[Danny]

What we making so far overall of the Pippo era?

For my tuppence I think he's done brilliantly given the financial constraints. Galliani basically brought in a new team, for near-enough free, and the fact we sit 4th after 7 matches is easily beyond what any of us expected.

We've lost one match, a match we did well in and only a moment of Pogba magic finished by Tevez won the 3 points for Juve. We've made two careless draws, but 4 wins against Parma, Lazio, Chievo and HV are, it has to be said, extremely impressive.

There is progress going on under Pippo, clear progress.

Naturally he makes plenty of bewildering decisions like all managers do, but judge on results, and only 7 points dropped of 21 is, frankly, absolutely excellent.

I'd say 'the big tests come against the Fiorentinas of this world' but then we took one of them on today and completely outclassed them. HV have been a fine performer the past season or so, and beat the recently-improved Torino away on the opening day. So they're a good team that only Roma then us have beaten thus far.

It obviously annoys me to see Rami ahead of Zapata, or Muntari and not MvG or Bona etc, but for all we disagree on personnel - it's results we have to judge.

On that level, and our position in the table, Pippo gets an -A.

If we beat Fiorentina next week you'd have to say it's really starting to look good for him.

[han2503]

We're back to agreeing again!

Well, it does happen on occasion (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Fair points but my target remains 5th. EL. IF we get that, nailed it. If we do better, it's a glorious bonus.

I think that's your and every other Milan fan's cautious side at play. But you have to look around and see who the competition for that 3rd spot is. And realistically that is us, Inter and Napoli, Fiorentina and Lazio are long shots at best.

But when you look at the other 2 direct rivals for the spot they are both terribly inconsistent, even worse than us. So hoping for a EL birth is selling ourselves short, as looking at the direct competition for that spot we should be able to at the least fight a good fight for it and we should be in and around that spot come the end of the season, anything else would be a complete failure, just like the utter mess that was last season was a failure.

It is bewildering to see some of the midfield selections, but then he's only doing the same as Allegri and Seedorf. The question is why. Our best midfielders clearly are De Jong, MvG and Bona. One was unavailable, but the other two just sat on the bench as Essien and Muntari bafflingly took their slots. In a sort of way I can understand Essien as he's the only DM we have aside De Jong - no wonder we're in for Khedira although we won't get him.

I think Pippo tries to play it safe, Poli's a hard worker, Muntari (on paper) is considered a defensive minded mid and Essien as well. But Essien and Muntari bring in so many negative aspects into play that their inclusion rather than help out the defence ends up putting even more pressure on it. I understand why a coach would go for the more pragmatic approach, but it just does not work that way, it failed when Carlo did it, when Allegri did it and now with Pippo as well.

You need smart, creative players in midfield that are not afraid to touch the ball, players who actually call for the ball and actually know what to do with it, we currently don't have that in midfield, when De jong is considered the most composed and creative cog in your midfield you know you have an issue.

If Pippo could just put out our best team then we wouldn't have that issue. But that said we did use the ball very well today and it wasn't till we were 3 up that our possession became ragged.

I'm hoping that alone will fix most of the possession issues, but it also has to be a mentality within the team, we've grown up watching a possession obsessed Milan, especially under Carlo, under Allegri it was as well even if it was mostly lethargic and useless possession. Now it's like a complete 180 with Pippo as possession doesn't seem to be a top priority, but we absolutely need to be able to keep hold of the ball, not being able to do that is why we're so defensively weak imo, not because of bad individuals in defence

De Jong, Bona, MvG. I'd cry with joy at that midfield. Has everything. Destroyer, all-round CM and attack-minded creativity.

It's the model I preached to you and X earlier in the season and now you both see why Bona is much better deeper as the pinnacle of a 3 man midfield.

It's our best 3.

I hope to see it at the San Siro v Viola.

You mean the convo where we talked circles around each other for days and in the end we were talking about the same thing? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Yeah, for me a good midfield trio has to include only one defensive minded player, anything more and the quality of the midfield play nose dives and that can't happen with such a formation. The other 2 need to be creative but also good on both sides of the ball. Both Van Ginkel and Jack can do this imo, same goes with Monto and Poli to an extent although I feel like he's regressed this season. Muntari and Essien can't be in there with each other or with De Jong.