Sampdoria - AC Milan (Saturday, 27-11-10: 17:00 CET)

[Bosniaco]

Final whistle. Sorry to say it but this is Allegris fault for the draw. Players are tired and he is doing nothing about it.

He sould have at lisy giving a chance to other players to win the game.

[honsano]

This loss is on Allegri's shoulders. He does not rotate the men enough. R80 may not track back but a tired Ibra can't control the ball or track back! Then two subs at 90' ???? What is that? Look, I realize we have injuries to Pato and Pippo, but you have to at least sub. Come on man, this is so frustrating.

[Xudong]

I guess we can never win more than 4 games in a row in the league? First Juventus, then Sampdoria. I kind of agree that Allegri should've used more fresh legs much earlier. It is absurd even to think that we only brought in two substitutes after 90 minutes when we were only at 1-1. I would have put in Ronaldinho at 60th minute.

Robinho had a fantastic game. If only he scored the winner for us at 93rd minute. Ibrahimovic was visibly tired. Bonera was horrible. I don't understand why people think Boateng had a great game. He had too many passing errors which were costly.

[mzk57]

I normally don't go against Seedorf, but he deserves a rough beating for that miss on 75th minute. Ronaldinho might have finished it. Just when I was becoming an Allegri supporter, this awful idea of making subs on 90th minute takes place

[Ryo]

I love how we've gotten so used to winning that even a draw here brings out all our critics.

We conceeded from a set piece, exactly what I was concerned about, but from open play Samp could do nothing to get near our box. Our one setback was that after we conceeded, we let them play posession football against us for about 15 minutes before an Ambrosini tackle and run woke up the rest of the team.

That said, I have to agree with everyone here in that Dinho and Flams should have got onto the pitch much earlier, like "immediately-after-conceeding-the-goal" earlier. Give Dinho 15 minutes to get into the game and you'll get yourself a couple of good chances to bag the goal you need. Give them 5 minutes and the best you'll get would be exactly what we saw, one Robinho counter. Ibra didn't have his shooting boots on tonight, and in my opinion, should have been subbed for Dinho instead of Seedorf. Seedorf hadn't actually put a foot wrong all game, and was still able to keep posession of the ball well enough. In fact, had we not let Samp waste the first 2 minutes of stoppages, we probably would have found the chance to bag a winner.

All in all though, given that this was the last game in a series of what 6 games in 2 weeks, I think the players should still be forgiven for the draw. You could totally feel how tired our team was. Allegri was in the wrong for not ringing the changes earlier, but in all I think a draw is a fair result against this Samp team.

Bad news: our lead MAY be cut to 1 point after this round of games.
Good News: We will STILL be top of the pile after this round of games.
Better News: Our next opponents are Brescia at the San Siro, whilst all our nearest competition are playing one another next week (Lazio v Inter, Chievo v Roma, Napoli v Palermo)

[hitmannq8]

Originally Posted by honsano

This loss is on Allegri's shoulders. He does not rotate the men enough. R80 may not track back but a tired Ibra can't control the ball or track back! Then two subs at 90' ???? What is that? Look, I realize we have injuries to Pato and Pippo, but you have to at least sub. Come on man, this is so frustrating.

Right on...we may have played a great game and he may be responsible for the solid team work.....

however subbing at the 90th minute is unacceptable for a coach at Milan. damn, I mean, we are top of the table, it was almost like he was satisfied with the draw. He's definitely not used to Milan's ambitions and players, he does learn from his mistakes though - but this mistake is one he's been doing over and over again, he's gotta make substitutions at the 55-60' mark rather than the 80-90' mark.

Boateng lost so many balls today. Ambrosini too. Seedorf was quite solid but after 70 minutes he stopped defending and running off the ball. He was very tired and he should have scored that one on one.

Robinho - absolutely fantastic. By far our best player tonight. He is improving game by game and he took the team on his shoulders and kept looking for the goal himself. He came back to the midfield to get the ball and push up himself several times. He is getting better and better. Always believed in the kid..keep it up Robinho.

Allegri must stop using the same 11 over and over again. Really, really unacceptable for a so-called very intelligent coach.

EDIT: must be said though, despite the result, I think this was Milan's best game this season. Our midfield won the ball back so many times and kept possession well. Ambro and Prince though gave away alot of balls to the opponents.

I think Milan needs to sign an AM (to take Seedorf's position in this current lineup) much more than we should sign a striker like Matri. We have Pato coming back and Ibra can be rested then, Robinho's improving game after game and we could depend on him. We also have Seedorf and Ronaldinho who will be on the bench to give us a helping hand. A player like Ganso is much more important than a striker. A player like Coentrao can only push us higher.

I am starting to believe we can win it all this year. Hopefully Coentrao (even though cup-tied) and Ganso can be brought in. And most importantly, hopefully Allegri learns from his mistakes..I'm confident he will.

[Elmago99]

I'm actually not disappointed because I thought we played well. I liked the quick passing and faster play than usual.

To take from the game:

* Robinho: Excellent game, perhaps best of season, he was all over the place, dribbling, beating guys, passing well and a Goal. Very impressive
* Ibra: Exhausted, couldn't do much
* Allegri: an idiot for not making subs around 70-75 minutes. Ronaldinho for Seedorf or Ibra...
* Nesta is exhausted, made some mistakes but also played well on the whole (TS excellent)
* Milan must have said something to Boateng, because he's not the same player... he doesn't run as much or jump into attack, he's not as feisty.. I don't get it...
* Abate good, Bonera USELESS (Coentrao, anyone?)

*** Robinho is clearly a Second Striker (SS) and I don't know how comfortable Ibra is at playing up top as a number 9. I've been paying particular attention to this lately, and it seems as though Ibra doesn't like this role. I'm a bit nervous that the two don't gel as well as we need them to. It's also quite sad that Robinho will be on the bench once Pato comes back, because Robinho is really starting to come into form. We still lack a penalty box striker which would allow Robinho OR Ibra to do more creative work...This is an issue for me..

[ACMILAN1983]

An end to the recent winning streak and clean sheets, but overall not a bad game of football to end a very busy period. We did enough to deserve a win, but Sampdoria managed enough to get a draw and stop us from scoring a winner.

We started with our usual shape, but with Boateng rather than I presume a tired Flamini. With his desire to play higher up, Boateng often played on the same line as Seedorf, meaning our defence often pressed high to cover the ground. Overall we dominated the match, though a couple of moments in the first half were slightly uncomfortable when Samp played the high ball over the high defensive line.

Overall, we kept to our recent game playing patient. However, we did look tired and slower than normal. More problematic was a lack of movement across the pitch, and our lack of width (particularly down the left where Samp seemed weaker, but we only had Bonera). This meant Samp could defend narrowly, often with 2 lines of 4 making them difficult to break down. Eventually, Robinho and Ibra combined well to break through for Robinho to score a great goal a little before half time.

I must admit I missed the first part of the second half, and only started watching again just when Samp got the equaliser on the hour mark. After that we dominated possession and pressed into their half for the winner. We were much more intent on breaking down the left with Robinho, Seedorf, Ambro and Bonera all attacking through there. Unfortunately, we didn't take our chances and the match resulted in a draw.

Overall, we didn't play a bad game but I must say Allegri's decision to leave his subs so late was a strange one. Dinho seemed well suited to the match, particularly as Samp were weakest down their right. However, a draw isn't a bad result for us. It confirms our leadership in the league for another week and we got a fair result against a very difficult opponent for us (let's not forget we've failed to win against Samp away for a few years now).

Players...

Abbiati - Didn't seem to be of blame on the Samp goal (of what I saw of it), and one outstanding save from Pozzi.
Abate - Continued his impressive form. He's starting to play to the potential he showed last year.
Nesta - A mixed match. Some good tackles, but some poor moments where he needed to be bailed out by Abate and Thiago.
Thiago - Superb, solid at the back and can often drive the team forward.
Bonera - Offered little going forward but relatively solid at the back, partly thanks to Thiago.
Rino - A bullish performance, though a little slack in possession at times.
Ambro - Improved through the match and was constantly involved as we pushed to win.
Boateng - Offers more raw power than Flamini, but admittedly cannot offer the same movement, touch and running power as the Frenchman.
Seedorf - Didn't really offer a huge amount of creativity as he was often faced with a lot of blue shirts. Unfortunately missed a fantastic chance to win the match.
Ibra - Worked hard throughout and played a great part in the goal.
Robinho - Superb all match. He was everywhere in attack and often tracked back. Great goal to cap off the man of the match performance.
Flamini - NA
Dinho - NA

[Tony75]

Our mid was way off on passing today esp Seedorf as IMO it's his main strength to start over R80 and to keep Pirlo out of team. He should've came off for Flamini @ 6o mins and let us push Boateng closer to goal. We could then get R80 on for Ibra round 80 mins, and use Boateng as front battler. ANyway good game from Abate, Silva, & Robinho, less so Ambro. The rest were poor, even if we were the better team.

[OCmilano]

I agree with pretty much everyone on the board about the game today.

Seedorf plays well but shows his age when he is played this much. Never been a fan of him taking corners but they seem to always allow him. My boy R70 kicking ass today, Ibra should of been rested @60 min ( he seems drained) I really believe R70 can bring the best out of R80 again ( It doesnt mean that R80 can play a whole game at the energy level Id like to see)

Nesta needs to sit out next game 10000% give the guy a rest Papa step up. Bonera I hate your style of play. Allegri Im not a fan, even with recent wins Im still not a fan. We cant be a team that lives off 1-0 wins, we cant be a team that burns our players by over playing them.


Anyhow Lets hope inter lose or draw and so does juve

[fLame]

Originally Posted by hitmannq8

Robinho - absolutely fantastic. By far our best player tonight. He is improving game by game and he took the team on his shoulders and kept looking for the goal himself. He came back to the midfield to get the ball and push up himself several times. He is getting better and better. Always believed in the kid..keep it up Robinho.

agree completely :bravo:

+ damn you Allegri for no subs on 60-70 minute for this very tired team
with the subs i think we could have won

+ Seedorf, god damn it, please finish off those chances, thanks.

[Gabriel489]

Does he even know how to sub? He is starting to remind me of Cuper, good to great coach but bad at making subs.

[bijon]

a 15min highlight of the game is available here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWJhfwICDN0

[Nalx]

Lazio drew at home against Catania, Napoli lost to Udinese. We maintain the 3 point lead ahead Lazio, 6 points above Napoli & Juve. Not bad huh?

[Elmago99]

We can all say this is a good start to the season. Milan is in first, 3 points clear of LAZIO, not INTER or JUVE...

Forza Milan