Niang not playing selfishly so far. he's actually passing

And deprive us of Traore?

Wow Robinho coming on

Prince off, good change

Does Rizzoli have a problem with SES?

Robinho, LOL.

Prince out, robi in

The game's become unwatchable. Lazio really were no match, I expected better from them.

I'd have given us a smidgen of a chance had we beaten Inter. 9 points behind, then hope both Milan teams will fry Juventus, drop it down to 3 points. And then cross your fingers for a miracle. Right now? I agree, there is more of a chance of Galliani growing natural hair on his head than us winning the Scudetto.

I didn't. These LOBO (low class bounty hunter) teams are only a match on their best of days. To expect the likes of Lazio, Napoli, Udinese, Fiorentina, and friends to mount a serious challenge, at least in the current day and age, to the elite clubs of Italy is to expect too much.

NIANG so close... he's very good on the ball

So close from Niang off the cross bar

Niang has played well. he was criticized excessively for flaws that I hardly can see in his game anymore which were decision making and selfishness.

A.M.E.N. Always a great feeling seeing players like these float up to the top. I would really have given anything to see something like this during the five crazy years (2007-2011), but boy did we have some really messed up priorities back then. You can dig up my posts from back then, I was screaming for a new generation then.

Instead all we got was handing of stupid contracts to senior players, and even more stupid buys and sales.

niang haters cant find the patience to wait a season... this is all i need to know about them...

Had we started the season normally...

+∞. His best is still a couple of country miles away. We just need to persist with him. Whoever thought of providing him regular first team action deserves a pat on the back. Allegri or Galliani, anybody even. And really, the idea of transitioning one youngster per year to the senior team is the sanest decision I've seen from the management.

This too. I wasn't surprised the way we started, it was just that our downright ugly slump lasted far too long.

A nicely hit shot tells us nothing, he's very bad on the ball when there's no wide open space ahead of him.

Anyway, don't want to get into it too much again, as long as he's kept away from the starting line-up I'm ok with these little cameos

A game by Milan!We can say the red card was debatable and still the game would have easily gone our favor. We showed some of the bad finishing..that was on play against Inter. Sharaawy wasn't wearing his scoring boots today but he was the main source of danger. We pretty much took over the match after the red car and that's because of El Sharaawy. But what about Pazzini?His second goal was an amazing strike!I'm glad with how the team is playing, and how the young players are developing, and so I give credit to Allegri for this. Good job!

Agreed. In fact, after what he did against Barcelona at home, I don't even every pay attention to what he does in matches during the season. That 2nd goal was one of the biggest joys of the season, and so glad he had a part to play in that. As for Niang the player, he will come good, if he is destined to.

Not too worried about him, as long as he keeps on playing, and finds his footing in the team.

He had a nice cross as well .

LOL, he's awful on the ball.

Is a nice cross and a nice shot all we base our judgements on these days?

Like I said I don't want to get into it on the Niang subject. And as long as he's not starting and completely killing our right side I'm ok with him getting a few minutes here and there.

This was one of our best performances of the season. I didn't think we'd do so well, but the guys really stepped up. You could easily notice that they wanted to win at all cost.

A ref'ing expert said it was indeed red. it's the chance to take a clean shot at goal that counts. El Sha had that chance but was brought down, hence the red card for Candreva.



Is that all you saw in him tonight?

It's almost like with DS. "not ready not ready" is all you had to say. to expect these kids to start performing well from the get go and not making mistakes to learn from is a bit immature. but yeah, let's move on.

And I agree. Diaz couldn't have reached Sharaawy in time to block that shot.

What I saw is him not even bothering to fight for the high balls like Pazzini had just been doing

All you hopefuls are seeing is the fact that he shot the ball at the bar!

I didn't just say that he wasn't ready, I also banged on and on about potential with DS (something I seriously don't see in Niang). I think I was justified as on the right DS is just no where near good enough and clearly very far away from being ready to take Abate's spot which is what YOU wanted.

Looking at him on the left though I can comfortably say that he deserves to keep that spot.

Niang, left, right or center is so completely uninspiring for me. That's jus my opinion and he's yet to sway me with a performance from him or at least a glimpse

16 goals SES, 12 goals Pazzini.

He's not supposed to anyway. Niang is supposed to be 4-5th in pecking order, but since Bojan is on loan(and we all know how Galliani is trying to bring his price down), and Robihno is on his way out...so the kid is getting more chances. I can't say he hasn't impressed me at all, he's had good runs and some nice shots from time to time. A change in mentality is maybe needed, I don't know. Sharaawy in his first season for us scored some good goals, but everything else was kind of meh. And, now he's leading the team. So, you never know.

Please don't insult our intelligence!


I always said I wanted DS to play consistently because I saw that as the only way he could improve and not become another [insert name of young failure]. I'm actually happy to see both him and Abate playing well in their positions.

Nice. Do you know how many goals Cavani has?

Last time I checked it was 18, 4 penalties.

Niang seemed very lazy tonight. I think he's angry that he's lost the starting spot and he's acting all down as a sign of protest.

Allegri has turned this around.

We are arguably one of the top 5 in-form sides in Europe right now.

We look damn good and if we hadn't had that awful start to this season we'd be champions elect.

Boateng is playing fantastically well, Pazzini is on fire, Monto continues to pull the strings.

It's all looking very very good right now.

Cavani hasn't actually scored in what 6-7 matches straight. Quite alarming, if you think about it.

And he's supposed to stay 4th or 5th right now. Letting him start those run of 4 or 5 games I think did more damage than good for him. The egotistic attitude really rubs me the wrong way in his case, and I think having someone like Balo there continues to amplify that as it's clear Niang wants to replicate him, but the problem there is that he hasn't got an iota of the talent Balo has.

The thing with El Shaa is that he worked his @ss off in Serie B the prior season to last and then put his head down and worked his @ss off last season as well when he had no chance in hell of a look in, yet he was very impressive (at least for me).

I don't know, I just don't see that in Niang, and maybe if he was the hard working type like SES he wouldn't get so much on my nerves, but he clearly isn't, you can see that on the pitch where he's mostly waiting around for the ball.

We'll see, but for me, I'm ok with him getting a couple of minuted here and there to gain some experiance as well as learn some humility, but starting games, especially these very important games coming up in the run in is a huge mistake, and if Boateng is not available then he has to start Bojan or simply play both Balo and Pazzo.


Don't insult our intelligence?

Look at the posts above, no one even made a peep about Niang before he hit the bar, then it's all; "oh he's so good on the ball", "oh he can shoot really well", etc, etc

But at that time him playing consistantly meant not playing the far superior Abate on the right side, which is what I was 100% opposed to. Especially for a DS that was very underwhelming on that right

But now I'm also very happy to see him living up to all that potential even quicker than I thought would be possible through the simple fact of being moved to the opposite side, because it clearly wasn't working out on the right, in fact I saw a bit of regression in his performances at the start of the season to the ones he put in recently on that right. Now on the left he looks like a completely different player, one that I personally feel very comfortable in saying that he's ready to be a starter at, something he simply did not show on the right

For once I agree with all you've said

So next week against Genoa...

Anyone think we should rest some players for that one?

Personally I think we should and we have the depth available to rest some crucial players as well.

The guys I'd like to see rested would be: SES, Pazzo, Prince, Ambro, Monto, Abate


I know that's a bit of a stretch, BUT we do have Balo who will start, and then Bojan and Robinho who can start on the wings. We can play the ugly midfield of Flamini, Muntari and Nocerino and maybe start DS on the right just this once(If Constant is ready to play on the left that is)

I know the league is more important but we're SOO close to KOing Barca and doing what we'd been written off from doing before a ball had even been kicked. I think rotating here is worth a try and if things aren't going well we can always put on Prince, Monto and SES

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V86imyi0Jhw

Boa-Boa Teng-Teng!

A great performance all round by the team in my opinion.

Enjoyed watching every minute of game today. Performances of late really have us looking like a team!

Forza Milan!!!!

I'm framing this!

Not only do you agree with me, you now...support Allegri? You now like Pazzi?

Total respect for you - holding your hands up and changing your mind and admitting so



Call me absolutely mad. Go on. BUT. If we can sustain this superb run of form, then any slip up from Juve, and I know it's a big IF, but there's a tiny outside chance we COULD still win the league. We have a game in hand over them - aka the match V them. Must win. 11 points to make up. It is not absolutely impossible.

You're going too far. I think we have what it takes to make 2nd place, but challenge for the title? Too excessive.

I think as long as Allegri shows he's willing to adjust and change things, to suite the players he has and to the situations facing him I can easily say that I support him (for this season at least). He's clearly shown a willingness to be more flexible in these last few weeks, I think the Barca game has intilled as much confidence in HIM as it did in the players. And most importantly the players are willing to follow his vision, something that was clearly not the case at the beginning of the season.

Personally I don't get where you got this stubborn wibe from me. When I see that I'm wrong I admit to it, or when someone performs well enough for this team I'm more than open to accepting them and their contribution. Pazzini is one of those guys, I personally still think that he's an average player and one of a LOT of similar players produced by the Italian youth season. But, with that being said, he's completely changed my mind from how I viewed him at the start of the season. Were before it was mostly with disdain now I see that he has a lot to offer us, maybe not in the capacity of a starter now with Balo on the books, but I actually want him to stay on for the next few years as he's a very useful asset to the team and more then good enough to take Balo's place when he's out.


Hmm...

I think that's being very very very very optimistic. Our ship has sailed this season but it does give me encouragement for the future what we have accomplished this season. A couple of good signings this summer and we're challenging Juve again.

I think we will make 2nd if we keep this up and maybe we can put some sort of pressure on Juve especially if we win the head-to-head. But I do think that taking some risks against Genoa could be worth it for the CL game against Barca

The game against Genoa is on Friday. Good for us.

Wasn't in unfortunately so couldn't see the game. But a convincing win in a big game with Pazzo scoring twice... wonderful.

He had quite a game. Nearly got the hat trick and even more!

I can't speak for the others, but I said I didn't see bad decision making and selfishness in this game this time. evey time he got the ball, he looked around and made a proper pass (or at least tried), without holding on to the ball for too long and losing it stupidly like before. it's clear he's learned this simple albeit important lesson that he's part of the team not its reference point.

And no, I ain't no Niang "hopeful". what's that even supposed to mean? I was the one who said he didn't impress me in his very first game while most of you were drooling over him. right now I don't think he has what it takes to become the world's best player!! but you guys make him look like he's an Acerbi/Mesbah level player when he's only freakin' 18. you don't know how far he can go, I don't either. but at least I can see and acknowledge his improvements. apparently all you saw in him tonight was him hitting the post. I saw more.

You can't really judge whether he's learnt that lesson or not, laying off a good ball to SES while he's in acres of space, we're 3-0 up and against 10-men says nothing to me. It's his decisions in a game when the team is under pressure that count and last week against Inter he clearly showed that his decision making in such situations is terrible.

I never really saw anything that great in him not even when he played in that Coppa game and scored, which IIRC was his debut. Now I see even less in him, and what irritate me even more is his attitude, x-off pointed something out yesterday about how he was being so lazy because it looks like he's sulking about losing his starting spot. I mean seriously??? You're 18 and you're nothing special! Put your head down and WORK!

I really don't care much about his age, when a player has the talent and potential you can see it, case in point SES and DS. Niang for me, simply does not display any of that talent or potential to being anything other then average. And for me, it was everything other then the shot at the bar which once again left me feeling underwhelmed and slightly frustrated when it comes to Niang

I believe it is too early to say anything, Niang is only 18 and is playing his first ever season in the tough Serie A. That said, he did pretty well for the last 20 minutes of yesterdays game, his movements and pace were very good.

Here's to hoping he maintains and improves further. As he has been game after game

I don't think they were so much unwilling to follow him - I think the sheer disruption of losing so many players simply crushed confidence badly. It wasn't the lack of instruction or will to follow, it was lack of confidence in themselves - they'd lost the BIG players in the team and now it was up to them. It's taken them a long time to realise and learn that they can fill the gaps.

But of course, Allegri has made plenty of errors. I've said 'wtf' many times this season. And you're correct that HIS confidence has grown too. But he isn't the one who performs. Much more important for the players to believe in themselves because they have to physically do it. If Allegri doesn't believe in himself he can conceal it a lot more easily.



I always saw you as stubborn but increasingly I can see a man willing to admit he's wrong. I still say you're stubborn because you stick very passionately to opinions for a VERY long time before conceding, but the end result is one I respect. As for Pazzi, yup, agreed with you totally on what he is but I also sided with Kurt on being happy with the signing and I actually think Pazzi has improved. He's a more complete striker now than the one we signed. Dare I say it Balo may have to fight for his place a bit.



It's a bit of a choice in a way. Do we go all out for the CL and maybe sacrifice the league 'title' - and settle for 2nd or 3rd, or do we go for it and forget the CL?

If we had to choose between them - both are unlikely but both are possible - which would we want more. CL or Scudetto?