Milan - Parma

Sorry but I have to agree with Inzaghi. It is clearly that Serie A teams know us from inside out, and what do we change from 3,4 years ago?? yeah, no Sheva, everyone older and we are even worse up front now.
Last year when Ronaldo came, he came with something new, some fresh air, that things the Serie A defenders couldnt figure it out yet so we won alots of games. It is just hard to win games when your opponents play with 10 defenders, know everything about you plus your strikers not even that sharp. Of course the motivation is also a factor but I dont think it is a big problem.

All we can do is wait for Ronaldo, once Ronnie is fit im sure the results will start to go our way, we lack real clinical strikers Gilla is goal shy and Inzaghi is too old (but does magic in Euro). Looking at the table we aint that bad only 4 points away from the top.

Things could of been worse but this weekend, but lukcily the results after our game were good for us (Inter, Roma, Juve all drawing carrying the same amount of points as us).

Originally Posted by nguyen_milan

Sorry but I have to agree with Inzaghi. It is clearly that Serie A teams know us from inside out, and what do we change from 3,4 years ago?? yeah, no Sheva, everyone older and we are even worse up front now.
Last year when Ronaldo came, he came with something new, some fresh air, that things the Serie A defenders couldnt figure it out yet so we won alots of games. It is just hard to win games when your opponents play with 10 defenders, know everything about you plus your strikers not even that sharp. Of course the motivation is also a factor but I dont think it is a big problem.

It is NOT more difficult to score in Serie A than it is in Europe. Inzaghi doesn't have a great goalscoring record in the league so is just making excuses for that.

Originally Posted by ACMILAN1983

Roma's style of play is heavily reliant on the midfielders streaming forward into attack to support Totti. Such an approach is deadly when successful, and against most smaller sides, their quality comes through and they win well. However, press the midfield and stop them playing (thus Totti's involvement which is normally huge drops drastically), whilst playing extremely fast counter attacks will give good opportunity to get goals. Essentially, that's all Man U did last season and that's how they destroyed them, as Man U last season had one of the most effective counter attacking games in the world.

Very well said and it's true of course.
But you need to have very good "defenders" in midfield, attacking class in midfield and top class defenders at the back to let Roma have useless posession and hurt them on counters.
If i'm not wrong only 2 teams suceeded in this last year : ManUtd at OT and Inter at Olimpico at the beggining of the season.
How much good midfield defense is important against Roma could have been seen in the other two matches Inter played vs Roma last year when Vieira's absence resulted with 2:6 and 1:3 wins for Roma.

This brings me to the main question :
Milan has arguably the best DMC duo in the world ( Gattuso-Ambro) , attacking class in midfield that can play counters and very solid defense - Why did you suffer so much against Roma last year ?
Probably because the tactics were wrong !
You were the team that had the possesion and Roma was the team that played counters ( the only time it was the other way around was the last match at Olimpico when you played 1:1). This took a lot from your defense and it was harder to stop the huriccane (Mancini-Pizzarro-Perrotta-Taddei-Totti) from creating and scoring.

I expect Carlo to play differently than last year and i'm almost sure you won't suffer so much like you did in 2006/07

We'll see

Originally Posted by Tony29.

Very well said and it's true of course.
But you need to have very good "defenders" in midfield, attacking class in midfield and top class defenders at the back to let Roma have useless posession and hurt them on counters.
If i'm not wrong only 2 teams suceeded in this last year : ManUtd at OT and Inter at Olimpico at the beggining of the season.
How much good midfield defense is important against Roma could have been seen in the other two matches Inter played vs Roma last year when Vieira's absence resulted with 2:6 and 1:3 wins for Roma.

This brings me to the main question :
Milan has arguably the best DMC duo in the world ( Gattuso-Ambro) , attacking class in midfield that can play counters and very solid defense - Why did you suffer so much against Roma last year ?
Probably because the tactics were wrong !
You were the team that had the possesion and Roma was the team that played counters ( the only time it was the other way around was the last match at Olimpico when you played 1:1). This took a lot from your defense and it was harder to stop the huriccane (Mancini-Pizzarro-Perrotta-Taddei-Totti) from creating and scoring.

I expect Carlo to play differently than last year and i'm almost sure you won't suffer so much like you did in 2006/07

We'll see

Milan's form at the time of the Roma loss was in the toilet so I'm not worried about them this season, as long as Ronaldo is back of course.

Originally Posted by Tony29.

This brings me to the main question :
Milan has arguably the best DMC duo in the world ( Gattuso-Ambro) , attacking class in midfield that can play counters and very solid defense - Why did you suffer so much against Roma last year ?
Probably because the tactics were wrong !
You were the team that had the possesion and Roma was the team that played counters ( the only time it was the other way around was the last match at Olimpico when you played 1:1). This took a lot from your defense and it was harder to stop the huriccane (Mancini-Pizzarro-Perrotta-Taddei-Totti) from creating and scoring.

I expect Carlo to play differently than last year and i'm almost sure you won't suffer so much like you did in 2006/07

We'll see

You pretty much said what I wanted to before I even got a chance . Against Roma we were dominant last season but this allowed them to hit us on the break (which when you have so many midfielders pushing like them, it's difficult to stop them when not fully prepared).

I also think it's an opportune time to mention a certain Gilardino did happen to score at the Olimpico last season to get us a point, which one might even describe as an important goal

Originally Posted by nguyen_milan

Sorry but I have to agree with Inzaghi. It is clearly that Serie A teams know us from inside out, and what do we change from 3,4 years ago?? yeah, no Sheva, everyone older and we are even worse up front now.

The dominant team in Serie A over the last 3-4 years has been Juve not Milan. The didn't change a great deal and still had no problems against mediocre sides. Stop looking for excuses.

Originally Posted by Tony29.

This took a lot from your defense and it was harder to stop the hurricane (Mancini-Pizzarro-Perrotta-Taddei-Totti) from creating and scoring.

you make this nickname up?

Originally Posted by Mehdi

The dominant team in Serie A over the last 3-4 years has been Juve not Milan. The didn't change a great deal and still had no problems against mediocre sides. Stop looking for excuses.

What's the excuse? I dont think without the refs Juve would still be that dominant. They didnt change a great deal but they didnt lose their best striker either.
But again, what Im trying to say here is: the our pathetic perform in Seria A last season and this early season has several reasons: incompetent strikers, lack of depth, old, didnt change much for 3,4 years are but I dont think motivation is the main reason.

And yes, it is more difficult to score in Serie A than in Europe. Teams in Serie A know us better, play with more defensive mind, and of course we didnt always use our best lineup if there is game in CL next days.
Plus Inzaghi hardly fit last season so the point is mood( He played 20 games in Serie A last year but only in 1056 minutes, Ronaldo played 14 games but played 1059 minutes).http://www.acmilan.com/InfoPage.aspx?id=28597

Having watched the game, and read the majority of posts in the post-game portion of the thread, here are my 2 cents:

Milan should have won the game, and Kaka, if anyone is to blame, had the best chance, and fluffed it...lay off Gila please...our failure to win this game, since so many people are trying to find a person to point the finger on, would be at the feet of our key, most important player, Ricardo.

Now, having said that, in my analysis of why we play so poorly in the Serie A, is basically a function of space (or rather lack thereof), and a person who can make best use of the space, or importantly, create space.

mrki made reference to several formations, which we used in previous years, and this drove the point home even more to me:...we dont have a true "dribbler" since Rui Costa left.

Kaka, is not a true dribbler, a la Ronaldinho and Rui Costa...these players can beat 3 players on a run...not always through sheer pace, and power, but with the ability they have to play the ball with their feet in tight situations...put a good man-marker on Kaka, or deny him space, and he cant perform as well...Seedorf is one person with these skills, but he is slow, and tends to be too isolated.

Until we have a player (Ronaldo, Pato, Gourcuff [if given time]) that can dribble, we wont be able to effectively "create" the space we need, which Rui was so adept at doing for us...Seedorf can, as I have mentioned, but I think he is completely overworked, and needs another such player, closer to him, with the same sort of skill set...to work the ball around a packed defense.

Kaka´s skills are more based on speed with the ball, and strength to overcome the pursuit..as was the case when the ref stupidly called the play back, when Kaka was finally in his element...running full speed, ball at his feet, with 10 yards of space between him and his next opponent...here he is deadly...

What he was doing in the box when he missed that shot...I dunno...but again, he should be on the periphery of the box...not in the baby-box...as despite what Carlo wants to call him, he is an attacking midfielder with a penchant for scoring, not a striker...a true striker would probably have hit the ball one-time...but..this is spilt milk, and not to be cried over.

I think we will continue to suffer in the Serie A, mainly because of the space issue, and our lack of sufficient personnell (or rather Carlo´s apparent refusal to utilise those we have...or really the single one we have, Gorky) with which to cope with these defensive tactics.

Clearly Pippo is past his best, and really should only be fielded in Europe...Gila is still adapting, and shouldnt be our main striker at this point...R99 should be...but we all know how that is going.

At this point, I believe the best thing to do is get behind the team, and wish them well...we have a good team, one of the best in the world on a given day, and I am certain that we can play much better than our last couple of domestic fixtures indicate.

So, we have lost some points, but its still early days...the Roma v Juve match, ideally kept them close to us, so all is not yet lost.

Its frustrating yes, but there is still time.

FORZA MIIIIIIIIIIIILAN!!

Oh, and one other thing...all the teams, actually, more the majority of teams that played UCL games in the preceding week, dropped points against league opposition, with the note worthy exceptions, from memory, being Man U, and Arsenal.

And while this isnt an "excuse" for our failure to capture all 3 points, at home, to a side that barely escaped relegation last term, it is a part of the explanation as to why we were not at our absoloute best..which, like it or not, is what we need to be, even vs the "minnows" of the Serie A.

Originally Posted by nguyen_milan

What's the excuse? I dont think without the refs Juve would still be that dominant.

Juve don't need refs to beat crap teams.

They didnt change a great deal but they didnt lose their best striker either.
But again, what Im trying to say here is: the our pathetic perform in Seria A last season and this early season has several reasons: incompetent strikers, lack of depth, old, didnt change much for 3,4 years are but I dont think motivation is the main reason.

And yes, it is more difficult to score in Serie A than in Europe. Teams in Serie A know us better, play with more defensive mind, and of course we didnt always use our best lineup if there is game in CL next days.

We don't change much, we always play the same? And you think crap teams like Siena and Parma don't also change THEIR entire teams every season and bring in new coaches? So how exactly do they know us better? We've been playing more or the less the same way in Europe for 20 years and you're telling me the top coaches in the World can't develop a game plan to stop us but Di Carlo and Mandorlini can after watching tapes? BULL****.

Plus Inzaghi hardly fit last season so the point is mood( He played 20 games in Serie A last year but only in 1056 minutes, Ronaldo played 14 games but played 1059 minutes).http://www.acmilan.com/InfoPage.aspx?id=28597

Look at Inzaghi's scoring record in Serie A, it's nothing special.

Originally Posted by Tony29.

So, i guess you realise how silly it is to attack Juve without any reasons every single time, week after week.

Nope. There is no such thing as silly attack on Juve

And i agree with warro here too, i wanted to write something similar earlier, but i deleted it... we dont have 1vs1 players, if defence is half positioned (and ready to be ripped apart with some nice move) our players opt to pass the ball back... and back... and ba.. eeerm dida cant pass it back anymore. Its cool to control the game with that play-style (although i can barely watch that) but not with one goal up!

We are looking like last year chelsea without joe cole and robben And with only one striker

Originally Posted by Mehdi

Juve don't need refs to beat crap teams.



We don't change much, we always play the same? And you think crap teams like Siena and Parma don't also change THEIR entire teams every season and bring in new coaches? So how exactly do they know us better? We've been playing more or the less the same way in Europe for 20 years and you're telling me the top coaches in the World can't develop a game plan to stop us but Di Carlo and Mandorlini can after watching tapes? BULL****.



Look at Inzaghi's scoring record in Serie A, it's nothing special.

Yes, Juve needed the refs to beat craps team, not all the time but when they struggled there always a non-call penalty or something in their favors to save their butt.

So you think Serie A teams dont know us better than Europe teams? lol
And woop, the coaches in Europe can watch the tapes, wow thats so efficient. The like Di Carlo, Mandorlini watch the game with their own eyes how many times??? And Milan on TV in Italy how many times? And the players, you think they dont know us better than others in Europe? They even know Kaka was a virgin
Plus I said it already, the teams in Serie A play with way more defensive minds.

Look at Inzaghi scoring record for Milan in Serie A:

GP Goals
01/02 20 10
02/03 30 17
03/04 14 3
04/05 11 0
05/06 23 12
06/07 20 2


It cant be compare with in CL but outside 3 seasons he injured alots and didnt play much, he had about 0,5 goals/game rate, not half bad. Plus he is freaking old, cant rely on him for the whole Serie A season.

But again, what are we arguing for?