He was playing alongside Kaka' who demanded all the attention from the opposition. But he got lazy last season, in my opinion, he thought the good start was enough to win people over, but his embarassing performances in the last half weren't enough to keep that support. This season there is no Kaka' to divert attention and he can't handle it.

The way I see it:

Let's take the current UCL Champions as example.

Their midfield has players willing to fight for the ball and that at the same time ... ARE able to give a good pass and even score goals!!! They might use one hot tireless warrior in that formation. Xavi and Iniesta FIGHT FOR THE BALL and deliver excellent passes and score goals!!!

WE USUALLY PLAY:

Gattuso> true warrior but cannot perform a good pass or a good consistent shot;
Flamini> another warrior who can sometimes deliver acceptable passes and sometimes creates danger;
Pirlo> plays in front of the defense with a defensive role but is able to make good shots and very good passes;
Ambrosini> plays also a defensive/enforcer role and is sometimes dangerous on the air;

What do you see wrong here everybody??????????????

We look like a teams that wants to play only on counter attack .... AND WE STINK ON THAT!!!!!!

Pirlo is a player with offensive capabilities playing on a defensive role and place in the formation.
Gattuso is a defensive player with ABSOLUTELY NO offensive capabilities and usually is ahead of Pirlo on the field;
Flamini was brought here because his fighting spirit was like Gattuso's and you can usually see him trying to help in the attack;
Ambrosini is also a defensive player that usually launches reckless attacks because he is not an offensive player.

When Barca attacks ... that teams attacks you with an average of 5-6 or even players (counting fullbacks) that ARE able to shoot the ball on target and there's a chance a goal is scored.

When we attack ... we only attack with maybe 3 player that can create danger ... the rest cannot shoot the ball well and sometimes Pirlo is too far behind.....

We have to stop playing ONE DIMENSIONAL PLAYERS (I KEEP SAYING THIS). A few years ago, we played Sheva, Pippo, Kaka/Costa, Seedorf, Cafu and Pirlo joined the attack more than now. They were all younger and they were all able to score. ALMOST 6 PLAYERS capable of creating danger!!! Only Gattuso was the one dimensional player on the field and was a lot younger.

Now we play: older Pirlo, older Gattuso, plus Flamini (brought because he resembled Gattuso) or we include older Ambrosini.

On the attack we have older Seedorf and nasty Ronnie.

OUR PROBLEMS ARE VERY CLEAR !!!!!!!!!

If we played 4 Abates on the midfield we would be a better team.

Gattuso is not performing ... we love him ... but he's older and he's not ageless Maldini, use Flamini instead. Let Flamini play in front of the defense and place Pirlo a little bit further in the attack with Seedorf. Now those two need to fight for the ball. Pirlo has done it almost all his carrer and last year Seedorf demonstrated that he is perfectly capable of doing it. Let Dinho play on the left side and Pato and Hunter in the front.

Something like this:

.........................Hunter
......................................Pato
....Dinho
............Seedorf .................. Pirlo
............................Flamini
..Janku ....... Silva ........... Nesta ....... Zambro

Dinho and Pato can try from the flanks together with the fullbacks, Hunter on the middle and if the ball is backed, Pirlo and Seedorf can shoot and defend.

At least for now until the old guys are replaced by (PLEASE) players that fight and shoot. (Stop hiring guys that only fight for the ball and shoot it like my grandmother!!!!)

We can even sit one the strikers and replace him with young Abate and place him next to Flamini.

With a formation like this ... it's gonna be a lot easier for the fullbacks to try an attack.

I think that this will open the field and widen our options.

Right now we have Dinho trying to invent something with the supporting cast of Ambrosini, Gattuso and Flamini. No wonder we don't score!!!!!!!!

if i were dinho when i read this i'll either hang myself or hang up my boots, i like gourcuff's new confidence(he's certain he'll brush dinho aside for a starting place)

lets overlook galliani's stupidity and have faith that there indeed may have been a buy-back agreement in the gourcuff deal, i'm guessing so cos they already agreed the 15m price when taking him on loan, madrid/sevilla have a similar agreement on the negredo deal, villareal/man utd also have one on rossi, its usually valid for about 2-3 seasons, seeing as he's already won the french league has also already has a good footing in the natianal team, the milan situation might favour him

i actually like this set up but i'm afraid dinho'll still be the weakest link as he's clearly lost more than a yard of pace. janku also, leaving us totally vulnerable on the left side

I don't know. I kinda think that in the above situation we're getting overrun in mid-field. One DM is simply not sufficient anymore.

Anytime the fullbacks go up, our DMs have to cover that space. Zambro and Janku are not the Cafu and Sergio of old who can do a top notch job attacking and defending. But if they stay defensive, then we have no width.

It's getting more and more difficult to accomodate R80 in the line-up. To accomodate R80 is to shackle Pirlo, when at the moment a free Pirlo can give us 10x the quality R80 does.

I'm beginning to think Pirlo is a hinderance to this club and the way we play. I think at the moment we're a worse player without him, but when he plays we seem to need 2 DMs, because he can do nothing defensively, his lack of pace means we need to play with 2 players in a more advanced role than him, otherwise we will create nothing.. it doesn't really give us much option on the way we play.

quality wing backs are the answers to our problem, in the old days cafu could pick the target man from the half-way line,

Cafu could do anything. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/king.gif) And Sergio was the fastest FB in the world.

Hence back to the question: Who are the top FBs operating today, who we can realistically buy, and who will fit into what is required in our team. Attacking depth!

what do you guy feel about kolarov, i'v been watching him a lot since late last season, he's been very consistent

Bayern Munich have joined the list of suitors for Lazio defender Aleksandar Kolarov, according to Sportal.it.

After a couple of disappointing seasons in Europe, Bayern are looking to reinforce their squad in all areas and made several additions to their squad in the previous transfer window.

Having failed to prise Rafinha from Schalke this summer, the Bavarians have turned their attention to the Biancocelesti left-back, who has impressed with his ability to attack down the flank and possesses a powerful strike.

Kolarov's current contract runs until 2012, with a salary of approximately €250,000-per-season.

Reports have also suggest the 23-year-old is being tracked by Italian giants Juventus, Inter and Milan

Ashley Cole and Maicon, probably the only 2 full backs I can think of that can be considered 'World Class' in both their defensive and attacking parts of their game. Oh, you said realistic.

What we need is not a replacement for Pirlo, but a replacement for the 2 DMs strategy. And the reason the 2 DMs are there is to provide support for the defence. The reason we need support for the defence is coz anytime the FBs go up in attack, because of our lack of quality in the wide areas- the DMs have to provide cover. Often we are so stressed for width, overlapping play involves these DMs. Hence why we often see Ambro playing on the left flank. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Get us quality fullbacks. The original 4-3-1-2 was:

Cafu--Nesta--Paolo-----Sergio
---Rino---Pirlo---Zee---
--------Rui/Kaka------
-----Sheva--Pippo-----

Spot the difference. We have a HUGE dip in quality in the width department. Everything else we can compensate to a degree. This is not the 4-3-1-2 of 2008, but ~2004-2006 when we were lethal and didn't depend on Kaka to score alone.

unbelievable, here we are paying dida 4m/season

Kolarov isn't that top class. And you can be assured he won't come to Milan for the same amount of pay. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I haven't seen much in Kolarov to convince me he should play for a much bigger club. Big fish in small ponds must always be treated with suspicion. See how we went with Oddo, Oliveira etc.

@kurt: You see how we're stuck??!! It's hopeless to look for fullbacks of the quality we used to have.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

I like Srna to be honest and I know alot on here would like him. He was one of Croatia's few decent performers against England and the only downside to him is his ariel ability as Gerrard beat him to 2 headers for goals. But Gerrard is a big guy and it's not often you come up against wingers of his size, I think defensively he looked sharp and didn't get beaten often and going forward he's very good. I think we should make a move for him, then whoever out of Zambrotta/Oddo/Janku/Antonini/etc is on form can play on the other side.