Celtic FC - AC Milan

Originally Posted by zlatanov

I don't think Carlo has anything against Gorky. He's always underlined what a great talent the Frenchman is even if he didn't have to say anything flattering. Plus, whenever Gorky has been given the chance, he has hardly ever disappointed, on the contrary, he's been great most of the time, so Carlo would be able to find many drawbacks in him even if he wanted to.

I don't think it will be the case with Gourcuff, but his situation reminds me of one similar situation in Juventus 8 years ago, when Ancelotti wasn't giving the chance to another young Frenchman even though Del Piero was injured for the entire season, and Di Livio had his worst season in Juventus ( I'm mentioning Di Livio because the young Frenchman played as a left winger/attacker back then, and Di Livio was also LM in his last season at Juve).

He was playing Fonseca as Inzaghi's partner, when Fonseca was injured he was playing with Inzaghi only.
And Di Livio had a Seedorf like season, but he was never replaced by the young Frenchman *

-------
* You know who am i talking about

well, that frenchman was never that good on the wings to begin with. Now that he playing in England, he does give the impression that he would do great as a winger, but in Italy space was never in abundance no matter who you play.
And that Frenchman, not entirely sure but I don;t think that, apart from those two goals he scored vs Lazio - thus helping Milan win the scudetto - he made the most of the chances he was given either ... soemthing that can't be said about Gorky.

Originally Posted by zlatanov

well, that frenchman was never that good on the wings to begin with. Now that he playing in England, he does give the impression that he would do great as a winger, but in Italy space was never in abundance no matter who you play.
And that Frenchman, not entirely sure but I don;t think that, apart from those two goals he scored vs Lazio - thus helping Milan win the scudetto - he made the most of the chances he was given either ... soemthing that can't be said about Gorky.

He was still the best option as LM , but he was always on the bench ( only 5 times starter).
The first time he was given a chance as an attacker ( Ancelotti must take the credit for probably being the first one who put Henry as a striker. Although, it happened because 3 days afterwards Juve played that historical match against ManUtd in CL and the attacking duo was rested) he scored 2 goals against Lazio. But in next 5 matches till the end of the season Henry was again kept on the bench.

Dunno if you'll agree with me but Gorky is far from impressive in his last matches, and look at where did it take him - on the bench match after match, while Seedorf gets to play no matter how pathetic he is.
It was similar with Henry. He played below average on some matches ( still better than Di Livio, even Conte ) and he was punished to sit on the bench till the end of the season.

And just to add this and i won't go off topic anymore : That was by far the worst season for Juve since i'm watching them. They managed to get an Intertoto spot at the end only. Nothing was functioning and Ancelotti was still consistant in not giving a chance to Henry to show what is he capable of

Originally Posted by Tony29.

Dunno if you'll agree with me but Gorky is far from impressive in his last matches

Why was he far from impressive? I think in the opportunities he's given, he's excelled and always played a prominent role in the midfield. Added to that after almost every time he's played in the side it has resulted in praise from a respected person in the world of football. For a 20yr old in a club like Milan that's very impressive.

We have to remember, at his age most players are still at smaller clubs where they are trying to find their feet. Some are starting to shine, but mostly get surrounded by media hype to make them seem as some kind of wonderkid when in reality there's no real substance to their play yet. Gourcuff is already getting shouts for a regular spot in Milan, who I think also deserve credit for shielding him from the media. On top of that, his performances have shown a great deal of maturity, as though he's been accustomed to the role for years and has not made any notable tactical or technical mistakes in any games he's played so far.

Originally Posted by ACMILAN1983

Why was he far from impressive? I think in the opportunities he's given, he's excelled and always played a prominent role in the midfield. Added to that after almost every time he's played in the side it has resulted in praise from a respected person in the world of football. For a 20yr old in a club like Milan that's very impressive.

We have to remember, at his age most players are still at smaller clubs where they are trying to find their feet. Some are starting to shine, but mostly get surrounded by media hype to make them seem as some kind of wonderkid when in reality there's no real substance to their play yet. Gourcuff is already getting shouts for a regular spot in Milan, who I think also deserve credit for shielding him from the media. On top of that, his performances have shown a great deal of maturity, as though he's been accustomed to the role for years and has not made any notable tactical or technical mistakes in any games he's played so far.

Compared to the matches he gave at the beggining, his last 5-6 matches were below par .
The last time he was a starter was against Arezzo and was IMO the worst one on the field. The last time he was a starter in serie A was on December 10th 2006 against Torino and he sucked again. The last two times he was a starter he failed and Carlo "punished" him with the bench !

No doubt he's a class player ( i like him, one of the rare players from Milan i like), and he'll make it , but kepping him on the bench constantly ain't the right thing to do, imo, and eventhough Ancelotti is muuuuuuuuuuuuuuch better than me in football tactics and selecting Milan's starting 11 , i believe he's making a mistake for not giving more playing time to Gourcuff ( from the kick-off, that is)

Remember he was coming off an injury during that little period of time where he was below his "AEK debut standard".

the celtic fans are getting really annoying .... they are like woo milan can play with jesus and pope up front an we ll win

i hope all this backfires on the lot of them and milan do pick up the win at Cp

lets hope its a really big one too

wait, aren't you a celtic fan yourself or at least you were passing yourself for one at some point in time.

Doc you seem to change your support everyday

How are we supposed to keep track?

Originally Posted by Dr Milano

the celtic fans are getting really annoying .... they are like woo milan can play with jesus and pope up front an we ll win

Annoyed at what? :lol: Milan have been on Setanta a lot so we've seen a lot of them. We're confident we can win at Celtic Park. Nobody's confident for the return leg though.

Anyway...

Questi i convocati rossoneri per Celtic-Milan:

PORTIERI: Storari, Kalac, Fiori;

DIFENSORI: Cafu, Kaladze, Maldini, Costacurta, Simic, Jankulovski, Bonera, Oddo;

CENTROCAMPISTI: Ambrosini, Brocchi, Gattuso, Gourcuff, Kakà, Pirlo, Seedorf;

ATTACCANTI: Gilardino, Ricardo Oliveira, Di Gennaro.

Originally Posted by Tony29.

Compared to the matches he gave at the beggining, his last 5-6 matches were below par .
The last time he was a starter was against Arezzo and was IMO the worst one on the field. The last time he was a starter in serie A was on December 10th 2006 against Torino and he sucked again. The last two times he was a starter he failed and Carlo "punished" him with the bench !

No doubt he's a class player ( i like him, one of the rare players from Milan i like), and he'll make it , but kepping him on the bench constantly ain't the right thing to do, imo, and eventhough Ancelotti is muuuuuuuuuuuuuuch better than me in football tactics and selecting Milan's starting 11 , i believe he's making a mistake for not giving more playing time to Gourcuff ( from the kick-off, that is)

I must say I disagree, I mean against Torino and Arezzo I don't think he was particularly bad at all. You have to remember in the matches he started in at the beginning of the season he was argubly the MOM in most of those matches, and to expect him to continue that form is really expecting too much imo.

I agree though he needs more playing time, as gaining consistency in your play when you're lucky to only play 10-15 mins in a match is really close to impossible.

Am i the only one who is scared at the lack of striking force, I just dont know something about the Celtic game is making me feel all nervous!

A couple of articles:
http://www.sundayherald.com/sport/sh..._quiet_man.php
http://www.sundayherald.com/sport/sh...d_security.php

"Only Monaco have taken a higher percentage of points from their home games than Celtic since the Champions League began in the early 1990s."

Wheels we will try to outplay you - Even tho half your team is probably pissed up anyway. looooool