[Tennie]

(IMG:http://i34.tinypic.com/2la4fg8.jpg)

Picture of starting lineup of the European Cup final
from left, top row: Paolo Maldini, Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Carlo Ancelotti, Frank Rijkaard, Giovanni Galli
bottom row: Franco Baresi, Roberto Donadoni, Billy Costacurta, Angelo Colombo, Mauro Tassotti
This is the Milan club voted best club team of all time by World Soccer Magazine.

Here's the citation:

Arrigo Sacchi's Milan side of the late 1980s and early 1990s revolutionised Italian football with their attack-minded, pressing game.

Sacchi was making a name for himself with Parma in the mid-1980s when he was hired by Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi. At the time, Italian league rules allowed three foreigners in each team. Englishmen Ray Wilkins and Mark Hateley were shown the door and in their place Milan hired Dutchmen Ruud Gullit and Marco Van Basten. They were joined a year later by compatriot Frank Rijkaard.

The trio provided the flair, the Italian players provided the steel, Sacchi provided the tactical discipline. Together they changed the face of Italian and also European football.

A tight defence, marshalled by Franco Baresi and featuring youngsters Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta, provided a platform for a midfield that included Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Donadoni alongside Rijkaard. They in turn provided the bullets for Gullit and Van Basten, who each scored twice as Milan destroyed Steaua Bucharest in the 1989 European Cup final, having beaten Real Madrid 6-1 on aggregate in the semi-final.

Sacchi's men retained the trophy in 1990 – the last team to do so – with a narrow victory over Sven Goran Eriksson's Benfica. They also enjoyed back-to-back World Club Cup success, against Atletico National of Colombia and Olimpia of Paraguay.

I'm probably one of the few boardmembers old enough to remember watching this team play. They were magnificent. Though they didn't become the Invincibles until a couple of years later, they were already very, very special.

Today's Milan is a good side - not perfect, but good. Even so, I wonder who, if any, of them would make Sacchi's starting XI and whose place they would take.

[mishie]

In my opinion a team like Milan, or any top team, should be winning AND playing good football. Average teams should expect one of the two, and bad teams should be happy to get either. It's not as black and white as that, but that's what supporters of top teams should expect, great football + wins.

playing attractive football to me is a bonus...winning is everything, of course i'd like to see us thrash 5 or 6 goals past Lecce and Chievo but i want us to win simple as that..if the rest of the season is scrappy 1-0's and we win Lo Scudetto i won't care we will be champions again...if we played attractive football and finish 5th again but someone posted never mind at least we played attractive football they would get slaughterd to everything is realitive Milan is winning club and thats needs to start again if the football is good then thats fine and dandy but i want to win!!!

[kurtsimonw]

playing attractive football to me is a bonus...winning is everything, of course i'd like to see us thrash 5 or 6 goals past Lecce and Chievo but i want us to win simple as that..if the rest of the season is scrappy 1-0's and we win Lo Scudetto i won't care we will be champions again...if we played attractive football and finish 5th again but someone posted never mind at least we played attractive football they would get slaughterd to everything is realitive Milan is winning club and thats needs to start again if the football is good then thats fine and dandy but i want to win!!!

I do agree with most of that. The problem comes for me when we're playing like we are and we don't win anything, what good comes from that, no titles and no enjoyment. If we do win the scudetto, by all means, play as much scrappy footballas you want!

[acid911]

If we do win the scudetto, by all means, play as much scrappy footballas you want!

There's also the small matter of dropping unnecessary points when you play scrappy football, which I'm sure you'll agree with. Play lousy games, get lucky wins, and sooner or later you're going to regret it. One thing luck is particularly good at is running out. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) At the wrong time too, I might add. At least once we're back to playing confident and attractive football we'll be the masters of our own destiny.

We've lost 8 unnecessary points up till now, while we should have at most lost 2 (by drawing against inter). We haven't had any of our particularly tough matches yet. I'll hold on to passing the final judgment until the crunch hour is upon us - when we're deep into crucial games and UEFA cup matches. Mark my words, if we play like this by then, we'll be out of the race sooner than you can say Forza Milan! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Which I hope we won't be: Nesta will be back, Pirlo in form, Ronaldinho and Kaka reach their optimum potential, and our strikers (Boriello in particular) gets regularly on the scoring sheet.

[kurtsimonw]

Play lousy games, get lucky wins, and sooner or later you're going to regret it.

I think the key to this is the oppositions opinion of you. If they come up against a team who is winning every week, and plays great football, the team feels beaten before they even set foot on the field, which makes it even easier to pick up the win as they've almost conceeded defeat. If you're a team winning but playing poorly, however, the opposition team will be more confident in taking points from you, and generally confidence leads to better performances.

So hopefully we start playing better football, and we'll be winning games before they've even started, in a way.

[acid911]

I think the key to this is the oppositions opinion of you. If they come up against a team who is winning every week, and plays great football, the team feels beaten before they even set foot on the field, which makes it even easier to pick up the win as they've almost conceeded defeat. If you're a team winning but playing poorly, however, the opposition team will be more confident in taking points from you, and generally confidence leads to better performances.

So hopefully we start playing better football, and we'll be winning games before they've even started, in a way.

Very well put, Kurt. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/king.gif) If only, playing confident football, makes the games a tad easy.