Decisive CL match. A win here and we could turn our luck. Also, if we manage to surpass Arsenal and enter the 1/4 finals Allegri would prove he has it in him for more.

I agree

So anyone know who could be ready from the injured players for this one?

We'll have VB and Ibra back from the Udine game which is a huge bonus. Anything to keep Ambro off the field in such a game is good for me.

I read that Pato could be back but we should be ok in attack. If only we could re-coup one of Aqui or Boateng...

Doubting we can get anything more than a draw out of this tie, I just hope we keep a clean sheet. If we do concede, it will be an uphill battle at the Emirates and I am sure Wenger has enough tricks in his bag to keep us occupied with anything but scoring


Allegri, this is your time to shine, prove us wrong!

I actually regained confidence in Ambrosini yesterday (haven't lost much of it anyway). Yet, it would be insane to start him over Nocerino and Bommel, especially since he played the Coppa match and fulltime against Udinese.

Yet, I think Milan also lacks a permanent leader. Seedorf isn't the right man, and Silva does not qualify to often a team captain. Ambrosini is the closest thing we have right now, naturally, miles away from the leadership personas of a Maldini, Baresi or Costacurta.

I would go with this:


Mesbah-Thiago silva-Mexes-Abate
Nocerino-Van Bommel-Seedorf
Robinho
Ibra-Sharaawy


EDIT:I'm all for Van Bommel as our captain!

Nocerino - VB - Ambrosini for the midfield ... We need as much muscle in that midfield as possible.

Then for attack, I'd throw in Ibra and Robinho with Seedorf in the AM slot.

All others can come off the bench at any point in the match.

Abbiati,Nesta,Boateng,Flamini and Pato training with the rest of the group in Milanello.

Flamini? Almost forgot about him. Now that guy still has to prove something and sooner rather then later.

Lost faith in this guy a while ago ... We have Nocerino now, who has done a lot more than the former in six months than the former during his whole stay with us.

Why so that when we actually have the ball,we won't be able to do anything with it.Ambro just loses the ball too much for my liking and Arsenal are a very good team in maintaining possesion.Seedorf in the AM slot has been terrible ffft!Have you seen him?As a playmaker,he'll work best for us.



Great news!

Well, if I were Allegri, I'd go with this one:



In second half, depending on the result I'd like to see this one:

Well, it isn't for your liking its for my liking and to piss of han for 90 mins



On a serious note, Seedorf in the AM is what might work for us anyone else is a gamble really, especially in a high-caliber match-up. Ambrosini, well, we don't have much depth really, as you noticed we are in the middle of an injury crises. If KPB is fit enough, then he should start otherwise we have no choice I guess.

Best way to play Arsenal is with a lot of ball winners. Their only real strength is keeping posession, if you don't wllo them to do that then they struggle.

I'm not entirely fussed though, I'd rather concentrate on back-to-back Scudetti.

If Seedorf is about to put another catastrophic performance I'd rather he didn't play in this game at all. replace him with KPB, he can't do worse.

Aye. We can aim for the CL next season. Give all we have to Arsenal, and try and win it. But our main focus should be the Scudetto again. And even another one next season, if we can. Get me the star on the shirt, dammit. So very close to 20 titles, I'd hate to wait a few years (or a decade) for that.

And,when we win the ball,what do we do with it?At least have one playmaker like Seedorf who will be our reference point in midfield.

The question is if Seedorf still can do that... lately not at least

He can do it better than Ambrosini at least,I'm simply stating our best option atm.

We're all doomed in this match. You know it!

What made you regain faith? A decent 10 minute spell where he did not lose the ball in suicide areas like he'd been doing for the entire match prior to those 10 minutes?

No, Ambrosini simply cannot get anywhere near the pitch for this game. It would be suicide on our part. As we did against Juve


That midfield would lose us this tie in the first 45 minutes, mark my words!

That's too many ball winners and no one who can actually do anything with the ball. We'll see the usual thing with winning the ball and losing it on the next pass forward.

Imo best midfield 3 would be Seedorf, VB and Nocerino. Boateng behind the strikers.


Agreed


Agreed, but Flamini won't get anywhere near the pitch. I can see Ambro making an entrance in the last few minutes should we have a lead to close things up. And that is the only way he should be utilised


So you'd rather lose just to see me freaking out about the idiotic moves Ambro makes?

No, Seedorf in the AM position cannot be done anymore. It's no surprise that we won the Udine game, as well as got back into the Juve game once we moved him back to his original position on the left. Imo, Seedorf imply has to be played in the midfield 3 so he can control the tempo of our game. He knows how to do that better than anyone on our team. Knows how to slow things down if players start to lose their heads, etc. We need him in that position imo. AM position needs to be taken up either by Boateng (if he's fit) or Robinho/El Shaa (should Pato start)


We'll have 2 ball winners, but we cannot have 3. Simply because we'll win the ball and lose it within the next few seconds. We still need someone who can actually move the ball around in that midfield. And that person has to be Seedorf.

Another thing about Ambro, he and VB get in each other's way too much when they're both on the pitch. They're both the same type of DM so a midfield containing those 2 never works. And we've seen this happen when Allegri had his hands tied and had to play both at the same time (like the Coppa tie). Otherwise he never plays them together.

I agree that making Arsenal play without the ball is the best solution as they simply do not know how to handle that. But doing that means winning the ball quickly, yes, but also retaining the ball for long periods, and that cannot be done with such a midifled.

Thus 2 ball winners and 1 playmaker in the midfield 3 is the way to go for us

I think he can. As long as he's in the midfield 3 and not at AM I think Seedorf will be ok.

These are the kind of games that Seedorf still plays football for. I almost have more confidence in him to deliver in such a game than I would in anyone else on the team

If we don't win this match I'll never hear the end of that tw@t Piers Morgan slagging us off.

He's the worst football fan in the world, and now we're up against his Arsenal.

I want to win almost as much to get it up him as much as to progress in the CL.

What I'd like to see:



Shame Aquilani is not ready yet. Anyway, if Seedorf and Pato underperform as usually, bring in Emanuelson and El Shaarawy. Robinho should not be anywhere near the pitch.

Han what are you talking about? Ofcourse I'd trade it for a loss in this fixture. At least this way I know I'll log in to MF for some entertainment

That would be great,but I'd put El sharaawy instead of Pato.He's been playing for some time,match fit,and in good form.Boateng,I'm afraid we shall take the risk,but he's a tough dude,so no worries.

Han believe otherwise, subject to Ambrosini not starting and Seedorf playing on the left.

I would actually start a weird 4-2-2-2 with Maxi and Ibra. But then we all know that it's too much to expect Allegri to try a different formation.


--Abate---Nesta---Silva---Mesbah---
----------MvB-------Nocerino----------
------Urby----------------Zee--------
-----------Ibra-----Maxi--------------


Bench: Mexes, Amelia, Robinho, Pato, El-Sharaawy, Ambrosini, Flamini, Boateng.

Why I like this is, the amount of tactical flexibility our bench is showing. The 4-2-2-2 would be mostly a rope-a-dope again like against Udinese. Where we sit up and soak pressure. I know that Maxi has a tendency to drift down the wings as well, so we can stretch them quite a bit.

I would at some point bring on Pato for Ibra...and El Shaa and Robinho to make a run at the defence. Shake them up a bit.

Basically I want Arsenal to run at a brick wall for sometime and lose focus where we can hit them on the counter...and then bring in some fresh fast legs to shake things up.

Needless to say, I don't want any negativity or playing for the draw sorta tactics.

Let's hope Melissa is on her period this week

Who?

Someone's wife I guess?

Boateng's (Melissa Satta)

Because of those sex comments she made

Oh ok.

Having read her interview, I don't think it will help.

When the river runs red, she'll want him to take the dirt road home.

I thought these 3 were injured...

These guys along with Nesta practiced with the team yesterday. They should be on the bench, surely!

excellent news then, hopefully we can get aquilani back soon as well and get close to near full strength of a squad for the business part of this season.

Aye, these 4 of our most influential players. Flamini not so much, but Boateng, Aquilani, Nesta and Pato!

Mightn't be too bad. Most "roads" require slow, careful driving

So KPB might start, as his fitness level is good enough, so thats a huge boost to our midfield. Add to that MVB Seedorf Nocerino and Ambrosini and I can almost see us managing a draw in this fixture. We just can not afford to concede at San Siro. If we can sneak a goal or two, again without conceding then we have a good chance of going to the Emirates with qualification on our side.

Allegri and Tassotti have to draft a strong team based on ball-winners and anchor-men if we are to achieve a positive result. Otherwise Arsenal will run circles around us, especially given we have a very tired core after playing two games in the span of just days.

So, Boateng, Van Bommel and Nocerino are sure to start. Who should be the fourth midfielder? Seedorf, Ambrosini or Emanuelson?

All far from exciting options but I'd go with Seedorf, he usually more motivated for these games than just the regular league matches.

Aye, I'd go with Seedorf as well. We need some quality in there, and Seedorf is the closest thing we have to a creative midfielder at the moment, even though he's been crap lately. Now, should he play as AM or CM? That's another troublesome issue.

CM, he plays better there at this stage of his career. AM is too much for him atm.

Like I and others have said. If you conjest that midfield with too much muscle than it will creat emore problems for us than necassary. Yes we need to have a strong midfield, but someone in that midfield who will help to maintain possession is a huge must.

Playing someone like Ambro who is a huge liability on the ball because he;s more likely to lose it in a dangerous area is certainly not the way to go


It simply has to be Seedorf. That's already more than enough muscle in that midfield with those 3. Urby really won't contribute much to our overall play, while I don't need to go into the Ambro situation. I think everyone could see in these last few games that he's played that he simply cannot play at this level anymore, especially not in such an important tie.

Seedorf is our only creative mid. And we absolutely need someone in there who will control the tempo and possession for us.

Boateng, VB and Nocerino will do the running and recovering of the ball. Seedorf will balance it out

Can't see Allegri starting El Shaa here tbh. Either Robinho or Maxi could get the nod, or even Pato if he's fit enough. But I think Allegri will want that experiance in there.

Still, I trust El Shaa more than Robinho in front of goal, that's for sure

I think Allegri might start him. Robinho is not in a great shape, Pato shouldn't be rushed and Maxi, with all due respect to Udinese game, is not a Milan calibre CL knockout game starter. El Sha is in a better shape than all of them atm.

agreed, worst comes to worst, we'll sub him, but he's crazy good

maxi has recently scored and has UCL experience as well so he could be starting

Probable line-up according to Sportmediaset:



Zambrotta??? Ambrosini??? Robinho??? This is a joke, right?

Ambrosini is what pisses me off most!Zambrotta is ok,I mean he isn't tried or anything,so he can give all he got.Robinho might not be the best choice,but we have people on the bench to switch it up too,but playing 3 dms is just too wrong.

Did you forget Zambrotta's horror show against Inter? Walcott will eat him alive.

ENOUGH WITH ALL THE OLDIES!!!