Milan Bologna Post game comments

Originally Posted by kris

Juve haven't been stunning at all. I saw all their games before christmas and they where pretty poor almost all games. They where on the other hand effective and solid at the back and the opponents didn't score on their only chance against them. Not to talk about disallowed goals, red cards and penalties... They have been riding their luck and when they did not have luck they got "help".

Pretty telling now that we lost against Bologna after having a disallowed goal, they scored on their only chance and we created a lot of chances. did you see Juves game against Bologna? they scored after being clearly offside, Bologna had at least as many chances as them and several penatly claims that brought them nothing. Not to forget that they didn't get a single yellow card as they would meet us the week after the game and they where some clearcut episodes where they could get them...

encore encore.

only saw highlights yesterday the game would have been so much different if dhorasso's goal had been allowed and it should have been

From the Guardian Unlimited website at: http://football.guardian.co.uk/conti...403270,00.html

Never mind the Bologna

Milan started the week picking up awards - but finished it having dropped six points on Juve and with Andriy Shevchenko hobbling around looking all forlorn, says James Richardson

Tuesday February 1, 2005

Round 21, then, and Milan's slump continues. Last week's defeat at Livorno was bad enough but this time the Rossoneri fell further still, losing one-nil at home to a Bologna side minus six starters and as one dimensional as a Mobius Strip.
Crusty old Bologna warhorse Carlo Mazzone had done his homework on the champions, packing the midfield and putting men on Andrea Pirlo and Kaka, who notoriously don't like it up 'em. And it worked a treat, although Milan did have Vikash Dhorasoo's cracking opening goal disallowed as the referee had already blown for a dubious foul.

Almost half an hour in it was Bologna who found the goal through their only chance of the first half; Tomas Locatelli supplying Theo Zagorakis who, chased by a platoon of Milan defenders, neatly freed Locatelli again in front of goal with a crafty backheel, whence the Italian Matt Le Tissier did not miss.

Faces on the Milan bench lengthened further as, 15 minutes later, Andriy Shevchenko took Alessandro Gamberini's studs in his shin and fell to the ground howling. The Ukrainian was stretchered off immediately, leaving Milan to spend the entire second half camped in Bologna's end, clocking up some 19 shots on goal without finding an equaliser. This was the third straight game in which they'd failed to score.

"This was less worrying than the Livorno defeat," smooth skipper Paolo Maldini assured us all afterwards, but far from never mind the Bologna, Milan had looked pretty vacant (see what I've done there?). A week that had begun with success at the players awards - Milan picking up best manager and best player for last season (Carlo Ancelotti and Kaka), while Juve settled for best goalie and best ref - thus ended in the worst possible fashion; Milan losing their No1 scorer and dropping six points on Juventus in the space of eight days.

Milan's title rivals, meantime, had been seeing off Atalanta with a brisk 2-1 victory, featuring a fine opening lob from Ruben Olivera, a great deal of unnecessary fuss about Del Piero coming on to score -gosh- a penalty someone else had won, and an extraordinary error from Gigi Buffon to gift Atalanta a late consolation. Buffon became buffoon as he watched a harmless Lilian Thuram backpass trickle past his foot into the net before giggling sheepishly. Juve now stand eight points clear with 17 games to go, and while Gianluca Zambrotta was pointing out that Juve have blown bigger leads before (in 2001, when they were nine clear with eight to go), that was under Ancelotti, not Fabio Capello, and Ancelotti's now the one doing the chasing.

So, while Capello talked confidently of 'downhill all the way' on Sunday night, the alarm bells were busy ringing at Milanello. The question there is how, with their famous title-winning mindset, Milan could come to within just two points of Juventus only to let them slip away - and with Frank Rijkaard's name being whispered in the corridors of power, the answers may not be too pleasant for Ancelotti.

What's especially galling for Milan is that they actually now lie closer to traditional comedy neighbours Internazionale - who, by contrast, are suddenly looking like contenders again. Fresh from last week's clumsy draw with Chievo, Inter on Sunday night produced their most convincing performance in a long while.

Down in Palermo, where no big side had yet won, Inter grabbed a comprehensive and confident 2-0 win - and all without Adriano, who's still out recovering from his calf injury and tea with Jose Mourinho. In his absence the starring roles went to the newly returned Seba Veron, Obafemi Martins and Christian Vieri, who scored both goals.

The born-again Christian has now scored five goals in the last five games, so given the battering he took for sticking with the lumbering Aussie, Vieri's return to scoring form must come as an especially welcome change to manager Roberto Mancini.

Inter now lie third - the highest they've managed all season - but face a growing list of rivals for their top four spot: no-name Sampdoria are in the running, as are Udinese and Roma, now just one point off....

Milan has lost its way, while ref decisions have played their role in our recent dip in form, we are not clinical in front of goal as Carlo asserts, yet who does he play in the starting 11 to ensure that chances are created in sufficient numbers?

Gattuso IMO cannot continue to start, as he nullifies our attacking moves, Rui should start, along side Kaka, who can still learn a thing or two from the wiley veteran.

Carlo though, in selecting the incorrect tools to do the job, must take the blame for our last two defeats, and with Sheva out, it looks sticky for us vs Messina.

Originally Posted by Warro Bantan

Gattuso IMO cannot continue to start, as he nullifies our attacking moves, Rui should start, along side Kaka, who can still learn a thing or two from the wiley veteran.

Carlo though, in selecting the incorrect tools to do the job, must take the blame for our last two defeats, and with Sheva out, it looks sticky for us vs Messina.

If Gattuso doesn't start, who does the dirty work? Seedorf is quite shy about geeting his clothes dirty and Pirlo (as good as he is) cannot run the midfield alone. Better option would be to tell Seedorf or Dhorasoo to support Pirlo more along with the attacking.

And Carlo does not need to take the "blame" for our defeats. Its true that we lost unexpectedly to two teams who we were supposed to win against, but they were just narrow 1-0 defeats. And there were 11 players involved along with Carlo. I'm sure Carlo can get things back on track. This blip has come at the wrong time with the run-in to the end of the Scudetto campaign. But the best we can do is to forget these wretched performances and look to improving our game. Crespo really needs to prove himself now, with Shev out for a few days.