I don't like us being too defensive-minded. Van Bommel as the only pure DM is more than enough. Look At Barça. They only have one DM in Busquetes and they do great. Why? Because of the dynamism of the whole team. Having players like T. Silva, Abate, Taiwo, Boateng and Hamsik will help us maintain a balance despite having only one proper DM.

We are not Barça! When has it proven it works for us? How did we win Scudetto? How did we beat our strong opponents?

It's so funny people don't want us to have two defensive-minded mids even though that's how we achieved our current succes. Or expecting us to can do the same as Barça. Right... different team, different players

This post has been edited by CHU-LIP: Jul 5 2011, 01:43 PM

Our current success shouldn't blur your thoughts. Even though it was a thoroughly deserved scudetto, we faced little competition and our true skin was shown in the Champions League, where we got busted by the ever embarrassing Tottenham. We need a slight change, and I think the line-up I posted above would be perfect for our ambitions. You think not, fair enough. It's not the first time someone's disagreeing with you on this forum.

Have we actually signed anyone yet? Apart from Taiwo or whatever his name is.

There's no need to state the obvious, unless you think it's relevant for the discussion, and I hope it isn't for you.

If it would blur my thoughts, why do I want three new midfielders then? I do want an upgrade, really bad. Just look at it differently than you. We shouldn't change the way our midfield is too much, but do improve. Our AM needs to have pace, movement and tracking back power like Boateng. Though I would love a better starter like Nasri or Hamsik, and Boateng being an awesome backup then (and also for other midfield spots). Our Van Bommel spot is perfect, with Ambrosini as perfect backup. Seedorf is good backup for LCM, but we need someone else there badly to be a starter. Fabregas or Schweinsteiger would be perfect, but unlikely, Hamsik (even though not that creative) and Aquilani are options too in my opinion. Or maybe Banega who Inter trying to get for quite cheap.

Flamini and Gattuso on RCM are okay players, since they are strong defensively, but box-to-boxing meh to bad. Therefore I understand people wanting Boateng there, though defensively he might too weak for that. We could try it out though, but having also a very weak defender in Ganso at LCM looks way too tricky to me. Vidal would be perfect to replace Flamini with, since he is strong defensively and strong box-to-boxing. I believe he would be an underrated signing to this team. Or maybe Danilo who I don't know personally, but I heard from others he's like a Brazilian Vidal, so I guess he's an alternative for that.

Mexes? and a couple of kids I think.

Mexes, El Shaarawy, Paloschi. We also bought the entire half of Boateng from Genoa.



Signing Hamsik and Ganso wouldn't be changing much the way our midfield is. Hamsik would be our dynamic AM which was occupied by Boateng last season. Ganso would ideally replace Seedorf on the left, and Boateng himself would fill Gattuso's position. You honestly think the current Gattuso is better defensively than Boateng? It's all about will power. Boateng can be a fantastic box-to-box mid if he's determined to. You shouldn't be looking him as a trequartista. That's not his role. His role is to do the dirty work, the running, the attacking and defending. That's the kind of player he is.

Bloody hell, how did I forget Mexes?

Can safely say I've never heard of El Shaarawy. Yeah, I heard we'd signed Boateng permanently, good signing there.

Oops, forgot about El Shaarawy. I guess my subconscious doesn't take him seriously (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)

So apparently the non-EU quota in Serie A has been raised. This should ensure an excelleration in the Ganso deal .. Anyone hear anything?

Most teams play with one DM, Man U have none and it's not like they have a great team to back that up, yet they're still very successful in Europe and domestically. Chelsea: 1 DM, Inter: same, Real: same

All major teams play with 1 DM and having VB sitting in front of the defense would be enough, Hamsik and Boateng would add a lot of dynamism to the midfield since they're both runners who are willing to sacrifice themselves to cover defensively, Inserting a player like Gattuso or even Flamini in there is just pointless. We won the Scudetto in spite of tha last season, since most times when Rino played we looked like we were a man down.

Van Bommel provided all our defensive stability, his positioning is always impeccable so he made it look like a walk in the park next to all the huffing and puffing Rino and Flamini usually put in.

The midfield X-off posted has the best balance. Running, defensive stability and creativity. Going out in the CL once again with a tactically limited player like Gattuso will result in another pre-mature exit. Add to that he's not even good at what he used to do in the past to begin with, which is winning balls.

Sticking a whole bunch of DMs won't solve any problems if we can't keep the ball and that's what we'll need to do, having someone like Gattuso/Flamini/Ambro in there would compromise that

Yeah, it's official: http://www.sportmediaset.mediaset.it/calci...io-ce-lok.shtml. Good decision.
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We signed a young (born in 93) defender Ricardo Ferreira from Porto yesterday. We almost signed him last January.
http://www.milannews.it/?action=read&idnotizia=56201

Marchetti signed with Lazio.

This post has been edited by Jack Bauer: Jul 5 2011, 06:06 PM

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Galliani must be sh!tting himself now since that excuse is not viable any longer (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Excellent post. Well said.