Danny shall we start with the ratings ? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Donnarumma: 7.5 - Some great saves, we wouldn't have gotten 3 points without him. Couldn't do anything about the conceded goal and looks much better and confident with the ball on his legs. Glad that we held on to him.

Conti: 7.5 - Very good work rate contrary to the previous games. Liked him quite much and pairs perfectly with Suso. Maybe he can work more in the defensive part and improve, but he is surely an improvement of Abate.

Musacchio: 6 - Not his best night, seemed quite unsure with the ball and actually made some mistakes. Also he wasn't very good in building the game from the back.

Bonucci: 6.5 - I would rate him 5.5 based only on his 1st half, being quite poor and making mistakes, but improved his game by a lot in the second half. I'd like to see him be more concrete, more strong in the duels.

Rodriguez: 7 - Same evaluation as Conti, only he has been less active in the front but I think having a mate like Borini with him in the left doesnt help at all.

Kessie: 6 - His worst game till now, not like we have been used to see from him. He was the main reason why we conceded that goal which would be much more suffering if Suso didnt score.

Montolivo: 6.5 - As usual, not good, but the best of our midfield. Even if he wasnt good at playmaking, at least he ran a lot and covered much more space than Hakan and Kessie.

Hakan: 5 - FLOP! I said I wont judge him until he is played in his position but his mistakes tonight were nothing compared to his position. Couldnt pass, couldnt hold the ball, not even dribble or anything else. Lost every duel. A match to forget for him. We saw that in his face when he was in the bench.

Suso: 8 - MOM! Assist + A spectacular goal. He dominated that right wing, cant really comment on how good he is. Dont remember we had a good winger like him in a long time. He might miss some stamina and I would rate him 9 if he ran more and covered more space but when he has the ball he knows what to do.

Cutrone: 7.5 - Silvas signature might seem useless after all if he continues to perform like this. Did his job, scored a great chance. Also he is very good with his back to the goal. Im really enjoying him play.

Borini: 6 - The guy brings nothing to the team. Appart from running, he is useless. Cant remember doing anything useful, a good pass, run, cross or shot. Nothing.

I will rate subs with NA cos the team wasnt trying so much and neither Kalinic or Biglia could show their qualities. As for Antonelli, he is always a 0 for me.

Montella: 6 - The guy needs to be more flexibile regarding the formation and philosophy. 4-3-3 makes Bonucci, Conti, Rodriguez and Hakan play worse than they are. It also makes Silva and Kalinic stay in bench. While with a 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-1-2 we would have a much more interactive formation, a formation that would make everyone look better.

It was the fact that Cagliari equalized which woke us up. What system change are you referring to? It was the same formation, just Montolivo took Hakan's position. Biglia was playing as anchor and Kessie occupied his usual position on the right.

Here's a question, if we played 3-4-3, which of these players would you play in the attacking trio (could be one AM and two strikers or two AMs and one striker):

Calhanoglu
Bonaventura
Suso
Borini
Cutrone
Silva
Kalinic

Clearly a lot of players will be left out.

Personally, I'd go with Bona and Suso behind Silva.

I made mine more abstract this week. But let's dance (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Donnarumma: 7.5 - Some great saves, we wouldn't have gotten 3 points without him. Couldn't do anything about the conceded goal and looks much better and confident with the ball on his legs. Glad that we held on to him.

Not so convinced about the ball at his feet but yes, he's been a vast improvement this season on second half of last. Made some great saves in this match.

Conti: 7.5 - Very good work rate contrary to the previous games. Liked him quite much and pairs perfectly with Suso. Maybe he can work more in the defensive part and improve, but he is surely an improvement of Abate.

Bit harsh on Abate, he was a great servant for us. But this was, as I said, Conti's best game for us.



Both rubbish. Simple as. I got slated on here a week ago for being so critical (not by you), particularly re: Bonucci and now everyone can see it.



He lacks pace. Otherwise he's a good asset to the team and he's growing on me.



Generous with the score. I'd have gone 5 at most.



I didn't mention him but I was quietly impressed with him tonight. I think he's handling this new Milan era quite well.



Yeah, as us Scots would say, mince.



His one flaw was his failure to track back for one big chance they had = Conti was out of position and no one was covering. But then it's never been Suso's remit to defend so I guess that won't change. Otherwise really good night.



Our best striker. Easily.



And yet you scored him higher than Cal (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) I really don't mind Borini at all. He's a player's player.



Quite simply this squad is a 3-5-2.

It's filled with midfielders and three massive defenders. It is set from the ground up for that formation and it is surely only a matter of time before we go it?

Donna

Musac, Bonucci, Romagni

Conti Jack Kessie Biglia Rodriguez

----------Suso
---------------Cutrone

This post has been edited by Danny: Aug 28 2017, 12:02 AM

So, what do we do with Kalinic and Silva ?

Hakan is bench material, just like Borini. Bonaventura can play in midfield, which is IMO preferable. That leaves us with 3 starters and one bench player. So I'd play Suso-Silva and whoever is in better form between Cutrone and Kalinić. Simple.

I hate 3-5-2. It's a dumb stupid formation only good for playing on the counter. We don't have the pace for that. Maybe a 3-4-3, but we'd get skewered on the defence front.

Yesterday's performance was mostly down to players getting to know each other. There was no chemistry. We had some ideas, but we were just a beat behind in execution while Cagliari were better at getting to press and more mobile.

That's fine. We'll get there I guess.

Regret signing them. And no one could have foreseen the rise of Cutrone.

That said, even in the current formation there's only space for one striker anyway.

I won't totally oppose this view, but that's the best formation for this squad.

4-4-2 isn't. We have one winger (how often does Jack actually put crosses in!) and it doesn't work for Cal.

4-3-3 isn't. We have one winger and not a mobile enough midfield. And it doesn't work for Cal.

4-2-3-1 isn't. We don't have two DMs or two deep lying mids capable of the DP.

3-5-2 is the best fit for the players we have. Starting think Sheva may actually have had a point.

Yeah, and I specified I wasn't necessarily agreeing with said general consensus.



Thought the ref was fine.



He pulled his man down ffs. Really?!



Can't argue with that.



Weren't you part of the crew that gave me dog's abuse for saying Bonucci was struggling and that he suited a back 3 better? No matter, it's remaining a big problem and we've still not played a good side. Next week is the first real test against a credible team in Lazio. At their patch. This defence is miles off being ready for it.



What I find worrying is that our first modest test was honestly a borderline fail. We'd had five p*ss easy matches and some of you were actually buying into the results. Today we went toe to toe with what will be a probably relegation candidate - with all their players, and while things were good for 20 minutes, they fell apart after the water break.

That looked a lot like the Milan we've been used to for five years quite honestly.

If we struggle against teams like this on our own turf, bigger tests could have depressing results. And that defence looks appalling.

Yes.



I'm starting to understand why Pippo has been so castigating of him.



Doubt 4-2-3-1 will work a lot better but I would prefer it over 4-3-3.

Looking at all the analysis, with everyone now saying what I did last week, is any brave soul going to actually admit I was right about Bonucci? I took a lot of shite from you lot about it!

Disagree here. it was clear we went for a 4-2-3-1 once Biglia came on. Monto pushed up and was playing behind the striker while Biglia and Kessie where clearly in a double pivot.


First half we were atrocious because I think no one knew wtf they were doing. Hakan and Borini to me looked the most lost out there with both of them making bad runs, getting in each other's way and just generally looked out of the game. The formation change clearly made a huge impact, sure the goal woke the players up a bit (especially Kessie), but you can't disregard how we looked much more compact once Montella shifted the players around.

Some observations going by the comments here:

Bonucci: Once again Danny, you simply go to the extreme for no reason. Rubbish? Come on now! He's taking his time to adjust, he had some good moments and some bad ones. And this can be applied to the entire group imo. All of the players, even guys like Suso and Cutrone who were the best 2 out there imo, had some iffy moments where they could have done better. It's going to take time for the team to really click with each other. We've been saying this all summer, yet now that the season has started we're going into meltdowns and labelling players rubbish because we're seeing what we'd already anticipated months ago? Bonucci is clearly going to need some time to get out of that Juve bubble he was in and adjust to playing for a different team in a system that is still a work in progress compared to the rock solid one he's been in at Juve for the last 6 years

Musacchio: Again, saw some criticism. He needs time as well. Montella is simply not helping things by using a different pairing each game. He should have let Bonucci and Musacchi play in all the games they were available for.

Hakan: No doubt a terrible game from him. But again, he's struggling to adapt and the position he's being played in simply does not suit him. It's not an excuse to say his ban is effecting hisd performance, but he clearly looks not completely match ready right now imo, just slightly off the pace which can really cripple you in such a physical game. I disdagree that he has no vision, his other games for us have shown us that he's a very intelligent passer he was simply not on his game yesterday

Kessie: Really off game, and I find it worrying how dependent we are on him in midfield as well. He's the driving force behind it atm and we looked one dimensional when he was struggling but looked much better when he finally woke up

Monto: He was decent, looked very tired in the last 30 minutes or so, but Biglia showed what we've been missing for a while now in the few minutes he was on the pitch

Cutrone: The kid is Pippo inzaghi with footballing skills. Like I've been saying for a while now, we shouldn't put too much pressure on him, he's obviously ice cold in front of goal but we need to handle him delicately as I don't want to see another situation where we ruin a very talented young attacker. Silva and Kalinic will need to really show what they can do when they get the chance. Too bad Montella is useing a formation that limits us to only using one while Borini starts

Borini: He was a ghost for most of the game, he's getting some mild praise because he runs a lot? So what, his running is useless, he's like the striker version of Poli. At times I even forgot he was on the pitch that's how ineffectual all his running is. He's partly to blame for why our left side is so weak compared to our right. Look how Suso makes it seem so effertless to link up with his mid and FB. They all bring each other into the game with smart runs and passing while our left side is dead and imo Borini is very much to blame for this.

Montella & formation: All I have to say is that Montella needs to resolve this formation issue ASAP

Usual stuff. "Yeah but..."

Yawn.

I'm sorry, what? Biglia and Kessie are very, very capable of playing in the double pivot. It's where they played last season for Lazio and Atalanta, albeit it was a 3-4-1-2 in their case.



That's the impression you got, but I assure you that nothing changed. Watch the second half again, you'll notice that Monto and Kessie occupied the mezz'ala positions whereas Biglia played in the center. In no moment did Monto play behind the striker. He shifted there a few times during play, but that's completely normal in the flow of the game. So did Hakan in the first half.