[Tennie]

(from acmilan.com's english page. their translation) link

MILAN - These, so far, are the official shirt numbers of the Rossoneri's first team, including the two young Uruguay footballers who on Monday became Milan players:

GOALKEEPERS: 1 Nelson Dida - 12 Christian Abbiati - 16 Zelijko Kalac

DEFENDERS: 3 Paolo Maldini - 2 Massimo Oddo - 4 Kakha Kaladze - 13 Alessandro Nesta - 15 Gianluca Zambrotta - 18 Marek Jankulovski - 19 Giuseppe Favalli - 25 Daniele Bonera - 36 Matteo Darmian - 77 Luca Antonini

MIDFIELDERS: 5 Emerson - 8 Rino Gattuso - 14 Mathias Cardacio - 21 Andrea Pirlo - 23 Massimo Ambrosini - 32 Cristian Brocchi - 84 Mathieu Flamini

ATTACKERS: 7 Alexandre Pato - 9 Filippo Inzaghi - 10 Clarence Seedorf - 11 Marco Borriello - 20 Tabarè Viudez - 22 Ricardo Kakà - 43 Alberto Paloschi - 80 Ronaldinho

Edited to reflect the departures of Digao and Simic.

This post has been edited by Tennie: Aug 15 2008, 06:17 PM

[Jack Sparrow]

So Viudez is the new Gourcuff. Or the new Seedorf maybe... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Good either way. Takes stress of Kaka like Giancarlo mentioned. But he's an attacker. Heh heh!! I really think a double pivot mid-field will be in the offing this season.

This post has been edited by Jack Sparrow: Aug 6 2008, 12:45 PM

[Rossoneri7]

On paper ... That looks like one hell of a roster. The perfect blend between experience and youth .. PLUS the quality of the World Class players ..

The weakest link, if I was to be a critic would be the defense .. Otherwise, this is a very good roster (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Bluesummers]

i agre with r7, very good roster. I just wish we had a recall clause on gourcuff just in case the list of injuries increased.

[kurtsimonw]

I agree with the above, on paper it does look pretty damn good.

[Zed.D]

Only one quality CB lacking...

[KillerMax]

Only one quality CB lacking...

And one quality GK.

[Zed.D]

And one quality GK.

Of course. but with a strong defense, we can rely on Abbiati (/Dida) IMO.

[nuh]

i don't like these most of these number's they are wired like flamini antonini palo darmian and ronaldinho
but at least we made signings we are lucky enough for that

[Zed.D]

I, too, would have like #14 for Flamini for example, but numbers don't matter as long as they give their best on the pitch.

[chrismcb]

It is a very good roster and looks like a team that could challenge for the Scudetto and if we, as we suppossedly are, buying either Ivanovic from Chelsea or Thiago Silva from Fluminense our defense would have sufficient back up. I think the squad is easily strong enough to compete for the top place with Inter, Roma, Juve etc and if we get necessary recruits for defense we could go all the way. I don't think we desperately need a keeper as Abbiati has performed well so far in pre-season and we have Felipe coming in for next season from Santos. (We have apparently bought him but have put him on loan in Brazil for this season. Can anyone confirm that?)

Also for the upcoming season is Ancelotti using the Christmas Tree formation and if yes how will we fit both Pato and Borriello in the team? Other than that I think we have a roster that will suit the formation.

Any information on new boys Viudez or Cardacio?

[Tennie]

Very little, chris. There's a bit of information in their respective threads in the player section. I know I saw Cardacio play last year for his NT but wasn't paying any particular attention. They do both seem to have promise though -- and given the jersey numbers they've got it would appear that neither are going on loan or to the primavera.

[Zed.D]

Cafu and Digao and Sergio out
Ronaldinho in

It's really good to see the number of Brazilians is balanced. now we have as many Brazilians as 'Argentinian' Inter; 5. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[Rossoneri7]

Cafu and Digao and Sergio out
Ronaldinho in

It's really good to see the number of Brazilians is balanced. now we have as many Brazilians as 'Argentinian' Inter; 5. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

There was a time when they have an argie for every position except the Goali (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Tennie]

I'm not usually much of a stats junkie but I've discovered that Gazzetta has little player information pages on every player in Serie A.

Below are Gazzetta's average player ratings for the Milan squad for last season. I've included ratings for players who were in Serie A last season but not at Milan (ie, Antonelli and Borriello).

1 Dida 5.81
2 Oddo 5.7
3 Maldini 6
4 Kaladze 6
5 Emerson 5.77
7 Pato 6.12
8 Gattuso 5.92
9 Inzaghi 6.15
10 Seedorf 6.02
11 Borriello 6.3
13 Nesta 6.24
16 Kalac 6.18
18 Jankulovski 5.65
19 Favalli 5.83
21 Pirlo 6.18
22 Kaka 6.33
23 Ambrosini 6.2
25 Bonera 6.03
32 Brocchi 5.94
43 Paloschi 6.2
77 Antonini 5.89