[Portman]

Serie A 2006/2007 - Day 26

Palermo v Milan

Wednesday, 28th of February 2007

Time: 14:00 (UK), 15:00 (IT)

After the late win against Samp, Milan fly to Sicily to play against Palermo, the 3rd in Serie A.

Oddo, red-carded against Samp won't be available for this trip.

Prediction: 0-1

[han2503]

MILANELLO - Carlo Ancelotti spoke in a pre-game press conference today before the team’s departure for Sampdoria. He first talked about the emergency in defence: ‘Cafu’s back hurts. This started even before the game against Samp and it increased during the game. Marek Jankulovski took a hit to his ankle and it is still really painful. Alessandro Costacurta suffered a sprain in yesterday’s training. Paolo Maldini has a problem with his knee. Kakha Kaladze has the same problem with his tendon. Massimo Oddo is disqualified. Alessandro Nesta has returned and is doing pretty well. The same goes for Serginho. Pippo Inzaghi has an old scar in his thigh. It’s old stuff. He is going to be ok in the next couple of days.’

Ancelotti spoke about tomorrow afternoon’s game: ‘We have more solutions. We can move Brocchi to the right full-back position or Massimo Ambrosini to the central defender position, seeing that he has Caracciolo’s characteristics. As for Ronaldo, it is unlikely he will start. But, if he does, it will be him and Gilardino. Otherwise we will only play with one striker. We are experiencing an emergency in defence, but it’s not anyone’s fault. Unfortunately, this is just how fate has it planned out and we must not get down about it. We will be going there to win all the same because this is a really important game. We will be playing against a side that have resolved their problems. We will be playing on a difficult pitch. However, I think that Milan are going through a good moment. The morale, conviction and confidence are all there. Paradoxically, these problems could just be an extra stimulus.’

Regarding the emergency in defence: ‘We have a temporary problem because, for example, Alessandro Nesta has returned and is doing very well. After the doctor’s examine him today he could return to training with the team. He only needs to find a bit a rhythm with the ball and then he is ready. The same goes for Serginho. From what I saw from Nesta today, he could be easily ready to play in fifteen to twenty days. The doctor that operated on him, Taverna, could give him the green light today. Today he played in a training game with the team. He has the desire to play. As for the rest, various players that weren’t here today could recover in time for Saturday like Kaladze and Jankulovski. Nesta and Serginho will return after the break in March. We must pass this round of the Champions League and remain in the fight for fourth place.’

The coach continued: ‘We are trying to find the right balance, this is something that we have lacked many times this season. In recent games the defence has done really well, while in attack we did well in Glasgow and a bit less well against Sampdoria. As for third place, just a little while ago we couldn’t have even talked about it and today we can. Palermo are still far away, but tomorrow’s game is really important in this sense. Our opponents for fourth place? Fiorentina are a very talented side. Lazio are playing really well and they have the advantage of only having to focus on the league.’

Ancelotti then commented on some individual players and Wednesday’s away game: ‘Only some of the fans booed Seedorf and I think that’s just a passing problem. Seedorf has a great personality and he always goes for the ball even if he makes some extra mistakes when he does. Palermo are a team to fear because they are dynamic and quick. They have a midfield that does well controlling the play and they have strikers that are good one-on-one. I saw the game that Palermo played on Saturday against Atalanta and I saw anything but a team that are in trouble. However, I am not settling for a goalless draw. This is not in our nature. We must try to win with all the weapons at our disposal. I think that we will play with only one striker and all in all Ronaldo shouldn’t start. As for the defenders that aren’t available, we would have brought them to Palermo if there was a chance they would recover in time but this just isn’t the case. The solution for defence will be one of emergency, whether it’s with Brocchi on the right or Ambro in the centre. We tried various solutions in today’s training game. Grimi is also a possibility, he is ready and he is very determined and doesn’t have any problems. He is learning quickly. Alberto Gilardino is doing well. Yoann Gourcuff was sick with the flu up until yesterday.’

From the looks of things and what Carlo said, it looks like we will be playing like this

Brocchi--Bonera--Simic--Favalli (slight possibility of Grimi but highly unlikely)
---Rino--Pirlo--Ambro/Yoann---
---------Kaka--Seedorf----------
-------------Gila------------------

I really don't like this at all, we should be playing with 2 strikers if we really want to win since whenever we've played the xmas tree this season we've always struggled to score. Plus Oli deserves to be on the starting 11, especially after being taken off after 10 minutes at the weekend