Milan 2009-2010 - Disjointed, Deficient & Dig-in For A Loooong Season

I dont think Warro is anti-Leo. It's more like anti-no-experience-as-coach.

Yes Jeff...I am not anti-Leo, not at all..I am just anti-Berlu at the moment....and can you believe the idiot has stated that he wouldnt have lost the derby? gimmie a break!!

Kris: You dissected my post quite well, and as you tend to agree with me by and large, I wont counter much, except:

I can only go on what I hear Leo say, and his actions...he has played R80 almost more minutes this season already, than he got all last season with Carlo...that for me, speaks volumes, when Pirlo could have been moved up the field, if Seedorf wasnt fit enough to replace R80.

Pirlo for me needs to be the tequartista...he no longer has the legs to play his "defensive playmaker" role....have R80 in the box with Pato, and Pirlo in support. Take Pato out at somepoint, and put in Huntelaar, or vice versa.

Circumstances are against Leo, but he accepted the job didnt he? He knew what he was getting into. If I were he, after Berlu´s latest bout of verbal diahorrea, I would resign..but thats just me. What sort of worker takes a job, then asks for tools to make his product better, yet is denied it, and still stays? Well, I guess you can call me a quitter, but if I take a job where I am told that I will get something, and its not given at the end of the day, then what is my motivation to stay?

Poor Leo has been given a "basket to carry water" as we say in Jamaica...ie an impossible task, with the clown prince second guessing his tactics and selection from the get go. No wonder Capello, and any other coach with a spine wont work here.

Ah well, what to do. Good luck Leo!! You are goin to need it bro!!

How about transferring Pirlo from a deep playmaker role to a Riqueleme kind of role? Together with someone fast (used to be Kaka`, now perhaps R80), our attack might be stronger?

Originally Posted by Jeff

How about transferring Pirlo from a deep playmaker role to a Riqueleme kind of role? Together with someone fast (used to be Kaka`, now perhaps R80), our attack might be stronger?

^^Thats what I just said above Jeff!!

Originally Posted by Warro Bantan

No wonder Capello, and any other coach with a spine wont work here.

That says it all

Originally Posted by Warro Bantan

I can only go on what I hear Leo say, and his actions...he has played R80 almost more minutes this season already, than he got all last season with Carlo...that for me, speaks volumes, when Pirlo could have been moved up the field, if Seedorf wasnt fit enough to replace R80.

Pirlo for me needs to be the tequartista...he no longer has the legs to play his "defensive playmaker" role....have R80 in the box with Pato, and Pirlo in support. Take Pato out at somepoint, and put in Huntelaar, or vice versa.

Circumstances are against Leo, but he accepted the job didnt he? He knew what he was getting into. If I were he, after Berlu´s latest bout of verbal diahorrea, I would resign..but thats just me. What sort of worker takes a job, then asks for tools to make his product better, yet is denied it, and still stays? Well, I guess you can call me a quitter, but if I take a job where I am told that I will get something, and its not given at the end of the day, then what is my motivation to stay?

Poor Leo has been given a "basket to carry water" as we say in Jamaica...ie an impossible task, with the clown prince second guessing his tactics and selection from the get go. No wonder Capello, and any other coach with a spine wont work here.

Ah well, what to do. Good luck Leo!! You are goin to need it bro!!

I don't think Leo's playing Dinho much more than Carlo did. Let's not forget Dinho was a fixture for Carlo during the first half of last season, and his performances weren't particularly better, nor much worse than now.

I don't think Leo realised quite what he got himself into when taking the job either, I doubt anyone did if I'm honest, other than maybe Berlu (I doubt even Galliani realised this summer would have little to no transfer activity). Leo on taking the job had made it clear how he wanted to play, he acknowledged it was upmost important he get two new players, one a striker of Dzeko's qualities and a fullback who can attack and defend well. He got Huntelaar (a poacher) and that's it. Without the desired reinforcements, he can't play anything like he outlined when he first got the job.

I'm unsure what's going through Leo's head either, but if he's like me he'll be torn between reconsidering his position right now or trying to make the best of a bad situation and being patient for a while.

Indeed Dev...with Spaletti looking for work, and Galliani´s call to "console" him, maybe we will see Spaletti in charge by January.

My reference to Leo playing R80 more than Carlo was just an exaggeration to better make my point.

That said, I hope Leo is successfull TBH.

Leo has no choice anymore but the play R80. With Kaka's departure and our beloved owners self-professed love for Dinho, there really is no other option (unfortunately)

First of all, I think when Leo first agreed to the job, he did not expect to lose Kaka.
Then when he realizes Kaka will be sold, he expected Gourcuff to come back and at least half of the money from Kaka's sale will be given to him to buy players.
Ofcourse both did not happened.

I think Leo was planning to sell Oddo and Janku with the Cissohko's signing.
I know for sure he did not expect Gooch as the CB signing.
I have a feeling that he was going to ship out Seedorf, Pirlo and even Ambro, should he managed to keep Gourcuff and sign Hernanes.

TO be honest, if I am Leo I would never accept this job if I knew this will be the team I am getting. But thats just me, I am sure some of us here will say that, whats wrong with the current Milan squad.......

How do you know so much, are you actually Leo?

I think Leo knew perfectly well what he was getting into. He was a director at Milan for god knows how long. He knew perfectly well tha Kaka would most probably leave, that Berlu loves Dinho, and that Berlu would interfere with team selection and will act like Milan's manager to the press.

Sure he wanted to sell Oddo and Janku. Were there any buyers? Did either express a desire to leave? Sure he wanted a left back and when he realized we weren't going to get any, has tried to think of alternative solutions (playing Abate at right back for instance, or now getting kaladze to play LB). The Gooch signing was a good one, it was to add depth not to get a starter.

Leo himself asked Berlu to keep Pirlo, otherwise management were ready to sell him to Chelsea. Seedorf could have been offloaded but he refused to go, remember? Gourcuff was a forgone conclusion, let's not act like he could be the next saviour for the club.

If I were Leo, I would jump at the chance to coach a club of the caliber of Milan. Not everyone gets to coach one of the world's biggest clubs at his first attempt, and the fact that Berlu has hand-picked him and placed trust in him should be a source of pride. I think Leo will do well and even if things don't work out, I think he has enough maturity to walk away from the job with his head held high.

Right now the transfer window is closed and we have to do the best with the squad we have.
We all know we have a huge problem at left back and we all know we need to integrate more youth into this team, so what i don't understand is why they still won't try a youngster there...what's the point of having youth teams if we can't promote a single player for God knows how many years now. And that's not just a one player thing...i mean look at Barcelona and their policy to promote players from within the club; not only do they get the loyalty and passion to the shirt that you can't buy with any player, but most importantly u also give HOPE & MOTIVATION for the others in the youth teams that if they work hard & do well they WILL reach the senior squad and that is key.

Other than left back, i think we have an excellent central defensive pair in Silva-Nesta and although i would much prefer to see Zambrotta playing as a winger rather than a right back, i think he is the best player we have now in that position.

For the midfield, the Pirlo innovative position created by Ancelotti paid dividends for years but it is paying no more...every manager in the world can now see that they can penetrate our defence from there because we all know he is not the hard-tackling defensive midfielder that can protect the back 4...that's why i think Ambrosini should take that role with Flamini and Pirlo/Abate by his side. Again i don't understand why Abate, who i thought was the best performer (especially in the Audi tournament) in the disastrous pre-season, shouldn't get his chance (and by chance i mean more than half a game).

As for Roni, it's obvious that Berlusconi won't give up on him easily and maybe we shouldn't either, so i think the best thing to do is keep playing him as a trequartista with Pato & Huntelaar (who i thought did well against Inter) up front. If he keeps failing, then maybe Pirlo could play the trequartista given that i am not a big fan of Seedorf until the transfer reopens and we get the chance to sign Cassano who will be excellent with Pato & Huntelaar upfront...i don't care how much he will cost (cash or player-exchange), a club like AC Milan should be able to afford a transfer budget of more than the 18-20Mio paid for Huntelaar especially with the sales of Kaka & Gourcuff...

Sorry for writing so much, but I'm new here and still have a lot to say....

So, 5 games in, and we are 11th in the standings, with one draw, 2 wins, and 2 losses.
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Inter and Juve (as expected) Samp, Genoa and the Viola (as I anticipated), Parma, Udinese, Verona, (wtf??) Roma and Lazio are all ahead of us in the table.
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While we can safely say that Inter and Juve are out of our reach, (yes, a 6 point gap isnt insurmountable, especially with so many games left in the season, but the gulf in class is) I think we can reasonably expect to surpass Verona at the very least....but are we better than any of the other teams ahead of us? I for one doubt that.
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I dont think we can go to Genoa and get any points....ditto that for Parma, and the capital clubs...likewise Samp.
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We alreay have shown that we have difficulty scoring goals, and Udinese have already taken points from us, and leapfrogged us in the table...
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I can only hope that we buy in January, and for the positions that we need reinforcements....LB, CB (which I doubt...Gooch will continue to earn a fat paycheck while sitting on the bench), and AM (again a big doubt, as we have Clarence and R80).
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If we drop points vs Bari @ home, then we will really and truly be risking exclusion from Europe, and toying with relegation....(yes, I know, early days yet, yadda yadda yadda)
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I hated starting this post...and it makes me even sad that things are not going well. And I know everyone here feels the same way.

I really hope Leo and the players band together and turn around this ship....otherwise we are staring into the abyss.

All this talk about the Champions League being in our DNA....should cease, doing well in Serie A should be our main focus. I don't think we will get out of the Champions League group phases, if we do, we will scrap by and get knocked out in the second stage.

Lets face it, we don't have a squad to compete in all phases. Leo's focus should be Serie A, Serie A & Serie A.

Forza Milan

"Champion League is in our gene".

Hmmmm...being sarcastic there Jeff?

I don't think, from an economic standpoint, that we can afford not to advance as far as we can in the UCL...and realistically, if we beat Standard Liege (?) next matchday, then we are basically thru to the next round, barring any major upsets...it doesn't matter if we lose to Madrid, as the top 2 will advance, and we should be the 2nd placed team...

That said, progress beyond the 2nd group stage (if we get that far) will be a major strain on the squad, and indeed, if we are still floundering in the league, I am sure some tough decisions will have to be made in terms of who we field, and how we play in the UCL.

I am not sure that we should sacrifice UCL progress for the Serie A....unless we really are still flirting with mid-table come December....if that be the case, then I agree, the focus must be on improving domestic form and results.