafu and Serginho making run at the same time, they only make run when the ball get to their flank and there is only a ball on the field. It normally involves a group of player for flank attack (Seedorf, Serginho and may be Kaka or Sheva on the left; Cafu, Gastuso, may be Sheva or Kaka on the right), this group not only help the build-up but also helping coverage, also Pirlo will fill in the flank when this group is up there too much.

I do not know what K77SH C mean by "crowd Ronie" if that means using a few players make a round around Ronie it is not going to happen, we sacrifice so many players just to cover one opponent players. I think it is a whole tactics that we must start the game from the midfield battle (where Deco not there) and cut the ball there so Ronie will have to play low to collect and distribute the ball and when they have the ball our midfield should not allow them to pass the ball to the direction of Ronie (like we normally do with Adriano). 1/1 marking with Ronie will be a disaster as he is too skillfull.

I believe we should play like the Juve home game with a compact midfield, Kaka play more to right, not running much around, just leave Ronie w/o a ball.

Both Ambrosini and Voggel can play Pirlo position though not as good as the best Pirlo, in either case that would mean we lose creativity and possession in midfield. In the Lion home game when Pirlo left Serginho must play like a flank midfield to make up for the loss of creativity. Replacing Pirlo is a very risky business.

Originally Posted by humanTORCH

I hope Ancelotti will start serginho and cafu cause We can kill barca with their surging run and crosses. But only one of them should do the run up at a time.
:

I`m not much of a strategist , but i wouldn`t play Serginho and Cafu at the same time. I think both of them are too strong offensively to play at the same time, because it would left us fairly uncovered in the back. Only maybe if Serginho would play in the midfield, as a left wing. Besides, i don`t think it`s probable anyway, since Maldini will probably be a starter, and provided that Nesta and Kala play CBs, Maldini will play on the left. I also think Pirlo is suffering from fatigue and that Vogel should at least start,he`s been doing a good job so far when he would come on. Hopefully Dida will regain his confidence,that`s what the problem is. His skills are not to be questioned.Forza Milan!

Originally Posted by minhduc

I do not know what K77SH C mean by "crowd Ronie" if that means using a few players make a round around Ronie it is not going to happen, we sacrifice so many players just to cover one opponent players. I think it is a whole tactics that we must start the game from the midfield battle (where Deco not there) and cut the ball there so Ronie will have to play low to collect and distribute the ball and when they have the ball our midfield should not allow them to pass the ball to the direction of Ronie (like we normally do with Adriano). 1/1 marking with Ronie will be a disaster as he is too skillfull.

I believe we should play like the Juve home game with a compact midfield, Kaka play more to right, not running much around, just leave Ronie w/o a ball.

By crowd him out I meant give him little space by making Kaka play near him. But you make a good point, If you cant stop the man, stop the ball getting to the man.

As for Serghinio and Cafu playing together, I think Serghinio plays a much more sensible game now and it should be fine. I would feel alot better if Cafu was fitter though. I think Carlo may start with Serghinio and Cafu to try and take the lead. If we hopefully get that lead Maldini could come on for Pirlo allowing Sergi to push. Alternatively, Billy or Simic could come on for Cafu. By that time Ronaldhinio may be playing more central anyway.

Keeping a clean sheet is the objective, but how ???????
I've been surfing through some Spanish forums and it was said that Van Bommel will be their main man besides Ronaldinho. He told Rajkaard everything he knows about Milan, and everything Gus Hiddink told them to do against Milan last year while playing for PSV .
I don't know if this will affect this game somehow, since PSV and Barcelona are 2 different clubs, but it scares me a little, because PSV did found Milan's weakness last year.
Barcelona's fans are scared by the Serginho-Oleguer duels where they see the greatest danger ( and yet, Serginho may not start at all).

If i remember correctly, last year we played much more defensevely against Barcelona, and we did get rather good results, but will those tactics help us this year, when Barca plays level higher than they did in October and November 2004 ?

Both teams like to have possesion and it's obvious that only midfield will decide the winner of the 2 matches. That's why i think that we must take our chance at home when Deco won't be there to help Barca. Then, in Barcelona, all we will need is another long ball to Sheva ( just as last year) and we'll be almost in Paris !

Forza Milan !