[mishie]

A trip to Palermo this weekend and with them having no wins in the last 3 games a ideal opportunity to take all 3 points

[Tennie]

Okay, my responses in order.

zd, why do you insist on the pessimism in thinking we're going to fall down the table? Pirlo's back, Ronaldinho is hitting form, and traditionally Milan start playing their best football after the winter ritiro.

If Kaka were benched for poor play - and I think he should be - I can only imagine the howls of outrage that would come. It may be a fault of Ancelotti for starting the names even if they play poorly, but if some people point fingers at his insistence on playing 2 DMs, then I'm going to point fingers at him playing a Kaka in sucktastic form. And the thing is, even if he did whatever it is we'd like to see him do, there's no proof at all that it would have any change in the results of games.

As for han's blaming the coach, I'm going to agree to disagree. I think it's as much on the players for laziness and complacency - especially when they've got the lead and switch off - as it is on the coach. I don't think Ancelotti is blameless. I don't think the players are blameless either.

And I'm definitely going to agree to disagree that Kaka is above criticism. Nobody is. Not him, not Maldini, not Ancelotti.

As for making it work without important players, Milan is in second place without having had Pirlo for the majority of the games. That to me is a remarkable achievement and credit for that should go both to the players who've played in unfamiliar roles as well as the coach who's gotten good performances out of (most of) the players.

Now let's suspend the debate, shall we? This is a match thread, it's a game day, and let's look and see how we actually do against Palermo.