Summer Mercato 2010

Originally Posted by GeoTav

Small negative point regarding Borriello: the guy, a true Milanista (I always thought he was a true Napolitean) by reading the forum, said he realized his dream by joining Roma, because "he has Roma in his blood" ...

maybe Belen lives in ROMA

In relation to our transfers this summer, Goal has done a rough statistical report for all the top leagues and teams:

http://www.goal.com/en/news/11/trans...ross-the-world


I don't know about you, but I'm damn happy that we weren't mentioned in any of the top 5 teams in any of those categories. Just goes to show how good the deals management put together were.

Kudos to B and G...... they better keep it up if they want more praise.

a song we sing at my local teams games, i think we should adopt it now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj0QhCkDlpI

Originally Posted by Gabriel489

The thing I got from what Menenez said, was basically saying Brazil should play like Inter but with more flair. High defense with speed to recover-Lucio and Samuel/Cordoba, midfield to hold the ball and also tracks back to defend-Sneijder, Stankovic, Muntari, Mraiga, Motta.. Wingers/forwards to track back, Eto, Pandev and Mario... I think thas pretty much how the modern game has become, 1 striker with 2 forwards who tracks back. What happened to the good old fashion of having 2 strikers, like Forlan and Suarez.

Almost this, Gabriel...

Menezes was asked about comparisons with other teams and NT(mostly Spain), and he was fast to show some differences. Regarding Spain, he wanted Brazil to really control the game(like we always did in the past), but with a more straight style than Spain. He want more goals...

I understood the "Mourinho's Inter with more flair" example, but there's(imo) a HUGE difference. Menezes doesn't want the winger/forwards to track back(so much) like Mourinho. Indeed, Robinho and Neymar can't do this, and if you look at Brazil x USA game, you can see when Brazil was attacked, Ganso track back to a CM role and Robinho take his place as CAM. Neymar help at the left, but without the responsibility of a winger. He's a second striker...

Regarding the 1 striker and 2 striker tracking back, like always, is the new fashion of nowadays. Until a team win something big with another style... I still like my teams with 2 strikers up front in a 4-3-1-2 or 4-4-2 diamond.

Originally Posted by Aficio

Oh man, you are greedy. Currently, Milan have only 4 Brazilians and all of them are the tops from Samba country, but I still want B & G to satisfy you

I know, I know

I think Robinho will gradually take Ronnie reigns, as I think next season he will go to MLS. Unless he can keep Lecce level for the rest of the season. What I doubt...

Inter is scared of Benitez so they didn't hear any of his requests, but the Spanish is facing some serious unsolved problem with the old squad. So whether he could have power on market or not, things are still not bright for Inter.

Inter will face our dilemma after the gold run we did in the near past. It's not easy to do it, but they needed to get rid of some good(but old)player gradually, and it was important to get this process started this past off season.

Like we said in Brazil, some players there are "sacred cows", and will not have accepted a more young player to take their place on the squad. They bought a young amazing prospect in Coutinho, but for a position the starter(Snider) still has legs... and will kill the kid development as Benitez is playing him as a winger right now

They need more reinforcements, but like with us in the near past(and now with the midfielder), without to get rid of some "sacred crows", the ambient in the locker room will be horrible.

Plus, Benitez will go to shop next season

Originally Posted by Ryo

In relation to our transfers this summer, Goal has done a rough statistical report for all the top leagues and teams:

http://www.goal.com/en/news/11/trans...ross-the-world


I don't know about you, but I'm damn happy that we weren't mentioned in any of the top 5 teams in any of those categories. Just goes to show how good the deals management put together were.

Kudos to B and G...... they better keep it up if they want more praise.

We are not even in the top 10:

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/edi...ransfer-window

Originally Posted by Jim_UK

...
However, as Brasiliero and one or two others pointed out, our midfield/defence is lacking the energy to make the team work. I really can't believe some of you are writing starting line-ups with Pirlo starting in a 2 man midfield or a midfield 3 of Ambrosini, Pirlo, Seedorf. Against the better teams, we'd be destroyed with that as our midfield, remember Old Trafford?

Flamini has to start and one between Ambrosini/KPB has to be with him. It's the only way you can make our now 'stellar' forward line work for the team.
...

I totally agree.
We were all complaining that our midfield was probably the worst department last season as they were too old and were overrun by so many teams playing with OLD Ambro, Pirlo, Seedorf, & Gattuso.
However, Flamini was not used as he should have been last year (which is probably the only thing i could fault Leo for) and he can be considered as a real "purchase" + Ambro being rotated with KPB which will keep him fresh and we all know how great he is when fresh vs how poor he is when tired. Same goes for Pirlo given that now Seedorf can act as his vice because Robinho can fill in for Pato/Dinho.
Don't get me wrong, I would have loved a Poli/Asamoah type of player for the midfield, but given our tight budget and the absolute "bargain" deals we got on Ibra & Robinho (which are a HUGE upgrade on Bori-Hunter which was also extremely important to compete) but for me, our midfield was realistically reinforced through the overall smart purchases done.

I still think an 8Mio pound Van der Vart (if the rumour is true about Tottenham) could have been a better deal than Robinho, but I cannot complain at all.

As for the defence, our CBs are absolutely secure now whereas for our fullbacks the major argument i have is that both Antonini & Abate now have a season under their belt playing as fullbacks and that could prove really valuable. Plus i think playing in a balanced/winning team will make them look much better compared to last year's team.

Personally I do not like the way Spain played this past WC. did like them in Euro though. As they had too much possession but not even shooting chances. With the players they have, it is a miracle how they only managed to score 8 goals in WC.

The more Ganso develops his defensive side of the game, the better the player he will become. I really think Ganso can become a complete package instead of just another great #10.

When I mentioned 2strikers I meant to say, teams rarely play with 2 real strikers anymore like when I was growing up watching football.

Robinho took the NON-EU spot right?? According to footballdatabase.com he doesn't have an EU-passport, so we can't sign another non-EU until next summer. Can anyone confirm that?

Also, does anyone have a list of our players' contract expirations??? It would be good to know who's contract expires next summer. (i think Seedorf should be in that list......therefore replacing him with Ganso is a must )

Milan's roster list for the Champions League:

http://www.milannews.it/?action=read&idnotizia=33409

I'm curious as to why Pato and Strasser are on List B. Obviously neither of these guys were left off the champions league roster (like Onyewu or Montelongo) but can anyone explain to me the difference between the A list and the B list?

I posted this on the Champions League thread but with all the transfer talk I figured it would have a better chance being seen answered here first.

I think B list are for all under 21 players, thus even though Pato Is a starter, he does not need to take a spot on the A team.

^^ Thanks Gabriel

Originally Posted by nefremo

Robinho took the NON-EU spot right?? According to footballdatabase.com he doesn't have an EU-passport, so we can't sign another non-EU until next summer. Can anyone confirm that?

Also, does anyone have a list of our players' contract expirations??? It would be good to know who's contract expires next summer. (i think Seedorf should be in that list......therefore replacing him with Ganso is a must )

I think it will be De Rossi as a return favor for Borri.

Originally Posted by Brasileiro

I think Robinho will gradually take Ronnie reigns, as I think next season he will go to MLS. Unless he can keep Lecce level for the rest of the season. What I doubt...

Inter will face our dilemma after the gold run we did in the near past. It's not easy to do it, but they needed to get rid of some good(but old)player gradually, and it was important to get this process started this past off season.

Like we said in Brazil, some players there are "sacred cows", and will not have accepted a more young player to take their place on the squad. They bought a young amazing prospect in Coutinho, but for a position the starter(Snider) still has legs... and will kill the kid development as Benitez is playing him as a winger right now

They need more reinforcements, but like with us in the near past(and now with the midfielder), without to get rid of some "sacred crows", the ambient in the locker room will be horrible.

Plus, Benitez will go to shop next season

You worried about Coutinho too much, mate.

I've just remembered when Diego played for Bremen, Özil must play as winger but that didn't hinder his progress, I think he even learned something when play alongside Diego. Schnejder is at his best age, form, calling him "sacred crows" is exaggerated

I understand completely what Brasileiro is saying and I agree. But it's not all only positioning and which position the player will play. A player's progress goes much deeper then that. The kid (Coutinho) is obviously very gifted and talented, but he is just that, a kid - 18 year old kid. And he needs help and guidance. So fact of the matter here is that some managers/coaches are good at developing talent and others are complete "idiots" when it comes to it.

So to make myself clearer I'll give Monday's example of Coutinho. It was a 0-0 game and Coutinho goes in and is expected to change the complexion of the game for Inter. On top of that like Brasileiro said he was played as a winger. So what does the kid do? He gets the ball and tries to go forward with it on every occasion. Every pass he attempted was a 'forward pass'. Every pass he attempted he tried to make it THE pass to unlock the game. As the game went on he lost confidence more and more because most of his passes were resulting in loss of possession. So I believe that the kid was crushed after that debut because he really looked poor out there. How he will bounce back depends on the character he possesses and also what the coach does with him next time.

What I am saying is that a kid like Coutinho should not have been put to play in those circumstances and definitely should not have been asked to unlock the game and go forward with every pass. Coutinho should play in calm surroundings. When Inter is leading or even start the game when it is still 0-0 but under much calmer circumstances and nobody is "rushing" to score. That way you ask the kid to play simple, take touches on the ball, knock it around, and only go forward when a real opportunity presents itself. Every player grows in confidence when doing the simple things, therefore as the game goes on you get to see the hard things come off just fine because the confidence is there.

The best thing that can happen to Coutinho is for him to go back to the basics and then the complex things will happen on their own because he has the talent to make them happen. The question here is if Benitez will allow him to go back to basics or throw him on again with 20mins to go in a must score game.

I think the swipe at Milan's midfield is just people not wanting to acknowledge that Milan is going to come back as the dominant force on European football. Berlusconi cares again, and Zlatan and Robinho are nothing to sniff at.

However, to ignore the intelligent signings that we had before the glory signings of Zlatan/Robinho, is to make the new players worse than they actually are. I mean, look at Juventus, they bought a lot of names that should be pretty good. Frankly, in Motta and Bonucci they have two players I would want to have, but, with Krasic, Pepe, Quagirela, etc etc, they are still not capable of evening threatening Bari.

I honestly did not think Rafa would be able to ruin Inter this fast, but watching them against Atletico and then Bologna was actually sad. I wanted to beat them while they were still close to their Mourinho levels.

The point is that Milan's midfield will change. Flamini and KPG are clearly the candidates to do it. If they do not do it, then you can bet that KPG goes back to Genoa and Flamini might get sold. Flamini is the player that performed so closely to Gattuso's style that they called him "Flattuso" and it will be profoundly difficult to find a Seedorf-type of player. He is very unique in his engine and technical ability in one player. KPG has the engine and seems to have some skill. He might not be as technical as Seedorf, but, I think its nothing to sniff at.

What bothers me about these reports is that they usually have very bad assessments of players in squads. Bonera might be a CB, but he has always been capable of playing as a RB, and clearly Allegri sees a more defensive-minded RB as important to the balance of the side. Antonini has turned into a very good LB, maybe not WC, but I think he's like Pancaro, very reliable, and someone you can win with.

But, the most annoying part is that saying our midfield is the problem--without factoring in KPG and Flamini, not to mention the emergence of Merkel and Strasser for the future--and that the midfield was why we lost to Man Utd last year or lost to Inter.

That is a wrong analysis. With our aging squad, in the first leg, we dominated Man Utd. Our biggest problem was that we did not have strikers that put pressure on defenses, who did not cause a real threat outside of the box, or without a assist from Dinho. We should have been 3-0 in the first 30 minutes against Man Utd, but finishing cost us. Same against Inter, neither Huntelaar or Borriello finished their chances with the sort of frequency that our play deserved. From there, teams just choked off supply and space from Dinho and Pirlo and made our team fall apart.

Ibra and Robinho make that far more difficult, while Flamini and potentially KPG offer options from the bench, or provide Seedorf with the freshness to provide an impact (Chievo game anyone?). Sokratis and Yepes seem to be more reliable that Kaladze and Yepes, and the fact that Zambro will actually have to work for his spot and that Abate can now be trained into being a RB with more ease, shouldn't we all just see that this team is profoundly better with a few simple changes, and then, of course, with probably the strongest attack in Europe.