Our fullbacks crossing??

I hope this thread goes in here...if now you can move it freely, thanx.

I wanted to talk to you about the way Milan is using our fullbacks, from tactical point of wiew.

I our formation, with Pirlo and two DM's, the key factor are our fullbacks that contribute to flowing game which explores the wide areas and free spaces when the teams are playing tight defence against Milan.

When playing to score, im not talking about defending, Milan has only 3 players that can do damage in build up play: Pirlo, Seedorf, Kaka'. Since Seedorf and Pirlo are not fast players that can penetrate the line like Kaka' can, we are playing patient possesion football with a lot of combinatoric passing and we are using a lot of "fullbacks plays".

Now, we have the best possible passer that can provide our fullbacks a space they need, Pirlo. But here are the problems I wanted to talk about:

Our fullbacks are very good, no doubt about it. Completely playing "Milan style", which means they can play good defence and they are phisically well prepared for 90 minutes of up and down by the out line. Jankulovski and Oddo we are talking about here, as the others ( Cafu, Serginho, Favalli ) are not real players any more. They are tactically geat, playing with calm and smart movement, and that all stands well. But...

They cant cross or go 1 on 1. We all remember what Serginho was doing when he was on form, also Cafu. Milan is a team that plays for a win, and in 99% of cases teams defend against us. If you look at our play carefully, most of our actions consist of super passed through the middle with brilliant Seedorf, Kaka', Pirlo ( in past there was Sheva also...). Plus, after build up play, the ball goes from Pirlo or Seedorf to one of the Oddo - Marek who run into wide free spaces.

To create real danger and to score easy goals, not to score brilliant goals like we did against Bayern United and so on... you need to open up space, cross it and here it is - simple goal. Like Inter was doing all season long last year, and Juve is doing all the time.

What Im trying to say is that Milan would be MUCH moire affective, especiallly in serie a, if Marek and Oddo would sometimes try 1 on 1's or actually managed to get some crosses in. Oddo cant cross at all, why the hell is that?? Marek also, passes his man every 10th time. He gets into position, gets the ball, and then passes it back to Pirlo/Ambro, Seedorf...

With more agression on wide areas we would open up much more space than we create in the middle against defending teams, like Viola yesterday.

Sorry for the long explanation, hope you got the idea. So, cross damn it!! We have Pippo, Kaka' and Ambro in the box every attack, we can score from crosses also !

I agree with your points Mrki, and what makes it even worse is that most of the time Pirlo's passes send both Jankulovski and Oddo clear of any defenders and all they have to do is pull the ball to the side for some space and hit in the cross. Pirlo gives both of them situations where they have time on the ball and are under NO real pressure. Yet, the crosses are close to horrible. The reason I am saying this is because I agree that they are not great 1 on 1 players but with the vision of Pirlo, Seedorf and Kaka they don't have to take on anyone most of the time anyway as they are given a lot of time on the ball. So at this point of time I am more concerned about the crossing then the taking on players. Oddo was giving in some amazing crosses for Lazio, but in Milan he is on and off. He'll put one great one and 3 horrible ones, then 2 ok ones and one bad.........so he is just not being consistent and more or less I see the same problem in Jankulovski. I am sure they will improve however, and I don't even want to attack them because the work rate both these players put on the field is more then anyone can ask for. The results will come with the work.

Although both Oddo and Jankolovski are two good side players, they haven't materialized enough in the crossing department even though both in free kicks and other set pieces are good, especially oddo who is a free kick expert, but both lack the speed nessesary to overcome defenders and cross, but i see that oddo has a brighter future than Jan in that respect though

there are simple ways to correct this,

1) Get Oddo & Jankulovski to spend more hours doing crosses to make them better

2) If they still don't do good crosses then try an alternative form of play

3) If that doesn't work get some new full backs

Simple.

tbh, If you compare Oddo and Janku now to their crossing last season, it's improved a great deal (though it can improve a lot still). I think Oddo especially has improved if I'm honest. Not so much in his crossing, but his overall game is much better and he does take on players more.

Let's give them a chance, as I said in the Fio thread, the season's only just begun.

well they do cross, mostly oddo but the crosses arnt that good, i mean look at our game vs. sevilla, gattuso is the one who assited pippo. on the other hand giving oddo and janku some space just above the 18th meter line for them to shoot. we saw janku's ability with that. and oddo was great at shooting when he was with lazio so let them shoot even if they didnt score we might get a corner or even a rebound for inzaghi to score.

I've notice several times that both are looking at the ball before crossing it...so most of the type the service just sucks big time, cause they don't really see where to cross it. They cross a lot, so it is also normal to see them crossing badly most of the time.

Or you can blame Gila for not getting into the right positioN! there is always a way to blame our strikers!

To be less cynical, I would say that their crossing is not particularly good. But hey, we only have 1 striker in the box, with Kaka and Seedorf seldom running into the box for header. What? You expect Gila/ROnaldo/Inzaghi to head it in everytime?

Originally Posted by mly

I've notice several times that both are looking at the ball before crossing it...so most of the type the service just sucks big time, cause they don't really see where to cross it. They cross a lot, so it is also normal to see them crossing badly most of the time.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say as you have to look directly at the ball or at least have it in your field of vision for a split second to make sure you strike it correctly. If the full-backs don't look up once or twice before crossing to assess the situation, then that's different.

On a side note, i smell bacon on a bbq and it smells sooooooooo good

Originally Posted by Jim_UK

I'm not sure what you're trying to say as you have to look directly at the ball or at least have it in your field of vision for a split second to make sure you strike it correctly. If the full-backs don't look up once or twice before crossing to assess the situation, then that's different.

On a side note, i smell bacon on a bbq and it smells sooooooooo good

Well, during the game against Fiorentina, I clearly remember Marek not even taking a look around what was near him seconds/fractions of seconds before making the cross, he just touched the ball, kept looking at it, and made the cross (and only after he made the cross he looked where it was heading). It was not the first time I saw him or Oddo making it that way, so of course they are going to make it the wrong way. I know its almost impossible to not look at the ball for at least some moment, but they mainteined their vision on the ball without taking notice of where to make the cross.

Is it weird that I'm smelling the bacon too? (I haven't eat bacon in such a long time!!)

but thats the thing again, i wouldnt consider inzaghi and gilardino as good target strikers on crosses and corners. Inzaghi has a advantage over gila as he is a master at positioning. Ambrosini seems our best hope on corners..