Lopez and Alex will probably miss the game. Torres and SES should recover, theoretically.

Well Abbiati can do the job just fine, no big issues there. Hopefully it's nothing too serious with either of them though. Alex is growing on me

I wonder who will play in the centre though, Pippo doesn't seem fond of Mexes so I'm assuming it should be Rami and Zapata which is still pretty good, although I do prefer Rami and Mexes together

Did we sign a new contract with Mexes? If not, we should get rid of him. He may be slightly better then Alex or Rami, but I don't want him in Milan anymore: his quality gets diminished by his character.

Abbiati is solid but he has his share of horror shows. But seeing Lopez yesterday...well, I won't miss him that much.

You talk like he made 4 mistakes on the goals... The own goal was stupid and ridiculous, yes, but the other goals there was just no way for him to save them as they were hit from point blank range thanks to some seriously inept defending. He's still miles better than Abbiati and a top class keeper

As for Mexes, so far nothing has been said about his contract. But I really find it funny that you would say this, what has he done exactly for you to be saying his quality is diminished by his character?

Yeah, every coach tends to stay away from him at first, yet they all end up relying heavily on him when they realise he's what stabilises our defence. It's no coincidence that our best defensive runs in the past 2 seasons have come when Mexes was part of the duo and was playing consecutive games. Both last season next to Rami and the one before next to Zapata.

Galliani needs to get on working on those contracts. Mexes, Abate and De Jong could all potentially leave on a free this summer. Which would be another calamitous piece of business by Galliani. Just spread Mexes' wages over 2 years, give Abate the rise in wage he deserves and just give De Jong what he wants.

On Lopez:

Granted, he wasn't at fault for the goals. But like Danny said earlier, he wasn't terrific either: in two matches 6 goals, one big save and one penalty save. Add that ridiculous and stupid goal and you cannot say that he impressed so far. He still is our best keeper judging from what he did with Real Madrid, but I'm starting to doubt he really is as good as well all thought. Just starting to, but...

On Mexes:

Well he's a brute and a loose cannon. I don't like that kind of players, never have and never will. I've mostly paired them with Inter - players like Stanković, di Biagio, Materazzi, etc etc. And again, the fact that various Milan coaches had some problems with him and Pippo is trying to avoid using him makes me think he is more of a disruptive force. Since he's relatively old and isn't quite Maldini or Nesta, I think parting ways with him won't hurt us more then benefit. Especially with his big contract. Alex, Zapata and Rami are not that far away from him.

It's 5 goals, not 6

And we can't really judge atm, the goal he conceded vs Lazio was just a freakish own goal from Alex that he could have never anticipated or saved. And all the goals from yesterday (OG aside) were just perfectly taken by unmarked players.

Yes, the OG was a wonder blunder, but I can't really blame it all on him as DS was also partly at fault.

As for Mexes, I think that sort of thinking is a wistful hope that we shouldn't be harbouring. Thinking we're the classy club while Inter are the classless brutes. Yet, they were the club who actually treated their long serving captain with respect while we treated our legendary captain like trash you could throw away. Enough said about Milan class imo. It just doesn't exist anymore

I think you're being influenced by two factors in judging Lopez, Fillipo: the many goals conceded and the howler. But that ain't no ground for criticism. He had absolutely zero fault in any of the first three goals, and except for maybe the first goal, he couldn't have saved any of them. Sure, he made a blunder in the fourth one, but I know great keepers who have flopped even more than once like that. Buffon, Cech, Casillas, Kahn, Dida etc. I think Lopez was very good against Lazio, and was just alright against Parma sans the blunder.

As for Mexes, yeah, I just don't care about him anymore. He's slowly reaching 33, Pippo doesn't count on him, his wage is too high, and his attitude is questionable. I do think he's a very good CB, and if I was Milan coach he'd be my first choice, but as things stand right now there's no point in waiting for him to play, cos quite frankly the club seems to be done with him. Expect him to be sold in January.

At the moment, it vanished. But this doesn't mean we should abandon the concept. As long as we, the fans, have standards like this, everything is fine I suppose. You may call it idealistic, but that's what I really think.

I certainly won't support or acknowledge the change in approach of our management by bowing simply down.


I get where you come on Lopez. Maybe my judgment seems to be harsh and too fast. I admit, it's more a feeling then a final judgment.

But tell me this, how many of the keepers you mentioned had such a blunder in their first/second match for the team? How many of them conceded 5 (thanks Han (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) )? Bar the comic last goal, Lopez seemed to me rusty and slow. I'm not sure of it, I'll pay more attention next time, but if his reflexes really slowed down, it isn't a good sign either.

What does first/second or 100th game have to do with anything? Lopez was an exceptional GK at Madrid, very confident, making some fantastic saves. Are you saying he lost all that in a matter of 3-4 months? I didn't find him rusty. He didn't make any mistakes sans that damned 4th goal.

Give it some time, my friend. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Plenty of time for signs and slowdowns. As of this writing, he isn't worse than Abbiati, and that's all that counts for these first few weeks, first couple of months. Everyone, anyone that is in a new environment needs six months to be accurately judged, and not just in football.

And this coming from someone who'd have signed some other, younger, goalkeeper. A presence in the box. We haven't had that luxury in eons, surely you agree.

Lopez is out for two weeks. So much for faking it story.

Saponara is out for 4-6 weeks after injuring his knee in today's training.

It is. Like acid said, let's give him time to settle in, it's way too early. The quality is there.

This post has been edited by Jack Bauer: Sep 15 2014, 08:08 PM

You never know. (IMG:http://i1061.photobucket.com/albums/t473/iamsuperman85/smileys/shifty_zps78b00712.gif) It is two weeks, after all.

This guy seems like he's made out of glass. Nearly all of last season injured and he needs surgery now is what I heard, which means more than that quoted duration

No way. No player would miss two games, especially if one of them is Juve, just to save face because of a meaningless goal. And no club will play along.