C4

What do you think - has Dida played his last game for Milan?

If so, who should we replace him with in the summer? Should Kalac stay as no.1?

Yes I believe Dida is heading towards the exit gates

I don't know who could replace Nelson ... Only Buffon comes to mind, but that in itself is unrealistic.

Not Frey?

I think it depends on who's going to finish 4th, if we don't I can't see Fray coming to Milan

I'd like Frey. If not him, then I'd vote for one of the young keepers floating about -- Adler, Akinfeev, Lloris, etc.. or maybe Amelia.

I'm not a fan of him tbh ... He played for the merda a while back and never really lived up to the hype (at the time).

Amelia is a possibility, but I can't see Milan trusting any of the other young keepers

Berlusconi already said that he is trying to bring back Abbiati to use in a rotation system with Kalac next season. Whoever is in best form will get the nod.

It will probably be something like this. I can't see us spending anything (big) on a goalkeeper this summer.

That will be

We must spend big on a keeper. *cough Akinfeev cough*

Keepers are expensive especially when it's Milan that's shopping. Besides Barca get along fine with Valdes don't they. I'd rather we fix all the other holes first, win something and use the cash to get a new keeper. Till then let them play Offredi for all I care

We wouldn't need a superhuman keeper if we could freakin fix the leaky defence.

dida? does he even play for milan anymore ?

same here i have a good feeling about him. he's russian, nerves of steel

A great keeper is worth nearly 10 points per season IMO. Apart from Cafu, favalli and San Paolo(if he retires) I think the defence is not too bad, but we need a keeper we can rely on.

^^

By defence I don't just mean defenders...i.e the back four. It's a little more complicated, but you know what I mean. The old Milan...the best squad under Carletto...was one that started off with a 4-3-1-2, but would switch to a 3-4-1-2 at will.

But all in all, the defending was really good. Even if you want to talk of the back 4. We had better players, Cafu was more agile, and Sergio was at his best. Not to mention Stam and Kaladze who was then playing as a LB who could also move to the centre for added cover.

Now we don't have any of those types. I like Janku. But to me he is no Sergio. I love Oddo as well. But he can't offer what Il Pendolino could. Now the sole onus of attack is on the mid-field, so we no longer have the players who can stay back and act as pure enforcers or dominate the mid-field. Imagine Brocchi having to do stepovers!!

Flamini is a move in the right direction I hope. If our mid-field were strong enough, and the fullbacks more well...uhm Sergio like, our defence and goalkeeper would be less exposed.

To be honest, half of Dida's mistakes were because of his own doing (he was horribly out of form), and the other half because of our lacking defense. It was so bad, they just invited the opposition to come in and attack. Add to that Dida's woes and things took a turn for the worse. In fact, he had a very solid streak right before the Inter match, in which he made some mouth-watering saves and let in only 1 goal, or kept a clean sheet in most matches. The Inter match was a curtain call, though.

On pure talent alone, he's still one of the Top 10 (or even Top 5) keepers of the world at this time. I haven't seen a keeper with more agility and leap than him up till now. Plus, his spot kicks and penalty stopping abilities. I mean, Cech made some pretty bad calls in the match against Liverpool - good on air balls, but butterfingers on direct shots. In fact, he was horrible at times. It was good Liverpool didn't get any free kicks in dangerous areas or even a penalty kick. Is he anywhere bad? No. He's a top, top keepers. But he was lucky the midfield and defense held solid and didn't let Liverpool keep possession for long or mount attacks. On his day he could have easily stopped that Torres shot.

Point being, there is no one to blame except Dida for the mess he's into. And as much as hate to admit it, I'll be surprised to see him in the starting XI come next season. But you can't discount the part our leaky defense and sleepy midfield played in the first half of the season. They sent out an open invitation for the opposition to mount attacks. The only little point that troubles me is we might not see Dida in Milan colors (even as No. 2), while we'll be seeing absolutely crap players (whether they were out of form the whole season is another thing) like Favalli, Kaladze, Kalac, Brocchi, Emerson, Oddo, Amrbo, Gattuso, and Pirlo stay on. The last few were out of touch, yes, but what about the second rate crap like the first four? They'll pretty much don the red and black come next season, I'm certain. And they shared as much of the blame for our bad performances and goals that we let in, as, say, Dida.

It was our defense that exposed our goalkeeper for most part of the season, unlike Chelsea who protected theirs yesterday. Do we need a new keeper? Maybe. Do we need to revamp the defense? Exactly. We've got only two world class defenders in Paolo and Nesta. The rest are just fillers. We'll need two more young ones for the back. At least.