It's not about just this game, Abate has been at fault on many delicate occasions before. he's just not good enough. think his errors against Inter for example. last night he was at fault for leaving the near post/not covering it where the ball went in. he also didn't even try to mark Koscielny (though it probably wasn't his duty) or block the ball (passing him by by a meter), if anything he ducked it (a header not a Roberto Carlos rocket for crying out loud!) shamelessly. it's not his fault, he's not smart enough. he just runs and runs and runs and make a blind crosses that rarely even end up in the box. to be fair to him he sometimes makes great defensive interventions but his bad mistakes undo that all for me. he'd make a decent sub, but we clearly need someone better. who? I don't know. it doesn't have to be a big name. our scouts need to open their eyes and find someone who's still fairly unknown but with the potential to make it to our XI and do better than the duds we call our FBs. there are plenty of those talents in Europe and South America and we can find one or two IF ONLY we stop acting so ****ing cheap and don't sign any more useless Mattioni's and Grimi's.

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This post has been edited by Zed.D: Mar 7 2012, 08:48 AM

Not an ounce. It's hard to feel sorry for professional footballers, their lifestyle and salaries. If any one of us turned up in our respective jobs and performed that badly, well, none of us would have jobs.

I can't answer that, but I definitely prefer good defensive full backs over good attacking ones.

Well it's true his positioning as part of the defensive line requires a lot of work, but his tracking back etc had improved a lot.

I for one am in favour of giving him time to improve.

Isn't he already 27?

No, he's 25.

Yeah...but it's a positioning thing. Match intelligence is not hampered by your age. It improves actually. I'm sure he will be much better next season for instance.

Don't forget that along with Silva, he has been playing almost every match without a break. But yep...defending in a formation is something he needs to put on his to-do list.

I don't have a problem with Abate. I thought he was one of the better players last night. The first goal was van Bommel's fault, nothing to do with him. In the last two years, the guy has made huge steps forward, and I think he's a very decent RB for Serie A and CL levels. He's no Maicon nor Dani Alves, true, but I'd trust him the RB position any day of the week against any opponent. What really needs some attention is the other side, the LB position. There we only have below par to mediocre alternatives, and it needs to be dealt with this summer at all cost. Armero? Kolarov? Cissokho? I'd take any of them at this point.

Cissokho has been laughed out of Lyon and kolarov doesn't really commit to his defensive responsibilities at City. Armero is the best pick. He is likely the most underrated LB in the game. I just hope Udinese stick to their standard 10-15M range.

Never seen Armero play. Is he a converted CB? Or is he good defensively?

Well i couldn't say i've seen pre-udinese, but while Udinese will usually attack from their stronger right side with Basta+Isla (and next year Cuadrado), he has single-handedly owned the left providing great cover, tantalizing runs, good dribbling and a hell of a left boot. While i feel he is the best LB in a league with a few good ones, De Ceglie, Del Grosso, Zuniga, his talent is undeniable, he almost beat arsenal by himself in the early group stages of the CL this year and is usually a focal point in big games. He does play as a LWB for udinese in their standard 3-5-1-1but they do sometimes switch into a 5-3-2 and they have played a 4-4-2 in europe (against weaker teams). He does however play
lb for colombia within a set 4-4-2 and has done very well there.

He has? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

Comepletely with you.

@ zeddie. Yes this season he's made a couple of mistakes, but then again, so has Silva, point being last night and against Juve. Last season Abate was the best RB in the league by a mile imo, and this has been said by fans of other teams as well, so it's not bias on our part. He just improved that much from his season under Leo to last under Max.

He hasn't been in top form this season, and there have been a couple of mistakes, yes. But all in all, he's one of our best players when talking about consistancy throughout an entire league season. He's just 25, there is still so much time for him to improve. I personally see him as one of the stalwarts in the Milan team for a long time to come; him, Silva, Pato, El Shaa, Nocerino, Aqui. Those are the only few players we have that are still young and have more than just a maximum of 4 to 5 seasons left in them

Silva is a CB, he has to deal with more defensive tasks than a RB...

If Abate was offensively sound I'd have no problem with his occasional brain farts. problem is he contributes little to none when going forward. what was his last assist? anyone even remembers? he poses absolutely no threats with his shots and very little threat with his crosses. he'd make a very good sub/rotation player for less important games but rarely gives you that extra in bigger games.

But then again, Antonini is 3 times worse. I agree that LB should be the priority.

Against Cesena two weeks ago, Robinho's goal. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)