Lopez and Alex will probably miss the game. Torres and SES should recover, theoretically.

Well Abbiati can do the job just fine, no big issues there. Hopefully it's nothing too serious with either of them though. Alex is growing on me

I wonder who will play in the centre though, Pippo doesn't seem fond of Mexes so I'm assuming it should be Rami and Zapata which is still pretty good, although I do prefer Rami and Mexes together

Did we sign a new contract with Mexes? If not, we should get rid of him. He may be slightly better then Alex or Rami, but I don't want him in Milan anymore: his quality gets diminished by his character.

Abbiati is solid but he has his share of horror shows. But seeing Lopez yesterday...well, I won't miss him that much.

You talk like he made 4 mistakes on the goals... The own goal was stupid and ridiculous, yes, but the other goals there was just no way for him to save them as they were hit from point blank range thanks to some seriously inept defending. He's still miles better than Abbiati and a top class keeper

As for Mexes, so far nothing has been said about his contract. But I really find it funny that you would say this, what has he done exactly for you to be saying his quality is diminished by his character?

Yeah, every coach tends to stay away from him at first, yet they all end up relying heavily on him when they realise he's what stabilises our defence. It's no coincidence that our best defensive runs in the past 2 seasons have come when Mexes was part of the duo and was playing consecutive games. Both last season next to Rami and the one before next to Zapata.

Galliani needs to get on working on those contracts. Mexes, Abate and De Jong could all potentially leave on a free this summer. Which would be another calamitous piece of business by Galliani. Just spread Mexes' wages over 2 years, give Abate the rise in wage he deserves and just give De Jong what he wants.

On Lopez:

Granted, he wasn't at fault for the goals. But like Danny said earlier, he wasn't terrific either: in two matches 6 goals, one big save and one penalty save. Add that ridiculous and stupid goal and you cannot say that he impressed so far. He still is our best keeper judging from what he did with Real Madrid, but I'm starting to doubt he really is as good as well all thought. Just starting to, but...

On Mexes:

Well he's a brute and a loose cannon. I don't like that kind of players, never have and never will. I've mostly paired them with Inter - players like Stanković, di Biagio, Materazzi, etc etc. And again, the fact that various Milan coaches had some problems with him and Pippo is trying to avoid using him makes me think he is more of a disruptive force. Since he's relatively old and isn't quite Maldini or Nesta, I think parting ways with him won't hurt us more then benefit. Especially with his big contract. Alex, Zapata and Rami are not that far away from him.

It's 5 goals, not 6

And we can't really judge atm, the goal he conceded vs Lazio was just a freakish own goal from Alex that he could have never anticipated or saved. And all the goals from yesterday (OG aside) were just perfectly taken by unmarked players.

Yes, the OG was a wonder blunder, but I can't really blame it all on him as DS was also partly at fault.

As for Mexes, I think that sort of thinking is a wistful hope that we shouldn't be harbouring. Thinking we're the classy club while Inter are the classless brutes. Yet, they were the club who actually treated their long serving captain with respect while we treated our legendary captain like trash you could throw away. Enough said about Milan class imo. It just doesn't exist anymore

I think you're being influenced by two factors in judging Lopez, Fillipo: the many goals conceded and the howler. But that ain't no ground for criticism. He had absolutely zero fault in any of the first three goals, and except for maybe the first goal, he couldn't have saved any of them. Sure, he made a blunder in the fourth one, but I know great keepers who have flopped even more than once like that. Buffon, Cech, Casillas, Kahn, Dida etc. I think Lopez was very good against Lazio, and was just alright against Parma sans the blunder.

As for Mexes, yeah, I just don't care about him anymore. He's slowly reaching 33, Pippo doesn't count on him, his wage is too high, and his attitude is questionable. I do think he's a very good CB, and if I was Milan coach he'd be my first choice, but as things stand right now there's no point in waiting for him to play, cos quite frankly the club seems to be done with him. Expect him to be sold in January.

At the moment, it vanished. But this doesn't mean we should abandon the concept. As long as we, the fans, have standards like this, everything is fine I suppose. You may call it idealistic, but that's what I really think.

I certainly won't support or acknowledge the change in approach of our management by bowing simply down.


I get where you come on Lopez. Maybe my judgment seems to be harsh and too fast. I admit, it's more a feeling then a final judgment.

But tell me this, how many of the keepers you mentioned had such a blunder in their first/second match for the team? How many of them conceded 5 (thanks Han )? Bar the comic last goal, Lopez seemed to me rusty and slow. I'm not sure of it, I'll pay more attention next time, but if his reflexes really slowed down, it isn't a good sign either.

What does first/second or 100th game have to do with anything? Lopez was an exceptional GK at Madrid, very confident, making some fantastic saves. Are you saying he lost all that in a matter of 3-4 months? I didn't find him rusty. He didn't make any mistakes sans that damned 4th goal.

Give it some time, my friend. Plenty of time for signs and slowdowns. As of this writing, he isn't worse than Abbiati, and that's all that counts for these first few weeks, first couple of months. Everyone, anyone that is in a new environment needs six months to be accurately judged, and not just in football.

And this coming from someone who'd have signed some other, younger, goalkeeper. A presence in the box. We haven't had that luxury in eons, surely you agree.

Lopez is out for two weeks. So much for faking it story.

Saponara is out for 4-6 weeks after injuring his knee in today's training.

It is. Like acid said, let's give him time to settle in, it's way too early. The quality is there.

You never know. It is two weeks, after all.

This guy seems like he's made out of glass. Nearly all of last season injured and he needs surgery now is what I heard, which means more than that quoted duration

No way. No player would miss two games, especially if one of them is Juve, just to save face because of a meaningless goal. And no club will play along.

Yep, it's clear with the way he pulled up when he twisted for the ball that he was really hurt as the action was instinctive not rehearsed

I guess my shifty smiley isn't showing.

I wasn't impressed with it. I expect better from you

Duly noted.

SES trained with the group today. He can be considered recovered. Torres still out.

I read that he trained with the group as well... Plus I saw the training vid from today and he was doing the warm up work with the rest of the players, same as SES

Strange. Mediaset says he's still out.

Link

In the afternoon session, El Sha trained with the group while Torres in the gym.

Now, that's a smiley with a wicked personality!

http://forzaitalianfootball.com/2014/10/bo...st-remain-calm/
http://www.football-italia.net/56902/italy...ntura-out-pirlo

Better for us I think. Even though I'd like to see more Milanese players in the NT.

Yes, I'm happy to see quite a few make the cut.

Bonaventura's injury is not serious though, and he should be available for our next game.

Menez suffers groin injury

This guy keeps getting injured, even if it's small ones. Hopefully he'll be available for Verona. We have Bonaventura too in question, and De Jong is suspended.

We are running him to the ground to be honest. Everything seems to need to start and end with him in attack.

So, according to Mediaset:

• If NDJ doesn't recover for the derby, Pippo might play MVG in front of the defense
• Montolivo has been training regularly with the team and might sit on the bench in the derby
• Abate's recovery is still unknown. Either Poli or Essien could play as RB against Inter (cos f*ck Armero)

I think Poli can do the job good.

Are you serious man?

We have a perfectly good LB sitting his @ss on the bench and DS who can seamlessly shift over to RB, but no, we want one of the midfielders to play there, just because

MvG will not play.

And yes, f*ck that Colombian international world cup quarter finalist LB Pippo begged to join us.

Comical.

Indeed - Poli is a decent player and I like him, but to play him in a weaker position literally to spite the LB we have on the bench is just fucking disgusting from our 'manager'.

I don't want to dislike Pippo, the guy is a legend, but he's doing everything in his power to behave like a c*nt.

Alex, De Jong and Muntari have recovered and will be available for the derby. Still doubts about Abate.

Source: Mediaset

Monto to be on the bench I heard.

Forgot about Armero. But Poli had some good matches as fullback back in his Samp days. I think he's got some potential for this position, just like Flamini had it in him. I'd try it, why not? It's obvious that something just isn't right with Armero.

Yes, the problem is that he's too obvious for Pippo. No, let's re-invent Bonera as LB or Poli as RB instead. Now that's genius!

So what 'isn't right' with Van Ginkel then?

I don't know. Maybe his cocky attitude. I really don't know, and yes, I admit. With Armero and MvG there's a dangerous pattern developing.

I absolutely cannot stand it when you guys come out with this kind of excuse! Something isn't right with Armero, something isn't right with Van Ginkel, something isn't right with Mexes. Have we ever considered the fact that Pippo might not like them for whatever reason only known to him? It's no secret that ALL coaches have their favourites and black sheep

I do find it amusing how I'd talked up Armero in the past and he was "not good enough". Now people are in tears because we're not using him.

Who said that? I've always rated Armero.

Wouldn't mind knowing either. I never said he wasn't good enough, I just didn't understand why we were signing him given we already had a top class LB. Why did we need two. Now it's, 'why the f*ck aren't we using him?', given these circumstances.

MvG out with a severe ankle injury. Apparently he was brought down in training by... wait for it... Muntari.

Of course, taking out the competition

This guy is stupider than stupid

He's also a little light on pocket change. Heard Milan fined him, and he will be benched for a couple of weeks. Besides, this is not stupidity, this is downright malicious intent. Just hope the management would have dealt with this a little stingier, maybe a month or more off premises.

I don't think he did that on purpose. But if he injured MvG on purpose that means that our players don't have the clue on how to behave with a teamplayer. So the situation is not bad only outside Milanello.

Inzaghi: "Van Ginkel's injury? It was a tough tackle by Muntari, but it wasn't intentional or malicious. He apologized immediately."

source: milanello/twitter