Come on guys you know all my favorite players are defenders so it's not like I don't know of the neglect they get. I just think Ibra did more I'm not saying Silva's defensive contributions are not worth much.

Exactly. Defensively we'd still have been okay without Silva, in my opinion. We'd score enough goals to win games, plus we still have Nesta back there. Without Zlatan, we still wouldn't conceed many, but we wouldn't have scored enough to win the title. It's not just his goals either, I'd imagine Zlatan has to be high up on our assists too?

1. Ibrahimovic
2. Silva
3. Nesta

So it's not like I'm under-appreciating defenders or anything.

You're post didn't say anything about Silva being valuable, winning us points. It sounded Zlatan is like that, and Silva not so much. Own fault. Anyway, we seem to disagree. Which is understandable when discussing defender vs attacker.

I disagree! Our defense with or without Silva is so a big difference. Nesta isn't what he used to be. Silva is our monster there, he is necessary! Almost every game Silva is saving our butt time after time, being everywhere to make up for flaws of teammates, immense defensing, so damn important. With no Zlatan, we have Pato and Robinho... awesome attack! And also Cassano...

This post has been edited by CHU-LIP: Apr 23 2011, 01:04 AM

This conversation is a bit silly, because it's like if you voted for Silva I could say what about our attackers? Yet if you voted for Zlatan, I could say what about Silva? But if you voted for Silva I could say what about Abbiati? He never gets any credit as he's a GK, but if you voted for Abbiati I could say what about Abate? He's drastically improved of late but people still dislike him... and so on.

It's all personal preference (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

Abbiati is having a great season with us, and isn't appreciated enough by some fans. Of course Thiago Silva stands above him easily.

Exactly, it either comes down to picking between defenders saving our behinds when attackers score a single goal in 90 minutes, or attackers going the extra mile and scoring one up when the defense is leaking goals. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Personally, I'd take the former, even though I know where dst is coming from. I just feel that our defense held up their end of the bargain more so than the attackers, and by defense I mean, Silva, Nesta, Abate, and even Abbiati.

Zlatan or any of our attackers would have done diddlysquat if the defense was not as waterproof as this! This is what happened the last few seasons, we got a goal to the better, only to squander that chance in the last 10 minutes of the match. Come on people, you remember those days! Fact remains that defense wins the league, and attack wins tournaments. Saying Ibra was the 2nd most influential player through the season is no way near bad, considering the guy was banned for 8-10% of the matches after accumulating red cards, LOL.

Jokes aside, whoever you choose is right - the top four, five players all were influential in where we are today!

It's either Silva or Ibra. I went for Ibra just for the sheer moments of magic he produced on several occasions.

Thiago 10 - Ibra 5

Not the most popular footballer in red and black, even at his best. I'm curious what will happen when he starts deteriorating.

Make that 11. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Undisputed winner. Ibra could have scored bundles of goals, but if the defense leaked as many at the back, then I am sure we would not have won the league. Even an extra couple of draws here and there, and we would have been sorry. But nice to see the guy getting recognition, not just from Milan fans but Europe overall.

And then there are the cards. Thiago Silva - as a defender - has just 1 yellow card all season. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif) A solitary yellow card, would you believe that. Just for comparison, Ibrahimović has what 8 yellows and 2 reds, something like that.

Voted abbiati. if kalac was in there was a chance you guys wouldnt be the serie a champions. shows you um his importance

even that save vs inter impressed me. that was simply world class

Who's Kalac?

Are you in denial that he has played for Milan or of his existance? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

It's got nothing to do with popularity. Zlatan has been almost unwatchable in the past couple of months. I know he won us many important points in the first half of the season but so did Pato, when Ibra went AWOL. I can't see how adjectives "inconsistent" and "best" can be attributed to some footballer at the same time.

Silva for me too, because he has been both damn consistent, and brilliant.

I make it absolute to erase from my memory players that have terrorized me during their stay in Milan. Kalac must have been one of those.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

without a doubt silva. Stats talk for themselves. The number of goals we've conceded this season is extraordinary.