[Fillipo Simone]

Let's see how we can manage this one. I assume Milan will be in better shape considering we have van Bommel, Emanuelson and especially Cassano all avaible.

[han2503]

Truth to be told, I don't think the majority of our players acted like sh@t. It's a harsh self-critical sentence that really isn't neccesary at all, it would be a overstatement.

I really don't think so, there were very few of our players who actually acted rational against Spurs. Namely Nesta, Abate, Antonini and Thiago. All the others were more bury whining and complaining every chance they got. Yes Spurs really instigated and provoked them and ou've seen me defend all of our players, even Rino's lunacy and Flamini. But really looking at it, with all the experience they brag about they should have seen what Spurs were really trying to do, and showed them up on the pitch.

This is why I still have hope for the 2nd leg, hopefully after the players have cooled down and really assessed what @sses they made out of themselves and see Spurs for what they really are, they'll show all that pent up anger on the pitch in London, grab the game by the throat, score early and make a game out of it. My only worry is Allegri, imo he's ametourish at best and not fit to lead this team on a higher level then beating the minnows of the league

At first sight, yes. But when you think about it real hard...no. Abate has speed and that's about it. If he manages to come forward and break the oppositions line, there's a 40:60 chance he'll make a decent cross that is reachable. None of the goals we scored came out of a Abate assist, in fact in more then 40 matches played over 2 seasons Abate managed to make 2 assists. I dare to say Oddo would have done considerably better.
Really don't think it's an at first sight thing, Oddo usually gets stuck at the half way line, you rarely see him go to the by-line like Abate does, he usually sits a few feet up from half and punts up crosses or vertical balls from there, which serve to waste our time more then anything else.

Like I've always said, Oddi is by far the better defender, but Abate is the better attacker of the 2. Maybe Oddo can put in a better cross on rare occasions, but Abate pulls players with him when he makes his runs and can put in a decent cross a the very rare occasions

I don't get it. Every match-thread there are some 'please play Merkel' posts. What did he done that is so convincing? Strasser, Boateng...that I can understand. But Merkel?

Agreed. To me the hype around Merkel is about the age and nothing else, to me it's really stupid, the kid is clearly not ready but we push for it just so we can say that an 18 year old is in our 11