[han2503]

Who: Empoli FC vs. AC Milan



(IMG:https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/374x191q90/911/28TvU0.png)



Where: Stadio Carlo Castellani



(IMG:http://smimgs.com/images/stadium/121_1358052145.jpg)



When:
23rd September 2014 @ 8:45pm CET


Head-to-Head Record



(IMG:https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/637x193q90/540/2upieI.png)

[Jack Sparrow]

^^

I'm sorry, that site doesn't open for me. I'm at work. So if you could post that lineup in text, I'd be able to take a look.

Mm...so, likewise no disrespect but let me explain my thought process I still believe it is situational.

When Zapata or Abate or De Sciglio jumps out of position and ruins an offside trap leaving Bonera to take on a player one-on-one, which he fails at coz he's too slow - whose fault is it?

When you have zonal defence and a player scores, whose fault is it? The players holding the zones from which the scorer started the run, and continued or the player holding the zone in which the player landed for about a second before scoring.

I generally tend not to single out one player in the defence, especially on setpieces and especially when the team is doing zonal marking. But I'm weird on this forum. I find defending to be extremely f@cking hard. Second only to the deep lying playmaker position. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Muntari again is situational. There are games which the structure will suit him perfectly. There are games where he can't play except in a certain point of time. For e.g. against a high pressuring team (like Empoli in the first 40 minutes), when we have such a static lineup -> NdJ and MvG stayed flat on their positions, De Sciglio was painful in his build up play and Menez was double-marked, Muntari has not one option to make a straight pass. Here his flaw is that instead of hoofing it off to switch playing side or clear lines, he tries an ambitious pass that gives up possession.

So I won't pillory them.

But here's the thing. I will ship out Bonera, Mexes, Zapata, Muntari and Poli if it meant we would get Thiago Silva and Kroos/Modric/Isco/Di Maria.

So please understand I'm not saying that Muntari/Bonera etc are good players. I'm just trying to make do with what we have and utilise them to make best use of their limited talent set.