[han2503]

Aquilani coming on made a lot of difference as well imo and he should have been the first one on when we made changes.

Urby was more invisable then Cassano, while Ambro was invisable aside from when he was hacking people down.

Urby is just not good enough for a game like this, while Ambro has completely lost the plot. Aquilani I think would have made a big impact on the midfield should he have been given the time.

His runs and passing were key into us moving the ball forward more then a step, at one point he was sarrounded by 2 or 3 players, took a couple of quick touches and swept a pass to Seedorf on the other side which released him. This is what we needed, cool heads, not Ambro passing the ball to Abate and getting him into trouble in our area.

Also, Boateng in the AM position should seriously be reconsiderd by Allegri, he's so much better in a deeper position, he gets the ball in a great spot and doesn't know what to do with it when he's so far up the pitch, at the start of the match he could have scored and released Pato and on both occasions made the wrong decisions.

Our midfield diamon should look like this from now on

Aquilani
Boateng--Nocerino
VB

[amancik]

Our midfield diamon should look like this from now on

Aquilani
Boateng--Nocerino
VB

Agreed. Nice to see all these players were recently signed, I meant no more Gattuso, Pirlo, Seedorf ...

[TriniKing_CE]

Our midfield diamon should look like this from now on

Aquilani
Boateng--Nocerino
VB

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[han2503]

@ x-off. I think the mids not pressing was mostly the tactic deployed by Allegri, on the right side you could clearly see what the machenics of it were, Abate pressed while we were deep and once he moved forward Nocerino retreated into his position, I think this was mostly done so that they don't get in behind the defence.

This is why I think we need 5 mids in there, a lot of the midfield was so busy forming a compact Unit with the defence that pressing them higher up was completely unmanagable. Had we had 2 other mids available (Boateng and Aqui) then we'd have had the extra man to press them higher up.

[X-Offender]

Aquilani coming on made a lot of difference as well imo and he should have been the first one on when we made changes.

Urby was more invisable then Cassano, while Ambro was invisable aside from when he was hacking people down.

Urby is just not good enough for a game like this, while Ambro has completely lost the plot. Aquilani I think would have made a big impact on the midfield should he have been given the time.

His runs and passing were key into us moving the ball forward more then a step, at one point he was sarrounded by 2 or 3 players, took a couple of quick touches and swept a pass to Seedorf on the other side which released him. This is what we needed, cool heads, not Ambro passing the ball to Abate and getting him into trouble in our area.

Also, Boateng in the AM position should seriously be reconsiderd by Allegri, he's so much better in a deeper position, he gets the ball in a great spot and doesn't know what to do with it when he's so far up the pitch, at the start of the match he could have scored and released Pato and on both occasions made the wrong decisions.

Our midfield diamon should look like this from now on

Aquilani
Boateng--Nocerino
VB

I still prefer Boateng as AM, because he can make the important runs and also track back when necessary. Aquilani is needed a bit deep-lying in order to organize the game and launch our strikers. But either way, that must be at all cost our starting midfield from now onwards. I agree that when Aquilani came in tonight, things started to change a bit for us. Please no more Seedorf and Ambrosini against fast teams!

[TriniKing_CE]

@ x-off. I think the mids not pressing was mostly the tactic deployed by Allegri, on the right side you could clearly see what the machenics of it were, Abate pressed while we were deep and once he moved forward Nocerino retreated into his position, I think this was mostly done so that they don't get in behind the defence.

This is why I think we need 5 mids in there, a lot of the midfield was so busy forming a compact Unit with the defence that pressing them higher up was completely unmanagable. Had we had 2 other mids available (Boateng and Aqui) then we'd have had the extra man to press them higher up.

Agreed. I believe so as well.

Good post han!

[X-Offender]

@ x-off. I think the mids not pressing was mostly the tactic deployed by Allegri, on the right side you could clearly see what the machenics of it were, Abate pressed while we were deep and once he moved forward Nocerino retreated into his position, I think this was mostly done so that they don't get in behind the defence.

This is why I think we need 5 mids in there, a lot of the midfield was so busy forming a compact Unit with the defence that pressing them higher up was completely unmanagable. Had we had 2 other mids available (Boateng and Aqui) then we'd have had the extra man to press them higher up.

Good point, but still, letting Barça attack for the whole 90 minutes is not something nice to watch when you're a Milan fan. I'm hoping for a completely different game at the San Siro. I think we can beat them if we believe in ourselves.

[han2503]

I still prefer Boateng as AM, because he can make the important runs and also track back when necessary. Aquilani is needed a bit deep-lying in order to organize the game and launch our strikers. But either way, that must be at all cost our starting midfield from now onwards. I agree that when Aquilani came in tonight, things started to change a bit for us. Please no more Seedorf and Ambrosini against fast teams!

Seedorf was good imo, I have nothing against his performance tonight, he lost it a bit once Prince went off and he was moved into the AM position.

Also, Boateng can make his runs from deeper, in fact I think that would make more sense since he'd be even harder to track. In the AM position he just doesn't have any cutting edge to support the strikers as an AM should. While Aquilani is just perfect for that.

I think we'd be ok with that industrial 3 man midfield, especially against big sides. Maybe Seedorf could be played on the left when we face small Serie A teams that are hard to break down

[TriniKing_CE]

I still prefer Boateng as AM, because he can make the important runs and also track back when necessary. Aquilani is needed a bit deep-lying in order to organize the game and launch our strikers. But either way, that must be at all cost our starting midfield from now onwards. I agree that when Aquilani came in tonight, things started to change a bit for us. Please no more Seedorf and Ambrosini against fast teams!

I think it's fair to say Seedorf had moments of genius where he was also able to make great use of his experience.

On the other hand, Ambrosini didn't! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)

He looking reckless & clumsy (as he so often does), flustered and as far from clam as possible.

They were in no way on the same level.

Ambrosini for me, was by far the WORST player out there tonight.

He needs to be used as a rotation player now and nothing more. That much is certain!

[han2503]

Good point, but still, letting Barça attack for the whole 90 minutes is not something nice to watch when you're a Milan fan. I'm hoping for a completely different game at the San Siro. I think we can beat them if we believe in ourselves.

Completely agree with you, and this is why I am slightly disappointed despite the great result and not as happy with Allegri as some seem to be.

We could and should have done better given the fragility at the back Barca were experiancing, had we used the ball well to release Pato when the occasion came, we could have scored a couple easy. Sergio and Macherano simply didn't know how to handle him and we could have utilised that had we had more then one player who could properly distribute the ball.

[han2503]

One other remark about the defence, I loved the way they moved as a cohesive unit to deploy the offside trap, they kept a perfect line and you could clearly see them move up when a Barca player made a run behind them. It was great to watch and would love to see us working on it more in the future.

[TriniKing_CE]

One other remark about the defence, I loved the way they moved as a cohesive unit to deploy the offside trap, they kept a perfect line and you could clearly see them move up when a Barca player made a run behind them. It was great to watch and would love to see us working on it more in the future.

Completely agreed.

It was a pleasure to see that sort of cohesion, and there is no excuse why we could have done it today, but not otherwise, I'd love to see more of that.

It reminded me of rugby (if anyone here watches, I'm sure you'd agree)

[CHU-LIP]

I still prefer Boateng as AM, because he can make the important runs and also track back when necessary. Aquilani is needed a bit deep-lying in order to organize the game and launch our strikers. But either way, that must be at all cost our starting midfield from now onwards. I agree that when Aquilani came in tonight, things started to change a bit for us. Please no more Seedorf and Ambrosini against fast teams!

Agreed. I would play the same mids as han, but I would put Prince as AM. Because of Boateng's pace and runs he supports our forwards very well. He can't do that enough when playing deeper, and someone like Seedorf or Aquilani can't do that as good as Boateng. Also Seedorf or Aquilani should create the attack (often), then Boateng gets involved (so is more forward anyway) along the other attackers, and hopefully a goal as a result.

About Seedorf today. Meh, I am slightly disappointed, I expected more, but he was not bad, but not good enough to play instead of Aquilani. I had high expactations from Seedorf since it's CL vs a big team and he have been great recently / in 2011. Anywho, for those who don't wanna read, my preferred midfield:

Boateng
Aquilani, Van Bommel, Nocerino

[Jack Bauer]

(IMG:http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9683/object43131594853534579.jpg)

(IMG:http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/3568/object37131594898383359.jpg)

[han2503]

Our away kit looks so much better then the home one...

@ chu, Boateng really does not provide the best support for the forwards, and this is showing a lot this season where teams have figured him out. I'd prefer someone who could make a final pass behind the strikers then Boateng, who can still make his runs from deeper