He made the right subs at the right time?? How was that? He took off Flamini and brought on Boateng, from that point on we lost the midfield. It was a pointless sub as we were starting to look the better team at that point then lost it, Ajax were coming on to us and putting us under pressure.

Abate and Pippo on at the 90 when we need to win!!! Pippo should have come on for Robinho by the 60th, same goes for Dinho and Seedorf who at one point was getting outplayed big time in that position.

Allegri played this game like he was coach of Cagliari not Milan. He was content with the draw, and was too afraid to make the subs earlier. He was afraid to go for the win and that is not something I want to see from our coach. Now we head into the Real games 2 points behind them, while Ajax are facing Auxerre, if we don't get 3 points from our head to heads against Real and Ajax win theirs we could easily find ourselves eliminated.

Ajax did play very well. You notice the difference with Real-Ajax? That's how important Suárez is to them, MOTM.


Well, he did more than just scoring, so he deserved a big thumps up too. Arguable our best player that match.

And Flamini really makes me wanna sell him. Gattuso (again very good match) and Ambrosini are simply better.

Ajax at home makes as much difference as having Suarez imo

Imo we're becoming so heavily dependent on him that it's worrying. We create nothing for the majority of a match then someone makes a simple pass that you would never in a million years think would become an assist, then ?BANG! Goal, out of nothing. That is very worrying to me, because imagine us playing without him...

Flamini played great yesterday, what are you on about? The moment Allegri replaced him we lost that midfield and Pirlo started to vanish again. Pirlo was having really good game because Rino and Flamini were both working their @sses off covering for him. Something that neither Ambro or Boateng do imo

That sub I was wishing for actually. Good chance Flamini would get a red card in 2nd half. Boateng has been awesome this season and with Gattuso there was still a DM on the field. That sub made so much sense. We lost midfield from that point? How come then that Ajax was especially in the first half the better side? Flamini played bad, that sub had to be done.

Pippo should have come earlier, I agree. Abate, not sure he should have come in (Ronaldinho?).

Te first half was won in spells no team was specifically better. Second half we were really starting to build momentum then he took off Flamini and we lost it again, Pirlo started to vanish and I barely even noticed that Boateng was on the field at some points. Flamini got a yellow, yes but so did nearly half the team, his yellow was exxagerated as all he did was raise his foot too high, that's normally not a yellow offence but by that time the game was getting heated so the ref pulled it out. Also Boateng nearly got into a fight the second he was on the pitch so I don't see how this applies.

Boateng has been a personal favourite of mine as well. But yesterday the sub was unnecassary, the midfield was fine, while the attack was suffering more. Abate was pointless and to me was another sign of Allegri settling for the draw. Imo Pippo on at the 60th for Robinho, same with Dihno and Seedorf and we could have won this, but Allegri didn't want to take the chance to win it.

I noticed Boateng all the time. Unlike the other players I was really afraid with Flamini getting carded again how he played. I fully adored the sub. Boateng added something attacking.

I cannot understand we were defending a draw, were we? We should have really tried to win it. Pippo in for Robinho should have happened a lot earlier, without only Zlatan was my hope for a goal.

Well, Boateng is not a DM, and I disagree about Ambrosini.

You notice him a lot because he runs around a lot but in terms of getting on the ball and winning it, he didn't do much, and I fail how to see he added an attacking edge to us, seeing as Ajax pressed us for a good 15 minutes after the sub was made. Flamini wasn't going to get red carded the first yellow was BS, especially considering he got it for a high foot. I'm a big fan of Boateng, nothing against him, but I think the sub was pointless and unbalanced us.

The subs said it all imo. Keeping Robinho on instead of Pippo meant that we didn't lose that extra pseudo mid, because Robinho does like to go into midfield to pick up the ball where as Pippo would stay up in the attack, thus we lose more of our defensive strength, same thing with Seedorf and Dinho, Seedorf likes to hang back more and try to pass around the ball in midfield, while Dinho would advance forward more and always try to do that forward pass. This would leave us more vulnerable, but with a hell of a better chance at scoring. Imo had he left on Flamini and brought these 2 on we would have still maintained that balance while having better attacking edge. Allegri was too worried about losing rather then winning so he settled for the draw. He's really starting to get on my nerves. Milan is not Cagliari he should get the loser mentality out of him or he won't take us anywhere.

Boateng is box to box, but I've noticed he likes to advance a lot, without thinking much about what his team mates are doing, Imo he needs to stay back behind Pirlo and only run into the box when it doesn't unbalance the team. All of this is something that he'll learn with time. But imo, if he's going to play along side Pirlo he needs to cover him, just like Flamini was doing. And Ambro is not like Flamini and Rino. I loved it when Leo played him in front of the defence and moved Pirlo ahead of him because that is where he plays best, when we play Pirlo in the middle you usually see Ambro do anything but defending, he's mostly running into the box or on the wing for some reason, which is pointless and leaves Pirlo exposed, where as both Rino and Flamini are more then comfortable to play on Pirlo's side, make all the running, win the ball and give it quickly to Pirlo.

There goes our CL campaign. Hopeless result, Allegri wanted to play for a draw, and that's just what he got. I can only hope he is here come December to regret it. We should have gone all guns blazing now to secure first, and taken an easy route to the quarters. This is not Cagliari where win at home, draw away is considered a good result. To each his own, I guess. We can't even fight for the top spot in our group, knockout CL matches are gonna be an entirely different ball game.

PS. It sure must feel great to have a 7-foot ninja slicing and dicing goals for the team, huh? No one else wants to step up.

Why should this be the end of our CL campaign? We're doing bad business when it comes to winning the group, but we are huge favourites when it comes to the 2nd place. I don't see Ajax finishing 2nd so easily, will be very very difficult for them.

No this is not the end, just the wrong route to take. There is no sense in making things more difficult for ourselves by taking either MU, Chelsea, Arsenal, Barca or other big clubs head on, this early in our campaign. We should have given our all to finish first. We still may, yes, but seeing as all big clubs won their matches yesterday, so should have Milan.

Point is, this may not be the end, but the beginning of it. Sure, the team is more than welcome to prove me wrong by winning the Round of 16 matches against the other big clubs (provided they finish 2nd, that is), but the real CL starts in the knockout stages, and we are on the right path for a collision with an EPL or a top German/Spanish club come December.

Flamini was playing an awful game. He runs a lot, but he defends poorly and always fails at attacking. I see no reason why Allegri should have kept him on field, especially considering he might have been sent off for his crazy fouls. Bringing in Boateng was the right decision. Perhaps putting Inzaghi a little earlier might have been smart, but I don't think things would have changed much.

And please, stop it with Ronaldinho! For one game he's finally off and we play a good match (it was by far our best game since Lecce) and you want him in? You're nuts! You're just in love with Flamini and Ronaldinho and want them always play, even though most of the time they just suck balls. Mah...

I think this puts that in jeopardy as well.

I can't see us winning in Madrid and with the way we're playing neither in Milan. So by the end of the 3rd and 4th rounds the group could look like this:

Real 10
Ajax 7
Milan 5
Auxerre 0

Then we have Ajax at home and Auxerre away, still hard especially if the squad have their heads down

If that does happen we could find ourselves in the Ueropa league, if not we come in 2nd, face some top EPL/Spanish team and we set ourselves up for another demoralizing humiliation like last season.


Agreed. Imo Allegri is to blame for last night, Ajax were playing an open game, the right team selection on his part could have easily seen us win. Sure they had Suarez but that's all they had, he slipped Nesta, but it only happened once, he was kept quite throughout the rest of the game, they didn't really have any heart stopping actions until that moment when Flamini was taken off and they were pressing us hard

to the first bit and to the second. Flamini was not going to get sent off, he raised his foot to high and got a yellow how was that crazy? Please enlighten me? And Boateng being brought in was a mistake, we lost that midfield when he came on. Please watch the match again and convince me otherwise. I'm currently watching the second half again.

Lol, best game since Lecce? What gave you that idea? The fact that we only created 3 decent chances in 90 minutes? Let Ajax come on to us on a consistant basis or could barely get a hold of the midfield in the second half?

You're blinded for your dislike of Dinho, if we had better option I'd want Dinho out on his @ss faster then you would but I know how to be objective Wanting Flamini on at all costs? A couple of days ago you were agreeing with me that having him and Boateng would make our midfield dynamic now he's pure sh!t? Way to be consistant

1). Gonna give the first round to X-Off, Flamini did not have too good a day in the office.
2). Second round goes to Han, while there were positives, the overall result was no way near that. Bad game.
3). Thirdly, few people have been able to best Han when it comes to arguments, so he wins 2-1, LOL.

Fact is that, there were some good moments, and a couple of really bad ones in this match. To call it a good result in my opinion is just not on, sure there were a few improvements (depending on which book one is reading). But at the end of the day we are in the same boat, as far as team make up is concerned, and an even more sinking one when it comes to our CL hopes. We lost ground in the competition, and the picture Han painted above of us not qualifying, far fetched it may be is still a possibility.

A dirty 1-0 win would barely have counted as a good match, 1-1 surely reflects bad on Milan. How much, though, this is something time will tell. We have made it a habit to finish 2nd this last decade, and last year it bite our collective behinds. This time around, even though we have more firepower in terms of players, how it all pans out is still up in the air. For all I know, we could pull a surprise miracle result in Madrid.

Don't know what people really expect from Flamini he's there to do the dirty work, the fact Pirlo was playing like he was, especially in the first half, which I commented on multiple times during the games supports this. Flamini and Rino did what was necassary to free up Pirlo. And that is what we need to happen. Once Boateng came on we started having trouble. Especially for the 15 minutes spell just after. I'm currently watching that half now, and we've since had 3 players yellowed, Nesta barely diving in to save a sure thing from Suarez, and Pirlo is nowhere to be seen. Rino is the onyl one really working hard.

Imo the match had very few good points and more bad ones. The fact that we moved the ball around faster doesn;t impress me, simply because Ajax were playing a fast open game so we were trying to match them and failing at that as well, had we won we still would have needed to take a good look at that performance and imagine us playing like that against Madrid. It wouldn't be pretty.

My scenario could just as easily happen. I don't see it as something far fetched. If we play like we are Madrid would walk all over us.

Forget about Dinho, we need a true AM and we don't have that, that's our biggest problem aside from the FBs

+1,000

You guys are too pessimistic. Why assume that we don't get points off Real? We took 4/6 against them last year, with a worse team at our disposal. We still control our own destiny in the group. Have faith!

(In before Blue chimes in singing Mourinho's praises)

I can't imagine what you would be saying if Ronaldinho had played as piss-poorly last night as Robinho did. he sucked MAJOR balls. I can't wait for Pato to come back - honestly.

And we didn't play a good game - are you kidding me?! maybe it looked good to you since there was no Dinho, but han and acid sait it all... we were so poor I wanted to cry. worst part was, we didn't really try. in the end we were playing and killing time for a draw while Ajax wanted to win. that's a new low for this club.

This is a different Real to last season. Hate to say it, but Mourinho won't allow us to win against them, especially not at home. His perfect record won't be touched, especially not by us. Last season we were starting to play well when we played them, we're still struggling now. Overly relying on Ibra to practically win a match on his own by producing a moment of brilliance.

A lot needs to be fixed in this team before we can start thinking about beating Real

Agreed completely!!

Ronaldinho plays piss poorly 90% of his games, I've already said what I think of him. When Robinho gets in form, you can forget about your sweet-@ss Dinho for good.

As for the game, the fact we didn't really face any major risk bar the goal is good enough for me. The goals will eventually come, it's the defensive aspect we must improve. Ajax kept pushing and pushing, but they produced little to nothing. We didn't incur any embarrassing counter-attacks as against Cesena, Auxerre and Catania. Moreover, the team who had the most attempts at goal and scoring opportunities was Milan.

See it as you like, but last night's performance was a positive one as far as I'm concerned.

I just hope if indeed REAL do destroy us allegri learns alot about the team for the latter stages combined with auxerre an ajax drawing at least the game in france

Why are we talking about such things? Why would we be destroyed? Did Real destroy someone yet? Why do we treat Mourinho as god the allmighty? That's absurd and decadent at same time.

Our campaing is over? What are we talking about? For all I know we can easily draw Tottenham or Rubin if we finish up second, while Real (if first) can draw Inter or Barca. Gee, we played 2 games, have 4 points, yet we worry.

+1

We are both different teams than last year, of course, but last year we really weren't playing remotely well. After struggling against relegated teams like Bologna and Atalanta, scoring like 4 goals in 600 minutes, then we had finally won a match vs Roma and that was it before facing Real. I don't think Milan will be favored to win, but that doesn't mean that we should be thinking as though we've already lost.

Real aren't doing so sharply either. Of course, they're the favorites, but don't be surprised if we snap a positive result.

guys any chance we ll be seeing papa play again lol

^^

Right now, we're looking for stability...I see the team play in snatches and it looks obvious. For the moment, Allegri seems completely focused on building the team from the back and creating balance.

And like most Italians the immediate focus seems to be on obtaining defensive balance first. I can't fault him. As we all know in CL - win at home, draw away is the mantra and it's okay for me to see us use that.

I'm sure if we'd been 1-1 in the San Siro, the subs would have been entirely different and far more attacking.

I liked the fact that we were more composed against counter attacks, and seemed to have more opportunities on goal compared to Ajax.

Yes, we can draw Rubin or Tottenham, but the possibility of that happening is very slim. Almost as little as Ajax coming and winning at San Siro against us. It could happen, but we'd have to be very lucky. Our best bet would be to go and get results like Real Madrid like last season, a win and draw, or something like that.

I guess, it'll take a couple more rounds of CL group stage matches to get a better picture of where things stand.

Against Roma it was a performance that inspired confidence. All I'm currently seeing in this team is hanging on in hopes of Zlatan pulling something out of his @ss. I'm not saying that the scenario I painted above will happen, but it can. Do I think we can turn things around by then? Sure, imo this International break will do us good, except for Pirlo and Zlatan who have to play both competitive games for their countries. We'll see, I'm hoping we come out of that break playing a lot better then we are now. Because if we keep playing like we are I can't see us taking more then 1 point from the head to heads


They're not playing a sharp game or anything like that, but they're a compact side, with far better players then Ajax. We can grab the 3 in Milan but we need to improve a lot before that happens.

As for the reason why Ajax didn't counter us effecively. They didn't play the way most Serie A teams play, which is to constantly absorb pressure, wait for the slip up and counter efficiantly. Ajax played a wide open game, something we're supposed to trive off of, yet we only managed to create 3 decent chances in 90 minutes. Real practically slaughtered them on week 1, yet we couldn't carve them up effectively more then twice, the last chance was more of scramble then anything else

With our luck we'll get a top team. Look at the groups we got drawn against 2 years running and look at Barca's, Arsenal's, Man U's, Chelsea's groups. Then we don't come in 1st and ho do we end up with? Man U of course. With our luck this season we'll probably end up with Barca if we don't somehow get first place

So very true, Han. We've had it hard in the early stages of CL for the last three years, at least. The last time we won the group, we got Arsenal of all clubs (they finished second in 2008 if my memory serves me right). At the end of the day the most important thing is to qualify for the knockout stages, yes. And in a perfect world if the aim is to try and win the CL then we should be able to tackle any opposition.

But that's a perfect world, after all. When a club goes on with the intention of drawing a match, playing for a draw, scrap a point, then God help us. Even Rubin Kazan were going for the win yesterday - their home turf I know, but it was against Barca after all. Being positive never hurt anyone, surely not in the second match of a new CL campaign.

Why don't you and han get a room...and raise a litter of extra cynical acid2503s...

LOL, we may yet, provided Milan doesn't get its act together and we fudge up our group. But I'm still hopeful, there is still time for the team to get its act together and improve. Sure Allegri is still experimenting with the players and formation for now, so fingers crossed, by the time we get to important fixtures (the derby, Juve, Roma, Madrid), better results will follow.

Like I always say, I'll take a dirty 1-0 win anytime, but it is an empty feeling, one that bites back sooner or later. When a team has soul and direction, it always shows on the pitch. We are still lacking that, but as I said above, there is still time for all that to shape up.

guys i noticed that every time i log on to this forum milan seem to get into a bad form....so because of this i won't be back till next summer or the christmas break -.-

I wish it had something to do with you logging in...

It all had to do with the bloke above ^^^ opening match threads!! Not your fault nuh!

Yeah. Even Max is sick of han!

My Dinho?! nah, there's the one and only Pato for me

I know Robinho will be back to form some day. until that day, he can keep the cold bench company!



And the fact that Ajax completely dominated midfield battle worries ME. watching Seedorf strolling out there, gasping for breath, Gattuso running around like a headless chicken, making unnecessary fouls and Flamini playing as if he's lost it worries me. yes our dense is (or will be eventually) very good, same for our attack. but our midfield is our weak link. and that worries me. watching AC Milan playing with a send-a-long-ball-to-Zlatan-and-see-if-he-can-do-something tactic worries me...

I don't know.. maybe I worry too much! time will tell.

Anyone who says anything remotely positive about Dinho is a fanboy, so don't bother

And agree with that 2nd part to an extent! The midfield was starting to look better some in the begining of the second half then the unneccassary Boateng change distrupted whatever momentum they were building. Also Rino is looking a lot better these days, his problem is stamina. He still thinks he can run like a maniac for 90 plus minutes but that's not the case anymore. Rino cannot accept that his body has it's limitations, which is why he shouldn't play more then 45 to 60 minutes per match and no more then once a week. Completely agree with the Seedorf part, Dinho gets criticized for it and now that Seedorf did it, he's suddenly playing great He played like cr@p then put in two brilliant passes, which should have been 2 scored goal (Robinho's big chance)

As for the punt the ball to Zlatan tactic we're currently adapting. That is what worries me most tbh. I'd like to see us try to play without him at this point

I really don't see what's there to worry about. Frankly, I don't even think that's the case. Zlatan is our offensive terminal, so of course he will be involved in most of our actions. But it's not like we pass the ball to Zlatan, hoping he'll invent something out of nowhere. That's Dinho's case.

Lazio, Genoa, and one of the Auxerre goals, that's more then half the goals he's scored and more then half the goals Milan has scored since Zlatan came. To me that's worrying. The only real team moves I've seen were is goal against Auxerre where Dinho crossed in and Boateng set it up and the one against Ajax, both goals scored in the CL where teams open up more then the ones in Serie A do.

The team is not really giving Zlatan any other balls to work with, he hasn't had a tap-in opportunity or something remotely simple.

Now Imagine us playing without him, especially now that Pato was out injured...

This all sometimes gets me. I don't understand why at mf you can support some of Milans players (like Pato, Robinho,...) while on the other hand when you state your support to other players (Ronaldinho, Dida, Inzaghi,...) you mostly get posts where other call him crap, sh@t, or something else. Don't we care about feelings anymore? Don't we love Milan, and at least try to like most of the players? We all really should think about this - exactly this is the point of this site named Milanfan not Pippofan or Patofan.

And why is fanboy so embaressing? Does that mean someone is biased and all his judgement is incorrect? When did objectivity started to play such a big role in football. Last time I remembered, part of the joy football brings is that you simply cannot be objective enough, therefore it's normal to be at least a bit subjetive - that's why people belive and support for various clubs and teams.

Couldn't agree more. I read through the forums and have this itchy finger that wants to reply, but as I read more into 'replies to the initial post' I start to wonder if it is really worth replying to. People are at times too premature in their assesments and hence make a world class player like Clarence or Ronaldinho look like garbage.

I think as a club we have done very well, considering the changes and uncertainties that we have been faced with. We have a strong overall squad that can do a lot; not saying we will win anything noteworthy, but if our performance against Parma in the 1st half was anything to go by, I'd say we have a team that clicks. Just a matter of finishing off chances in the final third of the pitch.