Well he corrected the DS mistake in this half when he brought on Abate.

As for Honda, it's different in this case because it's a 4-3-3, with Seedorf he could have easily played him in the centre of the 3 in his 4-2-3-1. But with a 4-3-3 the options are very much limited, it's either the left wing or try him out in the CM position as x-off has been campaigning for

Ideally Honda would be played in the hole behind 2 strikers, but I find it hard to see a scenario where that can happen since a 2 striker system is so out of style these days

Mastour gets 6 minutes

Awful game again from us, Pippo seriously needs to work on that defence

I think from now till the start of the season he should go into each one of these friendlies as if they were competitive games, use the 11 he thinks he will start the season with, keep the line-up as consistent as possible (obviously making use of substitutions as necessary so as not to over exert the players).

Because atm it looks like a jumbled up mess out there. At least if nothing else get the strongest defence we have out there and keep it as consistent as possible throughout the rest of the games.

Yes. With Honda it's either play him as CM or don't play him at all. No point in wasting the RW spot. Also, why hasn't Menez been playing?

Was just about to ask the same question

I'm still not sure about Honda as a CM (mostly because I've never seen him play there) but yeah, on the wing he basically just gets lost in the shuffle out wide. At least he put in some great defensive work (probably because he was so frustrated being so isolated out there)

I personally don't get why 4-3-3 should be our formation tbh, I think we'd do better with a diamond and 2 strikers

Ok Inzaghi has screws loose, Muntari with the captain's armband (IMG:style_emoticons/default/96.gif)

Where do I begin with that debacle?

First off the selected team was an absolute mess. As per, the Abate DS mistake continues under Pippo, and the midfield and attack was...just pathetic, tbh.

Honda literally didn't touch the ball in the first half, and the midfield was completely non-existent. The defence was...absolutely invisible. If that 45 minutes is anything to go by Alex is every inch as bad as Onyewu was for us, he was a travesty. And Rami was a complete mess as well.

A B string City team showed up and absolutely destroyed us out there.

Second half was marginally less awful, with Abate and MDS finally in their right places and yes, we did look a little more stable there. We actually had width and Abate provided a decent cross or two. Alex had also been removed and Bonera took his place.

Seriously though, I love Pippo, but if these pre-season matches are an indicator of the upcoming season, and 5-3 v the same side last summer sure was, this is truly relegation form. That was worse than anything from Allegri or Seedorf or Leo combined.

We're just getting worse, and worse, and worse.

Yes, it's true we didn't have our full first team out there, but in reality only Balo, De Jong and Monto were actually missing today. And Balo got the second half.

We're just utterly utterly terrible and unless Silvio sells up and gives us to someone who will start to spend, this Milan will just keep sinking further and further.

This season will be ugly boys, prepare yourselves. This will be the last season for me personally where I support the club from a financial point of view. If things don't change i'm boycotting this management. I'm going to cancel my serie A suscription and won't buy stuff from the Milan store anymore.

I'll still have respect and love for the colours, but i won't support disgraceful c*nts like galliani. His management and decision making have ended Milan. You can't even blame berlusconi's lack investment at this point because we have done unforgivable things like spend 12m on alessandro matri.

This post has been edited by Bluesummers: Jul 28 2014, 01:06 AM

Amen!

I wish they'd scored more. I wouldn't mind 10!

Meh, I think this is far from just 3 players missing, the defence, Rami aside imo is not what our starting back 4 should be. Abate and Mexes should be starting and DS just doesn't cut it on the right

Rami and Alex looked clueless out there probably because this is their first game back/for Milan in Alex's case and their first game together as a pairing.

Same goes with the midfield, I think Poli is the only one with a shot at being a regular starter for us there. Muntari is a nightmare (Essien did much better than him when he came on, glad to see we renewed Muntari's contract (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) ). Cristante I think has talent, he made some great long balls imo, but he's such a lightweight, I really do think we should loan him to a Serie A side this season, give him some good experience.

As for the attack, Niang; what can I say about him? He's improved a bit in his dribbling and decision making but his finishing and passing/crossing... just awful. It feels like he always hits the ball with twice the power necessary, he smacks the ball at players rather than passes it, and his finishing is even worse than that, probably had 3 clear cut chances one on one with Willy the keeper and hit all of them straight at him.

SES still looks very rusty although at times he did show some sparks of what he can really do. And Honda on the left wing just doesn't work. He can't play in a flat 3 right next to the touchline, at least have him deeper and slightly more central or he'll vanish.

As for the validity of pre-season games, I personally don't want to panic just yet, but if we go further into pre-season with the new season fast approaching and there's still seemingly so much confusion among the players, then yeah, we can certainly hit those panic buttons

In short, Honda isn't a winger, but that's the only position he's played since he joined us.

He's a trequartista, funnily enough the only one we now have with Kaka and Taarabt gone. And he STILL doesn't get played there!

Yeah, but as I said to Fillipo, with the 4-3-3 there is no position that he naturally fits into. With Seedorf's 4-2-3-1 though he was played on the wing when there was a position that he would have been a shoe-in for.

I think x-off's suggestion of playing him as CM could be the best option for him.

I'm not sure he has it in him to be CM. But then again, our roster is so poor, there's hardly anyone good (enough).

Han, you are aware that "Willy" stands for Wilfredo Caballero, who played for Boca and Malaga? He's not a brilliant keeper, but not bad either.

No, he's better off on the bench than plain wasted. The guy is an AM, not a CM. Both wing and CM waste him.