[omahawi]

I feel a bit sad right now. It is becoming more and more clear that most of the players are just going through the motions. If you look at a team like Arsenal or Man U or even Madrid you see young players looking to go out and prove themselves. Sometimes there are slip ups but they don't go out and play flat. Have you ever had a coach or a teacher that has motivated you beyond belief. I coached youth soccer for 3 years. I took a team of decent players and made them play better then the best teams we faced. Not because the other team played bad. My guys were just motivated more.

I personally think Ancelotti is the problem. He's got a pretty good team. I think we can improve in the off season but we need a bit of change. We need the players to go out and want to play and enjoy playing. Some of the best football you ever see is because the 11 players on the pitch are having fun. I'm sorry this rant has gone on for a while. I'll stop and sulk for awhile now.

[MizNelson]

I would have to agree about going through the motions. We've played with the urgency of banana slugs ever since we cracked the top five earlier this calendar year. No doubt today we were dogging it (love those animal metaphors) because of the upcoming CL affair.

It's rather upsetting that we've settled for fighting for fourth place in the league the past couple seasons, and even nowadays we can't get it up for that. It's as if we're consigning the Scudetto to Merda from day one. I can't see us winning the CL again with our broken squad (famous last words), and then we just might see our disdain for Serie A finally bite us in the rear.

Besides lack of motivation, endurance has been a huge problem; we are more susceptible to injuries than ever before due to our age problem. Were this not the case, we wouldn't have had to toss Paloschi into the fire so early as we have. Pato has paid off in spades for us so far and gives us hope for the future. Right now, though, for this season, he's a quick fix.