Exactly. No-one is saying to attack them like a bunch of morons leaving wide spaces behind, but to cleverly pressure their midfielders so they don't have enough time to think. Tonight, we simply parked the bus and waited for them too attack. It was embarrassing for a club like Milan. Even Berlusconi was pissed off, click here.

This post has been edited by X-Offender: Mar 29 2012, 02:08 AM

By the way, what's happened to Aquilani? He's been fit for weeks now, but Allegri barely plays him anymore. Some say he's got a bit chubby. Is that enough to lose Allegri's trust? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

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Thoughts? I'd say the first one was a clear penalty. The second, too, if Puyol had dived after being pulled. Speaking of which, what the f@ck is Mesbah doing there? Did he lose his mind? Even more, in front of the ref. Jeez!

The first is a penalty. The second should be, but you rarely see them given for some reason. Third was just Mesbah being stronger than Messi.

No more mesbah please (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

+1

He played for only like 15-20 minutes, but was disastrous nevertheless. I'd take Zambrotta over this weasel any day of the week. One of the worst players to wear the Milan jersey in the last few years.

he's decent against mid table and lower clubs but let's just keep it to that.

At this point, LB is antonini's place to lose. Mesbah has been simply retarded when facing european teams... I'd rather Inzaghi be our 2nd LB..

While I hate Barcelona, I used to have respect for Guardiola. Until his comments...



Basically he's blaming his side's inability to breach our magnificent defence on the playing surface.

Absolute nonsense!

He's right about the pitch. and what better excuse to make at a moment like this when your mighty, Best Team In The World Barca has just failed to beat a Milan side playing without half of their first team players? if they manage to put 3 goals past us in the away game, they'll say the first leg was just because of the San Siro pitch. like Arsenal and Wenger did.

Bottom line is, you can't expect your opponents to keep quite after having to play on such a god-awful pitch. they're used to playing on better pitches.

I have to say (esp. William405)...that I give Allegri a lot of credit for this match.

Usually I rate him as a pure tactician, but today he finally seemed to show that he had the psyche of the team down too.

I know sometimes me and Filippo seem to be the only ones, but really I'd eyes-shut put our old guard in for the big CL nights. They will almost always show up. Seedorf lives for nights like this...and as for DM, if MvB is a weasel, then Ambro is a snake. He is our insurance against Barca's sometimes diving, sometimes rough-housing attitude. He will know when to take a fall, and when to land a crunching tackle. After Nesta and Pirlo, probably THE master of the tactical foul.

As for the complaints about Zee and 90 mins. Of course he doesn't have 90 mins..and it has nothing to do with his age. But the fact that he was injured and he hasn't played for sometime now. It's not just Seedorf, even Boateng, Robinho and Aquilani don't have 90 mins in their legs. Match-fitness affects everybody and is not just agecentric.

Finally a word about Max. I give him credit. I would have been pissed if any of the following had happened:

- We got humiliated like against Arsenal
- We played like whining pussies or like thugs
- We parked the bus but didn't even bother to attack

None of these happened. It was a brilliant (albeit defensive) tactical preparation. We did not whine..chase the ref waving cards (go f@ck yourself Barca) or make cheap tackles and sly punches (ala Madrid). We were defensive but we had two clear-cut goalscoring opportunities with the goalkeeper at our mercy, that our two top forwards messed up. That sucked, it was like they were surprised they had an opportunity to score.

But this isn't Allegri's fault at all. He can only prepare the team, not make them play.

And as for the defensiveness, what could he have done, when all his substitutions were basically forced by injuries. We had to make our first sub at the 50th minute.

So well done Max! Score 8 on 10 to you.

And Ibra. Whaddamaan!! It's like he's changed his entire game for us...and I feel really happy to see this. So much for all the people saying he is an individualist etc etc. He really put his head down and slogged. And credit to the big man for keeping his bigger ego aside.

All in all...well done to the team. Haters can hate.But then this is typical. I'm sick of teams complaining that we didn't fight the fight on their terms. We played on the same pitch as them..and we slipped even more than they did. So whaddever!

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Great post Jack completely with you

The pitch talk is just ridiculous, our players suffered a lot more on it than the Barca players did. In fact some of the bigger opportunities Barca created came from our players slipping in crucial moments. Not to mention the injuries which were no doubt partly to blame on the pitch

Yep, I agree with Jack on all accounts. Not much to say for me after such a great post.

Total rot Zed. The playing surface was the same for both teams. tbh, Barcelona have previous for moaning after a 0-0 draw. They did it with Rangers in 2007, Lionel Messi complaining to the press of our 'anti-football'.

It seems when they don't get their way, they complain about tactics, the pitch, everything but their own failure.

btw, agreed all counts Jack. Though I'd have given Ambro 10/10. His best performance for a very, very long time. Thought he was absolutely outstanding.

Pity he'll go back to his rubbish regular ways against Catania etc.