Schalke vs AC Milan (Game comments)

I saw the match against Schalke, and I was not impresses at all by Milan. The result is ok, but it is a result that we didn't deserve as Schalke produced more and better chances than us, and they even had 67% of ball possession which is a lot!

Our team seems to continue the bad form from last years last Champions League games against Liverpool and PSV. There's no aggression, especially in midfield, or enthusiasm in our play. We lose most tackles and duels and it really annoys me because there is so much potential in our squad.

We have to get tougher, harder and play with our hearts outside the shirt! No pain, no gain! It's the least you can expect from a footballer, not every player is world class, but everyone can show great attitude, make an effort and perform that fighting spirit...

We totally lack all that, which is why we let in all those stupid goals!

As far as I'm concerned, we can only get better...

Originally Posted by Arildonardo

I saw the match against Schalke, and I was not impresses at all by Milan. The result is ok, but it is a result that we didn't deserve as Schalke produced more and better chances than us, and they even had 67% of ball possession which is a lot!

It's true that Schalke had 67% of ball possession in the last 15 minutes of the game, but over the whole game, Schalke only had 53% of ball possession. So, that's a big difference.

I also saw the game of Milan this evening and I have to admit that I'm not so dissapointed. We had to play in the stadium of a difficult opponent. PSV and Fenerbahçe will certainly also have problems in the Auf Schalke Arena.

I totally agree that the defence of Milan was not strong at all this evening. We were leading 0-1 after only 25 seconds and immeditaly after that goal I thought: 'Schalke will score the 1-1 very soon.' So, I was not surprised at all in the third minute. (Why this is so typical for Milan?) I don't know how to explain exactly what went wrong with that goal, but it seemed that Kaladze didn't want to disturb Larsen in scoring the goal. The second goal however was not a defensive mistake I think. The shot of Altintop was amazing and nobody can be blamed for that.

Kaka didn't have a good game, but that was especially cause of Poulsen. He made non-stop faults on Ricky without getting a yellow card. The referee even didn't concede a free kick.

This is still not the real Milan. I hope Carletto can boost his players to a better perfomance very soon! Anyway, we can be happy with the point obtained in Germany.

after 2 monthis for preparations, 7 games in this season we still play like crap and we dont have any strenght. How come we loose 80% of air duels and about 75% of all the hard tackles??? How can this happen. we play our defence like this ...
------------dida------
cafu--nesta--maldini-----
----------pirlo----
---gattuso----seedorf( like he is not here...)--
...
...
..


Do you see something missing, well ...kaka,sheva.gila!!
We cant defend with 4-3 and seedorf who is soo slow on the tackle and doesnt want to go in for any hard duels. Look at his reaction on shalke second goal. Every ball that was cleared by nesta or paolo got ot shalke players, IT HAS TO STOP!! No agression and commitment in defence from our CM. Gattuso? he can just go to man utd and say : Thank you milan for letting me play with sheva. Sheva has his place secured and still he plays with 100%. Im not saying our players didnt do their best, but if they did then its even worst!! Do we have any energy in our team??
Maldini's cross was superb, but how many crosses like that did our LB and RB did?? well - 0! You cant play football like that. Its hard to say this but Cafu cant react fast enough, so cant maldini on the deflected balls.( paolo still the greatest...). And if you can remember, look at Kaladze's reaction on goals we got against siena,sampdoria,shalke....HORRIBLE! Im getting really upset! And if ANY of you think this was a good performance in wich we " had control, ...." then I dont know what to say! Can we win something like this? N O !
Where is the game plan? Where is the pressing? Passing was so slow, do you people thing we can pass vieira,camoranesi,emerson,nedved with seedorf and pirlo's agression, its sad... Again I have to say that our main problem is not the defence but the space between last 4 and the CM. Our midfielders are just not good enough anymore for this job. We are attacking with 3-4 players, did you see ANY good combinations ( except our 1st goal)?? I dont know what to say........ PATHETIC!!
play ****in 4-4-2 and play some decent defence if you cant do it this way! And if seedorf doesnt want to play his heart out, he can go!

Schalke were fitter than we were, and the Nordic ref was a total a**hole. That is the real difference in the game for me.

The first goal was a luck strike, though them getting into the box like that just shows up our midfield.

The second was a stroke of genius, though Dida was badly positioned.

Why did we draw this game? I put it to the aforementioned issues, plus the TOTAL, and UTTER lack of communication/SELFISHNESS of Sheva, and our forward line in general.

Kaka was the only one (apart from Gila´s efforts) to pass a ball when just outside, or even inside the box. Sheva is especially guilty of not passing in today´s game, sometimes trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to beat an opponent, when passing would have been easier. Vieri, and sadly Rui were non factors.

The ref was allowing a very rough game, one the Germans are more used to playing.

This of course played right into their hands, hence the million and a half fouls on Kaka by that caveman Paulson that went uncalled.

This game, were it to have been policed by a central European ref would have seen Paulson carded from the first half, thus impacting his will/ability to foul Kaka consistently.

All in all, I am not unhappy with the draw, and look forward to Carletto´s post match comments.

The team gets an overall 6.5 rating from me. Only Maldini and Nesta get close to an 8, while Sheva (Mr Go. It. Alone) gets a 7, but only for the goal. Gattuso, 6, Seedorf, 7, and everyone else a 5...

From an outsider’s point of view it must have been a highly entertaining encounter. Two teams that both played to win.

Personally I can’t help feeling when I watch Milan this season something just isn’t as it used to be. We haven’t been this vulnerable defensively for years. It seems as if every team can play through us at any time. I’m sure we’ll improve at some point but the question is will it be enough.

Tonight we were up against a well-prepared home team, though, with 40-50.000 fans behind them. Few away teams leave The Arena Auf Schalke with 3 points. Physically they were all over us, Kaká especially had a hard time. Christian Poulsen by now has proved to be an expert man marker, a dirty player but efficient. I’ve seen him neutralize Zidane (DK-France at the last WC), Totti and tonight Kaká and given his style of play you tend to understand the reason why Totti choose to give him the Lama treatment at the European Championships

Milan player ratings (1-10):

Dida: 7,5 (he couldn't do anything to save any of those goals; wonderful save from Larsen’s header)
Cafu: 6 (Stam 6,5, they may very well have scored if he hadn’t entered)
Nesta: 5,5
Maldini: 6 (Milan’s second goal was all Maldini. It was the first time he went forward. A genius by the Captain)
Kaladze: 6
Seedorf: 6
Pirlo: 5,5 (was run over repeatedly)
Gattuso: 6,5 (he was behind approximately 70% of our successful tackles )
Kaká: 5,5
Sheva: 6,5
Gilardino: 6

P.S. At least I earned quite a few bucks tonight as I made a bet that 1) the game would end in a draw and 2) Søren Larsen would score. I can’t recall having seen him play a match in which he hasn’t scored, 6 goals in 5 internationals so far for Denmark and he scores every time he plays for Schalke so why would I bet against this guy

Originally Posted by Jeff

I'm increasingly aware of the fact that usually not the best team that won the CL. It's likely that those come close to the best, but not the best, will win.

See Liverpool, Porto, Monaco, and eventually, Milan? We HAVE TO admit that Milan was not the best a few years ago when we won.

So, this may nto be a bad thing after all lol.

Jeff, words of a sage. Well said. Hopefully we will win inspite of not being the best team in Europe, which has been the case since we surrendered the title in the Riazor.

Originally Posted by Jeff

We HAVE TO admit that Milan was not the best a few years ago when we won.

So who was the best?

Statistically we were by far the better team.

I totaly agree with mrki, the game was disaster, we played like some amateurs, we have led 2 times in the game and we screw it up. We definetly have to change something or replace somebody in our team. Thank god it ended 2:2 it could be worse! Defence pathetic, midfield even more, replacing gila with vieri ridiculous what was carlo thinking? - to slow down already slow team??? Sheva excellent, we need more players like him, he gave his best, he left his heart on that field RESPECT! FORZA MAGICO MILAN!!!

I didn't think we where that bad, their goals where fairly lucky. you can't do anything when a player blasts a ball at goal and it bobbles up right in front of the striker or when someone just hits a screamer into the corner. I'd like to see us hold the ball a bit better, we looked like we lack pace in midfield.

Originally Posted by Laudrup

So who was the best?

Statistically we were by far the better team.

yes yes, I'm talking about relative. We cannot deny that the nowadays Milan is stronger than the Milan few years ago (I hope no one will argue with me on this point). Even so, Milan is stronger the year they surrendered the title in Deportivo.


Of course, this Milan is different from the Milan that won the CL few years ago.

Further, Milan is, at least on paper, not the strongest team that will win the CL, but for some reasons all of us believe that Milan will win. Then, after the win something is lost, and I call this "the desire to win THE trophy. Is not that it's not enough. Is the intrinsic desire, the hunger to win, is not there."

So, it's not really a problem of defense, or attack. It's eventually the hunger that win teams the trophy. Liverpool is just one example (+ some lucks, of course). This draws me to a sad conclusion that CL depends a lot more and more on luck. Of course, one may argue that whoever prepares the best will get the most luck. Well, I don't see any of these during last year final. I saw a strong, efficient, going-for-win team but somehow, the desire to win is not there, and it's these 'desire to win' that causes us to lose in Deportivo ground, or to lose (or really draw) with liverpool.

Think about this. Thinka bout the Milan a few years ago that had the hunger to win. Do you ever suspect them losing 3-0 or 4-1? I doubt so, given that Milan having won nothing yet.


Meanwhile Notice how fast people change. A few years ago people say we have trouble about our attack, and many people (including the president) are complaining about Milan not being attacking enough.

So here went. Ancelotti emphasizes more on attack. 3-5-2, 4-3-1-2, purchase of Gila and Kaka`.

And here comes. Our attack.

And here gone, our defense.

So now people are criticizing (or pointing their fingers at) the defense, or the coach, or whoever. The point is:

1) We expect a lot from Milan.
2) That's fine.
3) But dude, this is NOT winning eleven or fifa 2005 where u can win 4-0 or 5-0 against giant teams evenon 6-star (u gotta purchase 6-star in winning eleven) level.

To demand consistency from a team is vritually impossible. It may be possible in the short run, which is basically what everyone is looking at, and forget about the long run. It's consistency over a long run that Milan won Serie A the season before, and Juve for the season after (let's put the referee dirty talk away for a while).

As an example: Have you ever been consistent with your work in school, or work? Can you demand your BEST ever for every single thing you have been working on? Even if you have, I'm damn sure (because I do put my best effort on everything, including typing this message) that you have made mistakes. There are ALWAYS disappointment. Think about a time when you prepare SO hard for an examination yet you didn't manage a grade that you think your effort deserved. Would you ever kick your own ass for not being consistent? No, for 2 reasons:

1) You are just a coward who doesn't like to face your failure.
2) You learn from those inconsistency in order to increase your probability of having a more consistent performance in the future.

so please don't get me wrong. If you plot a graph of how Milan has done over the past 5 years, it may not be an exponential function (perforamnce goes much higher and higher as years pass, which is unrealistic because otherwise Milan would have won every single game in the end when performance reach infinity), but it's one with positive slope, ie: improvement over time.

Bottom line: Learn to forgive others like the way you forgive yourself. Learn to forgive yourself so that unfair criticisms will never reach your ears.

Originally Posted by meazza

I didn't think we where that bad, their goals where fairly lucky. you can't do anything when a player blasts a ball at goal and it bobbles up right in front of the striker or when someone just hits a screamer into the corner. I'd like to see us hold the ball a bit better, we looked like we lack pace in midfield.

I'm disappointed with Gattuso, to say the least, because the fight, the DESIRED to win is gone, in him. Perhaps, gattuso needs to reenergize himself a bit before coming on the pitch again. Don't get me wrong, but Carlo might have noticed it too, and realized (albeit late) that Ambrosini IS a better player in terms of emotion management.

OK! So we have not been playing that good but we all need to relax. We are 5 points behind Juve and 2 behind Inter! Inter is really impressing me but we are still not at top level. Juve is playing like you as always. Don't like their style of play, but they get the points. Well all this is going to stop because they'll drop some points and we will improve.

As for the game.......I am not at all dissapointed by the result. Those of you that were expecting a wint out of this game......probably don't know what Shalke's home looks like. It is a freaking Jail cell with amazing crowd. I am happy with a draw. We really need to get off this believe that we can get 12 points after 4 games and relax. We did that 2 years in a row, and it is not always going to be the case. Personally, i would have settled more for a 0-0 draw rather then a 2-2, but whoever saw the goals will know that they were not even goals from us playing badly. The first goal can be somewhat blamed on a poor defending, but the second was just a terrific shot. Whoever competitevly plays soccer will knot that sometimes the midfielders just try to stay behind the ball. They do not think about blocking a 30 meter shot.
We did not play a great game but this one was difficult.

Those blaming Pirlo for not being agressive. Lets not forget that he is there to start off our attacks. Pirlo in my eyes is so unique that he is probably one of the top 5 midfielders in the world right now and has been for the past 2 years. Don't blame anyone for this "failure" and "dissapointment" as some call it.
Did anyone even see Chelsea??? Freaking horrible and yet again people make them so good. 2 clear penalties and a boring display. So look at the other teams before you say that Milan is not as good as them. I know that no1 compared Milan with another team but I have seen it in other threads and i can feel it it people's posts that they think we are just not "good enough".

It is true that we have some problems right not but I am more then confident that the boys will solve them. Heck, I'd rather have problems now then in March. However, every team out there has problems. Look at Barca, they are struggling in La Liga. Nobody is perfect, even though right now we really need Jankulovski to take us a step closer to perfect, because in my oppinion Kaladze is not having a blast out there. Rui needs to play more and maybe he can take Seedorf's spot this weekend. Why not see him and Kaka play together. We'll see what happenes in the next couple of weeks, but we are far from the dissapointing words that some of you are using, even though we have not had the best of starts this season!

Forza Milan as always!!!!!

Originally Posted by sljiva_os

we played like some amateurs,

Then,

Originally Posted by sljiva_os

we have led 2 times in the game

So what the hell is your argument? Let me tell you where your argument comes from. It's from your emotion, not your head.

Originally Posted by Laudrup

So who was the best?

Statistically we were by far the better team.

back to your question: I believe that Juve is a stronger team that year, and we were on par with Inter Milan. The reason that we did well is the hunger to win (as we have seen from Inzaghi, Shevchenko, Rui and lbnl, Gattuso).

Statistically, our defense is the strongest, but our attack is no way by far that better team. In overall, I viewed Milan as top 8 teams in that year.

The year we lost to Depo: Top 4 teams
Last year: I believed that milan WAS the strongest team in the CL.

This year (so far): Juve, Chelsea, Bayern.

Remember Inzaghi's goal against Ajax? It's the desire to win and to persist until the last minute. (ok it's tmoasson sorry).

remember the away goal taht we scored against Inter? It's the sheer determination of Shevchenko, and our defense.

Remember the penalty Sheva scored? It's just sheer determination and desire to win (well, I don't see it in Trezeguet face).

This year, we HAVE determination, but something is lacking. What is it? I don't know.

The good news is: We don't want to see Milan getting 18 points out of 18 in the group stage and lost in the first kick-out stage. This will not be cool

Originally Posted by Jeff

back to your question: I believe that Juve is a stronger team that year, and we were on par with Inter Milan. The reason that we did well is the hunger to win (as we have seen from Inzaghi, Shevchenko, Rui and lbnl, Gattuso).

Statistically, our defense is the strongest, but our attack is no way by far that better team. In overall, I viewed Milan as top 8 teams in that year.

The year we lost to Depo: Top 4 teams
Last year: I believed that milan WAS the strongest team in the CL.

This year (so far): Juve, Chelsea, Bayern.

Remember Inzaghi's goal against Ajax? It's the desire to win and to persist until the last minute. (ok it's tmoasson sorry).

remember the away goal taht we scored against Inter? It's the sheer determination of Shevchenko, and our defense.

Remember the penalty Sheva scored? It's just sheer determination and desire to win (well, I don't see it in Trezeguet face).

This year, we HAVE determination, but something is lacking. What is it? I don't know.

The good news is: We don't want to see Milan getting 18 points out of 18 in the group stage and lost in the first kick-out stage. This will not be cool

Juve were nowhere close to us the season we won the CL. The only team that could even compare to us that season was Valencia. We attacked far more than Juve in the final not just because we were more motivated, but because we were technically better as well.

The year we lost to depor we were by far the best. No one was eve close to us. In fact, that was probably our strongest squad of the era. And we finally found the grit and consistency in the Serie A to beat Capello's might Roma and if not for that freak night it was our best chance at getting the double.

Last season Barca was really close to us. Though we still beat them when it mattered cuz we were the more solid team overall.

This season? Juve is the only credible team you mentioned. Chelsea have only faced us in a friendly and they drew with a Milan without key players and far less fit than them. We haven't met competitively at all but I'm sure we'll be more than able to handle them. Bayern? You're kidding. Once again Barca is a threat but looking at their defence(think Milan's defence dropping in standard over the past few years, but just ten times lousier) I'm not really worried at all.