Form Guide: Milan (D L D W -) Juventus(W W D -)

Last season: Juventus 0 - 1 AC Milan

Side notes: Last season Milan won with a Gattuso goal against a weaker Juventus; but both matches against them weren't comfortable for us. This season they are stronger, with a better coach and playing on their new stadium the first real derby. Pirlo could be motivated as well - it will be heartbreaking to see him play against Milan. Hopefully Milan will have Ibrahimovic at disposal.

Can't wait...

Btw nice opening post!

Thanks

It looks like Boateng won't recover in time for this one.

Might want to include Ibra's pic to the intro. post.


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No Boateng... x2

also Pippo can be there.

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Pippo is there dude. Third from the left (first row)

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Pippo is there dude. Third from the left (first row)

Done Ibra and Storari added.

Pirlo may just prove a few doubters wrong.

Only a few

Let's hope this one won't be the match though

I really hope Pirlo plays his best game . Scoring a free kick but with Milani winning 3-1

I don't really expect much from Pirlo, especially against us, Allegri usually puts out a very strong and combative 4 in midfield, even without Boateng, we'll be able to overpower Pirlo and Marchisio/Vidal. At least that's how I see it going, they'll mostly threaten us on the wings, which is why Taiwo should get the nod in the CL game while Zambro should start this one.

I'm not saying Pirlo won't do his all to play a great game against us, but I think he'll be very ristricted and limited in what he can do if Conte doesn't provide him with proper cover. And I think it could be the same story the entire season, teams in Serie A don't take too long to figure out what needs to be done to nullify such threats, Pirlo was great in the first 2 games because his position was new so teams couldn't adapt easily, now we're already seeing his influence dwindling a bit because teams target him easily in that kind of set up.

About Boateng, Allegri said that they'll have to evaluate his conditions for the Juve game, implying that there may be hope for seeing him on the pitch on Sunday. It would be awesome to have him for that game.

Boateng recovers. He trained regularly with the rest of the team.

Link

oh great..

Phew, so Boateng, Ibra back for Juve. Robs will be back after the break. Things are looking better

...so far

Yep, you can't tell when another injury crises will hit, especially with our medical team

Probable line-ups:

Juventus (4-2-4): Buffon; Lichtsteiner, Barzagli, Chiellini, Grosso; Pirlo, Marchisio; Krasic, Vucinic, Matri, Pepe.

Milan (4-3-1-2): Abbiati; Abate, Nesta, Thiago Silva, Zambrotta; Nocerino, Van Bommel, Seedorf; K.P. Boateng; Ibrahimovic, Cassano.

not a bad line up, i would only prefer pato over cassano, we should win this game though.

a good line up, i would only prefer robinho over cassano

something else had vidal i.o. matri (gazzetta i think)

Official: Ignazio Abate has a groin strain which prevented him from taking part in training both yesterday and today. He will miss Juve.

That probably means Zambro as RB and Antonin as LB.

Antonini better not start at LB in this one!

Zambro on the right, Taiwo on the left.

+1

Allegri will not start Taiwo in a million years. Zambro on the right and Antonini on the left is better than Zambro on the left and Bonera on the right.

Bonera and Antonini are basically the same entity. The only question is who's going to mess up the worst when it's not their night

Bonera would win that hands down!!
and thats the only thing he'll win

I disagree. Rightback is Bonera's best position in my opinion and does well there usually.

Both are terrible players that we should have off-loaded this summer. Bonera was once a very promising young CB, but his injuries not only seem to have halted his growth but made him regress.

Antonini is a one hit wonder that Dinho made look good.

Both shouldn't be on the pitch against top sides, or even mid level sides.

Allegri would be an idiot to play either of them when he has Taiwo, no matter how much he struggled last week, it still doesn't come anywhere close to the mistakes Bonera and Antonini have made in the past

Agreed.

I would have understood chosing Zambrotta over Taiwo, but now Taiwo simply has to play. Against Bayern's Robben he showed he has the skills for it. A defense of Taiwo, Thiago Silva, Nesta and Zambrotta may not miss Abate.

When exactly did he well there?


Keep in mind that Taiwo was awful against Cesena, Antonini was good against Pilsen and awful against Lazio. Now, I'm not saying Allegri is right not to start Taiwo, but I don't think at this point that Taiwo, Bonera, Antonini makes such a big difference you are trying to make - all of them will be bad IMO and all of them will make at least one big mistake.

You also have to keep in mind that Taiwo had just come back from a relatively long injury, he was doing well in pre-season before that.

If this was a debate of who should start between Zambro and Taiwo then I would be completely against Taiwo starting, but we're talking about Antonini here. One of our biggest liabilities!

I honestly think people are exaggerating over taiwo's performance last week, yeah sure there was room for improvement but i think a part from his touches he had a decent game and he linked up well with seedorf and the attackers
and like han said lets not forget that he just came back from a long injury and that he's at a new club that he didn't play much with...

Well, I think the biggest liability is Bonera. Taiwo is still unproven, and like I said, I don't think Allegri trusts him enough to start with him against Juventus.

Called players: Abbiati, Amelia, Roma, Antonini, Bonera, De Sciglio, Nesta, Taiwo, Thiago Silva, Zambrotta, Ambrosini, Aquilani, Boateng, Emanuelson, Nocerino, Seedorf, Van Bommel, Cassano, El Shaarawy, Ibrahimovic, Inzaghi.

Knee injury scare for Pirlo

there are talks that pirlo might miss this game...fingers crossed

According to Sky, Pirlo's problem is only a minor problem and he's ready for Milan.

I think that people are vastly underatting Taiwo. He was an absolute monster for marseille and he has much more 2-way ability then antonini, who people here know i still rate. I agree Zambro offers more as a purely defensive LB, but Taiwo was the best Lb along with Cissokho and Tremoulinas in Ligue 1. he is a monster who can stand on FKs as the left footer. He should be the starter week-in week-out, no questions.

+1

Though, I don't think a single soul rates Antonini in here.

Naah, I don't think Taiwo is "that" good. He's better then Antonini or Bonera, that's sure - but he lacks tactically discipline and is too old to start learning behaving like a Serie A Milan fullback. He's the typical offensive fullback teams like Marseille can afford to have but teams like Milan can't. He's also a bad match when we field the up and down running Abate. And the coach lost faith in him (after 1 match ) - all that makes me think he's gonna stay for a short time here.

Not that I don't like him, I even rate him but - IMO he isn't what we need. Yeah, he can bomb free kicks, but what good does it bring? Seedorf can, Ibra can, Pato can. Plenty of players can do it. With our line-up, what we need is a quality defensive fullback who can replace Zambrotta and still has room/time to evolve.

Way too early to determine that. He'll have more chances to prove himself.
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Gazzeta has Bonera starting on the right. Not a pleasant thought.

You're jumping to conclusions way too soon. We're only in October, the guy's played two games in total. He lacks match fitness, and needs to adapt to Italian football. Maicon was the same age as Taiwo when he joined Inter. He was the typical Brazilian offensive fullback, playing for a French club as Monaco. Yet, he managed to turn great for them. I'm not saying Taiwo will become as good as Maicon, but let the guy have his fair share of chances. If he doesn't impress during his first season with us, then yes, we can start looking for a new leftback. But until then...

Jumping the conclusions? I think I have enough experience in judging players, and I've been watching Taiwo for years - so I wouldn't call it that way. Granted - let's give him the season; let's hope Allegri will too.

Taiwo has been included three times in the Ligue 1 Team of the Year (2008, 2009, 2011). Granted, the French league is not exactly top notch, but I think that's a very good indicator of his qualities. When we signed Taiwo, I was happy because I know he's a quality player, and I have faith that he'll turn good for us.

Oh we are not doubting his quality ... I for one am glade we got him .. It is his defensive attributes that he has to work on.