[Dracoris]

Robinho is a high quality substitute.

[Zed.D]

We'll start hearing now a lot of stuff about how Italian/Serie A Football has degraded and ****,pfft.

Well, that's true. whether we like it or not. I know Inter are the reigning champions, but if you look at the whole picture, the performance of Italian clubs in CL and especially UEFA/Europa has been horrendous. what puzzles me is that it's not even about the lack of quality players...

[Zed.D]

Merkel is our future, but to think he is only 18 and still probably has 3 years before reaching anything close to his potential is astonishing.

Eighteen?! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) didn't know that.

[KillerMax]

Eighteen?! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) didn't know that.

Yeah, the kid plays for Germany Under 19. He is someone to look out for. Looks like a player who will develop over time as opposed to someone like Pato.

This post has been edited by KillerMax: Mar 9 2011, 11:12 PM

[KillerMax]

Your assesment of Flamini is unfair. His job was to win the ball in the midfield, his offside incident I don't recall because I didn't notice it was him, as for him getting into attacking areas, well no one was making anything happen so he was pushing up to at least try to run into the box like it's been working so well in the Serie A, the time he got in Robinho's way wasn't really as bad as you're making it out to be, because we saw Robinho and Pato doing the same thing to eachother, as well as Ibra and Robinho doing just that against Juve. We seem to be lacking coherence in attack and we're suffering because of it

han... Please... Van Bommel's job is the same thing and he actually DOES DO THAT! He gets in, makes a challenge and more often than not come away with the ball and starts an attacking movement or just any movement depending on the situation. I watched this WHOLE game and didn't notice Flamini do that even ONCE. Please dude... Spare me the headache..

[Dracoris]

This summer it might be time to say goodbye to Flamini. I always stood by him because his biggest flaw, dumb, harsh tackling, is coachable and should've been corrected by now. So either Allegri, Leo, and Carlo fail, or Flamini fails. I'm betting on the latter.

[han2503]

han... Please... Van Bommel's job is the same thing and he actually DOES DO THAT! He gets in, makes a challenge and more often than not come away with the ball and starts an attacking movement or just any movement depending on the situation. I watched this WHOLE game and didn't notice Flamini do that even ONCE. Please dude... Spare me the headache..

Why do you think we dominated the midfield, especially the first half? Flamini was doing a lot of work, whether you like it or not, is he dirty at times they way he goes into tackles? Sure. But he does his job, he's not the same type of DM as Van Bommel is so you can't compare how they play.

Anyways I'm not going to bother say he's cr@p all you want, that was my last reply on the subject, fact here is had we had a decent AM we would have won this easily. Robinho is not good enough simple as. As for your comment on Pato it really doesn't make any sense, he had no service from midfield, at least not the type of service he thrives on, again he was playing out of position most of the night yet it's all his fault! Merkel had one decent pass, let's not make a meal out of it like we usually do when that kid's involved, if he's still here in 3 years time then we can start talking, but I'm pretty sure that he'll get lost in the sea of almosts we had over the years that got loaned out and never returned as expected.

[KillerMax]

Why do you think we dominated the midfield, especially the first half? Flamini was doing a lot of work, whether you like it or not, is he dirty at times they way he goes into tackles? Sure. But he does his job, he's not the same type of DM as Van Bommel is so you can't compare how they play.

Anyways I'm not going to bother say he's cr@p all you want, that was my last reply on the subject, fact here is had we had a decent AM we would have won this easily. Robinho is not good enough simple as. As for your comment on Pato it really doesn't make any sense, he had no service from midfield, at least not the type of service he thrives on, again he was playing out of position most of the night yet it's all his fault! Merkel had one decent pass, let's not make a meal out of it like we usually do when that kid's involved, if he's still here in 3 years time then we can start talking, but I'm pretty sure that he'll get lost in the sea of almosts we had over the years that got loaned out and never returned as expected.

I didn't say anything about Pato...

And We are going to disagree about Flamini.

And I can make the same argument you made about Flamini, about Merkel. Do you think it was a coincidence that all of a sudden we looked more dangerous when he came on? Certainly made some good passes that were missing in the area. Was I expecting him to dribble everyone and score? No, but this 18 year old kid who gets "killed" or whatever under pressure came in and certainly got involved in the game in a positive way which definitely says a lot about the kind of player he is and his potential for growth.

[Bluesummers]

well it was a good attempt. At least we weren't humiliated. With all the injuries we have; its not surprising to lose.


Time to move on; we still have serie A to win (IMG:style_emoticons/default/king.gif)


This summer will be instrumental and I hope galliani pulls a masterclass again. Good mercato and maybe we can start looking at the CL as something realistic again.

[dst]

He got the ball, didn't touch the opposing players leg, went in one footed, no yellow...

Sure he was selfish at time, but please name one of our strikers who wasn't? At that point all of them were trying to pull off something individually because they couldn't link up at all. Aside from that, he got involved, got into good positions, and aimed his shot on goal most of the time... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/innocent.gif)

I saw it mate, no reason to try to convince me, I still think it was a certain yellow.

Pato did some things very well. But you said he did nothing wrong and I just can't agree with that. He did many things wrong and I expect much more from him.

Yeah, the kid plays for Germany Under 19. He is someone to look out for. Looks like a player who will develop over time as opposed to someone like Pato.

Why can't Pato improve? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

[han2503]

I didn't say anything about Pato...

And We are going to disagree about Flamini.

And I can make the same argument you made about Flamini, about Merkel. Do you think it was a coincidence that all of a sudden we looked more dangerous when he came on? Certainly made some good passes that were missing in the area. Was I expecting him to dribble everyone and score? No, but this 18 year old kid who gets "killed" or whatever under pressure came in and certainly got involved in the game in a positive way which definitely says a lot about the kind of player he is and his potential for growth.

In the post above

a player who will develop over time as opposed to someone like Pato.

What pressure was on Merkel at that point? Tottenham were barely evn playing, we've seen Merkel crumble in Serie A, when real pressure is put on him, yes we improved slightly, but before thatwe had a limping Boateng on, anything is an improvement on that, and considering the easy going pace we were playing at anyone who would have bothered to pass forward would have looked good, and that is what Merkel did.

[KillerMax]

Why can't Pato improve? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) ... Not what I meant... Meant to say that he is not starting off as a superstar like Pato... He need time to develop. Kind of like Abate. I am curious what you think of him now.. I saw a post someone compared him to Antonini... In Antonini I saw a player who over-compensated for his lack of tactical and defending skills with a lot of running and chaotic energy. But Abate looks composed and he definitely looks like he has learned a lot about defending and tactical presence.

[han2503]

I saw it mate, no reason to try to convince me, I still think it was a certain yellow.

Pato did some things very well. But you said he did nothing wrong and I just can't agree with that. He did many things wrong and I expect much more from him.


Why can't Pato improve? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

When I say nothing wrong, it means that he didn't make mistakes like Robinho did, for example. In terms of overall performance, he made wrong decisions, either the final pass or shot, something that all the players did tonight I feel. We were controlling the game, but when it came down to just pulling off that one pass to get the job done every player was lacking. Then they started going the selfish route, all of them not just Pato, at one point, Merkel was wide open at the edge of the box, and Zlatan kept rolling it under his feet instand of just passing it to Merkel who was in a great position at the time

[KillerMax]

In the post above


What pressure was on Merkel at that point? Tottenham were barely evn playing, we've seen Merkel crumble in Serie A, when real pressure is put on him, yes we improved slightly, but before thatwe had a limping Boateng on, anything is an improvement on that, and considering the easy going pace we were playing at anyone who would have bothered to pass forward would have looked good, and that is what Merkel did.

Oh yeah.. such an easy walk in the park game... come on.... that is not an argument.

And I explained that Pato thing above. I am certainly not bashing him. He did all he could. And he will develop. That's not what I meant. I'm a fan.

[han2503]

Oh yeah.. such an easy walk in the park game... come on.... that is not an argument.

And I explained that Pato thing above. I am certainly not bashing him. He did all he could. And he will develop. That's not what I meant. I'm a fan.

It is in fact, we've seen him in Serie A, when midfielders target him and put him under pressure, he loses his cool and starts making mistakes, like he expected to, he's a kid FFS!! Today what pressure was he under any time he was on the ball? You tell me. Tottenham were camped out trying to hit us on the counter, anywhere near halfway was free for our players to do as they pleased, and that is where Merkel stayed and fead his balls from, his passing is great as well as his movement, I'm not taking anything away from him, but come on!!!