Not an easy game. They sit one point beneath us, but have already played Juve, Napoli and Fiorentina. Donadoni has done a decent job since taking over - don't forget that they went on a 7 game winning steak at the end of last season, beating Inter in the process.

Will the win on Wednesday be enough to kick-start Milan's season?
Will Allegri's return to the bench act as motivation for the players?
Should Bojan start?
Will Traore misplace a pass?

So many questions!

Thing is, these mid-table Serie A teams have cohesion within the team. Our problem is that we don't have that.

We won't have that anytime soon either if Allegri keeps changing the team every game. He needs to stick to a midfield 3 for at least 5 matches before we can say it's truely not working. Every game he's moving things around, starting players that have no business starting for us because they can never hold down a starting position, playing players out of position. It's an endless list of questionable and stupid decisions.

And the probable line-ups from Gazzetta show no end in sight for this endless cycle of stupid decisions.

Ideally we should go for something like this and stick to it for a couple of games to have that cohesion in the team



Arguably our best 11 options right now to start, get them to play matches together without changing things around, let them build an understanding with each other. My only change would be the obvious Pazzini problem we currently have, he's clearly ot working out, no point in insisting on him.

On the other hand you have Gazzatta's line-up



Look at this mess!!! He keeps changing around the defensive line, that's asking for headaches right there, because cohesion in the defense is the most crucial element and you can't have that if you field a different back 4 in every game which is what Allegri is doing.

Once again, changing the composition of the midfield 3. Let De Jong, Monto and Boateng start together for a couple of games, let them build a relationship and understanding between each other. We will never play even decent football if he keeps messing about with the 3 players in the midfield in every game

Don't get me started on the attacking line and keeping insisting on Urby as the right wing attacker.

Agreed

You agree with me!!

Maybe he's doing some rotation to avoid injuries...Seems like the only possible reason to start Traore over Nocerino.

Nah. He's trying to "change" things becuase of the awful results. The problem is things keep getting worse and worse. Winning against Cagliari only prolonged Allegri's presence here at Milan but the result still covers the terrible display from the team. We were on the back foot against 10 man Cagliari! Can't get any worse than that

He has no problem playing Urby, Pazzini, Bonera, etc in every game so this is definately not about rotation

That would be a great line-up! Or rather:



This is Mediaset's line-up: Abbiati; De Sciglio, Zapata, Bonera, Antonini; Ambrosini, Montolivo, Nocerino; Emanuelson, El Shaarawy, Pazzini.

He is still insisting on Urby...oh gosh.He'll play him 100 games..he'll score a goal.Then he'll start talking about how we should not criticize him and he'll become something big...err

Déjà vu? He kept playing him as AM last season when Boateng was injured, the guy scored one goal against frigging Cesena, and everyone was like 'See, Allegri was right'. Give me a f@cking break!

That lineup would get run over. Can't play a 2 when one of them is Montolivo unless we completely dominate possession.

Not if we push and run for the whole 90 minutes.

Guys, read the whole press conference. He has an explanation for some of his decisions. Still not for everything though.




MILANELLO – Here’s what the Rossoneri coach had to say during the pre Parma-Milan press conference

“If the young players are playing, it’s because they deserve to and it’s also thanks to the club’s work with the youth sector. El Shaarawy has improved a lot, most of in his off the ball movements. He looks more secure. He has a lot of technical and physical quality. He has to understand that he hasn’t done anything yet. In football the sign of a great player is to stay at the highest levels for a long time and to do that you can’t let things stick to you. He’s an intelligent lad and he understands this. It’s an important moment for him and the club. As I’ve said before there’s only one Milan, not ten of them. Everyone’s objective is to improve and keep things tight”.

“I’ll have to evaluate things today. We spent a lot of energy at Udine as well. There are a few players who have played a lot of football. Boateng will defitely be back, the others I don’t know about. We’re all fine though. Bojan might start, he’s not doing badly. Pazzini has come from a three month period when he didn’t play. I’m happy with what he done, he ran a lot against Cagliari”.

“The team had a good first half on Wednesday and they conceded little or nothing when it was time to defend. We have to make less mistakes and keep on playing. Against Udinese after 20 minutes the game was evenly balanced. We have to manage possession better and we have to be more calm. When we go ahead like we did against Bologna we seem to drop back a bit and we have to stop that from happening. There are positives though, we concede very little space in defense and we defende as a unit. That’s a step forward but we have to improve in how we control the game”.

“The team is working hard and the players have to show each other respect as this is what makes a good group. A coaches job is clear. He has to give instructions, chose the right players and can’t have favorites and he needs to have a compact group that works together for the result. When the players win it’s because they’re a good group with respect for one another. I had hoped we’d have had more points, we’ve made some mistakes but the league this year looks more evenly balanced even though Juventus are still the favorites. Napoli have their Europa League commitments but that’s not as heavy as the Champions League. We shouldn’t forget Inter and Roma. We’ll need balance in the difficult times. Having 2 or 3 extra points would be better but we don’t so now we’re thinking of Parma and then Zenit after that. The derby is the last game before the break”.

“Parma will be tough, they’re well organized and good at the back. We’ll have to very alert. It’s the third game in a week and there could be some fatigue. The bench will be very important tomorrow as when the players on the pitch start to fade, they can play their part. We have to start not conceding goals away from home as well and show some continuity. I think the team will do better tomorrow”.

“if you’re off the pitch, the game is less intense but you can see things better. I wasn’t worried on Wednesday and the team did well and of course Mauro was on the bench”.

“More than talking about formations and numbers, I think the game has to be played with the right concepts and good technique, defending all together. This year it’s tougher than ever to score in Italy and so the defense becomes ever more fundamental. You need to concede little to win the title”.

“Mauro Tassotti has important moral values that he has shown in his 32 years with the club. I’m happy to work with him and the others at the club. I haven’t spoken about the Cagliari result with the president. We needed the win and we got it. We could have played better but the important thing was to win”.

“With Pazzini we have to change the way we play up front and we need that capability. We’ll have to be good to change the way we play based on whether he’s there or nor”.

“Flamini has a swollen knee and after surgery that can happen, he was back after 6 months but you need time to get fitness levels back”.

“Pato is working well and when we get back from St Petersburg, he’ll join up with the rest of the team and I’ll evaluate if he’ll be available for the derby or not. I might ask him to play a couple of games with the youth team to build up his confidence”.

“Nocerino and bate went to the Euros and have been playing no stop. Abate is getting his fitness back and Nocerino gave us a lot of intensity against Udinese. It’s not strange with the way we’re playing now that he sees less of the ball when we’re pushing forward but he’s been working well in the defensive part of his game. When we get more fluidity it’ll be easier for him to get forward more”.

"Traorè played on Wednesday as I thought he’d be able to put in a good performance in the first half but he was late to the ball a few times which is normal as it’s his first game in a league that’s different o the one he comes from”.

“De Jong plays the ball well on the ground. He had a good first half but tactically he has to improve. Boateng is an all-round midfielder so it makes little difference if he plays a bit forward or a bit back”.

“I think from here on out, we have to make the most of the characteristics of the players we have. The team has to play better for the whole 90 minutes”.

Taken from www.acmilan.com

Good read, and this is the kind of thing I'm talking about:


Doesn't matter whether you're Ferguson or a newbie coach, the above is something that is difficult to near impossible to control as a coach.

It's funny because I could have written what Allegri said in his conference or anyone here right now for that mattter who sees the obvious problems in this team. Too bad Allegri does not practice what he preaches!!

Playing the best 11? Not having favourites? Making the best use out of the group you have? Utilising possession smartly when you have it? Playing as a united group?

These are all the main problems we as a club are experiencing because the coach we have does not pick the best 11, clearly has his favourites and players he doesn't like, plays the guys he has available to him out of position, his team probably has the worst passing record in the league as I can't even begin to count the number of times we lose the ball in each game because of terrible passing and finally, how can you play as a united group if you keep switching things around??? We need to find some rythm and that will only happen if a select 11 (preferbly our BEST 11) get a good run of games under their belt TOGETHER.

This means no f@cking around with the defensive line, picking your best 3 or 4 mids and letting them find an understanding with each other and picking the forwards that will work best in this system. Until he does all these thing we'll continue to play as we currently are, even if we manage to scrape a couple of results here and there, they do not cover the problems we obviously still have

Haha, right +1

I had a wee moan the other day about us playing our best players and sticking to them. One person agreed with me, but now everyone's saying it!

It really isn't rocket science - stop fannying about and changing for the sake of it.

Pick your best 11 players in the best positions for each and trust them.

Give them a decent gameplan to follow and a plan B if things don't work well.

Allegri all too often seems to want to pick squad players and choose a formation ill-suited to them.

It doesn't forgive the basic inability our players seem to have to play the game at times, but Allegri is arguably his own worst enemy.

Agreed.

I mean look at the projected line-up from Gazzetta. It's a mess of players playing out of position and ones that shouldn't even be on the pitch.

Boateng on the right wing, Ambro and De Jong BOTH in the midfield 3, Monto on the bench, Nocerino as part of a midfield 3 that consists of 3 DMs, Mexes on the bench, Antonini given the start again after messing up countless times in the last 2 games he's played. And now to top it all off the latest change is Niang in the center instead of Pazzini and Bojan once again on the bench!!

It's just inconceivable

How can people possibly defend this guy anymore? The arguments against him write themselves..

Defend?!

It's not like he has a great (not even good) team and is delivering **** results and performances. I don't think people are defending him. they're just being realistic. it's unlikely that we can afford better than him.. it's unlikely that a new coach will necessarily do better.

You guys seem to play way too much PES, judging by statements like "play the best 11 in each position and results will come". there's a many factors you don't take into consideration that a "real-world" coach has to. don't ask me what they are, but it's not just Allegri who makes decisions that fans do not 100% agree with.

So you think this team is realistically weaker then Anderlecht, Udinese, Sampdoria or Atalanta?

Were Real realistically weaker than the teams they give away points to?

Problem is you guys always speak in theory. yes we are better than them on paper but we couldn't beat them. if we don't improve and continue to lose points, fair enough, we'll have to look for a new coach. but right after the first defeat all of you were calling for Allegri's head. the team has changed A LOT. it's not easy to find the winning formula so quickly.

I find this quite funny, what does PES actually have to do with playing Urby as some sort of Messi? I think Allegri is the one who thinks he's playing a video game here not us.

His decisions are ridiculous. He himself talks about these things, not just us and instead of doing what he actually says, he does the opposite when it's game time.

A **** team? Sh!ttier than newly promoted Samp, Atalanta, Anderlecth, struggling Udinese, Cagliari and Bologna (we won against the last 2 teams but were outplayed by these minnows for major portions of both games).

What exactly is there to take into consideration when you have guys like Bojan and Robinho on the bench yet you still choose Urby to start as part of an attacking trio? What is there to consider when you choose to play 3 DMs and leave Montolivo on the bench (which is what he will be doing tonight)? What is there to consider when picking someone like Traore instead of Nocerino or even pushing Urby back and playing a proper winger/forward for the front 3?


Great question!


Real also beat City and Barca. They're having a bit of trouble with the smaller teams, but we all know they'll turn it around sooner rather than later. I can't even see an improvement in play from us from game to game. Not even a slight improvement. We've basically been outplayed in every game we've played so far aside from the first 10 minutes against Udine and Cagliari. There can be no more excuses, and even trying to compare us to Real is laughable on so many levels.

We can get a lot of coaches on the cheap who are at the same level as Allegri, which is average. At least a new coach will provide some fresh ideas and wouldn't let his personal troubles with the players cloud his judgment

I think you guys should think less about the results we're having, and more about the way we play.Given, we've got bad results against weak teams and we haven't even faced any big ones already...

I see what Zed is trying to say and agree with him. Yet at the same time, I think Allegri's time is up and it is just a matter of arranging for a replacement incase his fuckups continue.

I personally believe Allegri could deliver better results with this squad. But that all depends on this squad understanding priorities and playing with humility. Only so much a guy can do on the touchline.

That said, 'realistically speaking', Allegri has to keep a momentum going with the next two/three games before the break. Whatever idea he has of this new Milan team, he better get it to click soon, for his sake.

Otherwise, I believe there are tons of managers out there looking for a challenge like this one (No, Mourinho wont be able to make boiled eggs with this batch ). Guardiola, Donadoni, Benitez, .. Are just a handful of names to take on this challenge.

Yeah poor Robinho, he almost rotted on the bench... oh wait!



I agree, it's laughable since they're miles ahead of us in any way one can imagine!

My point is that every superior team loses to/draws with inferior teams (I hope you like my phrasing here!). we're named AC Milan but considering the quality of our current squad and also the huge turnover we've just had over the summer, it's normal that we couldn't get off to the kind of start you expected.


Fresh ideas could result in a bigger disaster. and just because he doesn't play Bojan much doesn't mean he has personal problem with him. please stop inventing stuff. I'm sure most of this "personal problems" you keep talking about are non-existent. I'm talking about the current team not that of last season.

I don't get one thing: why does Allegri keep changing players game after game? Why doesn't he simply play our best possible 11? Cause it's not like he's experimenting a lot with tactics etc. Simply don't get it.

Sorry, but I disagree. Even under the circumstances of this summer mercato, I don't think it's normal for Milan to loosing to a Serie B team.

I don't think it's a normal environment. The fact that we're not speaking about Silva and Ibra or Bojan as a failed attempt, but rather about Inzaghi and Allegri making a scene, Zapata not playing, Milan not having a stable CB pairing, running out of creative options after a few matches - that and much more speaks for itself.

Yes, the summer was a disaster. And now this disaster has been (IMO) overshadowed by the incompetence of our coach, his failure to adapt and his lack of preparation and plan.

Because he does not have a plan. And he lost confidence. In himself and his players. That's why he's rotating, when he shouldn't.

Yeah he was coming off an injury but he was fit and ready, and if not there was Bojan who could have started and been replaced by Robinho later on. My point was that he had other options, instead he continues to insist on Urby.


More like they have a coach who is capable and miles better than ours

The point is that not only have we lost but our general performances have been off the scales in terms of how bad they were. And I didn't expect us to com out of the gates flying but this is a whole other extreme, and we have not even played one single decent team yet. Like William said above, you can't just look at a loss, win or draw, you have to look at the performance behind it, and even when we won we were still shockingly bad, even with a man advantage. And this against all inferior teams. Imagine when we play against an actually good team.


Who said anything about Bojan. Allegri said that he wanted him himself, so I don't understan why he would constantly leave him on the bench especially when you're playing someone like Urby instead. I never said anything about Bojan but we all know he's had problems with multiple players over these last 2 years or so. Don't make me start to name all of them because the list would be endless.

As for last season's team, well Allegri made sure that anyone he had troubles with was gone So let's not even start discussin that issue

Ah whatever man, lately I can't repeat myself. I don't know how you do it 10 times a day I don't fully agree with you. I'm not defending Allegri, I just think the current situation is a result of many things not just him. we'd have struggled with any other coach the first month of this season or two. believe it or not, that's what happens when you change 90% of your XI and use mostly average players in it.

Abbiati, De Sciglio, Zapata, Yepes, Antonini, De Jong, Ambrosini, Nocerino, Boateng, Bojan, El Shaarawy.



finally bojan starts.

No Nocerino
No Bojan
No Zapata


LMAO

Dear Bad Feeling,

Please go away.

Sincerely
Me.

I repeat myself because Allegri keeps repeating the same mistakes and I don't see any improvement, not even in the slightest.

I don't believe we're as bad as you and kurt are making us out to be, you're trying to excuse Allegri's ineptitude by blaming it on the management and the bad squad Allegri was handed at the start of the season. But that's just BS. We still have a relatively good squad, better than most of the other squads in the league barring 2 or 3 other teams. Yes Allegri lost 2 very influential players, but we all know he wanted rid of 80% of the seniors on the team from last season, so let's not make that into such a big deal.

He has a younger squad but he has talented players on it, sure they need time to adapt but what we're currently seeing is not that. It's terrible performances with the only evident tactic being that they get near the opposition's penalty box and try to hit a cross in the general direction of Pazzini. The passing through the middle is horrible and unimaginative which is why we hit a brick wall when ever we try to go through that route

Oh my oh my. That's a terrible lineup. WTF is he thinking??!!!

That midfield is asking for it, defence once again gets switched around uselessly. The only good thing is that attack, but if he's playing Prince on the left wing then even that is a huge screw up!!!

Why can't this idiot at least do ONE thing right by picking a good 11 to start, he'll waiste all 3 subs trying correct his mistake


No Mexes
No Abate
No Monto (our only creative player btw)
Prince on the wing

YES IT'S PURE GENIUS FROM ALLEGRI!

You should be laughing your @ss off. Does this really prove you right???

Oh I'm sure this week he's fallen out with the players you named. next week he will fall out with the players you wanted to start but didn't.

3 DM's. That's promising.

Hmm...this is a curious lineup. But then again, Allegri never starts with the players who eventually win us the match!! C'mon ragazzi... dai dai dai!!!

LOL

What does falling out with them have to do with anything? He keeps rotating the squad because he has no f@cking clue as to what he's doing. I mention his terrible man management and ability to develop a relationship with his players because it's one of his major flaws, you're trying to make it seem like I'm the conspiracy theorist here as if I believe that every decsion he makes is because of personal grudges. And you know this is not the case.

And for the record; It's been well documented that he's had altrecations with a number of players in the team. I did not say that any of those players I listed had problems with him (alhough we all know him and Mexes are not the best of buds). So don't try to make it out like it's my over imaginative mind making up these things, I didn't say he left out those players because of any personal issues, it's more the usual stupid first 11 decision that he makes in every game. But the fact is, he's a terrible man manager and we've lost some of our best players because of him in these last 2 years

How can you look at that lineup and even THINK about trying to write a smug post that backs up your defence of Allegri??


Risky but we should be ok... I think




Allegri is really trying to make us all hate him with a passion.

I never defended Allegri, I thought I'd made that clear. I said a zillion times I think it's not just Allegri and any other coach would've had trouble figuring out the right formation and XI (not PES style where you play the best in every position ).


It wasn't me who said Allegri doesn't play Nocerino, Zapata, Bojan. I just laughed because it was funny he started all three right after.

Let's not fight anymore...

Never defended Allegri?

That's a good one.

As for Nocerino, Zapata and Bojan. What does it matter when he leaves out 3 other crucial players instead??

Sorry but I can't help it when I see someone even trying to justify these ridiculous decisions, especially when we all know that they're going to translate into a right old mess in a few minutes on the pitch

Anyone have a good resource for streams? Atdhe isn't working for me

If you have sopcast, this is a great site:

http://www.livefootballol.tv/streaming/ser...29-09-2012.html

if not, google rojadirecta, they should have a lot of good flash streams

Thanks han!

Already 2 terrible passing mistakes from our overly talented midfield

Ambro is by far the most in-shape player we have right now.

We've started off good. Let's see if we'll fall apart after the first 10-15 minutes, again.

We're basically passing it around between defence and midfield with no forward movement. At least in the last 2 games we created something in the first few minutes

Is soapcast working for you han? Every channel says "can not access soapcast services" for me..