January Options

Could we have a poll for this please?

Poll Option
========

a) Buying a striker/forward (Gilardino/Torres/Tevez)
b) Buying Maniche


The Gilardino/Torres/Tevez thread has shown the results to be highly in favour of the Milan fans preferring the Bull-Terrier Tevez over Gila or Torres for the Winter Transfer window. Recently the Portuguese B2B midfield player MANICHE has been linked with us. Lots of players are linked with us so we really don't know who is really coming as Fester keeps denying everything


So for our team with two options now:

Option A
======

--->> Gila / Torres / Tevez

Reports continually link us with him. Crespo has been brought here on loan so it is likely he will return in any case. Now with the Mutu saga taking place Chelsea will be short of a striker and might require his services again or maybe shop for a new striker. It depends on the situation.

------------------Dida---------------------
-
--Cafu-----Nesta-----Stam--------Maldini--
-
------------------Pirlo---------------------
-
------Gattuso---------------Seedorf-------
-
------------------Kaka--------------------
-
----------Gilardino------Shevchenko-------

I expect this to be our long term line-up more or less with the acquisition of Gilardino.

Pros
===

1. We get an already settled striker. He is not coming from a different league.

2. We get a good striking duo.

3. Gilardino is young so he can play for us for a good number of years.

4. His goal scoring ability will increase as he will receive arguably better service.

Cons
====

1. Shevchenko will have to play off Gilardino. A position where I think he is not best utilized. He is the most lethal as a striker IMO.

2. We don't know whether Gilardino and Shevchenko will work as a duo. One thing is clear and that is Shevchenko is our primary striker and the game plan has to be to enable him to excel and do what he does best. He is our biggest goal scoring outlet.


Option B
======

--->> Maniche

There was a link to him. It is not known whether it was a serious link or just one of those links we see every fortnight. I have always been an advocate that Pirlo, Gattuso and Seedorf are our future. They are all young and work very well together so our midfield is settled. Buying Maniche and relegating him to the bench as a bit part player is not an ideal thing to do so how can we accommodate him into our system? After giving it some thought there does exist a solution that doesn't change our outlook.


------------------Dida---------------------
-
--Cafu-----Nesta-----Stam--------Maldini--
-
------------------Pirlo---------------------
-
------Gattuso---------------Maniche-------
-
----------------Seedorf--------------------
-
-------Shevchenko-------Kaka-------------


Pros
===

1. Maniche can play anywhere in the midfield without any problems except the trequartista spot.

2. Good offensively and defensively. Runs his socks off as well so Bayman will be happy.

3. Our midfield will add a running type player with increased work rate as Maniche has phenomenal work rate. We can arguably be more better in a counter attack situation.

4. Maniche is good at free kicks and also has a brilliant long range shot. Seedorf's OLD spot will not lose that much.

5. I have got the feeling that this season Seedorf is looking like a leader for us. He is leading our play and really looks like the person in charge of our offensive play. He is a changed more authoritative man for us which is brilliant. His free roaming ability will not be hampered if he is allowed to play in the hole as he can do all his stuff from there as well plus his shot is lethal with either foot. Comes in handy if he is more in a position to shoot.

6. Kaka moves into a forward position. A position I feel that is the best for him without a doubt. He scores more goals and his pace is better utilized for that slot. Shev plays as the striker which is where he is best! For me Kaka doesn't have the through pass like Rui hence he is not the classic playmaker type. He is LETHAL as a forward. Does the same for Brasil


Cons
====

1. Maniche may be Cup Tied. I don't know for sure.

2. Pinto Da Costa will juice out every single penny he can for Maniche.

3. Maniche is coming from a different league. Remains to be seen whether he will settle down properly. Personally I think he will have no problems because he is a very good player indeed.

4. Seedorf and Kaka get new positions. I don't think it is much of a change as Seedorf and Kaka will still be doing the same stuff. Its just that Kaka will have more freedom to go for the Kill and Seedorf won't have to look out for his left midfield spot that much.

5. Berlusconi wants TWO strikers to play for Milan. He may or may not reject it. He did also mention that whatever makes the team perform better is the way to go.

So what are your thoughts Milanisti? Which type of player do you prefer? A striker ala Gilardino or a midfield player (ONLY Maniche).

For me personally I would prefer Maniche and play the template I mentioned with him.

- Our team looks well balanced.
- It will get more pace (Kaka, Gattuso, Maniche, Sheva and Seedorf to an extent) and increased work rate
- Players playing in the positions where they are best utilized : Kaka, Shev and Seedorf.

i was watching tevez recently and I have my doubts whether he'd be any different from Saviola, Riquelme and D'Alessandro and under preform in europe. he's small not exactly fast and thinnly built, he plays with the ball to feet from what i've seen mostly, this rarely happens in italy. how many goals would sheva have scored this or last season had he not had the ability to out pace defenders and command a physical presence in the box?

One thing is sure: we cannot think to play at best both CL and Serie a with just Pirlo, Gattuso, Seedorf and Ambrosini. Brocchi is considered good for a minor clash, as Ancelotti's choices clearly point out, and Dhorasoo seems not to convince.

The "regulars" are the 4 mentioned above. Serie a and CL have about 55 matches so we must sign a top midfielder, it's not even thinkable the four mentioned get to play such an amazing number of matches, and on the others Carlo seems not to rely that much.

Rui has been proved in the playmaker spot without totally convince . So Maniche is one of the best player around, as you wrote, he can play every role in mid, a characteristic Carlo appreciates in particular way, and is very good both defesively and offensively. He's got a right maturity to play in a club like Milan despite not been old, he's in his peak years, so he can be very useful.

On the other side, we must sign a striker, because Crespo is always a question mark, and Pippo is going over the 31th y, so it's time to INTRODUCE in the Milan world a young top striker to learn our tradition and our game, in order to fill Pippo's boots in few years. The choice is hard, all the players mentioned are amazing in something, but if i must choose i'd go with Gila, because he costs a reasonable price,and he's a 40 goals striker..Feed him, and he will score loads of goals. Parma this year is clearly minimized in his strenght, and he can partnership with every player, esp Sheva, becasue Gila is an intelligent player and has great technique, as some of his performances at euro 04 U21 showed.
But i've always liked Torres, even if i don't know him as well as Gila

I disagree about Tevez, i watched him in the Olympics and he was bullish and very physical. True, i guess the majority of defenders he was up against weren't great. However, he seemed more than capable of holding the ball, running with it, playing in team mates, scoring with both feet and heading the ball. It's also true he's not lightning quick, but i don't think he's thin or weakly built.

I would go with Gilardino, already being used to Serie A is a huge bonus. Although i think Maniche would be a fine purchase. Any chance we could get both ?

I don't think we need to bring in anyone as the squad needs time to gel properly.

But if we get anyone, then I say Gilar

Bring Maniche plz and I'm happy.

OPTION 1: Maniche Gattuso Seedorf
in central midfield with 2 very offensive full backs (Cafu and Serginho).

OPTION 2: Seedorf Maniche Pirlo



Striker is not really needed right now, as Kaka can play as second striker too, if needed.
In case Crespo leaves we should, finally this time go for a second striker with all these characteristics. Tevez looks like the best option here. Torres is too expensive and too much of a risk and Gilardino is like Pippo and Sheva. No need to add a third player of the same kind.

Originally Posted by meazza

i was watching tevez recently and I have my doubts whether he'd be any different from Saviola, Riquelme and D'Alessandro and under preform in europe. he's small not exactly fast and thinnly built, he plays with the ball to feet from what i've seen mostly, this rarely happens in italy. how many goals would sheva have scored this or last season had he not had the ability to out pace defenders and command a physical presence in the box?

After reading this post I can only conclude that you have NOT seen him play. He is VERY fast, probably faster than Sheva. Thinly built? After reading that I wonder who you actually saw, people don't compare him with a bull for no reason. He is short tough and we can't expect him to score on headers...

Play the ball to feet don't happen in Italy??? Do you watch football at all? Of course, if we compare to the Brazilian league or possible other south American leagues we have a bit more higher balls, but Milan surerly tries to keep the ball down as much as possible.

i neva saw maniche play b4 so i shant comment much...however we still do have ambro rite?..he is not tt bad as a minor clash midfielder, just like brocchi...i feel our midfield is doing well so i will be going for gila.....because looking @ the strike rates now...only sheva n kaka leads the scoring chart.,,tomasson still seems shaky, inzaghi is still getting the match fitness and crespo..well...still injured. So in order to match not just the Serie A team's offensive strikeforce like adriano-vieri, trezeguet-ibrahimovic, totti-cassano, we still got the champion's league teams to faceoff eg. e'to-Larsson , makaay-ballack, ronaldo-raul , henry-reyes etc. So sheva-gila partnership may bring an offensive edge to our already-stablised world-class defence, making us a more wholesome team to challenge for the treble this season!!~~




just my 2 cents

We all hope that there will be lots of important games between January and end of May, one thing that is not needed for that period is a striker unless Crespo is out or really out of form, and only the coach and management can make that decision. I am not gonna say Crespo is useless for us just because he doesn't do much between now and then. If he is to be on the bench in February, March,... there is no point in buying another now...leave buying a new striker for the summer in that case.

A midfielder who just gives us more options in carrying the ball forward would do, whether that is Maniche I am not sure really.

And also with a healthy Nesta and Stam obviously the central defense is set but...its not the topic of this thread

Well, I wanna to offer another option... as you know Tevez is not only a striker... he is also able to play as midfielder .... so...I prefer Gila&Tevez duo
IMO Torres as a spaniard wount succeed in Lega Calcio... the same was with Jose Mari and Javi Moreno...
Maniche is too old to invest our money. He only is known of his long range striking abilty so IMO he would be not the best choice for AC Milan.

So - let's take Gila&Tevez duo...
We should know that Rui, Seedorf and Pippo are aged players so they wont play forever...

Milan will buy nobody of significance. They might secure players for next season, but you can forget the fantasy football.

Forza Milan

well concerning maniche, i think we should try dhorasso first then decide wether we need maniche or not... we would have seedorf, pirlo, gattuso, ambro, dhorasso, brocchi and even rui can play in prilos spot as well as serginho in seedorfs spot.. u all forgot him.

my main concern is upfront, eventhough our last worry is the strike force up til now, but i doubt things will stay the same, if u think of it, we dont have a speedy striker who can drop back and take on defenders and score like etoo.. neither do we have a big man who wait for crosses to head on or can poach for goals like bierhoff..now the question should be, wether we should go for the big man or the speedy guy??? personally my dream pairing is sheva with adriano but adriano can take on defenders like we saw vs udinese and he is defeinatly big, and by the way this is the reason why i like drogba so much. personally i love gilardino, and i thin hes great and would suit us well but hes not really our priority, i think it would be ebtter if we go for the speedy guy since sheva isnt bad at all in dealing with crosses, and besides i always believe that milan play best when they play a passing game like alst season (i call it street football) therefore the speedy guy seems to be the better solution, meaining that i hope we can go for tevez or cassano or a drogba/zlatan/weah type of player (if u can name some1 in that category whos available i doubt there is). if were having trouble playing the passing game then maybe tomasson/inzaghi can come on i believe these guys are more arial than passing players esp JDT. if u think of it our strike force is 60% arial and 40% speedy... thank god we have sheva!

I dont interest both of ur options.
For me, there's no more transfer in second transfer window.
Except, some players in the same position injured n take effect lack of stock for team's formation.
Keep the fund, n spend much for next season.
Bring the other trequarista to replace rui costa.
His performance so much dropped.
And the man is dinho!
(I've said for times n times)

well galliani just said dinho will stay at barca.. rui when he played has looked good i think!

What about Maniche he can signed by Milan in January!!!!!
It`s cool!!!