Parma x Milan

Parma beat us here last year. We play them on Saturday. Giovinco is out injured for a month and Paloschi is still unfit. They have Bojinov, Crespo and Dzemaili.

Allegri hasn't picked up 2 wins in a row yet for Milan. We drew our last game against Ajax so maybe it's our turn to win now.

Pato they say he's back and he's going to be on the bench for this one. Rumors also report Zlatan may be given a rest.

No reports on Ronaldinho whether he will start or be on the bench.

I'd like to see Papa given a run in this one, Flamini playing a full 90, and Robinho again playing another 90. No more Seedorf + Pirlo starts please.

I would like to see us play something like this
-------------------------Abbiati---------------------------------
---Abate------Thiago Silva-------Nesta-----------Antonini------
------------Flamini-------Boetang-------Pirlo--------------------
----------------------Seedorf--------------------------------
-------------------Inzaghi------------------Robinho-------------
Rest Ibra and dont take a chance on Pato. I would maybe even take out Nesta for papa or yepes

-------------------Inzaghi------------------------
---------Ronaldinho-------Robinho--------------
---------------------------------------------------
--------Flamini----Pirlo----Boateng-------------
---------------------------------------------------
Antonini----T. Silva--Papastathopoulos--Abate
---------------------------------------------------
---------------Abbiati/Amelia--------------------

Available for Sub: Pato, Oduamadi, Strasser, Jankulovki, Montelongo, Yepes, Bonera

Rest/Do not use as Sub: Seedorf, Gattuso, Ibrahimovic, Nesta, Zambrotta

*** I would NOT give 1 minute to Seedorf, Gattuso, Ibra, and Nesta. Next Saturday, against Chievo Verona I would play Seedorf in CM and rest Pirlo completely and continue on with that pattern. I do not like this lineup and believe we must switch to the 4-3-1-2, however, this match it is a MUST to rest the guys I've mentioned above. They have played too much and this entire week and a half off will do us wonders. I think we can still win with the lineup above. I would not play Pato more than 30 minutes or so.

Rest is most important with 2 matches against Real Madrid coming up, along with Juventus, Napoli, Bari, Palermo, and Inter. I can't stress enough the importance of rest, and good practice learning the system in training. Hopefully Allegri makes good choices, and hopefully we can get off to a nice lead, with perhaps a goal from Pippo or some Robinho or R80 brilliance, so we can bring in guys like Strasser, Montelongo, and Oduamadi.. hell maybe even Merkel....

Forza Milan!

It feels nice to have the "REST" option, LEO din not have that last year,not for a moment.

I wouldn't rest the players right now against this Parma side ...
After this game, there will be the international games, so they don't need a rest now, they can play.

The point is that Pato is back from an injury, so the best would be to send him on the pitch for 10 minutes, not more, just to "test" him (let's not make the same mistakes as we did last year with him by sending him on the pitch too early).
Robinho doesn't really need a rest, he only played 2 games.
Ibrahimovic can also play and will play from what I understood in the interview of Allegri. He seems tired, but he can be the guy who will be replaced in the last 10 minutes (against Ajax, it's in the last 10 minutes he really seemed tired).
Ronaldinho got his rest, so he can play against Parma.
Seedorf shouldn't play, but Pirlo shouldn't play too (he played all games !!), like Pirlo is going to be called with the NT, I think Seedorf should be the one who should play between these both players.
Flamini and Boateng can play together around Seedorf thanks to the perfect substitution done by Allegri against Ajax (perfect because it gave playing time to Flamini and allows us to use them both tomorrow).

For the game of tomorrow, I wouldn't mind if we play with the 4-3-3 again, just for this one (then, Allegri will have 2 weeks to make Ronaldinho train to adapt to other formations for example):

GK and Defence
Boateng - Seedorf - Flamini
Robinho -------- Ronaldinho
Ibrahimovic

I think Papa should get some time too, so he should be used on the right to replace Bonera (injured) and Zambrotta (tired). I wouldn't mind too if Yepes gets some playing time to replace Nesta.

So, the complete team I'd like to see would be:

Abb
Papa - Nesta - T.Silva - Antonini
Boateng - Seedorf - Flamini
Robinho ------------- Ronaldinho
Ibra

Subs: Nesta, one in the midfield and Ibra out, Yepes, a midfielder (Pirlo or Gattuso) and Pato or Inzaghi in.

The goal: giving time to most of the players before the break, keeping a competitive squad.

I think you're running Nesta to the ground... Let him sit, play PAPA, and play Abate on the right...

Seedorf played 85 mins just on Tuesday, and you know he can't play 2 games a week. It's funny how people talk about how Gattuso/Seedorf/Nesta cannot play 2 games a week, yet people are pushing for it here.

Obviously Seedorf OR Pirlo has to play CM, and I would rest Gattuso, Nesta completely. I would consider playing Ibra last 20 minutes if needed for a goal, but he has an abductor problem, and is extremely tired. Why risk it?

Yes there's International matches then, which i forgot originally, but you can then bet Ibra will be playing in them... and probably not being subbed. Look at the matches I listed coming up,, there are bigger fish to catch than Parma, and if we can't beat Parma with the squad I gave, then we're not title contenders.

Ibra, Binho & Prince need playing time to know their team better, despite of tireness.

Nesta should rest.

Originally Posted by Elmago99

I think you're running Nesta to the ground... Let him sit, play PAPA, and play Abate on the right...

Seedorf played 85 mins just on Tuesday, and you know he can't play 2 games a week. It's funny how people talk about how Gattuso/Seedorf/Nesta cannot play 2 games a week, yet people are pushing for it here.

Obviously Seedorf OR Pirlo has to play CM, and I would rest Gattuso, Nesta completely. I would consider playing Ibra last 20 minutes if needed for a goal, but he has an abductor problem, and is extremely tired. Why risk it?

Yes there's International matches then, which i forgot originally, but you can then bet Ibra will be playing in them... and probably not being subbed. Look at the matches I listed coming up,, there are bigger fish to catch than Parma, and if we can't beat Parma with the squad I gave, then we're not title contenders.

The problem is that you can add Pirlo to that list, he shouldn't play two games a week (well, he can, but not several weeks in a row).

So, by knowing Pirlo played the full 90 minutes of all our official games, and by knowing he will play with the NT, it's only logical to give him a rest and send Seedorf who will have 2 weeks to rest then ...

About Nesta/Papa, I agree actually, but I don't think Papa-T.Silva can be a good CB team right now because T.Silva isn't a leader in defence, he needs more experience, whereas Nesta is. Papa is far too young to be a real leader for the defence, he discovers a new club, new partners, so we can't ask him to play and lead the defence. It's why I don't really want to see Papa-T.Silva together in the center of the defence right now.

And a bit like Seedorf, Nesta will have 2 weeks to rest then, so one more game or one less shouldn't be a too big problem (the guys don't need a rest for the last game of a serie, the rest has to be given in the middle of this serie of games, IMO, it would be a far better solution, right now, like I said, one more last game, or one less, it's the same for these guys) ...

Here was the explanation for my choices !!

Without Nesta, we've been woeful. Thiago can't command the back line and Papa sure as heck can't play without being ordered. However, I do agree with everyone in that Nesta needs to be rested. We can't have him playing every 3 days for 3 straight weeks, and still expect him to be fresh for the coming few games.

We need to rest Ibra if he's tired, but I say put him in for 70 mins and test Pato for 20. He's gone through training with us for the past couple of days now, so he should be okay with that amount at least, it'll just be like when we put Flams back on from his injury, and given 20 minutes, he could totally pop up with something good if we're still level then.

Ronnie has to play, he was rested mid-week and should be damn fit. If he keeps going for those Hollywood passes, I'll probably strangle him though :P

Someone came up with an article for using Nesta as a Sweeper. Given how inexperienced and shakey that Papa and Thiago have been together, I think that might actually work. We'd have to sacrifice a forward though, but it might just balance everything out.

Dinho---Ibra
Binho
Flams--Prince
Antonini----------------Abate
Papa---Thiago
Nesta
Abbiati/Amelia

I don't think the 3-4-3 is all that bad, as I thought of it myself. However, I don't want to screw with our system too much.

Geo, your explanation makes perfect sense and I always respect your ideas. The truth is none of us are actually IN the training sessions so we don't know how the players are training, how they are feeling.... We can only go by what we read....and what we see...

And what I see is Nesta is tired.. if he gets back spasm's because of this game I'll be very disappointed as I've said there are bigger fish to catch in the coming weeks. Tiago Silva/Papa is certainly better than Parma's Lucarelli & Paci, and they should get the job done against a striker like Bojivnov or Crespo. I'm not asking them to guard Messi/CR7/Drogba/Eto'o/Milito/Del Piero/Miccoli/Cavani/Tevez. However, as you stated Nesta will have 2 weeks off and therefore it makes more sense..

As for Ibra, he will NOT have a 2 week break. He'll have 2 games with Sweden as he returned to them. He's played every minute of every game since he's signed for us. If anything, why not 45 min and 45 min Inzaghi. Inzaghi is certainly hungry and pissed as he hasn't played...

I agree Pato should take part very little in this game...

Lastly, the Pirlo/Seedorf situation, I hope Pirlo does not play too much with Nazionale, but I'm sure he will. Therefore Seedorf over Pirlo makes sense, although I do not expect Seedorf to play well considering he's played 2 times this week already. Having Boateng/Flamini aside him will insure he will not run much.

Hopefully Allegri can do the best with what he's got, Forza Milan!

We dont know the exact5 phisical conditions of "injured" players, so I will not debate on it.

As I saw through Allegri's words, we could see midfield of Seedorf-Flamini-Boateng. Which would mean Seedorf in Pirlo's position.

Dinho-Ibra-Pato un front and Zambro and Antonini on fullbacks.

What we need to know is that Parma is alwaya a very har away game, and this Parma's team has some quality for sure.

wich kind of REST you are talking about , am I crazy or maldini costacurta favalli etc are still playing so there are so tired despite their age and thay need some rest, come on guys its only 6th round of the league and we are behinde from first place so how we can talk about RESTS ?

It's so strange to see Milan play so many Saturday games. Seems so much like the BPL now but it's good I don't have to wake up early on Sundays anymore.

Not much to say about this game really..a good performance is necessary to give confidence to the players and the team. After week 1 everybody was praising how well the team was playing and how we would be a force to reckon with over the course of the season. We need to keep it up and defend our name. Besides a win, I have two wishes. An epic Nesta performance and a Pato goal on his return from injury.

EDIT: There's so many good games this weekend actually: Fiorentina - Palermo, Genoa - Bari, Inter - Juventus and Napoli - Roma. It's still early days so I don't know who I'd prefer lose. I think I can say that I prefer Juventus take some points from Inter because Inter is the more consistent side.

Originally Posted by sheva-gila

wich kind of REST you are talking about , am I crazy or maldini costacurta favalli etc are still playing so there are so tired despite their age and thay need some rest, come on guys its only 6th round of the league and we are behinde from first place so how we can talk about RESTS ?

Granted those two played to the ripe old ages of 38 and 40 respectively, but you have to remember one very important fact: Nesta has been injury prone, much moreso than the above two mentioned. If we have to keep him fresh and injury free, then we have to know when to use him, and when to rest him.

We can't afford having another one of those runs where he's out and our defense goes completely AWOL. We don't have Favalli as a defensive leader anymore, and Yepes, as much as I've seen him play, is not leadership material. With no one directing our back line, we'll be shipping in goals, no matter how agile Thiago or how strong Papa are. I don't trust our Midfield well enough to dominate a full 90 minutes, not yet at least, so we'll still need to have order in defense, and at the moment only Sandro can provide that for us.

There's no point in resting players this game, since we have a week break for internationals. Only Pirlo, Ibra (maybe Pato and Robinho) and a few others will play 90 minutes of all the games. So resting Pirlo might make sense, but I don't feel comfortable resting him in a Milan game to keep him fresh for Italy. That seems stupid.

The rest of the squad will have a weeks rest and so we don't have to worry about Nesta, Ronaldinho, Seedorf, etc. Unless they're already tired, they should all play.