Not the best game to start our season with and to add to that it will be a mere few days before the Barca match. But we'll need to do the most professional job we can to get those 3 points

Do we know who will be available for us. Well, who's fit now?

I'd sooner a test like this before Barca rather than a Cesena or someone like that. Hopefully we can start with a win to get our season off to a good start.

Only Mexes, Taiwo and Flamini shouldn't be available, I think.

Do you know if Taiwo will be available for the Barca game? About a week ago it was reported that he might be ready for it...

I don't know. His agent said he might recover in time, but we'll have to wait and see.

we should play with a abbiati,abate,nesta,silva,zambro,vb,kpb,seedorf,aquilani,ibra,pato
btw i heard robinho got hurt in training with brazil, do any of u know how serious it is? if its not play robinho
we should give seedorf a go so he could warm up for the barca game

The starting 11 that plays against Lazio should be the one that starts against Barca. These players need to get into the swing of things to get into the intensity of a match. Barca have had more official matches then us, so they'll be more in-tune then they already usually are. So we need the 11 on the pitch to be as ready as they can be.

The attack and defence are pretty obvious choices. The midfield is more of a question mark, I can easily see Allegri picking Ambro over Aquilani in the midfield 3. Boateng will play behind the strikers no matter what because allegri whole heartedly believes in that system

The most optimal choices in midfield would be Van Bommel, Aquilani, Nocerino and Boateng. If we play against Barcelona with three midfielders over 33 i.e. Van Bommel, Ambrosini and Seedorf, we'll be screwed.

I agree but my one worry is that Aquilani and Nocerino haven't had enough time to gel with the team. I'd still prefer they get the starts so that gelling process can begin but I'm not sure Max will see it the same way.

Seedorf will play, I'm 100% sure of this.

My only Allegri question mark is whether he'll play Ambro on the right, or move Boateng back there and play Aquilani behind the strikers

I think our midfield will exist of Boateng as our AM, with Seedorf, Van Bommel and Gattuso to complete midfield.

I know that is not gona happen but i would play with VB as DM, with AA as regista and KPB as box2box with robinho in front of them and ofc Pato Ibra in front, i think that this team can hurth any team in the world! My only question is if AA can do the job we all expect from him ??

i think seedorf is a must for barca

That will give us a good smacking against Barca imo. And as I said above, the 11 starting against Lazio should be the ones starting against Barca. Our players have had very little competitive matches, the Lazio game will be crucial in the preperations for that game.

So Rino should definately be out. Nocerino should be given the nod, even though I have a huge inkling that Ambro will be chosen for the right

Allgeri will most likely go for this midfield



We'll most likely get crushed and I don't have any hope of him learning from his mistakes as he'll probably just replace Ambro with Rino for the return

This is why I don't have much hope for the CL, Allegri just does not cut it there, his close minded tactics will once again prove to be our downfall.

I think i dont need to wright down what will barca do to us with that slow midfield, and nocerino, cmon, you serious??

As a heart attack my friend

It's not like I would choose that midfield, but who here would bet against Allegri not picking that 4 to start?

Are you serious? Nocerino is our best DM after Van Bommel. Forget about Boateng being deployed as a box-to-box midfielder. He's a trequartista in Allegri's eyes, especially since we didn't sign Ganso or Kaka' this summer. I believe Seedorf will be chosen over Aquilani, even though I'd prefer the latter. But anyways, I'm quite positive Allegri will go with the old line-up han posted, we'll get crushed by Barça, once again making fools out of ourselves. And that's simply because Allegri hasn't yet grasped the concept of modern football.

oh the headache

Confused as to why this one isn't on in the UK on ESPN.

Probable line-up according to Gazzetta and Mediaset.



That midfield...

Makes me puke. Aquilani or Nocerino for Gattuso and I could live with it.

Nocerino will begin training with the team on around Wednesday for the first time. You can't expect him to start on Friday, it's not football manager.

Seedorf is preforming very well for a long time now. He should play, and unlike Van Bommel didn't play for NT, so he can easily play both vs Lazio and vs Barça. Nocerino arrived just recently, so it's expected Gattuso will start over him, at least for this match.

I did say Aquilani OR Nocerino. Doubt having Aqui in there over Gattuso could actually hurt the team despite playing two offensive mids

Sneijder played against us the same day he arrived from Real, and killed it.

MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@ chu, there are other options, Ambro and Rino are not the be all and end all of this team. Far from it.

We could easily go for a Boateng--Ambro--Seedorf midfield with Cassano or Aquilani behind the strikers.

Rino and Ambro togther in that midfield along with a slow Seedorf will be a problem for us.

Playing Barça so early is really a blow for us. If we'd played them in the 3rd and 4th matchdays, the new arrivals would have had all the time necessary to gel with the rest of the team, Taiwo and Mexes would have fully recovered, and Gattuso would have been unavailable for both games. So unlucky...

makes you sound like he's been playing for Milan for a while. As pathetic as it sounds, our best DM is van Bommel followed by Ambrosini. If Nocerino proves himself, which I think he will, then he can be considered second best.

Haha, that's true. But I've seen Nocerino many times in the past few seasons, the guy surely has improved a lot since Juventus dumped him. I think he will become a great asset to depend on.

Have you seen Ambro playing this pre-season?

His only solution seems to be to hack down players. He's still better then Rino these days, but even without watching Nocerino playing for us, I'm pretty sure that he's behind VB on the scale.

Well, aren't you always telling that pre-season matches don't mean much?

Either way, Ambro should only be used as Van Bommel's sub, just like Gattuso should only be used as Nocerino's sub.

Sure, but him hacking down players without a thought has nothing to do with match fitness or the lack-there-of at that point.

But we'll see hopefully neither him nor Rino have much time on the pitch this season

One name: Flamini.

You criticize Ambro for what's been Flam's trademark so far. But yes, X-O's right; Nocerino should start, along with Aquilani, Boateng/Seedorf and VB.

Yes Flamini is reckless, I never said anything to contradict that. But it's not as bad as I've seen with Ambro lately, where he can't catch up so he simply goes through the player.

Flamini usually does it in spurts where he's having a really good game and suddenly for no apparent reason decides to throw in a few crunching tackles

Naah, Ambro is simply better. It may be just a pre-season unfitness. But we'll see soon enough.

Honestly, I don't remember Ambro being so reckless and hacking people down.

Han's a fan, he knows better for sure

Amen brother,
Some people chose to look only at players' careers like that means they won't get severely outclassed on matchday.
Nocerino IS our second best DM without a doubt, that isn't a complement to someone who probably doesn't know what number he's wearing yet, just an observation of the people competing for his minutes.

Nocerino > Ambro + Rino
It is what it is...

I think Ambro has, is and will always be better than Flamini. However, at 34, I would like to see him only played as anchor, the position Van Bommel currently occupies. He doesn't have what it takes anymore to be used as box-to-box mid. That's why I said he should only be used as Van Bommel's substitute.

Better then Flamini? Maybe 5 years ago, but definately not now, no matter how many fouls Flamini commits.

Ambro atm, is better then Rino, yes, but really. Does that say a lot at this point when Rino is dropping to the Bonera, Oddo list of our worst players?

Imo, both should have retired last season as winners.


There were 2 friendlies where I clearly remember even his biggest backers saying, "OMG, get him off!! What is he doing!!!?"

I'll go through the pre-season match thread to see which friendlies they were


You know it!!!


Not currently, and imo they're completely different players, I'd catagorize Flamini as a Rino type DM more then Ambro. They really have nothing to do with each other as Ambro should only play the holding role when VB is injured or rested while Flamini should contest for the right side with Nocerino and Rino

And did he ever really have what it takes to play as box-to-box? I remember the head slap moments he used to have when he played that under Carlo

He did. You're being biased here, because when Flamini makes a mistake you tend to look the other way and put it under the carpet, while at the same time bringing up things that Ambro did once years ago. Nowadays, yes, as X-O said, Ambro isn't that good any more, but years ago, he was undesputable IMO.

What's you problem pal?


Your logic has flaws comparable to a tasty swiss cheese. Yes, past records, achievements and career stats, even past highs aren't important or the crucial indicator. But age sure isn't as well the crucial indicator. Because how can you rate Nocerino whe he didn't even play for Milan yet? Don't tell me every Italian or Palermo midfieder avaible is better then Ambrosini, because this simply isn't true. We must test Nocerino first. Your own opinion on Nocerino is as based on history and past achievements, as you criticized mine regarding to Ambro. Think about it.

Come on man, Ambro wasn't even a starter for the majority of Carlo's reign. And when I talk about that, I mean Carlo's best years, when we had arguably the best team in Europe. Ambro was a rotation player. I never said he was bad or anything of the sort, but he wasn't even our best DM during his peak years.

Ambro imo, had his best moments under Leo when he was allowed to play in his actual position, but then he got burned out because our squad was paper thin and was played basically every 3 days and he never really recovered that form last season, especially after VB came along and made the position his own.

But come on Ambro is no box-to-box, have we forgotten him trying to bomb forward from the left and then getting stuck so he either shoots the ball at the stands or crosses to the other side of the pitch.

As for Flamini, I know what his flaws are, and he's by no means a favourite of mine, I just think he gets slagged a lot here, and it's mostly down to the money he earns, so I feel compelled to defend him. It's not like I'm going to cry if he leaves next season, I just think he'd be a good squad player to keep at a much lower wage of course. Certainly better then giving either Rino or Ambro another extension

Haha, you are right, but look:


You see? I think it suits perfectly as well. Or do you wanna tell me Flamini's shot and cross are deadlier?


Honestly, I don't think it's because of the payrolls. Why should we care so much, it isn't our money? It's you and me and a few others that know how much he earns. But many people dislike him pecause of his poor footballing skills, his inconisistency and his limitations. He simply put isn't up to it; Ambro at his best tops Flamini without any question.

Nope, but I never said otherwise. Neither one of them should be doing such a task imo. They're DMs, win the ball, pass it to someone who can actually do something with it. That's the policy they should live by. Rino imo used to do this perfectly and imo what made him and Pirlo so great for both us and the NT.


Most are aware of what he earns because it was widely reported that we gave him a huge contract due to the interest from a lot of other clubs. And I think most are put off by it because the club usually makes a big deal of the money issue. So player like Flamini, Rino, Ambro, Dida back in the day; these players are all making huge income and yet offer very little to the club. Dida for example was on something like 4m for his last 5 years where he spent at least 2 full seasons of those on the bench. I think this irks most fans. They know we're not Man City or Real, we can't afford to pay these kinds of players such big wages because everyone knows that it will jeopardize a potential signing of a new and better player.

So for me, Flamini should have had his contract reviewed at least 2 seasons ago, offer him a longer deal bvut for much less, and come this summer that is what should be done, if he doesn't accept it, then good luck to him but don't let the door hit you on the way out

Naah, I can't agree with you on that. Maybe the contract thing rings in their background, but I really think people don't rate his footballing skills. Dida, Ambro and some others at least had one or two great seasons with us, but this guy never showed anything remotely special.

A player shoul only be rewarded for those years though. Dida was given a long extension when he'd already started to make blunder after blunder.

Ambro has always been a loyal servant to this club and whatever he earned before was deserved, but atm, he shouldn't earn anymore then 2m. For now, no one knows exactly how much he got in his new deal. But I'm inklined to believe that it's around 3, and imo, given the current financial situation, we shouldn't be giving rotation players, no matter their history, that kind of money.

As for Flamini, most fans I know still rate him above the current Rino or Ambro, no matter how limited his footballing skills are, they just get peeved that he's earning the kind of money he is, especially when the club cheaps out of offering a good sum for players like Montolivo this summer.

That's true. However, I must say that last season he was quite good. Definitely his best season since he joined us.



Nah, I don't think it's higher than €2 million.