i dont know. to be honest I think he was. He was helping our midfield out a lot more. All Pato can do right now is mistouch the ball...

Seedorf is dead.

That was me being a fanboy then!

thankgod we get our first away win

haha. no real shame in that. forza kaka.

Ibra has been piss poor today.

A win is a win.

3 points!

1-0, Lucky ?

Thank god, 3 points in the safe. Should have scored at least 2-3 other goals.

parma coach= complete moron. I'm gonna bet hes going to get sacked soon.




In regards to our performance, we still have a long long long way to go before we start even thinking about trophies.

The last few minutes were like torture.

Nice one blaming it on Parma's coach.

Milan win after almost 6 months a away game.


Firstly, I don't think Madrid can kill anyone right now.
Secondly, welcome to Mourinho era too, isn't it?

We really should have killed this game off earlier, but because we didn't we suffered at the end.

On the top of Serie A , at least for the night..

Well

It was a good performance,not by any means perfect but this looks like something the team can build on.

At least we have our midfield back! In the attacking sense.

Transition from defense ---> attack is getting better,something which was non existent a few games ago.

I have been very against it but Ronnie didn't do horrible in the hole tonight. With Pato and Ibra on form that could get dangerous.

Gattuso just said on Sky that he was supposed to go to Greece, but Allegri convinced him to stay. Great.

I'm beginning to have doubts over Zambrotta,he didn't play good.Robinho showed potential,and I felt dinho was playing an Am role,and he being good at it.

Seedorf should never ever start an Acmilan match again,I was happy he didn't pull a magic assist or goal today.I have yet to see Milan in the perfect formation.

We played today with a weak midfeild and we could have easily scored 3goals,if not 4.Parma created some chances,but the best opportunity was the penalty that nesta could have caused.

Ofcourse hes a moron. Look at our team. Techincally we are one of the best teams in the world. Our passing is class and our players in midfield can set the tempo and rhythm of a game effortlessely. What do we lack? Pace. Our attack works, but only if the other team gives us time.

If parma had pressured us like cesena did, our midfield wouldn't have done jack s***. You guys are all naiive if you think the other serie A teams aren't watching and learning from the games we win and lose. If I can sit here in the comfort of my home and see the mistakes this easily, I garuantee you other teams are already preparing for it.

We are an easy team to stop.

1)Man mark Ibra
2)Man mark Ronaldinho
3)Play a high line of midfield and defence.
4) Pressure us into our own half where our centre backs are the only ones with time on the ball.


and were done. We'll resort to silva to nesta to silva to pirlo to Ibra via long ball.


Don't believe me? You'll see mourinho employ it perfectly





Whats the defenition of killing to you? I'm not talking about 6-0. I'm talking about domination. I'm talking about our midfield gets dominated, our defence gets dominated and were sitting back defending our a$$ off and hoping that ibra or pato can pull a rabbit out of their a$$ and win us the game.

We take our foot of the gas way too many times once we find ourselves up by one goal. This needs to change, because we are no longer capable of knocking the ball around comfortably and grinding out the win like this; up against more dangerous opposition, we will find ourselves in trouble.

PS: 3 points - Nice!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-xsZS751XQ

You felt? It was plain obvious. And he did really good. Watch the game again.

Here are my comments and ratings:

Milan has, again, some problems to be solved or located:

1) Allegri's substitutions have a disruptive influence for the team. This was clearly the case last match, this match in a smaller but visible fashion.

2) Milan's 4-3-3 formation works IMO only with Ronaldinho in good shape/form and Robinho, but not with Pato. I just don't see any good in sending Pato on a side.

3) If we field a slower midfield Allegri should start making sooner substitutions. Flamini should have been the one to replace Rino IMO, not Boateng.

4) Milan needs to start playing counter attacks more carefully.

Ratings:

Abbiati - 7 - did almost everything perfect, and once more proved his sometimes underestimated quality.

Nesta - 6.5 - solid match for the veteran, but almost costed us a penalty on Crespo.
Thiago Silva - 7 - more and more one of Milan's most reliable players. Very good match.
Antonini - 6 - solid on the back, nothing special up front, just one very good attack. Milan needs more.
Zambrotta - 5.5 - a few passing mistakes that could have costed us much, didn't look particulary confident.

Gattuso - 6.5 - so much hard work as a first teamer, which he by now deserves without question.
Seedorf - 6.5 - kept running more then usually and had some nice passes, but nothing special.
Pirlo - 7 - scored the matchwinner, provided the most correct passes.

Ronaldinho - 7 - very good match, unfortunate not to score. Just lost his concentration for the last 5-10 minutes.
Robinho - 5.5 - he really has to start hitting the target at least because he's getting pretty useless with his misses
Ibrahimovic - 5.5 - managed to miss everything, including chances that he usually scores with ease

Abate - 6.5 - very good match, strong on the right, mostly correct with his passing.
Pato - 5.5 - had little chances to prove, and managed to spoil almost every of those few.
Boateng - N/A

Allegri - 6 - again, questionable subs and late reactions. Max - less screaming more concentration!

great points, agree with them all.

Yeh I know,didn't want to look bad if it wasn't right.Nvm,I have some issues .

If you talk about domination, you're even less right. Last time I checked, Real found it hard to dominate against weak Spanish mid-table teams, but managed to win. I don't think Milan will have to sit back and defend.



With all due respect, Gattuso surprised with his good performances. What's so bad in keeping him?

Ronaldinho played good today. He gave several good passes to Zlatan. I hope we try out Ronaldinho behind Pato and Zlatan. It's still questionable how it (Ronaldinho as AMC) will work out when we don't got possession. It requires Ronaldinho to contribute in defending more than we are used from him.

Zlatan deserves a higher rating than that. He played a good match, again. I feel like we can't do without him. It's true today he was terrible in scoring position, but besides that he played an important role yet again.

He's playing good currently, but how much longer will he be able to keep it up. He's 32, at the end of his career. Would have been much wiser selling him and investing in someone younger.

And I don't agree on some of your ratings. IMO you're being a bit too generous with some players. I'd go:

Abbiati - 6.5
Nesta - 6.5
T. Silva - 7
Zambrotta - 5.5
Antonini - 5
Pirlo - 7
Gattuso - 6.5
Seedorf - 5
Ronaldinho - 6.5
Robinho - 5.5
Ibrahimovic - 6

Abate - 6
Boateng - 6
Pato - 5

Allegri - 5.5

Because it was a good chance to sell him for a good sum and to bring a younger player instead. Despite his few decent performances lately, we still need a more mobile player in his position.

I agree more with X-Off's ratings than Fillipo's. It's hard to disagree with X-Off's ratings IMO.

About Gattuso, he is one of our better players this season. He is our best DM finally again.

Seddorf was literally passing out in the second half. I don't know if anyone paid attention to him being taken over by his teammates in our counter attacks. it was comical. why every coach thinks it's OK to play him a full game? you could count the times he was involved in our play in the second half on one hand.

-
--
-

Fillipo, Antonini mistouched as many balls in all those minutes he played as Pato did in 20 minutes. I find your ratings to these two to be a little unbalanced.

Meh,Antonini was good at defence,I think he deserves a 6.A full backs job is mainly to Defend,and he got that right,well mostly.

@ blue in general. You're currently being way too harsh and over the top with your arguments! Does anyone on here really think it was the perfect game etc, etc? Obviously that's a big NO! But having said that comparing this game to the last few we've played you can see some improvements in the areas we were mostly struggling in. We're more compact thanks to the narrower formation, we weren't over committing players when we were attacking and then getting caught out. And most importantly we were creaing chance, chances that came from patient build-up play.

The strikers missing something like 5 clear cut chances was the problem.

As for the high pressing game you're talking about, I believe it will come but not with the midfield we were playing today. Had there been Flamini and Boateng on the pitch instead of Seedorf and Rino it would have been more realistic. Plus on top of that the team is just on it's last breath at this point, I'm surprised they didn't go back into the dressing rooms on their hands and knees once that final whistle blew. They really need this break to regroup and figure some stuff out in regards to how we're going to play. Playing the way you wanted our midfield to play is imo out of the question. They would have burned themselves out even faster then they did without playing such a high tempo game. We played the first half smartly, we kept the ball, waited and struck when we saw an opening, too bad Ibra and Robinho didn't have their scoring boots on today, but what's done is done.

As for Real and Mourinho using that tactic and killing us I highly doubt it. Real are going through their own problems as well right now. They're having just as much trouble as us winning against mediocre teams so I doubt they'll be killing anybody anytime soon. It won't be a walk in the park and I'm not confident about the match but I'm 100% sure that they won't be outplaying us either.

As for Allegri, his overall team selection and sub are still very disappointing to me, he's playing Seedorf and Rino every 3 days while he has 2 balls of energy in Flamini and Boateng on the bench. And don't even get me started on the sub! It was clear we were going to hold on the the 1 goal lead and he takes off Rino and puts on Boateng?? I mean what the hell was he thinking when he made that sub?? To me that was asking for it, he should have put a bend over sign on Boateng while he was at it The sub should have been Flamini for Seedorf, who had gone completely AWOL by the 65th minute and as Zeddie and someone else said, you could count the number of times he actually got anywhere near the ball from that point onwards.

Well, we should consider ourselves lucky for the 3 points. Not that we didn't deserve them, or won with a fluke of a goal, but because Parma did not score towards the end. And that non-existent penalty remained just that. This is football, I guess.

Still, happy for the win. Now only if Juve wins against inter, that will make my week!

In general I'm more relaxed then i was after the Ajax game, or even the Genoa game, I can see some positives starting to show. There are still a lot of things to fix, but they're improving with time, the players are all tired so seeing them faid out in the second half wasn't a big surprise. The important thing is that we held on, we're going into the winter break near the top of the table and the players and the coach will have some times to work on things more. First order of business should be a day's rest for the players. Too bad we're going to lose soem of the internationals, especially Pirlo, Zlatan and Robinho, who all need to recuperate/find their touch again.

The club should seriously consider pulling them out of NT duty, saying they're not physically fit enough for another 2 games in a week.

100% agreed.

Then again, Pato's tasks are completely different then Antonini's. His positioning was allright, his covering fair. That gives him a average rating, while Pato on the other hand misplaced more then passes, his running was uncontrolled and his finish in that one chance very sloppy.


Investing in someone younger is just a phrase. We have younger players allready there, but we don't use them.
IMO Gattuso is a Milan legend, and I don't wanna force such players out, or celebrate when they leave, even if they are old and past their prime.

When I mean someone younger, I obviously mean someone good as well. Rino is a Milan legend, true, but this policy of ours of being affectionate and keeping players past their prime has cost us three years of mediocrity. Football players don't last forever. We had and still have a bunch of oldies which should have left long ago but still populate our dressing room. We're Milan. We want to win, not become a retirement home.

Watching repeat on ESPN now, great, great goal.

K I will remember this. On the 19th when mourinho teaches allegri how to be a coach, I'll enjoy saying "I told you so"


In regards to our midfield. We have a 30 man roster. We could easily rotate players and play with a high tempo.


We have:

Boateng
Gattuso
Pirlo
Flamini
Ambrosini
Ronaldinho
Merkel
Strasser


There should be no excuses.




I will admit I was very optimistic of Allegri at the beginning and now its october 1 and things have changed quite a bit...but for the worst.

Allegri's plans went to a 4-3-1-2, which is fine. The only problem I have with it is that he plays it like this:


---d---d----d---d-
------pirlo------
------gap----
---m----m---
------m--------
-----gap-----
----s-----s----


The gaps are going to get us killed when we play a team that has fast players and can pressure us.


We have to defend as a unit and attack as a unit with fluidity. We have to have movement! We have to have energy! If we don't, we won't win anything this season.

We don't have a good enough GK or defence to be able to shut a big team out for the whole 90 and then score on the 1 or 2 chances we get.




Right now as I see it were going to struggle. We'll still finish in the top 4 but in the champions league we are going to struggle. I also don't see us winning the league unless allegri changes things.


-----

Come winter we have to sign a fullback and another high energy midfielder.

Una parola, amici miei: Trequartinho.

And the other 11%, our shot selection.

It was an okay match. It helped that Parma had no wingers. It would have been interesting to see how it would look if we had to face wingers. IMO..this is the one formation that screws us up...we can't yet handle wingers.

I think the good points were obviously how much better we were transitioning from mid to attack. The diamond formation probably had something to do with it. Also the forward 3 interchanging was nice to see. Makes man marking difficult.

There are kinks to be ironed out. I think our pressing up the pitch was much better. But again, we do seem to get heavy onto one flank..leaving us susceptible to a magic through ball/cross-field pass. But then I suppose it's better that we lose to a magic move rather than not have any tactical answer.

To be fair to the players, they're exhausted, Ibra's been overworked. Pirlo, Seedorf, Nesta, Rino all of them. So let's see. Right now the points are important.

Good outing, though our players looked exhausted by the 60th minute mark, it was only natural considering Parma didn't play three games in a week. Still 3 points is enough.

Now the team gets a much needed break, next game on October 16th against verona and then the much anticipated Madrid game on the 19th.

Agreed


Agreed

Blue, criticizing Allegri because of the way we played is rather nonsense. He finally put Dinho behind the strikers, yet you always bring up something new. The gaps will be eventually filled with time and training. Don't forget the players were exhausted, they played seven games in three weeks.

My only problem with Allegri is who he plays and his subs decisions. I can't see how a coach can play both Seedorf and Dinho at the same time. It should be either one of them. Wednesday it was Seedorf, last night it should have been only Dinho. Our midfield needs muscles and stamina more than anything else. Benching Boateng and Flamini and playing two over 30s like Gattuso and Seedorf was a dumb move. Not to mention he's way too late at subbing, and sometimes subs the wrong players as well. He has way too much confidence in our old guard, and this will cost him dearly someday.

Exactly

With hindsight, you are able to come up with so much. Truth be told though, the team has been getting into gear.