I was actually talking about Bonera, who is 29. And going in the wrong direction. Sharing the same dressing room and training space with the likes of Maldini and Nesta should mean that a lot of their experience should rub on you, and frankly a player should improve his positional sense and game reading ability. I see little of that from him.

Part of that is probably because he has been horribly played out of position. I actually prefer him at CB. And our last two coaches have been playing him on the right side. That's horrible if you ask me!

Bonera's problem has been way too many injuries. I remember the period when he was fit, some years ago, playing alongside Maldini and doing great.

I don't think Bonera is worse at RB than he is CB nowadays. Obviously Bonera failed to reach his prospect (injuries surely didn't help). Hopefully Sokratis will have better luck, he is still young. So it makes sense to prefer him over Bonera, because you need to play to develop (surely along Nesta will help a lot), and can't say he's worse than Bonera at this point. Thankfully Allegri is playing Sokratis over Bonera few times now in central defense.

Probable line-ups:

Milan (4-3-1-2): Abbiati; Abate, Nesta, Thiago Silva, Zambrotta; Boateng, Pirlo, Gattuso; Robinho; Pato, Ibrahimovic.

Real Madrid (4-2-3-1): Casillas; S.Ramos, Pepe, Carvalho, Marcelo; Xabi Alonso, Khedira; C.Ronaldo, Ozil, Di Maria; Higuain.

Link

Ah, good times are here to stay! Well, at least Thiago Silva is back, hopefully at 100%.

Real Madrid have never won away from home at the San Siro against AC Milan or Inter, losing 10 and drawing three.

That is a great statistic and one that I will take on with great hope tonight. Thank u for bringing it to my attenion.

judging by their form right now, i guess records are made to be broken..

ManU had never passed us in the Champions League knock-out rounds, yet they managed to achieve that last season. The fact Madrid have never won at San Siro means jack sh!t. If Juventus were able to do it, so can they.

Regarding our line-up, I'm very pleased that Allegri is counting on Boateng again, and not throwing in Seedorf. And it looks like Dinho will be starting instead of Binho.

What ever happened to Oddo?

No Antonini, no Ronaldinho, no Inzaghi, and no Seedorf? I love this line-up.

Yeah, but Ronaldinho will play.

Injured.

The probable line up says Binho not Dinho. Are there reports that are saying Dinho will be starting?

Either way, I think the problem will still be in the midfield. Rino will be a problem, he's too slow and won't be able to keep up. And will most likely push Pirlo deep while he's playing high up. I'm just hoping we draw, and not get humiliated again

At the moment,I would prefer Dinho over Robinho.We can't play the way we play against Juve.If allegri gets his tactics right I think we have a big change of winning.

Instead you prefer we play as crap against our last match vs Real and our matches vs Inter (all we were more terrible than vs Juve - we actually started very well) where Ronaldinho was the one starting?

http://www.sportmediaset.mediaset.it/calci...colo45757.shtml

Robinho or Dinho have nothing to do with the way the midfield plays, and first 20 minutes or not, Robinho faded fast and had no impac on the game, not to mention that he pushes Pato out wide whenever he plays

Well,Han replied .I'm not really asking for the whole team to play for Dinho,but if the more balls they give,the more chances we will have.The less Dinho touches the ball the more ineffective he is for the team.He can feed the strikers really well,we just need to dominate the midfeild.

I disagree with that bold part. How Ronaldinho plays is a HUGE influence on how the midfield plays. To who are the midfielders going to pass most of the times? Ronaldinho. If he is marked out, rarely can receive the ball, the midfield lost their main focus point when it comes to passing the ball to when they have it. So they keep the ball longer, lose the ball more often, etc. because of it. If the AMC is being marked, midfield have got a serious problem, and the forwards will rarely see the ball then, because the AMC is key in getting the ball to the forwards.

+1

Pirlo is the main focus of our midfield, and if Robinho is drifting in and out of the game he won't help much either. Look at the game vs Juve, it looked like he wasn't even on the pitch most of the time, and if Dinho is marked, no one can hold the ball better then him, he will allow the other mids to come into the game, maybe he won't be as effective as we'd like him to be, but it's better then playing virtually with a man down, like we did against Juve

Pirlo is (also a/)the main focus point, true, but Pirlo is part of that midfield and he is the one who will do the passing to Ronaldinho etc most of the times but not only he. Anyway, it should be clear that the performance of the AMC affects the performances of the (other) midfielders.

About Robinho, I cannot disagree he is far from an ideal fit as AMC either. Really sad what options we have got for our AMC spot, such a key position (usual the star - the most influential player - of a team plays there). I still like to see more of Robinho first, surely I don't like to see Ronaldinho today since I have lots of bad memories of it (pwned last match vs Real, pwned twice by Inter last season, and of course others were bad too, but Ronaldinho is no exception and I have little hope it will be better today). I am talking about tough matches vs Mourinho. Ronaldinho against Bari would be a good option, I believe.

Come on!! You're still on about that? Ronaldinho was not out problem in those matches, far from it, yes he was part of the large problem but the real ones were as usual the defence and central midfield. Janku having a nightmare against Maicon last season and then Rino getting sent off early in the first half. The season before that we won the home game thanks to Dinho's goal and the second game we lost, but it was a balanced game

I think you're focusing too much on Dinho here, you say that it's the most important position, yet you want Robs playing there? Ronaldinho is not a pure AM but he's closer to it then Robinho ever was, also the AM is not the most important component either, and imo you've got it backwards, the AM can only perform if the midfield behind him is playing well, giving him the ball and helping keep possession. Not the other way around

I'd bet ya Allegri was going to play Robinho, but then Berlusca called and told him to play Dinho or he'd be sacked. Word.

I almost added Jankulovski as an example, yes. Of course there were several problems, but to say Ronaldinho is far from it is just not true IMO. He doesn't help our midfield to face the other team's midfield, playing him gave unbalance and there was a lack of benefit playing him, it was surely a problem too.

Nah, I didn't mean to say it's the most important position. I believe central defense is, but it is a very important position (I said the star of a team is the most influential player which can be the AMC, maybe I was not very clear here). When it comes to OUR midfield (including AMC) Pirlo('s position) is most important/influential, I believe.

The problem with the unbalance there was that we were playing a 4-3-3 against Inters powerful midfield, Dinho was part of the 3 man attack. Yes him not dropping deep enough was a problem but not a main one like you're saying. The problm was playing a Rino-Pirlo-Seedorf against Inter's Cambiasso, Zanetti, Muntari/Stankovic trio. It was plain suicide, and underlined Leo's shortcoming's as a coach. But to blame it all on Dinho, which you've done repeatedly now, is just far from the truth

After the mess he saw against Juve I wouldn't blame him Hopefully he pulled his ear about Flamini as well

MILAN-REAL MADRID: LA FORMAZIONI UFFICIALI

MILAN: Abbiati; Abate, Nesta, Thiago Silva, Zambrotta; Boateng, Pirlo, Gattuso; Ronaldinho; Ibrahimovic, Pato.
REAL MADRID: Casillas; S.Ramos, Pepe, Carvalho, Marcelo; Xabi Alonso, Khedira; C. Ronaldo, Ozil, Di Maria; Higuain.

Wow!! So he dropped Antonini for Abate!! What an idiot!!! I'm sorry but this is just ridiculous. Abate wil get KILLED out there. No way he can handle either one of Real's forwards.

So Antonini can't make a mistake, but it's ok for Rino to suck big time but still get the start

It's just one match. Don't be so hard on the guy.

No way Berlusconi will make the coach play Flamini, maybe the opposite is true.


Antonini deserves to be benched, he has been bad for some time now. Antonini has been the cause of goals so often now, but it seems like you don't remember that, and what has Abate been causing this season so far? Abate has been better than Antonini this season.

Rino, okay, I know your story about him, but to say he suck big time is simply too wrong to say! He plays well this season, and against a tough side like Real, I want to see our best / most in form DM.

Sorry guys, I'm always up to a good discussion, but this AM talk and wether Dinho is good or not and wether Robinho can be a AM is getting a bit tiresome.

It wasn't really his fault, I'm not saying it is, but again it's playing someone out of position and him not delivering because of that.


Antonini made a mistake against Juve yes, but I trust him a million times more then Abate, and how can ou say that Abate has been having a good season when he's barely even played lately? Abate is a disaster waiting to happen, you think Antonini is a problem? Antonini is a stable FB next to Abate, who is anything but that! The only thing I remember Abate doing this season is coming on and instantly screwing up by trying to pass back to Nesta with a stupid soft header that nearly let the striker through on goal. I think it was against Lazio, not 100% sure.

Rino is the most in form DM? This Rino is a form of ridicule to the old Rino. Now that was a Rino I'd want playing today. Now this Rino, he just looks so indiscaplined, lost and awkward on the pitch, he's lost all his agility and speed, players usually breaze past him with no trouble, I've seen him getting nutmegged by Serie B level players. We don't need that against Real, at least if you're not going to give Flamini the chance let Ambro play, who I begrudgingly admit is a lot better then Rino these days

+1.

I don't blame it all on Ronaldinho. Because I agree Rino-Pirlo-Seedorf midfield is a big problem against top oppositions, but this is something you and I agree with, so I don't have to say it as often.

Like you say, the 4-3-3 with no one dropping back is a problem, difference is I find it a bigger problem than you do. But Pirlo and (meh) Seedorf behind 3 attackers like that, yep, that is surely a big problem. We were too unbalanced yes, that was a huge problem, indeed Seedorf playing a role, but also Ronaldinho, and not so much 1 single player, but mostly playing too many of such. Today we at least play with Boateng instead of Seedorf, so it could work now. Hopefully Ronaldinho will have a good match, this will be key in our chances beating Real. Forza Ronaldinho! FORZA MILAN!

(Don't worry, Fillipo, I tried my best with this post to end the discussion - at least for now )

Yeah some are arguing for the sake of arguing...

Auxerre score against Ajax

Zambrotta just pulled an Antonini.

di maria almost scored

Gattuso is useless.

Abate is horrible!

Not again...

WE'RE BEING COMPLETELY OVERPLAYED

We're being crushed.

pirlo saves the goal twice.. a mess everywhere.

Are you kidding me... ??? WORST DIVE I HAVE EVER SEEN

Ronaldo is pathetic.

So is Di maria...

FLAMNI,please Flamini...

ME TOO except Antonini..