I'd give my testicles away to charity for Simeone to take over.

Not in a million years for me.

First off explain the not in a million years comment.

Secondly explain how having a robust, strong, walk through walls (not entirely unlike Sacchi and Capello's Milan, and to an extent Carlo's) team is in any way a setback compared to the rubbish we're watching right now?

What? You compare Simeone with Sacchi/Capello/Ancelotti? I really hope I misunderstood.

Not in a million years do I want a former Inter player coach Milan. Not in a million years a coach who behaves like a madman and is overall a disgrace with his shows and outbursts. That's maybe something Inter would wish for, or Cagliari and Palermo every now and then try to find, but not Milan. I'd rather line-up the entire ex-Milan star palette and appoint them one by one then have this man here around.

Do I have to talk about the differences between the past system and Simeones collective? Firstly, it's completely incomparable, because Sacchi's tactic is decades old. Secondly, the backbone of Milan's approach was hard work, perfectionist tactics and a strong defense; this is also were the similarities end. Sacchi's Milan still tended to foster the individual strengths of our superstars, deployed also a (at that time) complex offensive scheme with multiple players involved and doing all kinds of stuff. Later Savičević and Boban became under Capello special "transitional" players in a more profound way then Gullit has, linking great passers like Donadoni or Albertini with pure finishers like Massaro and Simone. Atletico shows no signs of this, they are a battle unit, coherent, strong and cohesive, but if one cracks this, they're bound to lose big time - just the CL final as a example. Milan on the other hand had always a solid plan B and never was that one-sided or cohesion-oriented team.

Like I said with regards to your first point, what is the difference here to every other game we've played so far this season?

Our midfield is none existant on defensive plays, our CBs/FBs easily get caught in one-on-one situations with zero cover, Zapata's mistake on the second goal was also a situation where he was completely left on his own. He made individual errors but it was also the failure of the midfield to provide cover, look at practically all the other goals we conceded this season and you'll see very similar situations, either that or we succumb to a set-piece.

I love how someone like R7 (now I'm expecting Jack to pop in with the same shtick mind you) come in and blame it on the midfield in THIS particular game. Just hilarious!! We've been conceding identical goals all season and they never mention the midfield, even though it has their precious Muntari mountain in it.

The problem in midfield is both about the individuals and the collective. With regards to the individuals the problem is that NONE of them blend together, not just Poli and De Jong. Do Jong for me IS a destroyer, but he's given the creative job as well in this team, which imo, cannot happen. Poli for me is a big question mark at this point, last season he showed attacking talent, this season he's simply regressed to brainless runner imo. When Muntari is there along with them he just adds to the problem, Saponara was just there yesterday, did nothing particularly wrong, but nothing all that right either, at least there wasn't Muntari fouling people left and right and gifting the ball to Palermo players thanks to his clever passing.

For me the issue in midfield is that we have a De Jong, a pure anchor, and next to him you simply cannot play muscle/brainless/runners. It just renders the midfield impotent and we're still defensively vulnerable as we've seen throughout the season no matter who's playing next to him (Muntari, Poli, Essien)

Playing Sapo there was a mistake, I said before the game that he's too lightweight and isn't a particularly hard worker. Van Ginkel who is a natural CM would have fit in better.

The 3 coaches logic for me is so flawed I wouldn't even know where to begin. The 3 coaches you speak of are 2 rookies and one who has his head permanently stuck up his @ss. Allegri was the start of the problem, for me he does not count as one of the coaches, so far we've had 2 coaches who we brought in to try and "fix" the problems we have, both of them rookies with absolutely no experience coaching a senior side.

Had we still been in this same rut with a proper coach who has proper experience then I would start to believe that it's also the players, but right now, the fact that we have a decent side that is being totally misused and is losing points against just promoted side for me points to a problem in coaching or lack-there-of.

Pippo said at the start that tactics don't matter right now, it's about the attitude. Well guess what, the attitude atm stinks and the lack of tactical system is showing

The main difference is that we score more easily. We've devolved a interesting system of utilizing Honda and Menez as our main forces and only lack of one more addition, say Torres or SES who are both off form. Just remember how you complained when we sold Balotelli. You did so because you knew he's the only match-winner we have/had and you also expected us to play like under Allegri, with one focal point in attack; Ibra, SES, Balo. I think Inzaghi surpassed this kind of thinking and made our attack more efficient and complex.

So we agree that it wasn't just individual mistake, but collective as well. Yes, the midfield is a puzzle and a big problem. I think Saponara did a solid job, but I'd rather try him on the wing and see how he'd do just that. But that doesn't solve anything. Once again, just like in the Merkel years, we've been reduced to a kid, van Ginkel, as our only/last hope in midfield. That goes beyond the coaches problems.

Oh, and one last thing - just to irk you. In fact, yesterday, some of those "stupid" Muntari fouls in midfield would have helped us immensely. You see, de Jong simply couldn't handle the Palermo midfield by himself, something players like Rino or Davids usually could. On several occasions we needed a foul to break their fast attack, but NDJ, Sapo and especially Poli weren't up to it. At this point, I fear Poli is turning into the next Nocerino.




Yet, you haven't really answered to me; how would you change mentality and rejuvenate the team? What should Pippo do or should have done already?

I think the logic we apply must be flawed because we don't know enough. You could be right as well as me.

Thing is, Pippo has certain players who don't perform good yet they should/are expected to do so: SES, MDS, Poli, Torres to name a few. Now, where does that leave us?

We score more easily?

Nope, the goals have dried up as easily as our opponents have figured us out. The signs were there and were coming, last week we only scored because of a lucky cross managing to sneak in, yesterday we didn't even come close to scoring.

As for the midfield, I want to ask you, did you wake up one morning and decide that you would suddenly back Muntari "just to p!ss those gullible f@ckers over at Milanfan"? Because what you're saying about him makes no sense. His incessant stupid fouling now helps us? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) Come on now!! Everything Muntari does is a drawback for our midfield play. He's a total and complete tactical nightmare, his running around level with the striker really does help out our defensive stability, yes I'm sure.

Once again, I'll ask the question I first posed to R7 and then to you. What was different from yesterday's game to every other one we've played this season? Absolutely none! Only this time we failed to score in order to counter the fact that we've conceded in every game this season bar one, all games might I add included Muntari (aside from one other before this one). It has been proven over and over again that clogging up the midfield with Muntari type players does not help out the defence, the midfield actually looks more inept and we're cut through more easily.

Granted, yesterday going the complete different route and playing an inexperienced winger there wasn't really what we've been advocating for so it didn't really improve matters, just as I mentioned, only eliminated the drawbacks that Muntari brings to the table, but Sapo didn't add anything to our midfield play because he's just not a midfielder.

And again, I totally disagree with you about De Jong, he's a traditional anchor, but he's tasked with so many duties in our midfield that he can't just do that one job that he's great at, which is sitting in front of the defence, covering spaces, winning the ball and passing it to his more creative team mate, he's also tasked with being our playmaker, which is absolutely ridiculous. Rino was so great at what he did because he recovered the ball and offloaded it as quickly as possible to Pirlo, De Jong has to recover the ball and start the attacking move himself in this team.

For one, Pippo should have introduced a new tactical system, which imo he hasn't. We absolutely have no identity in how we play. With Allegri and Seedorf for example we all knew what we would play like

Allegri: Tedius, useless possession at all costs
Seedorf, Pressing high up the pitch, possession and quick attacking manoeuvres
Pippo: No f@cking clue!

That would apply only for the first two games. We got lost afterwards. We can't score anymore. Against Cagliari it was a misplaced cross, against Fiorentina it was a set-piece, against Verona it was a goofy own goal and two long though-balls, against Chievo it was a lucky shot from Muntari and a free kick. Against Cesena it was a set-piece.

If you consider all those goals, they never come from buildup and properly using the ball, but from set-pieces, luck and randomness. Add to that that our midfield has been inexistent from the very start, and that our defense is very shaky, and you've got the perfect picture of our situation. We have no ideas, no tactical plan, no willpower and eagerness to win. Pippo has failed at his job, at least for now. Don't forget the shambolic pre-season we had, too.

I'd rather we won than got high and mighty.



Lose big time...and you dare use the CL final as an example and pretend Istanbul didn't happen.

No, I'm not a Muntari defender. But I don't trust you assessment on him either; he's bad and certainly not first team material, but on the other hand - yesterday someone needed to break down the Palermo midfield transformation with smart fouling. I think you fail to understand this concept since you complained about Ambrosini doing "stupid fouls" (in your words) as well as Muntari. And you'll probably complain about the next guy doing this job.

But bottom line is, someone needed to do it. Poli especially. Don't you think that defensively we collectively collapsed while at the same time having two defensively/working midfielders like NDJ and Poli? You think they did their job good?

Well I don't think so. Firstly it was a tactical fail from Pippo, and secondly it was up to them, the DM's and the CB's to hold in line and suspend the Palermo attacks. But they failed miserably and made Palermo look like a serious contender and not a Serie B team.


I have to disagree. I think Pippo has a tactical plan and we improved in terms of build-up and individual attacking actions. Yes, the midfield is a big problem, but the other two coaches also failed to solve this puzzle. My guess is we need someone with creativity; yesterday Pippo tried with Sapo, MvG may very well be next.


What are you talking about?? I was comparing Sacchi and Simeone - a comparison you forced me into - and now all of a sudden you mention Istanbul? I really don't know, if you think Simeone is up to there with the Milan legend coaches, I've got nothing to say anymore.

We played much better under Seedorf than we're doing with Pippo. That's hardly an improvement. At least Seedorf tried something different and opted for an offensive approach to football without conceding as much as we're conceding under Pippo.

Save for the first half of March where we lost three games consecutively (which coincided with the Atletico ties), under Seedorf we won 11 games out of the other 16. I can't see how we're playing right now and the results we're achieving can be considered an improvement over that.

Actually my comparison was a tight unit like Simeone has, like Sacchi's Milan had. I wasn't comparing the coaches, but the fact their teams weren't HUGELY different.

Istanbul - you have the cheek to say Simeone's Atleti choked in Lisbon while apparently overlooking that Carlo's Milan did the same in Istanbul while professing him to be a better coach. Which he may be, but using the UCL choke by Atleti isn't an argument because it happens to the best of them.

Yes, the guy is a bit mad, yes he's not well behaved, but his teams run through walls for him. Like Jose's do for him, like Sacchi's Milan did for him. And that's why these guys are some of the best coaches ever.

Just because you don't like Simeone doesn't make him any less brilliant a coach.

You mean can't be? Well, we'll see.

Okay, if you wanna go that way, let's go.

1) Would you like someone like say - Jackie McNamara or Paul Lambert to coach the Rangers?

2) The fail we experienced with Liverpool in Istanbul and the one Simeone has with Atleti is IMO incomparable. In Istanbul a strange and extraordinary thing happened and our team and coach lost the reigns. It was a collective blackout which enabled the inferior team to win. Luck left us again on ET and with the penalties it was clear we were beaten.

Atleti entered the final as an inferior team, but a fighting unit. Ancelotti managed to crack this hard nut and then everything started falling apart.

3) I will always stand my ground and reject ideas like Simeone or Mourinho. Yes, they bring success. Yes, they make a cohesive unit. But this is not what Milan should be longing for, because we are not well-oiled to survive with that kind of an approach in long term perspectives. This is not how we fight and this is certainly not the way of a Milan coach. You and many others may say that Milan has only history to be proud of and that times changed, but I won't give in - because by giving in I as a fan accept this fate and partake in Milan's transformation. And this kind of transformation is unacceptable to me.

But it's acceptable to hire rookies (Leonardo, Allegri, Seedorf, Inzaghi) and keep failing year after year? Milan is supposed to be a winning club, and people like Mourinho and Simeone can certainly pull a 3rd place with the team we have right now. Instead, we decide to go the easy way, miss on Europe, lose funds, eventually becoming a vicious cycle where fans suffer and the club delves in mediocrity. I'd rather have someone like Simeone than become a 3rd rate team, not that someone like Simeone would ever consider signing for an unambitious club like us or that we even have the funds to hire him at this point of his career.