[Zed.D]

Calcio Debate: Is Gilardino Good Enough For Milan?


Following Milan’s disappointing 2-1 defeat at Atalanta last night – Carlo Garganese highlights the individual performance of Alberto Gilardino and asks whether the player is good enough to play for the Rossoneri…


Anyone who watched the game in Bergamo last night will tell you that Alberto Gilardino was not the only Milan player to disappoint. Daniele Bonera and Alessandro Nesta had rings run round them by Antonio Langella, Kakha Kaladze made a disastrous error that resulted in Atalanta’s winner, Giuseppe Favalli was awful as usual, while Alexandre Pato looked like a school-kid and missed a glorious one-on-one.


Gilardino has been under-fire for quite some now and it has become increasingly obvious for the past two years now that the striker is just simply not good enough for a club of the stature of Milan.


This does not mean that Gilardino is a bad player – he proved at Parma when he scored 23 times in consecutive Serie A seasons that at smaller and mid-table teams (even those fighting for UEFA Cup qualification) he can be a superbly useful player.


The biggest problem of all is that Gila just does not have the technical ability required to play for one of Europe’s giants, more so a team like Milan who base their game on these qualities.


The 25-year-old has no skill, he cannot create an opportunity for himself and in simple terms he is what in England is called a “lumbering centre forward”. Filippo Inzaghi has none of these attributes either, but what he does have, or did in his prime, is brilliant striker intelligence.


This is not the case for Gilardino. His movement is abysmal, in fact he is almost always static. His anticipation is poor, and so are his reactions. In order to be a penalty-box striker, these things are vital and this explains why Inzaghi is the most prolific goalscorer in the history of European competition.


We often hear arguments from Gilardino-supporters of how he scored 17 goals in Serie A in his first season at Milan, that he hit 12 last campaign, and that he has six to his name this year.


However, how many of these goals were against the top teams?


Well I will tell you.


In 2005/06, of Gilardino’s 17 goals, none were scored against the Big Four. Gila failed to hit the back of the net in both games against Juve, Inter and Roma. All of his strikes were against mid-table and relegation-threatened opposition such as Treviso, Reggina, Messina and Cagliari.


In 2006/07 he scored just twice in six games against the three other teams in the Champions League places (Inter, Roma and Lazio). And one of these, against Inter, came when Milan were already being thumped 4-1 by their city rivals and had nothing to play for but pride.


Finally this season Gila has failed to hit the back of the net against any of the big teams; Inter, Roma and Juve.


His record in the Champions League is even worse. In 2005/06 he failed to hit the back of the net in 10 games as Milan reached the semi-final. He scored just twice in 11 matches last year, while there has been a very slight improvement this term with two strikes in the group stages.


What this surely tells us is that Gilardino, when faced by stronger opposition and better defenders, is simply not up to the task.


When he plays against smaller Serie A sides he can hold his own, and it is against these teams that he accumulates all of his goals. However against top-class and world-class players it just doesn’t look like the 25-year-old has the ability.


Quite why Milan continue to insist that Gilardino is the right player for them I simply don’t understand.


Carlo Garganese

[Bluesummers]

He didn't play badly against atalanta, we just need to do revisions in our team and get some of our players back to health. Janku was missing and that hurts us. Oddo is not on his game and that hurts us. Not having ambro there makes us lose seedorf who in my oppinion is better at creating oppurtunities than pato and ronaldo combined. playing with one striker is good against teams like Atalanta where they just close us down. Overall its not really gila's fault.


On this topic: Gila is good enough for milan. He proves that he can score goals but getting rid of him and getting someone else is stupid in our case. We have bigger problems than gilardino right now such as our aging team and poor transfers.

[KillerMax]

I don't why this is so hard to comprehend for so many people. He is not mentally capable of playing for such big club. And pressure definitely does get to him. which is a big no no for a Milan player.

[Ry4n]

oh Gila what are we to do

[redbabies]

He didn't play badly against atalanta, we just need to do revisions in our team and get some of our players back to health.  Janku was missing and that hurts us.  Oddo is not on his game and that hurts us.  Not having ambro there makes us lose seedorf who in my oppinion is better at creating oppurtunities than pato and ronaldo combined.  playing with one striker is good against teams like Atalanta where they just close us down.  Overall its not really gila's fault. 
On this topic:  Gila is good enough for milan.  He proves that he can score goals but getting rid of him and getting someone else is stupid in our case.    We have bigger problems than gilardino right now such as our aging team and poor transfers.

If touching the ball 2 times during the 90 mins is "not playing badly" than I dont know what else he should have done to be critisized?

Really mate, I think he was terrible, and it's not a Milan quality.

I don't why this is so hard to comprehend for so many people. He is not mentally capable of playing for such big club. And pressure definitely does get to him. which is a big no no for a Milan player.

Yes I agree that pressure plays a huge role in him. But if he would be in good form for a while than he wouldn't need to have pressure.

But since he's always critisized for bad form he never managed to get-off the pressure.

[bigmacmtl]

why not open a is gattuso good enough for milan thread? or ambro or DIDA or oddo or seedorf or KALADZE, etc.? cuz of all the above have been shite, some even worse than gila (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[armiss]

oh Gila what are we to do

(IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[weeeow]

if Gila leaves, I want his girlfriend!

[kurtsimonw]

I thought he was fantastic in his first season - In which he had a strike partner the whole way - so I'm not going to say he isn't good enough until he once again gets a full season with a partner, and fails to deliver.

But if we aren't going to give him that opportunity, then sell him.

[maldini03]

i think we need Sheva back.
I mean imagine who do u really want to bring up Pato as a player Ronaldo who had what a prime of two years? Or Shevchenko who knows what Milan wants in a forward more then any other person in the world. Well maybe Milan wants him to mature into a good strong Gilardino? We all know that would get us no where (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[vnata001]

im tired of people defending this guy. ive heard all there is to hear about him - he's a poacher. he needs a partner. he needs service. blah, blah. Has Gila ever scored a goal for milan from outside the penalty box? the bottom line is gilardino needs to be served the ball on a silver platter to score goals. Ocassionally hell turn in a beautifully flicked header, but thats maybe 1 out of 10 times.

- He is not a supporting striker..'hes more like pippo'. Gilardino has not shown HALF the intelligence pippo has. Gila has average size, average speed, and less heart than pippo. Pippo is Europes all time leading scorer. Gilardino does not have the qualities to achieve that stature..When Pippo leads the line, he may not create pathways for himself to goal, but he makes intelligent runs..plays the offside line..creates problems for defenders..wins fouls for us. GILA ALWAYS GETS THE BALL CAUGHT UNDER HIS FEET, gets bumped lightly, falls down, and hold his leg. Do you realize how many times a game that happens?

- Sure, Gila may have scored a few more goals when ronnie showed up next to him, and sheva partnered him before..but wouldn't a VAST majority of halfway decent strikers? picture a rocchi, boriello, bianchi type player where Gila is..they would score just as much as he has.

- Bottom line for me is look at the alternatives. Sure Gila plays better with a support striker. Has anyone seen Benzema play? He has the qualities a center forward needs and OFTEN leads the line for Lyon alone, with no supporting striker. Now if you had a choice: Gila next to ronaldo/pato or Benzema next to Ronaldo/Pato. Is there any question?

There are better players out there than Gila. Sure Gila shows promise with some nice goals occassionally that fool us into thinking hes turning it around..but usually he always just follows it up with more bad performances, only to restart the cycle, score..and trick us all again into defending him before he F***s up some other great opportunity..an inconsistent player like this would not be given this long an opportunity at any other top club..louis saha at united is better than gila, and even he barely plays..i say he has overstayed his welcome. There are strikers out there that would come into our team and IMMEDIATELY outperform Gila. Pato is one example. Now lets sign another and not worry about this halfway decent player.

sorry, but thats my take.

[Nova]

im tired of people defending this guy. ive heard all there is to hear about him - he's a poacher. he needs a partner. he needs service. blah, blah. Has Gila ever scored a goal for milan from outside the penalty box? the bottom line is gilardino needs to be served the ball on a silver platter to score goals. Ocassionally hell turn in a beautifully flicked header, but thats maybe 1 out of 10 times.

- He is not a supporting striker..'hes more like pippo'. Gilardino has not shown HALF the intelligence pippo has. Gila has average size, average speed, and less heart than pippo. Pippo is Europes all time leading scorer. Gilardino does not have the qualities to achieve that stature..When Pippo leads the line, he may not create pathways for himself to goal, but he makes intelligent runs..plays the offside line..creates problems for defenders..wins fouls for us. GILA ALWAYS GETS THE BALL CAUGHT UNDER HIS FEET, gets bumped lightly, falls down, and hold his leg. Do you realize how many times a game that happens?

- Sure, Gila may have scored a few more goals when ronnie showed up next to him, and sheva partnered him before..but wouldn't a VAST majority of halfway decent strikers? picture a rocchi, boriello, bianchi type player where Gila is..they would score just as much as he has.

- Bottom line for me is look at the alternatives. Sure Gila plays better with a support striker. Has anyone seen Benzema play? He has the qualities a center forward needs and OFTEN leads the line for Lyon alone, with no supporting striker. Now if you had a choice: Gila next to ronaldo/pato or Benzema next to Ronaldo/Pato. Is there any question?

There are better players out there than Gila. Sure Gila shows promise with some nice goals occassionally that fool us into thinking hes turning it around..but usually he always just follows it up with more bad performances, only to restart the cycle, score..and trick us all again into defending him before he F***s up some other great opportunity..an inconsistent player like this would not be given this long an opportunity at any other top club..louis saha at united is better than gila, and even he barely plays..i say he has overstayed his welcome. There are strikers out there that would come into our team and IMMEDIATELY outperform Gila. Pato is one example. Now lets sign another and not worry about this halfway decent player.

sorry, but thats my take.

Well , I dont like to talk bad about Milan Players. (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) But you're right !

You said everything I wanted to say .

[kurtsimonw]

Has Gila ever scored a goal for milan from outside the penalty box? the bottom line is gilardino needs to be served the ball on a silver platter to score goals.

In my opinion, Ruud van Nistelrooy is the best striker in the World in the last 5 or so years. He can't create goals for himself and very rarely scores from outside the box (Only 1 goal of his 150+ was outside the box for MU). Does this make him a bad player? No.

But yes, he does need a partner. You can't just say that it's an 'excuse', it's not. That's the type of player he is. That's like saying Kaka' is a midfielder, so why don't we play him at DM and see how he does? Everybody has their certain attributes and need a certain system to play in. As proven by Gila and Sheva in recent years. From top players, to bad players, all because they play in the wrong system.

[dst]

Much as I like Gila, I wouldn't think twice if we were to replace him with Benzema. But Milan have more and maybe bigger problems than Gila. We need to fix all of them, just one won't do...

[Rossoneri7]

I don't why this is so hard to comprehend for so many people. He is not mentally capable of playing for such big club. And pressure definitely does get to him. which is a big no no for a Milan player.

Well obviously he isn't a Milan grade striker. After Beirhoff, Inzaghi, and the lesser of them Tomasson (in recent years) ... Gilardino is a drop in quality between them.


Still, he remains a Milan player and the coach and board probably see something we don't. Which inevitably leads to him given chance after chance, this being his third season. That said, I doubt he'll remain at Milan if he doesn't deliver this time around. He has Pato/Ronaldo to partner now (no more excuses left, for those who claim he needs a partner).


Yes he had a great record at Parma and yes he did score goals at Milan. Still, he has yet to reach the expectations that us fans have of him (for three years now .. still waiting (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) ).

I believe and cheer on him when he is on the pitch. But rarely does he show anything of merit. Some would like to bring Inzaghi into this, but Inzaghi has given all that he can give to Milan and more !! He is the in-box striker and a legend in my book. There is little to compare between Pippo and Gila. In fact, when Pippo was in Gilardino's age he was explosive, his goal ratio was a goal every 90 mins (mind boggling really).

Anyways, Gilardino's fate rests in the hands of Carlo and Galliani/Braida .. I hope he comes through after such a rough patch. I say this, though I have lost faith in him.