[Dracoris]

Is Robinho injured?

Very recently recovered. Still technically unfit.

[Bluesummers]

My ratings:


Abbiati: 6 Can't be blamed for either goal, had a decent night


Abate: 6.5 Not a bad performance for his first game


Nesta: 5 - I was a little surprised to see nesta get beaten like that, not his best night.

Silva: 5 - For a player who was probably the best defender in the world last season, this one was quite a shocker.

Antonini: 4 Did well push foreward, but he was awful defensively. I'd say both goals could be blamed on his lack of closing down the opposition.


Van bommel: 6 decent night, he needs match fitness

Ambrosini: 6 did relatively well, still lacking match fitness.

Aquilani: 7 wow, he surprised me today. He showed a bit of his class, though I'll remain skeptical for now. He has the quality, now he needs to show it.


Boateng: 6.5 Not a bad game by him, needs match fitness.

Cassano: 8 Probably the best player tonight, showed some touches of class and got more motivated as the game wore on.


Ibra: 7 Not a bad night by him, some quality passing.




Overall the game shows evidence that the strike is going to hurt us on Tuesday. But the squad looks stronger this year, I can already see we are going to be playing some quality football come Nov, december.

[Danny]

Disappointing result, a few points to note...

Nesta was extremely poor, and frankly hasn't been his old self for a long time. Silva has truly taken over from him and we're seeing more and more errors from the Italian in his old age.

Aquilani was actually impressive, and was a lot better than I suspected he'd be.

Cassano showed why we kept him - a great player with plenty of talent who is maybe a bit under appreciated by some fans.

It was an open match and Lazio's attackers caused us problems, and we have to take some credit for not losing this match after such a poor start, but a draw at home wasn't great.

Room for some improvement.

[han2503]

Disappointing result, a few points to note...

Nesta was extremely poor, and frankly hasn't been his old self for a long time. Silva has truly taken over from him and we're seeing more and more errors from the Italian in his old age.

Aquilani was actually impressive, and was a lot better than I suspected he'd be.

Cassano showed why we kept him - a great player with plenty of talent who is maybe a bit under appreciated by some fans.

It was an open match and Lazio's attackers caused us problems, and we have to take some credit for not losing this match after such a poor start, but a draw at home wasn't great.

Room for some improvement.

Nesta started shaky, but by the end, he saved our @sses single handedly, still can't wrap my mind around how he stopped that sure goal from Cisse. Nesta just needs time, he's not in his 20s anymore so getting into the swing of things will require more game time and a bit more patience. Him and Thiago are still a top pairing and they complement each other to a T

The thing that should be noted the most is that Lazio only pressured us when Rino and Ambro were on. Once VB was brought in we took the game in our hands, simply because their midfield couldn't get through like they were doing before. Another problem was our left side, Aqui wasn't tracking back much and Antonini was atrocious, and during those first 20 minutes of pressure from Lazio they identified that area as the weakest link. The defensive stability of last season is still not there yet, but we'll regain it as we go along, problem is, we have Barca in 3 days, facing them on the 1st matchday is really bad for us. We've had a disrupted preseason and topped that off with a strike and NT duty. Not the best way to prepare for such a huge match

[Fillipo Simone]

I wouldn't blame Nesta as much as some do here. Sure, yesterday wasn't his best match, but - he's getting old and lacking speed. Rino and Ambro did little to nothing to help him covering more space and blocking off the still fast-paced Cisse. What's there to expect? Even after van Bommel and Nocerino came on, that wasn't the case. But especially for the first 30 minutes.

And again, yes, Aquilani has to be praised, but at the same time he also takes part of the blame that our left side was under constant pressure. The Hernanes miss was initiated by his poor marking, letting Konko virtually walk through him and comfortably crossing.

As for Antonini, I'm under the impression he should be used as a left midfielder or even left DM rather then fullback, because he's immensely trying to help on the flank, but his defensive covering and positioning suffers allot. While at the same time Abate is becoming better and better, yet still lacks precision. My god, the last time Milan had a proper fullback crosser and shooter was when we had Cafu. Having Antonini and Abate move back and forth, loosing strength and letting much space behind, while being as inefficient as they are is really unproductive as hell.

[CHU-LIP]

Very recently recovered. Still technically unfit.

You sure about the latter? It was only a minor injury, should not affect fitness once recovered.

[han2503]

You sure about the latter? It was only a minor injury, should not affect fitness once recovered.

I think him, Seedorf and Zambro were left out as a precaution. VB was also left out but forced in as well. Let's not forget that these players have had NT duty just a few days ago and we don't have the easiest of games coming up (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) as well as Napoli up next in the league.

No use risking them when we have other options. Sure starting with Antonini and Ambro covering the defence was ultimately a mistake but we somehow managed to claw back for a draw against a good Lazio side.

@ Filippo, on Aquilani, let's not forget that our LB usually plays a more defensive game, Zambro is not asked to bomb forward like Abate does, simply becaise he has Seedorf in front of him. Antonini was gallavanting up and down without a thought, which is why he got caught out. Aquilani might not be completely familiar but still, had Seedorf been the one playing, we would have still suffered on the left simply because Antonini wasn't holding his position like Zambro does.

The system in midfield was fairly simple last season. You have Abate on the right he attacks the flank at will but a DM runner in Rino or Flamini on the right, while on the left you had the pure creator in Seedorf or Pirlo and a subdued Zambro who stayed back on the left.

Yesterday, this balance was completely ruined because Antonini did not hold his position, and to add to that, his defending and defensive positioning is woeful, so it contributed greatly to that side being left wide open. Sure Aquilani could have done more to cover, but the sole responsability rests on the LB.

[X-Offender]

Just my two cents on the game.

First half was obviously awful. Every time we lost ball, Lazio had huge spaces to counterattack. Gattuso and Ambrosini made fools out of themselves, especially Rino proved once again why I can't stand the sight of him anymore. I wouldn't blame as much Antonini on both goals as I'd blame Nesta. His game was poor on many levels, save the fantastic save on Cisse. In the second half, we completely submitted Lazio and should have easily won. That's why I'm not that bothered by this draw. We managed to come back from a difficult result and dominate the game afterwards.

[han2503]

Just my two cents on the game.

First half was obviously awful. Every time we lost ball, Lazio had huge spaces to counterattack. Gattuso and Ambrosini made fools out of themselves, especially Rino proved once again why I can't stand the sight of him anymore. I wouldn't blame as much Antonini on both goals as I'd blame Nesta. His game was poor on many levels, save the fantastic save on Cisse. In the second half, we completely submitted Lazio and should have easily won. That's why I'm not that bothered by this draw. We managed to come back from a difficult result and dominate the game afterwards.

Nothing to say on Antonini? His defending on both goals was terrible and he was mostly as fault since he didn't close down either plays. Both first and second goals came from the left side where he should have easily closed the player down and stopped such crosses from being made.

As for Ambro, he didn't exactly make a fool out of himself since he was no where to be found during the entire match. Just totally inivisable. He was supposed to be covering the defence and it was like he wasn't even playing.

[X-Offender]

Actually, I thought Antonini a had pretty decent game. He kept pushing forward continuously. OK, he didn't exactly close down Lazio's plays in both goals, but that doesn't exactly amount into a defensive mistake. It was Nesta the one who should have done something more in those circumstances, but instead he got åss-whooped by both Klose and Cisse.

[han2503]

Actually, I thought Antonini a had pretty decent game. He kept pushing forward continuously. OK, he didn't exactly close down Lazio's plays in both goals, but that doesn't exactly amount into a defensive mistake. It was Nesta the one who should have done something more in those circumstances, but instead he got åss-whooped by both Klose and Cisse.

Klose is not some idiot striker, he's got as much experiance as Nesta, I don't believe it's Nesta's mistake, the way he took that down around Nesta was just top class if you ask me, I don't think Silva would have done any better on that either. But look at the way the ball was played into Klose, what was Antonini doing exactly? He didn't even try to stop the player from making the pass

The second goal was both, but no attempt to stop the cross coming in is the first mistake, and shouldn't have been made.

Antonini trying to bomb forward imo was stupid, he knew he had Aquilani ahead of him, imo it was reckless, and why we got stretched so much in the first half

[Fillipo Simone]

I can't understand how Antonini can get praise after the Lazio game, while Nesta is being pointed as the one who made the crucial mistakes. Work-rate is one thing, but fact stays, both goals did not come from Abate's side, the came from Antonini's. If Hernanes hadn't missed his 100% sitter, we'd had three goals from Antonini's side.

[han2503]

I can't understand how Antonini can get praise after the Lazio game, while Nesta is being pointed as the one who made the crucial mistakes. Work-rate is one thing, but fact stays, both goals did not come from Abate's side, the came from Antonini's. If Hernanes hadn't missed his 100% sitter, we'd had three goals from Antonini's side.

Exactly

[Jack Bauer]

Both should have done better. Antonini is just sucks defensively, Nesta of few years ago would have prevented at least on of the goals.

[Dracoris]

Lets looks at the expectations for Antonini and Nesta on a rating scale of 1-10.

Antonini: 1

Nesta: 10

Antonini, while not perfect, played above expectation, Nesta did not. Thus one receives praise and the other not so much. Based on that scale Antonini had a pretty solid game.