Summer Mercato 2010

Originally Posted by Nalx

Well, he's not, so don't sweat it. At best he's a mediocre coach with several experiences at some yo-yo teams.

I think with Robinho and Ibra's arrival we faced the similar problem Barca did when they had the also called Fantastic Four: Messi, Eto'o, Dinho, and Henry who joined the latest. Even then they rarely played together.

Dinho began to struggle at that time, although he did chip in some goals/assists. Henry himself didn't impress either (he finally did in his second season though). My point is while it will unbalance the team by playing all the four at the same time, it's a good thing having players of their calibre since there are so many games in a season, and everyone will get their chance.

i know he's not now but he has been a serie a coach i remember him at udinese..
i agree with your post.

Oh, I forgot the word "However" in my last post our problems are not as big as Barca's


Moratti said Inter are not old: http://www.football-italia.net/sep06q.html

It's true, but they are not younger than us.

Originally Posted by M.O.I.

i agree on everything except your first sentence,if pirlo is out we have to play 3 of seedorf fla ambro rino or even the younger ones..of course i am talking about serious matches..not against teams that cannot pass 3 times in a row..

we would be totally outrunned,we would have 20 meters space between the lines we wouldnt be able cover markings etc..

and also neither binho nor dinho should play as a 10 imo,they are clearly players who need space and 1 on 1 marking so as to perform as they can..opponents wil play 10 players behind the ball most of times so as to not let anyone unmarked,and fast sc on the counter..also if we play with ibra-pato in front and the others on the wing we would nt be able to play possesion game as we would clearly need a more playmaker type of dmc.

and once nesta is out we re doomed with a 4-2-4(!!)..it would be easier though if we had both essien-mascherano()..

the thing is we're too slow on the medfield to try such a system..

I agree. I didn't mean that it would be the best way to play, tactically. I meant that we would sort of be forced to play that way politically. Since we have Pirlo, we have two political problems and the best one tactically wins. I don't know if that makes sense, but I think it does...

In terms of balance, nothing beats 4-4-2. 4-3-3 works when you have the attackers also doing their share of the defensive duties. 4-2-4 is just plain stupid especially against top opponents.

Actually 442 isn't viable anymore, since it has only three bands, 4XX and not four, 4XXX. You can't play with three anymore because of the intense physicality of professional football nowadays. Playing against a team with four bands means you have less room to move and they just pummel you into submission; meaning the big gap between attack and midfield, or midfield and defense is too much that players become isolated.

When people say 433, they don't mean it literally, meaning that it's a flat 3 in the middle or attack. It's usually just shorthand for 4312 or 4231. The difference is that you don't have three lines of players anymore, but four. The variant of the 442 that most closely resembles that classic formation is a 4411, and that's considered to be an ultra defensive formation nowadays.

Originally Posted by Gabriel489

SO Luca Antonielli, Parma's LB made his debut for Italy this past game. Didn't Milan used to own him? What happened? More importantly, is he any good?

damnit...do you remember guys, a year or two ago, when we got both Antonelli and Antonini back to club from the loans..there we were, laughing out at our management (most of us didnt even know who those two were), and there was a guy (can't remember his name) who was all over our nerves praising them both, saying both of them could be great players blah blah.. I think he was banned from MM because he confronted with everyone...and now it turns out he was right

i feel like i will be shot for saying this but i sometimes feel Pirlo restricts us in the way we play and not replacing him might not be a bad thing as it would allow us to expand on the way we play.

Originally Posted by Kaka1899

i feel like i will be shot for saying this but i sometimes feel Pirlo restricts us in the way we play and not replacing him might not be a bad thing as it would allow us to expand on the way we play.

I agree since he is like our General in the game. But without him I do think we will only get worse though except we buy other WC creative/offensive player.

Antonelli is good player, not great. İnter is considering him for rotation, for rotation he is good. yet we need first class wing backs for starting line up, not rotation players...

4-3-3 is much better system than 4-4-2, just look at how we play with it, pressing, pressure up, i love the way we play with 4-3-3. im happy with it. 4-4-2 is old fashion, 4-3-3 is the hit for modern football.

in 4-3-3, i must confess that we lack something, our midfield trio and attackers, our midfielders let the rivals play their game, not much destroying or keeping the ball so much there, when they lose the ball, they dont come back to tackle back for example,
in hard occasions it will happen again. this is why im expecting Flamini and Boateng do this job, keeping the ball, pressing, pressure, tackle, showing fighting spirt. i think that our midfield with Ambro,Seedorf and Pirlo, soft and slow midfield, for strong teams.

Then another problem, Pato and Dinho(in the last game Dinho did well on team defence though), Pato at least tried more than before. we need to solve this problems if we want to win something big...

Antonelli is very over-rated and when you see him play 3-4 games in a row you will realize it. He is even worse than Criscito.

Here the latest betting odds I found online:

Champs League:
Barcelona 3.50
Real Madrid 6.00
Chelsea 6.00
Man Utd 9.00
Arsenal 13.00
Inter Milan 15.00
Bayern Munich 15.00
AC Milan 21.00
Spurs 34.00
Roma 41.00

Serie A

Inter Milan 2.20
AC Milan 2.87
Roma 6.50
Juventus 8.50
Fiorentina 41.00
Napoli 41.00

Europa League
Man City 6.50
Liverpool 11.00
Juventus 15.00
Atletico Madrid 15.00
Sevilla 17.00
FC Porto 17.00
Villarreal 21.00
CSKA Moscow 26.0

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So even winning a treble (Inter) and winning a double and reaching CL final (Bayern) is not enough to convince the stupid English? How can they list Man U, Chelsea and especially Arsenal ahead of Inter and Bayern? Even Milan should be ahead of Arsenal. They even have City and Liverpool as favourites for the Europa League!

Originally Posted by Stitch

damnit...do you remember guys, a year or two ago, when we got both Antonelli and Antonini back to club from the loans..there we were, laughing out at our management (most of us didnt even know who those two were), and there was a guy (can't remember his name) who was all over our nerves praising them both, saying both of them could be great players blah blah.. I think he was banned from MM because he confronted with everyone...and now it turns out he was right

Don't take this the wrong way, but when the hell did Antonelli and Antonini became great players? Both of these guys are very good rotation players who can be effective as a starter but if you are talking great, you are comparing them to the likes of Evra, Lahm, Maicon and Alves, and they both suck big time when compared to those guys.

I think Antonelli is a good sub for Antonini, we should get him if we still co-own him. But we sell him totally to Parma last year, so no need to regret. We could find an even better option. After Ibra, Robinho, we should demand higher

About 4-4-2, this is a balance formation, too balanced. That means not weak but not strong, all player must at least do their job properly to get regulary result. Not easy to beat, but there is no cutting edge to win, they won because of the better players, not by tactics. 2 strongest 4-4-2 in this decade, IMO, are MU 1999 (Schmeichel; Neville, Stam, Johnsen, Irwin; Beckham, Scholes, Keane, Giggs; Yorke, Cole) and Juve 2004-2006 (Buffon; Zebina, Thuram, Cannavaro, Zambrotta; Cambiaso, Viera, Emerson, Nedved; Del Piero/Ibrahimovic, Trezegue). Both dominated their league but failed in CL (MU just won a quite lucky one, after that even Ferguson realized 4-4-2 didn't suit CL then buy Nistelrooy & Veron to switch to 4-5-1).

Like brk said, 4-4-2 has just 3 bands when the morden 4-3-3 is 4 bands with the variations: 4-2-3-1, 4-3-2-1; and there are other famous 4 bands formations like: 4-3-1-2, 4-1-4-1, 4-1-3-2, 3-3-3-1,... 4-4-2 is kind of obsoleted. Only Tottenham still success but their 442 is very dynamic with special players.

Originally Posted by hitmannq8

So even winning a treble (Inter) and winning a double and reaching CL final (Bayern) is not enough to convince the stupid English? How can they list Man U, Chelsea and especially Arsenal ahead of Inter and Bayern? Even Milan should be ahead of Arsenal. They even have City and Liverpool as favourites for the Europa League!

But they know Benitez better than us ... Here is the reason I think !!

Originally Posted by GeoTav

But they know Benitez better than us ... Here is the reason I think !!

Simple logic = win.Benitez is tactically inept he always does the wrong thing and he is an ego maniac for a guy who has no reason to be.
Antonelli has played well when I have seen but honestly it was only twice , you guys may think Im good if you see me play twice maybe even great..lol.

Originally Posted by Aficio

I think Antonelli is a good sub for Antonini, we should get him if we still co-own him. But we sell him totally to Parma last year, so no need to regret. We could find an even better option. After Ibra, Robinho, we should demand higher

About 4-4-2, this is a balance formation, too balanced. That means not weak but not strong, all player must at least do their job properly to get regulary result. Not easy to beat, but there is no cutting edge to win, they won because of the better players, not by tactics. 2 strongest 4-4-2 in this decade, IMO, are MU 1999 (Schmeichel; Neville, Stam, Johnsen, Irwin; Beckham, Scholes, Keane, Giggs; Yorke, Cole) and Juve 2004-2006 (Buffon; Zebina, Thuram, Cannavaro, Zambrotta; Cambiaso, Viera, Emerson, Nedved; Del Piero/Ibrahimovic, Trezegue). Both dominated their league but failed in CL (MU just won a quite lucky one, after that even Ferguson realized 4-4-2 didn't suit CL then buy Nistelrooy & Veron to switch to 4-5-1).

Like brk said, 4-4-2 has just 3 bands when the morden 4-3-3 is 4 bands with the variations: 4-2-3-1, 4-3-2-1; and there are other famous 4 bands formations like: 4-3-1-2, 4-1-4-1, 4-1-3-2, 3-3-3-1,... 4-4-2 is kind of obsoleted. Only Tottenham still success but their 442 is very dynamic with special players.

Sacchi's 4-4-2 was THE formation. It was flawless. It's not about formation, it's about how you fit the players in it and how you transform it. For example, Sacchi had 4-4-2, but it was more like 4-3-1-2. He actually invented trequartista position in 4-4-2. It's not widely known that Donadoni was a prototype of 4-4-2 trequartista (not a winger like goal.crap says). When full backs pushed up (also first time used expression "full back"), along with one CM (Rijkaard), with the other CM (Don Carlo) and side midfielder (Colombo/Evani) covering, he had something like 2-2-4-2. Also with Baresi pushing up and full backs staying to cover, it could be like 3-4-1-2, or even 3-4-3.
Actually in Sacchi's team, every player could adapt for any position, no matter where he's found in a moment of time. He's famous to say that in his team regista (deep-lying play) was whoever had the ball.
Other coaches started to use trequartista's regularly sometimes in '95 or '96, almost 10 years after Sacchi implemented it. Sacchi was WAY beyond his time, actually he's even beyond this time.
Every Milan fan should watch Steaua finals, it's available on Internet and it's the best game I've ever saw from one team, even better than one from Capello's team against Barcelona. It's just amazing how they killed second best team in the world in only 45 minutes. If Capello was/is known to work every tinny tactical detail into perfection, Sacchi actually didn't had to do it because his foundation was so good.