Another big match to come. A few notes:

- Milan won their last 3 matches in Serie A while Juve lost 2 out of the last 3.

- Milan is stronger while away; Juventus isn't that good on home soil.

- Zambrotta should be back so Milan will have more fullback options avaible.

That was quick We come out of this with a draw or more and we're in good shape, really good shape.

My god, Premium Calcio are being a bunch of wankers. They're only talking about the penalty, Napoli's fatigue, Lavezzi's absence, blah blah blah... Not a single good word about Milan. Shameful.

Oh crap, I thought this was the Napoli thread.

Well we do struggle against weaker Serie A teams so I wouldn't take anything for granted on Saturday.

A good, disciplined display is needed, no assumption about turning up and winning.

This post is wrong. Clearly it's only English tv that never says good about Milan.

Not looking forward to this match. They've already beaten us once this season and beat Inter not too long ago, so we know they can lift their performance in the big games. 1 point wouldn't be disaster, though I'm sure some would treat it as if it is.

I would play with Boateng behind Pato and Zlatan. Playing with proper AM gives us more balance than playing with Robinho in that role, and our good run in the league was when we played with Seedorf/Boateng there. Though that was mainly before Cassano came along and Pato was injured some of that time. So I wonder if Allegri would dare to leave both Robinho and Cassano on the bench.

Agreed. I would also play Boateng as trequartista. His insertions are lethal.

I don't think Boateng is a proper AM but, yes, he'd be better then Robinho.

That sounds rather kinky!

But yeah, the guy runs in like a wildebeest, and has practically scored 3 times he has played as a CAM. Can't argue with that. Flamini, on the other hand has a good shot, but I reckon he left his radar in England. The last 50 shots I've seen from him have all been miles off target.

That's true. His shots have been awful since he joined us. I remember him being quite a good shooter at Arsenal.

Agreed. One reason why I was happy with this signing (when he came here three years back) that at least we got someone who works hard, is young, and more importantly shoots from out of the box. I am sad to report that this guy is the worst shot in our team: great power, almost 0% accuracy.

When Flamini shoots, I literally turn my eyes away from the screen knowing it'll float over the box. And it does!

True my friend ture...

And also Gattuso's...



Our midfielders can't shoot. That's annoying.

Well we don't really have any technical players in the midfield...

As for Boateng, I'd start him in the midfiel instead of one of the DMs, let's not forget we still looked like we had no link between the midfield and attack with Rino and Flamini trying to play the box-to-box roles. Robinho or Cassano can tak the AM slot, which was starting to work in the 2nd half.

Boateng can be moved in the AM position should we need to ma a tactical reshuffle. Also Boa will have to play in the mid when we visit marry old London, so I'd want him as familiar with the position as much as he can

I think we'll have a great formation up against Juventus.Specially with the return of Boateng,and possible Zambrotta.
Also,I'm really starting to like Abate defensively though in attacking terms he doesn't offer anything but his pace which proved somewhat useful sometimes.He's still got good potential to build on,and I wouldn't mind keeping.

This match Robinho definitely shouldn't play.Cassano is much more fresh,and was a lot more convincing in the AM role.

So,I would play in the attack:Pato,Cassano,Ibra trio.

In the midfeild:Boateng,Van Bommel,Flamini.

In defense:Obvious,maybe rest thiago silva though ;p.

Yeah, let's rest Thiago Silva in one of our most important games.

Agreed with everything except resting Thiago.

The title is a lot more important then the long shot we have at the CL

There's no point in resting him anyway. We're playing only one game per week recently, and it's not like he's super tired or anything.

Gazzetta:

What match is that?

...this one?

I am hoping he was being sarcastic in some way.

...

If not... indeed.

What does 'Diffidati' mean?

'Diffidati' means that if they get another yellow, they won't play the next match.

Ah, okay. Cheers.

Link: http://football-italia.net/mar02w.html

Should be a good one, lets just hope Allegri has an actual plan of dealing with them this time instead of hoping ibra will win the game.

He will. With Pato's and Prince's return, I think we'll be a lot more stronger. Ibra has not been as important the past 2 or 3 games as you might think.

Ibrahimovic has already recovered is injury, he is a bit tired because of the big number of matches he played since september, and here in Italy some sport newspaper say that it is probably that he will start from the bench. It would be an important move, if we consider that wednesday we have another big match against Tottenham.
I would play with Boateng, Cassano (he can't play in Champions League for this year) and Pato, and give some rest to Robinho and Ibrahimovic for the Champions. If the game against Juventus will look like it's not turning good, they can enter from the bench and make the difference!

Merkel has some knee problem. Not in the squad for this game.

Play Merkel.

don't have a good feeling about this one. $#!tlegri specializes in losing these types of games. Not only this but he has the perfect excuse -injury crisis! Will be happy to be proven wrong. Will take the egg off my face and bake a cake for the optimists that believed in him.

I wouldn't say a mild Ibra injury and Merkel out would exactly mean a injury crisis.

There is no more excuses with injuries, aside from Pirlo and Zambro we pretty much have a full squad. Yes both are very important to the team but we still have depth to cover for them pretty well, and looking at Juve's midfield, even without Pirlo ours is still a lot better imo. The only players that would get into our 11 from that team are the 3 obvious ones, Gigi, Chiellini and Marchisio, all the others would barely get the bench.

If Allegri fails there are no excuses, we'll be letting the Scudetto slip leaving it to be decided in the derby or the final day, we practically have to have a perfect record from now until the derby at least, Inter have by far the easier schedule, and I cannot see them losing any points in their upcoming games

Is Ibra injured? I heard he would still be playing...

Mentally.

Nothing serious, he'll play.

BTW, Juve are not exactly completely fit either. No side can use injuries as an excuse this time.

Aside from that

This should be an easy 3 points .. Juve isn't exactly a perfectly drilled team, as once upon a time ... Far from it, they have defensive and midfield problems. They suffer when under pressure, they dont keep possession for long and they certainly don't have an edge against us.

We should be able to assert our dominance, if not, we go back to square one; the derby decides it all.

Derby matches never end up being easy

We've seen Juve being horribly bad against the likes of lecce and then go and beat Inter, or even us already. So I wouldn't be too confident...

Yes we have the better team but we can't afford to go out thinking it's in the bag, we've seen that happen already this season and it never ended op well for us

Pato has the fever, so his presence is in doubt.

SkySport says he'll play, whilst Mediaset says he won't. I guess we'll just have to wait and see for ourselves.

Not good, but we still have Cassano on the bench, not the same but still we won't really suffer a drop in quality imo.

If he's not healthy enough to play then I'd rather not risk him when we have someone like Cassano on the bench

Btw, x-off what is that link to the probably line-ups on mediaset sport?

Click

I can't agree that Cassano would provide even scarcely the same as Pato would. With a exhausted Ibra and a 'never know' Robinho, Pato provided the only garantee for a energetic forward. Without him we won't have the same finish option and the speed.

Thanks. But why are we still playing with the 3 DMs and Boateng behind the strikers?? If Pato is fit he simply cannot be left out!


Obviously they bring very different qualities to the table, what Pato brings in terms of finishing and speed Cassano offers in vision and dribbling.

But in terms of quality it's not going to drop, plus I still believe tat Cassano and Ibra work far better then Pato and Ibra. I'm not saying that Pato should not start, but if there is a chance that he'll miss the game then we still have a top class forward line with Cassano instead.

EDIT: I've now refreshed the link you posted x-off and they have Pato starting and Flamini on the bench

Anyways looking at our bench, if things are not going well we really have some great aces to throw in

Amelia, Oddo, Yepes, Emanuelson, Seedorf, Flamini, Cassano

I like the line-up from X-Offender's link. But maybe start with Cassano instead of Pato since he has a fever? There's always a second half where he can be brought in. Cassano, Robinho and Ibrahimovic have showed to be a very good attack. Though, if the risk in starting Pato is very little, then it's okay and I'm fully happy with the line-up.



I count one: Cassano... who more are great aces? Okay, I'm very happy with Yepes' preformances but not sure to call him a great ace also.