5-3, WTF?! And they scored 5 first? Shocking, and crazy.

How has Vergara fared?

What an awful shot by Boateng.

So close!

Emanuelson playing as LB.

Missed the game, how was Vergara?

The first half I couldn't really tell because it was one huge mess of people getting in each other's way, people out of position, terrible passing out from the defence in situations under pressure, etc

Second half he seemed composed on the ball, but aside from that I can't make an assessment in such a short time. So personally I'm still on the fence about him

Quote from Allegri after the game (obviously lol) Defending him which means he know he wasn't at his best

Just checked the initial line-ups. Vergara, Zaccardo, Antonini, Traoré, Muntari, Petagna. No wonder we got trashed, more than half of our squad was made of crap/inexperienced players. Whilst City played nearly their best formation.

Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrI2C0CKA0I

Wow, just look at that left side being run over by City. Muntari and Constant absolutely cringeworthy.

Muntari made up for it somewhat with that quality pass for the 2nd. Constant is simply not good enough. Friendly or not, even in the highlights, that's unacceptable for a professional.

Yes. I wouldn't read too much into the defeat either. I'm more worried that our players are getting hurt in these matches. I can't even be mad at Milan Lab because these are not muscular or conditioning related injuries. But impact injuries from knocks and falls and stuff.

Just realised that Vergara probably doesn't even speak Italian or even have a common language with any of our players. Except maybe Gabriel who speaks Portuguese (closer to Spanish).

The mid-field was brand new, and I think once we brought in Poli and more of our first team players the play improved. Once again my main gripes about our team seem proved true. Even with our best formation at present which would be:


Abate---Mexes---Zapata---Constant/DeS
-------Montolivo---NdJ--Poli------------
-----------Boateng----------------------
-----Balo----------------SeS


..we are hopelessly outclassed at full back and in the hole. I think the only way to make Boateng succeed is as part of a mid-field 5. We need to push SeS further back (than in that left wing where everyone knows what he will do) and play Balotelli as sole striker. I think that Genoa coach said something similar.

We are not gonna get Honda. CSKA are being complete jerks. 3.5 million for a guy on the last 6 months contract is a huge profit for them, and they're being d!cks. I think we should just get him in January. But we have to realise Honda will be coming off a full season and can't expect him to just play as trequartista and be a game changer.

Hopelessly outclassed at fullbacks? Abate and De Sciglio are probably the best Italian fullbacks at the moment, and two of the best in Serie A. I think we're more than covered in that department. And we all know Boateng can easily thrive if played in center-midfield. I think the reason Allegri is playing him as AM these games is because we have no-one else there right now.

As for Honda, I would wait. Mediaset says we're gonna try again after 5 August, as that's when CSKA play Rubin Kazan, and their president doesn't wanna let Honda go before that important match.

Depends on the comparisons you make. I've been saying for sometime now that we're definite CL position material in Serie A. I still think this team cannot challenge for any trophies this season bar a massive downfall in Juve playing form. We do have an advantage over Napoli in that we are a little bit more stable than they are, but we have to see.

If we do manage to bring Honda and Ljajic, I think we can challenge for 2nd place, and perhaps for the scudetto.

Like x-off said, as a pairing you won't find any better than DS and Abate in the league, and very few clubs have the luxury of having both FB positions covered so well.

As for title challenges, if we do manage to sign Honda and Ljajic in this window, imo we'd only be 1 great CB away from challenging Juve.

We've got some very talented young players on this team, SES, Balo, Saponara, Poli, De Sciglio, plus experienced players like Mexes, Abate, De Jong, Monto. It's pretty balanced.

Our biggest problem right now is creativity and depth. Getting Honda and Ljajic would solve the creativity problem easily. In terms of depth we do have issues there, yes we've brought in Poli and Prince would most likely be used exclusively as a CM option, but we have no one who can cover for NDJ, Pazzini is injured until December, and the CB area is very worrying if Mexes or Zapata get injured. I mean watching Zaccardo yesterday was pretty shocking, at least Vergara has the excuse of not understanding the language, being young and new to the team but Zaccardo... Is he supposed to be our first choice sub in case Mexes or Zapata are down?

So you corrected 'debt' to 'depth' before I could point it out, eh?

I re-read it and I was like "WTF did I just write there?"

So I fixed it before acid or some other grammar @-hole could run their mouth off

Amelia with the arm band.

And how come nobody opened an Audi Cup thread???

What can I say, I'm a thriller!


Aye. Same question!

I only watched the first half. Nothing special, but we were a tad superior to Sao Paolo. I honestly don't think these friendlies can indicate anything, because we lack too many important players. But still, we managed to beat Valencia and Sao Paolo, and if you take away the first 35 minutes against City, we scored three goals and wasted a shitload of opportunities afterwards.

I agree,still not convinced by the shape of the team but like you say it's early days. Unfortunately i don't really have a lot of time or patience for Allegri so whatever he does i'll be unconvinced

Highlights

Kingsley looks really good.

25 seconds into the video... You are right jack s. Vergara could turn out to be a big signing for us. That was a well taken gamble on Milan's part.

EU place WELL SPENT!

Agreed about Allegri

Regarding the shape of the team, yeah, it's getting pretty old now, it seems that we cannot keep our shape for an extended period of time, things not working switch to a wide 4-3-3 and punt the sh!t out of the ball and hope it reaches something. Same thing we saw last season basically.

Allegri's fetish with the formation is seriously tiring. Especially when we have zero wingers on this team. SES yesterday showed what he can really do playing close to goal. He got into good positions on both the right side of the attack and the left, today aside from a couple of link-ups with Petagna it was the same old isolated Stephan as last season.

I know we have a lot of missing players atm, but still these games need to be spent perfecting the system we'll be playing next season. The personnel shouldn't matter too much, it's how Allegri applies the system so he can understand what tactics need to be used, etc.

For all we know we could be starting the season with this group of players but we could also be starting the season with Honda and Ljajic (please god) in the team.

!!! Most def.

I'd say personnel does matter. He played 4-3-3 today because we had no attacking mid. Boateng has played every game so far, he had to rest. What, you wanted him to pay Emanuelson as AM again? Let's wait till we sign Honda (and hopefully Ljajic), Saponara recovers, and then we'll understand Allegri's clear intentions.

Don't know if you saw the whole game, but there were some worrying signs in regards to Vergara. He takes too much time on the ball, at one point in the first half he spent an entire 2 minutes with the ball running back and forth trying to decide who to pass it to and he lost out and created a dangerous situation for us. And I noticed this against Man City as well but he managed to avoid getting caught out then.

I think he's still way too green to tell if he'll be good or not, there are promising signs and not so promising signs


He could have tried SES there, if I'm not mistaken he played that position in Serie B and most of us thought he was an AM when we signed him. It's not like Boateng is a good alternative at AM anyway, he's been horrible so far throughout this pre-season playing in that position

One look at that player and I KNOW he is not Milan material. Reminds me of a younger more inexperienced version of Acerbi.

Ah, okay, I hadn't watched the highlights vid so I thought you were being serious.

Personally I was more impressed with Pacifico than Vergara.

Have to say, there are some really promising players on the Primavera team. Petagna, Pacifico, K. Boateng and Cristante have been impressive when they've played this season.

Cristante has made a few mistakes but I think it's mostly the pressure he has on him since he's a full member of the senior team while the others are freer knowing they're going back to the Primavera squad after this so there isn't as much pressure.

I think it's wrong to judge a player after 1 or 2 pre-season games. especially when he is a kid who perhaps feels like a stranger and is not comfortable where everything is different. his mistakes at the beginning of that video were cringeworthy, but perhaps that's not how bad he is. but I understand forming an opinion on new players right away is in fashion so we can say I told you so if we were right about them. I do it too.

Oh come on, whether on the wings or in the hole it's the same for SES. He can't dribble and doesn't have enough creativity and vision to pull it off.

At least it's not a constant switch of formations and tactics.

At this point it doesn't matter that much if he plays well there or not, it's getting back into shape and being match fit for the season that's important

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhotp3kT5A8

The New Xavi

Seriously though, this is the first time I see him properly, looks great for an 18yo.

Said no-one ever...

No.

Yesk.

Can't pretend that I got the meaning of this...

Boro binim baba bache manteghi...

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/said-no-one-ever

So, when's the next friendly scheduled?

An Vergara like an amateur.

He's 18 for god's sake..and doesn't know any Italian. I thought he was ok on the ball vs Man city tbh