Milan vs chievo

Only at this point do I wish Inter actually won against Chelsea so that Inter will have to play more games than us...

I know and understand Inter is Milan's rival and all, but to lose a spot in CL is a lot worse than Inter winning the CL this year.
1. It makes Serie A into a SECOND tier league in Europe
2. Great players do not like to play in Second Tier League.
3. One less team in CL means more chance of Milan not qualifying. ( Having said that from the look of it, Milan should always finish TOP 3 mainly b/c the lack of competition in Serie A.)

Catania mascaraed Inter

nesta out for the rest of the season

Everytime Inter loses points we fail to capitalize so I'm afraid it'll happen again and the many injuries we have don't help also.

Originally Posted by Acmir^

Everytime Inter loses points we fail to capitalize so I'm afraid it'll happen again and the many injuries we have don't help also.

If that was true, we wouldn't be at -4 right now with a chance to be at -1 ...

I've been feeling down ever since the United game, so Inter losing last night was a very welcome surprise. It's incredible that we can now get within 1 point of first place if we win against Chievo. Before this season I wasn't the most pessimistic (as some posters in here - who shall remain anonymous! - thought we'd be in the bottom half), but I didn't think we'd be able to mount a serious title challenge. Of course we have to actually win this game, and, as some have already said, we tend to mess it up when Inter drop points. Still, now that we're out of the CL we have to give our all to win the scudetto, plus it will give the players a chance to make amends for the garbage they presented us with at Old Trafford.

Another thing: should we as Milan supporters hope for Inter to go far in the CL? Honestly if the only thing at stake was the 4th CL spot I'd wish for Inter to get humiliated by Chelsea - 6-0 or so - (I know Italy having only 3 spots could come back to haunt us, but still, as Gabriel said, if Milan can't finish in the top 3 in this sub-standard Serie A, then...). BUT! Now that the scudetto race is on (provided we don't bottle it against Chievo) it would obviously be to our advantage that Inter play as many games as possible. And If Inter have to chose between the CL and just another scudetto, it isn't hard to guess what they'd pick. So my dream scenario is that Inter get far in the CL and lose more games in the league, then we'll win our 18th scudetto and Italy will retain it's 4 CL spots. And then of course Inter will get absolutely massacred in the final...

Originally Posted by GeoTav

If that was true, we wouldn't be at -4 right now with a chance to be at -1 ...

hehe you're right but we've witnessed sometimes this season when Inter slipped up we tend to slip up also (not always of course) so the end we'll tell whether we capitulized on their slip ups.

Ambro as 'emergency CB' for this game is not a bad idea for me, otherwise, T.Silva + Favalli will do, as long as we SCORE MORE GOALS than Chievo 4-3? 5-4? etc

it's a must 3 points !

Honestly, I can see us winning the title only if Inzaghi goes mad It's his time of the season. Only he can save us, otherwise with this strikers...

Futhermore, Nesta is out for the rest of the season, Onyewu too, Zambrotta isn't fit, Oddo is not participating for a reason I don't know, Antonini and Seedorf are not fit, Pato is out...

And on top of that, Inzaghi and Flamini don't get a chance at all.

It's right that whenever Inter lose points, we're failing to convert...

Leo should think to change his system a little because without Pato this system clearly doesn't work.

To answer to you Acmir^, we will actually only see if we took profit of their bad results at the end of this season. But I'm quite optimistic for this championship (I've been optimistic since the start but watching Inter loosing this way, a deserved loss, helps to be even more optimistic), so I have no doubt we will end in the first place and we will all celebrate our team !!

Let's not forget that they play Palermo away on the next W-E (I expect a draw this time, after their win or draw against Chelsea, as I said it once, I hope they will do better than Bayern, which doesn't mean I want to see them winning CL, I even want them to lose miserably in semi-finals for example) and soon Roma away too ...

In three weeks, we could be at +3, +4 or +5 ...

About our game against Chievo, I think we should expect a very difficult game. I took a look on their results, and the statistics are very interesting:
- they often lose by only one goal difference (they lost by a 2 goal difference only twice)
- they never conceded more than 2 goals
- they rarely scored two goals or more (scored two goals only 6 times, and scored three goals only once), but each time it happened, they won ...
- only one of their games ended with a 0-0 scoreline this season
- only 5 of their games ended by a draw (which is the smallest amount of draws for a team in Serie A this season, a "record" shared with Juventus, Fiorentina and Livorno)
- each time they lost a game and ended a small serie of good results (their best serie of results is a 5 game unbeaten run with 2 draws and 3 wins in September/October), they lost the following W-E (they lost last W-E after two wins ...)

So let's expect a game with a 10 man defence and counters from Chievo, probably ending by the win of one of the teams (Milan of course !!) ...
Probably nothing very entertaining, but the result will be more important than the way to get it ...

ok i just checked all the rounds in which Inter lost points to see if we really failed to profit or not:
Inter lost points in 11 matches so far (8 draws & 3 losses including yesterday's to Catania)
so disregarding last night's result since we did not play yet, in the other 10 games, we actually won 6, drew 3, and lost 1
so i think we can safely say we have usually benefited from their mistakes and i think we will do so tomorrow as well.

Now regarding the match and the formation:
GK: Abbiati for sure
Defenders: i'm against Ambrosini partnering Thiago, and obviously against playing Favalli or Kaladze...i would like to see Albertazzi...Mourinho did it and played a youth product a few matches ago (i don't remember against which team and i don't know how he performed and i don't care) i just think that this is the best time to give the guy a chance.
Zambrotta and Abate/Jankulovski can fill in the flanks.
Midfielders: Flamini, Beckham, Pirlo, Seedorf (Ambro needs a rest, Gattuso doesn't deserve a place)
Attachers: Dinho, Huntelaar. Why Huntelaar? because i believe Borriello has already proven that although he is a good/useful player, he is just not Milan material....so let's see, from now till the end of the season, if Huntelaar is so that we know if any of them deserves to stay (albeit on the bench) next season.

Guys can I make a suggestion..

Now that nesta is out, I think we should make some shuffling in the defesne..And I see that all of you are replacing Nesta with Bonera ,Ambro or favalli

The truth is that non of them can do any good. If i were Leo i`d call back Zambro and Oddo.

I think this defense

Oddo--Bonera--t.Silva--Zambro

i think all of them can compensate Nesta`s absence...Only Bonera in this line up cant

Abate -- Bonera -- T.S --Antonini

I really believe that the first option is solid enough to guarantee us we will not suffer like the Man Utd game. To be perfectly honest Zambro and Oddo are not the best at going forward, but the have always been solid in the back...thats what wee need.

What I can say with certainty is that Abate can`t play Rb with Bonera next to him, its to risky...

Are Oddo and Onye injured? Surely Onyw deserves a chance in the absence of Nesta and Bonera, ahead of Kaladze and Favalli. Plus if Oddo is fit, he an be a very decent CB along side Silva. I am surprised, no one has mentioned Oddo for the CB position. The guy can't run and cross, but surely he is a very good defender. Also I am against a midfielder playing as a CB. I would rather put Zambrotta as a CB ahead of Ambrosini. Time to play Beckham few games in a row.

................Abbiatti...................
...Oddo...Onyw...Silva...Zambro...
.........Beckham...Flamini.............
.................Seedorf..................
.........Borriello........Ronnie.........
.................Huntelaar................

Where does this Oddo hype come from ??

I was among the people being happy when he arrived in Milan, I was among the people defending him after his first 4-5 months because I thought he played very well (though still not at the level of Lazio), but then ... Oddo became the kind of player that teams just don't want !! He became the RB equivalent of Jankulovski !!

He failed to impress in Bayern during his loan ... He failed to play well then when he came back to Milan this Summer, and it's really weird, but since he got this injury, I saw several people here asking for Oddo to play, like if after 3-4 months without playing, a player playing bad could become a kind of savior for our defence ?! I don't understand, if someone, one of the people asking for Oddo (Kastriot this time), can explain me why he does think that, I would be happy.

Abate has to play on the right, especially if we want him to improve.
Oddo can't be anything more than a 3rd choice for this position imo (same for Jankulovski on the left) and I expect this player to leave this Summer, as it is obvious that Leonardo never wanted him.

If Bonera manages to be fit for more than 3-4 games in a row, the injury of Nesta is the perfect moment for him to show he can step up and can play in that team.
If he fails, then we can try Albertazzi, we can use Favalli for his last season as a football player, or we can even try again Kal... sorry that won't be possible there, and Bonera will have to accept the fact that he will always be a sub in Milan, a rotation player, whereas if he can take profit of the injury of Nesta, he will just show that he can be more than a rotation player.