AC Cesena vs AC Milan -- 11/9/2010

Originally Posted by Samaldinho

I think this game, for me at least, might hint that Robinho may be better suited as a Pato replacement than a Ronaldinho one. I didn't see R70 create anything, to be honest.

he was on ffor a really short time.. and did you see anyone create anything? at least binho held onto position and passed the ball to his team mates and not cesena.. but ye hes not a proper r10 replacement anyways he should be a cf or a full out striker

Originally Posted by SomeDevil

what do you make of this ?
this is the ESPN soccernet average position chart of our players during the match !
where did we sc rew up ?

That doesn't make any sense. Why is Antonini on the right? I can understand Bonera being weird, since he switched positions, but the rest look flipped.

Agree.. I think Robinho is more of a Pato replacement.. (2nd striker)

This has confused me even more and probably Allegri about how we will play in the future..

I'm not saying R70 was bad or anything. I just think his style of play is not what we needed. The problem wasn't in our forwards, it was in the midfield, as usual. However, I'm not the type of person who thinks that we wasted money on Ibra and Binho, because I really believe we have our new midfielders in Flamini and KPB.

I think Dinho should have stayed on a bit longer, but, besides the midfield issue and the fact that Sokratis was terrible (Mexes in Jan, anyone?) I think the biggest issue we saw against Cesena was the lack of understanding between Ibra, Dinho, Pato, and then Binho in the game. Did we really think that without a pre-season that the transition would be smooth?

Originally Posted by Samaldinho

I think this game, for me at least, might hint that Robinho may be better suited as a Pato replacement than a Ronaldinho one. I didn't see R70 create anything, to be honest.

I think let's just play Pato in the centre and flank by Ibra and robinho. Ibra seem perfectly fine playing as a support striker on the right where he is often in the first half. Since Pato is so selfish, he can be the target man. I think this is the best case and Ronaldinho should be left out unless he decide to stay here after this season. He look disinterested, probably the money from arab already got to him....

Originally Posted by brk

That doesn't make any sense. Why is Antonini on the right? I can understand Bonera being weird, since he switched positions, but the rest look flipped.

Yes i dont know whats up with espn but it seems like an mirror image !
nonetheless a lot can be read into this ! although formation might remain the bare essential yet the holding glue !

O-kay, just finished watching the game.

Gattuso in the first half was the beginning of the end. Pato, Ibra and Bonera constantly threatened to attack on the right flank, but anything good conjured by those three was either foiled by Gattuso not being in the right position to link up play ( most of the time he was in the middle of 3 players), or he would be the one on the ball and actually misplace the passes. Normally, when 'Dinho is the focus of our playmaking, this really wouldn't be a problem, seeing as Rino wouldn't even have to touch the ball and be consistently on defensive duties. I think, however, it was Allegri who tried to surprise the opponents by attempting to attack on the right side. With Flams or Prince there as a conduit, it might have worked, Rino is just not that type of player. He can't run up all the way, make pretty passes, and still be expected to run back down to defend, specially if he's the one who loses the ball.

Pato's two goals should definitely have stood. Both balls played through showed that he was in line with the last defender. The linesman had a horrible day, but theres really nothing to be said because its over.

Papa played as well as anyone really could, up until the first goal. Then he was all over the place. The kid definitely has a lot to learn from Nesta, and he better learn fast as well.

Both goals were the result of fast counters, something that often happened last year as well. Allegri made adjustments to counter for it, but he changed the wrong people. Abate should have been on from the get go for bonera, flams should have been on for Rino, and Ronaldinho should have been kept on the pitch (but seeing as he showed a rare flash of his temper today, I'll let it slide because he might have been suspended if he was kept on).

In all, I was not expecting an immediate impact with Ibra or 'Binho, given they've only trained with the lads for only a week (with internatinals and all that, even less), but I never thought it would play out this poorly. We were losing balls in the midfield and not able to catch the opponents with the ball at their feet. What does this tell you? Our midfield is definitely in need of revitalization.

I still believe in our new project though, and I still believe that with the right tweaks, our entire team can beat everyone still. I'd give them more time to gel, and for Allegri to take the old ones off the starting lineup (Seriously, either he lost on purpose trying to prove some point, or his tactics were just plain bad today) and put the new, young and fast ones on.

Oh, and yes, give Amelia a chance. He can't be any worse than Abbiati today, now can he? He just couldn't take control of his defense line at all, even though he had the best view of them all.

I wouldn't mind Mexes now. Definitely if Nesta is injured long-term.

I was very, very happy and surprised at the start of the game when I saw Ibra on the right. I thought that was genius, since Pato can't pass at all, so he becomes just a deadly, single minded striker. We looked good, too, with Pato and Ibra switching places. I hope we see more of that.

at least we dno't have to wait for two weeks this time for our next game.

Pirlo doesn't have to be the problem, the thing is a midfield of him with DMs will not serve the purpose of a 4-3-3 unless you want Pato to come back into our own third like he did more than once

Haha maybe we bought so many CB's so we can weed them out slowly

I'd love to get rid of this Sokratis and buy Mexes.... but,, aint gonna happen...

If we have a lot of energy in Flamini and KPB.. why can't we do this:

Zambrotta/Abate---Nesta----T. Silva----Antonini
-------------------KPB--------Flamini----------------
--------Pato--------Seedorf (Robinho)------Ronaldinho
---------------------Ibrahimovic---------------------------

Originally Posted by Samaldinho

I'm not saying R70 was bad or anything. I just think his style of play is not what we needed. The problem wasn't in our forwards, it was in the midfield, as usual. However, I'm not the type of person who thinks that we wasted money on Ibra and Binho, because I really believe we have our new midfielders in Flamini and KPB.

I think Dinho should have stayed on a bit longer, but, besides the midfield issue and the fact that Sokratis was terrible (Mexes in Jan, anyone?) I think the biggest issue we saw against Cesena was the lack of understanding between Ibra, Dinho, Pato, and then Binho in the game. Did we really think that without a pre-season that the transition would be smooth?

Well, i can understand ibra not being able to find his teammates which he really can't BTW....But Pato did not even try to look out for his teammates...And ronaldinho? Is he really interested? I did not see him trying to do something by dragging defenders out of position or anything. He just take the ball and quickly pass to another guy....

Everyone is reaching consensus that the midfield was terrible.

Is this finally the end of Gattuso? How about Ambro?

Originally Posted by brk

Everyone is reaching consensus that the midfield was terrible.

Is this finally the end of Gattuso? How about Ambro?

In a 4-3-3 yes finished, it should be.

Originally Posted by SomeDevil

what do you make of this ?
this is the ESPN soccernet average position chart of our players during the match !
where did we sc rew up ?

It is an image, and I think the main problem is other than Pippo, we were too far away from the goal.

Originally Posted by Elmago99

Agree.. I think Robinho is more of a Pato replacement.. (2nd striker)

This has confused me even more and probably Allegri about how we will play in the future..

The way I see it though: pato should be a 1st striker while Ibrahimovic despite his big size seems more suitable in a support role.