Just an idea I have inspired by Pro Evo - feel free to shoot me down in flames if it's dumb.

It seems to me that we may have seen the overall best days of Ronaldinho past - he can still do it, but not as often imo and sometimes seems a little lethargic.

One of the complaints about us is a grinding attack, which lacks pace and we don't get forward with enough panache.

So how about a front 3 of Pato, Ibra, and Robinho? 2 young pacey forwards who can score and attack fullbacks, and one seasoned goal-getting veteran?

Have Dinho on the bench if a defence is proving especially stubborn, but start to use him sparingly like we do with Pippo.

Good idea/bad idea?

Oh no, Fillipo won't be happy about this.

He's living on his reputation. If somebody was putting in these performances and wasn't called Ronaldinho he'd have been gone a while ago.

Pretty much. I want Ronaldinho out more than anyone else. The fact we rely so much on this pseudo-footballer tells about how low we've sunk in the recent years.

Hm, not being flamed like I expected to be...

This forum is anti dinho after all.

lol


No, no...

There's always Han...

Well I'm not pro-Dinho or anti-Dinho

I just don't like how you and X-Off just nit pick every little thing he does wrong but try to walk over the good things.

Dinho is not in good form atm, but neither is 75% of the team at this point in time. To me that shows there is something wrong with the entire system not just one player as some would try to have you beleive

Anyway, just wanted to add that part since I was mentioned . Dinho or no Dinho, I just hope Allegri gets his act together or we can kiss our entire chances of getting any silverware this season goodbye

I agree, even if you do the same to Inzaghi. Guess this happens from time to time.

I'm in Han's camp here. Bring me a capable substitute (and I mean really bring him here, with the official shirt wearing presentation and all), and then we can kick Ronaldinho's sweet behind goodbye. Until that, he's one of our premier squad players, his faults and shortcomings included.

No matter what we say this Ronaldinho is still the Top 10 players in the world today. He probably won't make the first or second World XIs directly, but if we genuinely rank players like CRON, Messi, Kaka, Sneijder and friends, Ronaldinho still makes it somewhere in the very bottom. Stats and figures don't tell the whole story, but they don't lie either. He had the numbers to show last season, and frankly this is an entirely different look to the Milan team (new faces and all), but who knows maybe he will pick it up in the coming weeks.

But as I said before, being me a like-to-like substitute, and sell R80 the very next day. I'm all for it.

I don't do it to Pippo, I just see where his limitations are. And wanting him to start a game is stepping over that line of limitations. I can see that the Pippo of old wuld never miss a great chance yet I've seen this Pippo fluff one from nearly half a meter away from goal.


I wouldn't go that far

But in our squad, and the position he plays, currently he's our number 1 best choice. When you get me someone better then don't even try to mention Dinho to me, but until then I'd rather have Dinho, then forsing Robs in the hole or playing Seedorf there.

However I still stand by me theory that given the right tactical setup we'll see all our players shine. That means Pato, Dinho, Pirlo and Ibra, currently all are strggling and imo that is because of the system Allegri has in place

Agreed on all counts, Han! The players are somewhat proven, the coach is a crispy cookie in all of this, he still hasn't been able to create a winning combo in months. Sure there were some unforeseen minor injuries, but at the end of the day he is a professional and should be able to work out a contingency plan.

Up until now, I just feel he is still experimenting, and well the first week of November ends today.

Haha, we will see. Last match he started he scored. But that's just one match. Let's see tomorrow, shall we?

we'll see he missed a couple of good ones in that as well. I remember now we were losing to that miracle goal from Catania's FB and there were a couple of missed chances from Pippo that were guilt edged

A couple? I only remember one, and that was before Catania scored. He was the one who equalized after all.

Yes he was the one who equilized but my point was that he needs to have a number of good chances before he hits that one goal

I haven't seen Pippo be as accurate as he was against Real on Wednesday in years.

Years? Really? Han, sorry, but you are just plainly biased. Pippo could score 6 goals today and you still wouldn't like the guy.

While in fact, you are completely wrong in almost everything. Let's see:

1) Pippo does not score when a starter
In fact: Last season only he started 7 matches, scored 4 goals; but it comes even worse - he scored all his goals last season as a starter, but somehow, you think he's a better sub.

2) Pippo does not score in Serie A matches
In fact: Last season he started 4 matches, and scored twice, against Napoli and Parma.

3) Pippo was not as accurate as he was against Real on Wednesday in years
In fact: a bit more of 1 year ago, Pippo scored a double against Marseille. Or against Napoli, a year and a half ago, when he scored a hattrick.


Just a little bonus:
Season 08/09 - Pippo started 15 times and scored 10 goals.

Please, find another excuse now...

Well, it looks like Allegri has decided to give Pato another chance, so Inzaghi should start from the bench.

Source

We all knew Inzaghi won't be starting the match.He knows his role in the team,I think that could be good for us.

I said he's a better sub, starting Pippo and making him play 90 minutes is not something that we should do. It's just my oppinion, where did I say that I don't like the guy? If he were in front of me on Wed I would have kissed him.

And yes he scored in those previous games but do you have the replays of them so we can count how many clear cut chances he had before scoring his goals? Or we could just review the match threads for those games and see how many times people swore at Pippo missing a great chance...

Anyway, it doesn't really matter, Allegri seems to think the same thing, so does Galliani and Pippo himself has hinted that he can't play regularly anymore

Hahaha, you, Allegri and Galliani. I'm not sure that's great company

Anyway, you proven to know that the facts I pointed out are just the beginning of wisdom, not the end.
It's really up to the coach to decide. Sure, starting a 20+ boy makes more sense then an old dog like Pippo, but I just wanted to see Pippo start against Bari. I think the Bari defense today would have had trouble with Inzaghi, and I'm also sure he would not have missed the things Robinho missed. I really dislike those "ifs" and "alternate endings" but I'm positive the score line would have been different.

Well I agree there, but hindsight is 20/20. I wouldn't hgave guessed that Bari would have been that terrible in defense. The spaces they left us were just ridiculous and I'm positive that had we went out with out strongest 11 instead of that ridiculous midfield and Robinho we would have scored 5 and kept the clean sheet

Yeah, let's not forget that today we started without Thiago, Pirlo, Boateng and Pato, and still managed to dominate the game. So it's a good sign overall, although Bari were quite crap themselves.

Well I wouldn't say we dominated the game, Bari had better possession at one point as well. But had we played someone that could actually pass the ball in the mid we wouldn't have had any problems

Naah, I really think we deserved to win and also dominated. Bari may have had possesion, but they were quite static and now real effort came. The second goal was a masterpiece, the first a gift.

We dominated the game (ruined a lot of good goalscoring oppurtinities), but keep in mind Bari was terrible, seriously lol at their defending today.

We dominated because of that exactly, but in terms of possession Bari had the upper hand. To me dominating means keeping possession as well as creating chances

Yeah I think its time he leaves. But regardless of what we want, he'll be gone undoubtedly this summer. Robinho was signed as his replacement.

Well we'll need an AM regardless of what Robinho was signed for.

Indeed. Maybe someone had a bad idea he'd be our next AM, but I think up till now everyone who has eyes realizes this won't happen. Anyway, Cassano is free, sounds like a perfect Milan job.

Not sure...but does Cassano track back all that much. And the thought of Ibra and Cassano is a bit scary.



--------Cassano--------
----Pippo---------Ibra--

....could work.

It is indeed. But we're running out of options. We simply need another 2000-2002 period. Then we signed Inzaghi, Seedorf, Pirlo, Nesta and Rui Costa, all from top italian clubs. Most of them even now present a backbone to our squad. Nowdays, I even fear to think we sign fo example Pastore, Chiellini or Hernanes.

No to Cassano, he's another Ronaldinho. We need a full and proper trequartista, one who's willing to backtrack and play the ball. If people like Ganso and Pastore are unattainable, we could always look for cheaper options.

Such as?

Cassano is a short-term fix, we need IMO. I'm as against it as all of you, but considering we're stuck with either Dinho, Zee or Missinho, Cassano looks like a upgrade. Afterwards, we can even sell.

I agree we should look to long term solutions, but since AM needs desperality to be fixed short term I am okay w/ Cassano since he's coming for free.

LOL, can't think of anyone at the moment. Hleb, maybe?



The thing I'm afraid of is that if we sign Cassano, our management won't look for a long-term solution after Dinho leaves. Galliani will probably say "we have Cassano" or something like that. It's a risky gamble which I'm not willing to take.

Cassano to me is not an AM, someone who can provide constant supply to the front 2. That's what an AM should do. Cassano is a SS, yes he's creative, but so is Ibra, that doesn't make them AMs or anything of the sort.

Plus Ibra, him and Robinho... Can you imagine the headaches?

The man is sheer quality, but can't get his act together for more then a couple of months. After Dinho is gone, the management need to seriously look into replacing him with a top quality, proper AM, atm the only 2 that pop to mind are Pastore and Ganso. VDV just switched teams and he's doing really well at Tottenham, if they don't make the CL then I can see him trying to push for a move though, so not all is lost. Then there's Henanes, but he's not really an AM, he's more box-to-box. Anything else is just not good enough imo.

Oh, c'mmon, there's a big difference between Cassano and Ibra.

But yes, we need a proper AM. I don't see VDV move, he only got there and he sure wants to consolidate first. Hotspur is planning on him. Hernanes? Depends on Lazio's outcome. But I don't see that happen before 2012.

Forget VDV, him and Ibra have a history and I don't think they'd like to play together. It's true though, there aren't many decent options available out there. Honda and Lazzari come to mind, but not sure if they're Milan quality.

I am not sure about Lazzari being the AM solution, but Honda is a proper AM for sure. It's not like he has to be as good as Sneijder or Özil, right? Honda will do the AM job better than Seedorf, and will make us team better just like it was when we played Seedorf as AM. Honda really can show good things IMO.

Both are mid level quality at best.

At this point I'd rather we really try hard to make Pirlo the regular in that position, the only good options will be very expensive, while others are either impossible to get or just not good enough

I agree that we need to make Pirlo our AMC, we have 4 good midfielders left for the 3 other spots.

But Honda is no way mid level quality at best. He is capable of being better than that, ''at best'' is just false, Honda is mid level quality at worst IMO.

Honda is another Nakamura imo. Overly hyped by a World Cup, now look at where he's playing...

If Honda made the jump to a big team he woudn't last more then a season, and sure I'd take him as a rotation player, but no way as a 1st team starter

when Leo first took over, he had drawn up a few players who could "replace Kaka". One of them was Moscow attacking midfielder Alex. I watched Moscow vs. Chelsea the other day, and Alex is a fantastic player.

To be honest, compared to what we have currently, there are quite a few attacking midfielders around that would improve our team.

Affellay, Alex (Moscow), Candreva, Arda Turan, Diego Souza (Athletico Mineiro), Fernandinho and Douglas Costa (Shaktar), Giuliano (Internacional). Just to name a few of the top of my head that I've seen play.

At this point all we need is someone with legs, who can take up decent positions and play balls forward. Right now, our attacking midfield options don't even possess those qualities...These are all examples of talented players who could do that for us.

Well if it's just someone mediocre running around like a headless chicken then I'd rather stick with what we currently have

We need quality, not just push someone in there that can run, if that were the case just let Abate have at it

What a BS argument!!!

And being (overly) hyped during a World Cup is a good thing rather than a bad thing, it showed he can play good, and of course there are examples that the player is a 1 tournament player but not Honda. He plays good over and over again. You simply think he sucks because he plays for a club that is out of your world. Just say nothing then. He has got quality, how can you not see it? Oh I know, by not watching.

Giuliano, Fernandinho, Douglas Costa and Diego Souza are all players on the cusp of the Brazilian NT. Fernandinho is a fantastic player who lead Shaktar to the UEFA Cup trophy recently. Giuliano and Douglas Costa have just started receiving caps under Menezes, and are only 20. Diego Souza is the best player in the Brazilian domestic league. Affellay's budding talents have been known to most fans of European football for a while. Candreva is probably the least heralded, but is still a young, talented Italian. Alex is a fine player as well.

All of these players would play the attacking midfielder position better than Seedorf and Dinho. I suppose if somebody had mentioned the name Arshavin to you, prior to 2008, you would have written him off too - citing how Zenit is a sh!te team. It IS possible that you aren't familiar with good players in smaller leagues.

Abate doesn't hold a candle against all of the aforementioned players. Just because you don't know who they are doesn't give you any grounds to call them headless chickens.

Honda is better than Afellay. Both would help the team a lot though.

Btw. what happened with Di Gennaro? Is he still our player?