Winter Mercato

One of them is certainly Darmian from the youth team -> Is he doing good now ?
What about Di Gennaro ???? Bologna is 1st in SerieB

Originally Posted by Giorgos

Chelsea Football Club can confirm we have agreed terms with Lokomotiv Moscow for the transfer of Branislav Ivanovic. A work permit application has also been successful for the player.

The transfer is now subject to the agreement of personal terms and passing of the medical.

source: http://www.chelseafc.com/xxchelsea1...article_1215934

I guess he was never a Milan target then... Doesn't seem like we were ever in the negotiations...

Damn... I wonder who will we sign...

Originally Posted by thomas_h

One of them is certainly Darmian from the youth team -> Is he doing good now ?
What about Di Gennaro ???? Bologna is 1st in SerieB

I know Berlu said 'young' defenders... but I think Darmian is a little bit too young!!!

I really think Seedorf was key to our CL run last year, when he was on it was magic. Great vision, link-ups with Kaka. On the downside, I think he's got the 'Oranje' temperment in him, by this I mean on the bad days, he can be a bit sulky, or look like he's lazying around, but I'll trade that for what he's given. Even as much as he may have been maligned, he's not anywhere near Gila in terms of looking like a lazy liability on the pitch. And he's a proven winner, which Giovanni mentioned some posts back, which is an 'x-factor' that is part of the milan psyche.

hey . . . hey . . .
simple stats here :
- Marco Borriello => 15 apps, 10 goals, 2 assists
- Nicola Pozzi => 12 apps, 8 goals
- Ricardo Oiveira => 20 apps, 10 goals
which one does Milan prefer ?
- Leandro Grimi => 13 apps ------> he could take favalli`s place for next season

I prefer Lino Marzoratti than Matteo Darmian for next season
Zambrotta or Sagnol ?

what do you guys think about Luka Modric ( he can play at seedorf`s position, can`t he ? pirlo`s position ? )

Carlo yesterday, in a press conference, confirmed Darmian will join the senior team next season.

I'm surprised by the mentality of alot of you, you seem to think it's ok for a player not to pull his weight so he can do the 'nice' things. What a joke!

I'm sorry to say this, but if i compare the workrate of our team against Inter's, we are nowhere near them. You watch their team and to a man they'll all rush back and defend, get in front of their man to block crosses, get in the opposition's faces. You look at ours and you see our players allowing players to put in crosses, to take short corners without even going after them, not following runners. It's not about having to put in 150% or anything to do with the EPL, it's about common sense and basic defending. If you guys can't see that then maybe you should go back to playing FIFA or something. You can work hard and enjoy creativity, Inter seem to be doing this well at the moment. We used to do it when we would double up and press the opposition. There's a difference in playing 'smartly', knowing when to speed up and when to slow down as opposed to just being slack.

I really must be watching completely different games to you guys if you think Seedorf is one of our best performers. What happened to all the average performances he put in last season that everyone has magically forgotten about because he played well in a handful of CL games. Some of you have short memories. I must also have a higher expectation of players if i actually assume they'll try and win the ball back if they lose it.

Originally Posted by Jim_UK

blah blah seedorf is bad Seedorf sucks

^ A brief summary of Jim's post
(Jim I know you can take a joke that's why I can get away with that one )

The thing is Jim....with creativity there is always a mess to clean up afterwards There are players that are meant to be creative and there are players that are meant to clean up their mess.

You can't expect Gattuso to send three defenders the wrong way then slip a perfectly weighted ball to a striker now can you.....Gattuso's job is to clean up when things go wrong in attack and the opponent is mounting a counter.

Seedorf, Kaka and Pirlo all lose the ball. But of that list Seedorf loses it the least. But at his age of 31 he really can't waste his energy on too much defensive duty otherwise his legs won't give him what's needed to create opportunities upfront.

I guess you probably wish he were more like Stevie Gerard....but I think most will agree that despite his workrate Stevie G can't hold a candle to Seedorf in terms of brilliance, vision and technique offensively- despite his laser cannon shot I know you know all of this

Originally Posted by drucurl

You can't expect Gattuso to send three defenders the wrong way then slip a perfectly weighted ball to a striker now can you.....Gattuso's job is to clean up when things go wrong in attack and the opponent is mounting a counter.

Seedorf, Kaka and Pirlo all lose the ball. But of that list Seedorf loses it the least. But at his age of 31 he really can't waste his energy on too much defensive duty otherwise his legs won't give him what's needed to create opportunities upfront.

Dru, if we were to follow your example of our players doing only their priority task for the team, we'd end up with 7 players defending in our half with Pirlo lumping the ball forward and 3 players in the opposition half. Wouldn't work out so well would it.

You can't have players (seedorf or otherwise) dictating when they defend, that's detrimental to the team. For example, if you're next to a player and they go to attack, you follow them and track their run. You can't just let them go and let someone else deal with it. You have to have the numbers in both attack & defence. Call me old fashioned but if your team doesn't have the ball then your first job is to try and help get the ball back, not stand around expecting other people to do it. Now that doesn't mean you have to go racing after the striker, it just means you put pressure on someone, stop a route back to a defender or keeper. Also if you don't have the legs (as you put it) to do this regularly, don't you think you should have someone who can? Let the less leggy person be an impact sub or something?

I'm not really bothered about the ridiculous replies i'm bound to get because i'm daring to attack the all mighty 'World Class' Seedorf, i'm just hoping some people will appreciate the point i'm making.

Originally Posted by drucurl

^ A brief summary of Jim's post
(Jim I know you can take a joke that's why I can get away with that one )

The thing is Jim....with creativity there is always a mess to clean up afterwards There are players that are meant to be creative and there are players that are meant to clean up their mess.

You can't expect Gattuso to send three defenders the wrong way then slip a perfectly weighted ball to a striker now can you.....Gattuso's job is to clean up when things go wrong in attack and the opponent is mounting a counter.

Seedorf, Kaka and Pirlo all lose the ball. But of that list Seedorf loses it the least. But at his age of 31 he really can't waste his energy on too much defensive duty otherwise his legs won't give him what's needed to create opportunities upfront.

I guess you probably wish he were more like Stevie Gerard....but I think most will agree that despite his workrate Stevie G can't hold a candle to Seedorf in terms of brilliance, vision and technique offensively- despite his laser cannon shot I know you know all of this

Exactly what i meant.
I think we have been more than successful with this formula. We have to stick with this creative approach. We don't have the players to play more muscular games, and i don't think i would like Milan to play like that.

Despite Inter is always used as a standard, they don't win a CL since the times of Pope John XXIII.. I don't get too wet with their team...they have to prove their talent and worth with the biggest clubs in Europe.

Italian football (and here is where my comparison with English approach fits) put much attention into spending the less energies possible to achieve a result.

Clarence has no more the stamina to either defend and create. I prefer other players to carry the duty of running, and the other creative players to have a freer role...

Milan's trademark is this: we have a precise workrate division. 3 players create and 2 players defend. Other teams' midfielders do either the defensive phase and the creative one, with dubious results. We defend a little with our creative players, but we let them have a freer duties. That's how we use their full creative potential.

Are all the creative players supposed to run to be considered great ? I 've never seen Baggio doing the defensive phase one time...this doesn't make him less great.

Ps. Clarence was the key of our success in CL: we changed pace with the Bayern v Milan game, and Seedorf , before that match, passed from a midfield role to a trequartista one. It's not a coincidence.

I think, I mostly agree with Jim_UK. Our midfielders defend not like Inter or even Barca. They didnt go back fast enough for example after loosing the ball. If I compare to Inter's form again Milan, Inter were much much better in defending. I cant imagine, Cruz ran not only to bring the ball when he had the ball but also give pressure to the defenders who had the ball (simple say : he kept running). It's just like Barca's midfielders. They always try to catch the ball or to cover their responsibility area when they lose the ball or when the opponents have got the ball.

About Seedorf, he is good when he plays beside Kaka but I dont think I would enjoy watching Seedorf play in his old position because of what he did last season whe he played there. He was really bad. Player who plays there should run MORE than he did. I am just talking last season,not seasons in which he was on top form (defensively and offensively). So, Seedorf plays well offensively but really bad defensively (too slow and too lazzy to run to catch the ball, to give pressure to the opponents or to cover his area).

I think, if we want to use Seedorf in his old position, we must have a great LB and left DC. With Janku/Maldini as LB and Khaladze as DC are not enough enough to cover Seedorf's weekness, I think.

Jim, I understand your point but I still don't completely agree. If Seedorf is guilty of laziness, then Kaka is also just as guilty, as he makes little effort to win the ball back too. However, personally I don't think this is what the difference is between us and Inter. Rather, I'd say that Inter are better organized when the opposition get the ball. While many of our players are chasing after a break, Inter's players immediately get into position and know which areas to cover, something we haven't done well enough this year.

Listen peoplem, I'll try to explain it in details if you have enough time to listen.

Clarence knows what he is talking about, and Carlo also knows we cant play big matches with Calrence in the middle. Why? Becouse of this...

When we played 4-3-1-2 formation with Sheva in our team, the team looked like this:

----------dida----------
cafu--nesta-billy-maldini--
---------pirlo---------
---gattuso--seedorf----
-----------kaka'/rui-------
---shevchenko--pippo/crespo--

In any case, regarding rui or kaka', the thing is this: Back then we had Dida as a best GK in the world alongside Buffon and Kahn. We had back 4 that couldnt be penetrated by ANy attack, not Inters, not Juves, not Barcas. Our fullbacks were Maldini and Cafu, and they were , when we won scudetto ,playinh like they came from hell!

Seedorf was younger and had enough power to play as a central midfielder, and even when he didnt paly the defence good enough, our back 4 was simply strrong enough to defend on it own with just Rino helping.

With Our fullbacks getting class below world standard and Seedorf getting slower, carlo did a great thing and made him AM and but Ambro as a DM. this way Clarence can still play his magic and doesnt need to waste his energy too much. You all know how running too much can affect passing game of a player...

This tactic, 4-5-1, works great in europe when Seedorf is rested before and pippo is also 100% ready, but in serie a where teams close we just cant play fst football anymore and so cant score. our fullbacks arenot that good and cant pass one on one anymore like Cafu and Maldini could. Also, the opponents defences could have played high defending as Gila and Pippo are slow and cant run away in deep areas, or low zonal defending as our fullbacks are not good enough and KAka is the only played that can pass the back 4 line..

Now, with super fast Pato and Ronaldo that can pass to everyone and shoot from everywhere, defnces cant play that way anymore. Our fullbacks dont have to play as a wingers and pirlo has a space upfront to pass to ( pato's movements ). This is the way we need to play against smaller teams and simply tear them appart! Against stronger, I would just put Ronaldo or PAto upfront and thats it.

If we want to paly 4-3-1-2 against strong teams we mneed 2 new players:
1. zambrotta as a super fullback that never loses a duel in defence.
2. a great central midfieldser that can run as hell...

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regarding mercato I always talk the same thing - we have no real fullbacks. Look at Inter with ZAnetrti, Maicon, Chivu, Maxvell...??? You need srtong players to simply hold their position in every case. that is why , with Zambrotta in our team we would look 20% stronger instantly, and with him and Alves we would be the best team in europe, no doubt about it!

I think you are going a bit to extreme there... i mostly agree with Jim here (with my interpretation). Its not about seedorf being able to run like gattuso, noone expects that of him. But seing him walking half the time he was on pitch last season (final 5 CL games excluded) should earn him a bench. Ok, he provides and he doesnt run that much, no problem. But not runing at all after 60min of game (not even to attack properly) is really not cool for a profesional football player.

Seedorf is a lucky and gifted SOB to save himself out of trouble with mighty performances from time to time so if only carlo would rest him more (or sub him ASAP if he is clearly not interested in a match, which happens) even jim and me would be perfectly happy

I'll say no more on this subject, apart from the next time you play football, see how much you appreciate the players just standing around at the other end of the pitch not helping when you're working your ass off to defend your goal.

In mercato realms, nothing of note has been reported it seems.