[Danny]

From what I gather, Bacca had to be restrained from assaulting the ref. Unnacceptable, and shameful - cannot behave like that even when everyone is against you. I understand his anger, most of us were filled with it last night ourselves, but you cannot attack the officials.

Montella's post match comments were good, and dignified, and defended the honour of the club without antagonising the officials.

In some ways, in the cold light of day, this was the best way for this match to end.

If we'd won, we'd be acting like we did last year, a bunch of kids, like a Crotone beating the mighty Juve, and it led to a slump we took a LONG time to get out of. A draw also would have have given us a little bit of ego that this team hasn't earned.

But a totally unjustified loss makes the players angry, defiant, determined, and eager to make up for it. It shows they will fight. It gives them the right motivation to do their talking on the pitch for the rest of the season.

[han2503]

From what I gather, Bacca had to be restrained from assaulting the ref. Unnacceptable, and shameful - cannot behave like that even when everyone is against you. I understand his anger, most of us were filled with it last night ourselves, but you cannot attack the officials.

Montella's post match comments were good, and dignified, and defended the honour of the club without antagonising the officials.

In some ways, in the cold light of day, this was the best way for this match to end.

If we'd won, we'd be acting like we did last year, a bunch of kids, like a Crotone beating the mighty Juve, and it led to a slump we took a LONG time to get out of. A draw also would have have given us a little bit of ego that this team hasn't earned.

But a totally unjustified loss makes the players angry, defiant, determined, and eager to make up for it. It shows they will fight. It gives them the right motivation to do their talking on the pitch for the rest of the season.

Meh still think the draw would have been the correct result and would have been easier to move on from

But I agree about the part of this firing the players up. We have a decent schedule coming up now up till the Inter game if I'm not mistaken, we've come out of a pretty difficult run of fixtures with a decent point tally imo, so if we do our best in the upcoming games we should be in a good position come the end of the season, let's see what Inter and Atalanta do tomorrow. Either a draw or an Inter win would be best for us. We need Lazio and Atalanta to drop off so we can occupy one of their places imo if we want to place in a European spot. Inter imo will continue to win so I don't think we can overtake them

As for Montella, I agree, he's shown class throughout the season, exactly what I would expect from a Milan coach

And as for Bacca, he's disgraceful, no need to be acting like an idiot, it's not like he's going to reverse his decision

[han2503]

And it looks like we've lost Suso to a long term injury as well, just perfect...

All the things that were going right for us in the first half of the season are piling up into a mountain of sh!t luck now

[Danny]

And it looks like we've lost Suso to a long term injury as well, just perfect...

All the things that were going right for us in the first half of the season are piling up into a mountain of sh!t luck now

I'm not bothered about Suso. I don't think he's that important - not now that we have Deulofeu giving us a completely different kind of outlet which is doing as much damage now as Suso was in his best form earlier in the season.

He has pace, can beat players, and is a team player - Suso definitely improved mentally this season but the past couple of months I saw a lot of his old traits creeping back in - and he has no pace, and can rarely beat players. His set pieces are also absolutely honking.

[X-Offender]

I'm not bothered about Suso. I don't think he's that important - not now that we have Deulofeu giving us a completely different kind of outlet which is doing as much damage now as Suso was in his best form earlier in the season.

He has pace, can beat players, and is a team player - Suso definitely improved mentally this season but the past couple of months I saw a lot of his old traits creeping back in - and he has no pace, and can rarely beat players. His set pieces are also absolutely honking.

It's better to have them both though, no?

Deulofeu seems more like a counter-attacking player. He has great speed, but Suso has more vision. He could create chances at any moment.

[Jack Sparrow]

Suso out, but we will get Honda and soon Montolivo too. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Danny]

It's better to have them both though, no?

Deulofeu seems more like a counter-attacking player. He has great speed, but Suso has more vision. He could create chances at any moment.

You always want your best players, of course, but I've been a lot less impressed with Suso in the past while. Only way we'll know how we do without him is seeing how the upcoming matches go, I guess. As for Deu, composure at high pace is something we haven't had for years. In fact, I can barely remember us ever having that at all since Kaka. We had the speed machine of Niang but absolutely no quality to go with it - and aside that I can't think of too many locomotives we've had who could actually do something with that pace. I'm probably forgetting someone.

[han2503]

I'm not bothered about Suso. I don't think he's that important - not now that we have Deulofeu giving us a completely different kind of outlet which is doing as much damage now as Suso was in his best form earlier in the season.

He has pace, can beat players, and is a team player - Suso definitely improved mentally this season but the past couple of months I saw a lot of his old traits creeping back in - and he has no pace, and can rarely beat players. His set pieces are also absolutely honking.

I wouldn't call Suso slow, he just hasn't got that quick turn of pace like Deu does which can leave defenders in the dust, but he's quick once he gets in motion, not to mention I think as x-off said, that he's a better playmaker than Deu, his left foot can be magic at times.

Sure he's not been in his best form recently, but he's been playing non-stop all season, this being his first injury (unsurprisingly a muscle problem) his form was going to falter at some point as fatigue started to set in. The problem with having such a thin squad - even when playing in only 2 competitions - is that you can't give your players any rest. And we've seen the consequences of this now when we're deep into the season and we've lost Bonaventura, Suso and Romagnoli to muscle injuries in the last 2 months or so. Thankfully only one of them was serious. But it's no coincidence that these problems are cropping up now and to the players we rely on so heavily.

So as x-off said, it would be better if we could have all of our best players available. We'd definitely be stronger with Suso instead of Ocampos and Bona instead of Berto

[Danny]

Berto shouldn't be playing. It's something I intrinsically disagree with Montella on. Berto has done nothing in the past month or so to prove me wrong about his utter mediocrity.

My best trio in midfield right now is Sosa (best vision and passer we have), Pasalic (works so hard defensively and offensively), and Kucka (when on his game, a real powerhouse).

But yeah, I don't disagree with either of you on what Suso CAN bring and of course it's best to have your best at your disposal - but a little spell of bad form should be punished by using someone else, and right now while not shocking, Suso is off his best and a period on the sidelines (albeit this isn't ideal re: circumstance) could actually benefit him anyway.

PS a little harsh on Ocampos - he's another one who's actually done not bad - we weren't half bad with him on Friday.

[X-Offender]

You always want your best players, of course, but I've been a lot less impressed with Suso in the past while. Only way we'll know how we do without him is seeing how the upcoming matches go, I guess. As for Deu, composure at high pace is something we haven't had for years. In fact, I can barely remember us ever having that at all since Kaka. We had the speed machine of Niang but absolutely no quality to go with it - and aside that I can't think of too many locomotives we've had who could actually do something with that pace. I'm probably forgetting someone.

Hahaha, OMG I had completely forgotten about Niang. What an utter pile of trash that guy was.

[Jack Sparrow]

He's (Niang) actually doing well in England. Either like Danny says he can't bear the burden of consistency that is required to play in a top club OR he's a slacker who lazes off once he thinks he's 'made it'.

@Danny - I like Bertolacci man. I think he's a clever little passer and dribbler, but what we're missing is that midfield engine to make everything tick. Hence why I'm a huge fan of Milan Badelj. I thought Locatelli would do it, but the boy can't absorb pressure single-handedly.

An interesting note, is how Montella mentioned that he thinks Locatelli could actually play at CB eventually.

Considering how our midfielders are pretty much a bunch of square pegs and we're full of round holes - I'd be okay with your midfield. I'm still hugely in favour of seeing Honda deployed in that midfield three. He has a healthy workrate and pass accuracy - I must be missing something obvious, in case he hasn't been tried before.

Pasalic is average to me, except in the way he makes runs to the box. None of our other midfielders do that as lethally as him - probably thanks to the English influence in his coaching. I however wouldn't play both Pasalic and Kucka together, since defensively I don't trust their positioning (esp Kucka who is out of position and forced to make rash tackles). I would play a confident Locatelli failing which I'd go with Bertolacci in place of either Pasalic or Kucka. Sosa at the moment is untouchable. Having played so little over the season - he's not too fatigued either which is a huge help.

[Forza Milan!]

Can someone please explain the locker room issue that Juve has been raising? Did our players really trash their locker room after the game?

[X-Offender]

I also prefer Bertolacci to Pasalic. As of right now I think our best midfield is Kucka-Sosa-Bertolacci. That being said, they're all very average-to-mediocre players that could very well be starting for teams like Genoa, Sampdoria and other mid-tier clubs.

Unfortunately, Bona's injury was a huge blow. I think with Deulofeu he'd have formed a nice pairing on the left. And now that Suso is injured as well, we're left to cope with scraps.

[milanbuf88]

I also prefer Bertolacci to Pasalic. As of right now I think our best midfield is Kucka-Sosa-Bertolacci. That being said, they're all very average-to-mediocre players that could very well be starting for teams like Genoa, Sampdoria and other mid-tier clubs.

Unfortunately, Bona's injury was a huge blow. I think with Deulofeu he'd have formed a nice pairing on the left. And now that Suso is injured as well, we're left to cope with scraps.

I'd love to see Locatelli tried as a side mid with Sosa and Kucka. Bertolacci just doesn't impress me at all. He's slow, weak, gets knocked off the ball too easily, and his offensive contributions aren't enough to make up for his liabilities.

[Danny]

Can someone please explain the locker room issue that Juve has been raising? Did our players really trash their locker room after the game?

The report I heard was someone wrote 'thieves' somewhere in the tunnel - could have been the locker room, could have been the tunnel, but total speculation is it was Bacca. Whoever it was, and if there is any truth in our players trashing their locker room as well, it's totally unacceptable. Emotions did run incredibly high after that one, and I have never been angrier at a Milan loss in my life, but I cannot condone vandalism. We'll get fined, and rightly so. Idiots.