+1

Excellent post. This wouldn't have happened with Jose, but Jose has gone now.

Ratings:

Abbiati (6) - not much to do due to a powerless Inter. Correct match.
Nesta (8) - brilliant in the crucial moments of Milan's match, one of the heroes of this big night.
Thiago Silva (7.5) - turning into a CB monster and still young. Milan has to hold on to this man as long as possible
Zambrotta (6) - correct while defending, especially after he changed side and closed down Inters left.
Abate (5) - good first half offesnively, but bad defensively. His short-mindness (red) almost costed us the derby.
Gattuso (5.5) - similar to Abate, but thanks to Allegri, he was neutralized soon enough. Still, showed heart.
Ambrosini (7) - work, sweat and strenght all 90 minutes long - and still enough to make a few runs!
Flamini (7.5) - same as Ambro, but with even more offensive vision. Great add to our team!
Seedorf (6.5) - from time to time precise, but mostly sloppy; still provided neccesary passes to our attack...
Robinho (5.5) - ...which virtually was non-existant. Some good running, but also more of the same nonshalance.
Ibrahimovic (7.5) - hard work and the important penalty, but lost rapidly strenght in second half.
--------------
Pirlo (6.5) - important sub by Allegri, did very well on both departments and calmed Milan down when neccesary.
Antonini (6.5) - solid match, did pretty much everything right.
Boateng (-) - not enough time to get a rating, but did a fair job.

So when are our next games including CL?

Home matches.

That's what they said on ESPN, it's 56 including cup matches.

Yes. Allegri probably put Pirlo in instead of Gattuso cause everybody knowed that a red card was waiting him aswell.

Again, it didn't really have anything to do with that. the game was halted and Inter were to start, and he knocked away the ball which started the fight. that action usually deserves a yellow especially in a tense game like this where one team is down and short on time.

At first I got really angry at Pandev but then realized it was all Abate's naivety.


That's great then! thanks.

Sunday against Fiorentina. No midweek game. I think there's going to be International firendlies, not 100% sure though. Hopefully if it's just friendlies, our players don't get called, Ibra is going to die a slow painful death at the rate he's being worked

Agreed, Abate should have stayed on the floor after the push by pandev, but thats easy for me to say, i would have smacked Pandev full in the face and put him back in his dugout

Just as well i was not on the team sheet

Not anymore, AC Milan came saw and won!
Im starting to like this Allegri more and more. Not like I did it before

The ref was dealing with something else, I think Ibra and Lucio were having words further up the pitch, and suddenly the fight between Abate and Pandev broke out. He wouldn't have gotten anything had he not let himself get sucked into it with Pandev, who was obviously looking for such an occasion

1) No, Leo's mistake was much worse. He didn't sub off the injured and irritated Gattuso. That was a disaster, a rare display of total confusion. Allegri today - was just poor timing. Allegri had two hot-heads, and he just couldn't waste 2 subs before even 2/3 of the match haven't been played. It's similar, but not the same.

2) I'm not prepared to say it either, but sorry, this is just unfair. Inter is weaker, but the rest of the teams are stronger. Milan made a run of 6 matches without defeat and 5 wins in a row, I think the coach should get a bit credit for that.

Next match is on saturday,Han.

Yes it is, Actually Sweden are playing against Germany ( In my hometown ) And Brazil will play against Argentina derby, a friendly

His assistant could've told him! I guess the yellow to Abate was for knocking away the ball, the one to Pandev for pushing Abate to the ground. I might be wrong though!

Anyway, who cares we won the derby!!

My god, I hope they rest Ibra. The man has been played and played like he's 18.

It was for pushing Pandev away. But yes - no one really cares we finally did it and won. All season looks better now that we broke that spell.

Supp. - I really hope we bring in another striker in January. I have a wish-list (1.Del Piero, 2. Ballotelli, 3. Trezeguet)

Damn, we can't afford to lose Ibra now, we've got vital games over the next few weeks. I'm worried about Champions League qualification. As we only have Robinho and half-dead Ibra for attackers.

I am still optimistic, we have more points this season as same point last season, i think (and hope) Allegri is growing into his position, but still feel he needs to be more decisive and react quicker. But tonight HAS to be a major confidence boost for the players, coaches and staff at our club.

Hope so too, but Im unsure. Inter got angry at Holland because the called him up to play
after the collapse last week same for Van Persie. But still Im unsure.

You mean half-dead Ibra and semi-professional Robby?
Honestly, the guy adds possibly less then any other player. Yes, he runs around a lot and maybe even creates something (questionable) but really - take a simple run into Stankovic as a example - Robinho with the ball in a good chance and position - Stankovic comes, takes the ball without making even contact, Robinho just watching as a spectator. His chance waste, his attitude, his holding...everything is wrong with that guy.

1) That was a complete mix up which even involved Seedorf's shoes... Abate was injured as well, and Antonini was already on the by-line ready to come one, for some reason Allegri held off. Next thing you know Abate is getting stupidly sent off....

2) The rest of the teams are stronger yes, but who do you see us fighting for top spot against in 3 to 4 months? We have lost some really stupid points this season, most notably against Cesena, Juve (who were complete cr@p) and Catania. My point is, an Inter that is operating at 100% would have left us for dead by now


Those are really terrible choices, Del Piero can barely run anymore and Trez is just an extremely limited player, and I never liked him Balotelli is out of the question. We can always go the Roma route when we want to rest Ibra and not play a striker

I still have hope for Robinho, i dont know why, i never rated him before at real (that was first i had seen of him), but, there is something about him........Cant put my finger on it! His touch is good, his movement is great, he worked hard tonight and in previous matches. I feel he needs to get used to italian football, then, i hope he will settle and contribute more this season.

He was not happy about coming off, and that for me is a good sign.

No we just promote youth, bleed the young stars ffs. They would be used sparingly but will improve leaps and bounds just by getting some game time with the first team squad! Even just last 20 - 30 mins regularly.

Han, I don't think he was realy injured, there's no proof for that thesis.

As for my list - those are the ones who IMO could happen (Berlu "wants" ADP, Trez is in great shape).
Is there an option to bring back Borriello?

OMG are you honest? This is terrible - 2/3 can't even walk after 60 minutes, and no subs would be there to back them up.

to add to that none of them 3 is a pute stiker

I did see a report on skysports.com regarding Del Piero, but i see that as utterly pointless. Another star on his way to retirement that would command a massive salary, trez maybe 2-3 years ago but not now. Pato is out for six weeks i think? Get the youngsters on the bench and see what happens. Fingers crossed the midfield is really starting to take shape and that we wont have more injury woes there. Give kids like berretta or verdi a chance, throw them in with ibra/robbie in second half of games for experience, and even just to mix it up a bit and to give other players a rest.

This club needs to start taking chances/giving chances to our youth, its the failure to do that that sees us in the state we are.

On the other hand i am sure the commentators said that the Merda's team was on average the older one, lol

We won, yes, but let's not act like we ran them out of the building.

Still, it makes me wonder what Moratti was thinking by hiring one-hit wonder Benitez in the first place.

Seems like the good old Moratti is back. Moe was a simple blackout, I hope the good old Hodgson-Tardelli days are restored.

We made it look easy, we scored in the fifth minute and after that inter had no real chances , not even one and we could score some goal more but its ok and than came the 60th min and the stupid Abate show, he is really a moron and he should never play again for Milan, he is simply stupid!! After that inter was a better side but never really a threat!

BRAVO MILAN!

You seriously believe that a 36-year old Del Piero is going to throw away his status as Italy's biggest club's greatest ever legend for half a season at Milan? Is the Balkans on fire again???

We played a fantastic first half, then the second half was completely jeopardized by Abate's red card. Nevertheless, Inter never created any serious opportunity in the whole game because our defense + midfield tonight were on fire.

Allegri is finally starting to get the hang of it. He's realized that we can't play 4-3-3 anymore, and that Ronaldinho becomes a liability to the mechanisms of our game, especially against big sides. He has yet a lot to improve, but what matters is that he's found a squaring to our playing style, that is, three defensive midfielders, one trequartista and two forwards. This allows us to play a more solid and compact line-up, with players interchanging positions and helping each other.

Well done to all the boys, they made us proud tonight!

Que?

Old and overpriced. No thanks.

Well what do you propose to do if Ibra can't play? Also Seedorf is the only one that struggles after a certain point, Dinho never had any problems with that.

I'd take one of the Primavera's as backup to sub one of them out, but at this point that's pretty much the only solution if Ibra can't play, OR play Pirlo as AM Dinho and Robinho as strikers... And use Seedorf as a sub (don't know for who there since he can't play as a striker)

At this point let's just all hope that nothing happens to Ibra so we don't have to resort to this.

Inter actually started to get on us after Coutinho came on, from that point on we didn't do anything aside from sit back and try to punt the long ball to Ibra.

We could have just easily lost this, we tried the same tactic as we did against Real and started wasting time before HT rolled around. To me this is not something that a big club should be doing, Inter were toothless infront of goal, any other team would have punished us.

I'm happy that we won, don't get me wrong, but I'd rather not sit in the comfort zone as I can see the rug being pulled from under us.


How can you say that was one of the working mechanisms of the team? In the first half our chances came from long balls to Ibra who was eating Matrix alive in the air. The midfield was barely functioning when it came to actually passing the ball around. Seedorf was practically trying to pick up the ball from defense and trying to carry it all the way to Ibra and Robs. One of those DMs was surpluss and causing us huge problems, we looked great because Inter were just that terrible in the first 30 minutes. Once Coutinho came on we barely got a look in again. Pirlo came in and he calmed things down a lot, simply because we kept that ball longer then 30 seconds.

Also Rino's side was our weekest, all Inters play came through that side. Rino is just not a starter anymore and he could have easily been sent off as well. I don't see why we should put ourselves in such a position by playing him in such big games

Imo against the big teams there is no need for 3 DMs Flamini and Ambro will do, play Boateng alongside them and it's the perfect combination. Push Pirlo in the AM position, Seedorf simply cannot play more then 60 minutes anymore.

Against smaller teams Pirlo can slot in the midfield 3 and Seedorf/Dinho play the AM position.

Anything but playing 3 DMs again!! That's just overkill

Hee hee we won. And Ibra kicked Matrix's a$$. Did Matrix really think he had a chance to pwn Ibra with that two footed tackle?

Oh...check this photo from the offside. I think it describes the match pretty well.

Click here...

Maybe, I just like the player,...but yes, it would make things more and more complicated.


I'd rather have Seedorf and Robinho/Ronaldinho behind a primavera. Gee, there must be some of the players out there that could eventualy do any good.

So, I ask once more, can we terminate Borriello's loan deal and bring him back?

This was just TO easy...

Curva Nord:

@Filipo: I don't know if we can...but we won't. We are classy like that. And Roma is an old friend of the club.

We need a striker...one more ball of energy in the mid-field and a fullback for the right (though there is a small part of me that thinks Oddo's getting a second wind.)

Right now...I'm gonna go with the Dutchman and say we ought to bring in Keisuke Honda. I also hear Steven Pienaar is available for free in June. I guess we could buy him for under 5 mill in January.

So now it looks like my main gripe about our mid-field not functioning seems to have been sorted out. We now play like a compact Mourinho side though It was a pleasure to watch us show some balls.

All those Inter attackers rushing in...but then they're all herded like sheep into a straight line.

Nesta, Silva and Ambro were gods!! Oh my god. The highlight of the match for me?

Ambro slide tackling the ball away from Zanetti near our box, sweeps his hair back and bends down to check on Zanetti while his Captain badge is visible to all.I could hear Dylan's 'Times they are changing' in my head Zanetti looks like 'Where the hell did that come from? This wasn't in the plan...'

I'm not gay, but I wanted to kiss our blonde angel then.

P.S: Balotelli supposedly chanted "Ibra, Ibra...". But how can that be? I thought they hated each other.

To put this in perspective; how likely would it have been to see Maldini join Juve after the 2009/10 season?

I don't think you can compare Maldini to ADP. If you must compare him with someone compare him to Raul.

There's no way ADP will come to Milan. He might fancy a stint abroad though. Clubs in the Middle East would love him. He's a hero there. He might even do a Raul and play in the Bundesliga...IF the new Juve contract isn't good enough.

Yeah, so it's time to take off the anti-Allegri signature. We're top of the table, beat Inter, so Forza Allegri and Forza Milan!


WTF are you talking about??? We beat Inter with 3 so called ''DMs'' and still you are complaining the hell about it??? F~ that! We beat Inter, are top of the table, stop complaining, stop hating, give love lots of love! Forza Milan! Forza our DMs!

No we beat Inter just because they were non-existant in the first 30 minutes and Matrix is a bigger idiot then Abate

Open your eyes!! We won yesterday, yes and I'm extatic, but am I blind to the problems? NO!! Rino-Ambro--Flamini? Nesver going to work against big teams who are in any type of form, we scored that goal because the long ball to Ibra tactic worked like a charm agains Materazzi who pretty much let Ibra do anything he wanted, even looping the ball over his head without so much as trying to fight him for it.

Rino was such a big mess on that right side, all of Inter's decent attacking plays came through him, left Abate fighting Eto'o all on his own and should have gotten sent off in the process. Also Seedorf practically had to drop in the DM position in order to get the ball in good positions. How do you see this as something positive?? Once Pirlo came on we actualy started looking a million times better. The 2 DMs offer us all the power, muscle and defensive stability we need, the other DM was just overkill and instead of adding to our game, took from it. I'm positive that had Pirlo started instead of Rino, we could have ran riot against an Inter side who never bothered showing up.

You know, I'm just as extatic as you ae, and I've taunted my fair share of people this morning at school But I'm also looking at the big picture, where we were far from perfect. Imo had we started with that ball player in the midfield 3 instead of Rino we would have seen the perfect Milan, with perfect balance

AC Milan, biznatches.

Jesus, one would suppose we lost from your post. I think you never will be pleased, I know you for quite some time and this occured on very rare occasions.

What's the point in wanting a perfect Milan? Reading your post one could presume it's some kind of philosophy and not football.

All the theory for nothing, we've won the match, we are 6 points from Inter, why don't we enjoy at least for a while? Nothing can instantly turn perfect. Was Inter 2006 perfect? No. Three years later - much closer.

I don't belive you're that naive to repeat the bolded part. That's simply too much; Milan did not win just like that. They played bad, but we had our share on the win.

I know, we're alway classy. Just that it would not hurt that once we got unexpected help, like when we send Abbiati to Juve.

It looks like we've been watching different games, mate. In the first 30 minutes we had complete dominance of the game, playing a very fluid football with short passes and combinations, something I hadn't seen us do in a very long time. True, we relied a lot on long balls for Ibra, but that doesn't mean our midfield didn't do well.



That, I completely agree with.



This is getting a bit old. Seedorf shouldn't play because he disappears in the 60' etc. Well, Seedorf's played three games in the last week and was by far one of our best players in all of them. I've been bashing Seedorf for years, but even I am rational enough to realize he's in great shape right now and should always be a starter, at least until he starts underperforming again.



Fair enough, I'll start looking for a new signature.

Perfect Milan and perfect football are completely the different things, I want a Milan with balance. Perfect balance can be achieved it's not something that too far out there to contemplate. At the start of the season we started with Dinho, Ibra, Pirlo, Pato and Seedorf, that is imbalanced because it was too attacking with no hard workers. Now we're playing 3 DMs and it's just as imbalanced, you need someone that's going to keep a cool head when on the ball and under pressure in midfield, not someone that will just punt it up for the sake of getting rid of it. I'm very happy that we won, but in the future, playing this system against a team that's playing well will backfire on us. And after all derby or no derby it's 3 points. And getting these 3 points and losing a further 6 of them against Roma and another good counter attacking team won't really help us, sure we have bragging rights but if we can't turn that into a title in the long run then it won't really matter.

I'm not saying we should change the entire system, which imo is starting to actually look like somehing coherant, but that midfield cannot play together if we want to go all the way and make it to the final stages of the CL. A really good team can easily stifle all those destroyers out, thus we saw what happened when Inter actually started playing and Seedorf trying to make something happen from our own half. Also the fact that Rino is one of those 3 DMs is also a big problem. Most teams play 1 DM, we play 2 and it works for us, 3 is over doing it.


What did I say? That the first 30 minutes we looked great, but imo we only looked as good as Inter made us. Also I don't really see what fluid football you speak of, most of the chances we made came from long balls to Ibra who made Matrix look like a Sunday league ametour. Once Inter actually started playing we struggled to string along more then 5 passes together.

That midfield is not made for fluid football, it's made to destroy, not every team is going to have an idiot defender marking Ibra. Like I said above, all in all the system in place is working, but it's way to negative a team who can really play the ball around at pace would totally kill us. We weren't abl to keep possission against Bari the last time we played those 3 and agains the same thing happened at Inter. All I'm saying is that if we want to succeed in the long run then that midfield cannot have 3 DMs especially not when Rino is onvolved, who has become a huge liability these days...


Seedorf has been great lately, but the man cannot function after a certain point, especially when he is made to work as hard as he did yesterday where he had to basically run back in front of the defence to pick up the ball everytime, especially before Pirlo came on. He can't play every 3 days and we always have to sub someone in for him because he can't cope with it. I'd personally play Boateng in midfield pirlo behind the strikers in big Serie A and CL games, against sh!t teams in Serie A we need Pirlo in the mid and an AM, simply because they park the bus on us. But wanting to play Seedorf every 3 days is just irrational and never going to work. He's in great form now, but like usual if we continue to burn him out he'll start playing like sh!t again sooner rather then later