Back to the grind.

Hopefully this international break served them well!

Mediaset predicts 4-3-3: Diego Lopez; Abate, Romagnoli, Zapata, Antonelli; Bertolacci, Montolivo, Kucka; Cerci, Bacca, Bonaventura.

Good to know we've discarded the useless trequartista position. Also, when the hell is Menez coming back?

Don't know...


Zapata still in there... After 3 consecutive games where he proved to be the difference maker... For the other team that is

Also, I don't like seeing Bonaventura on the wing playing as an out and out attacking winger in a 4-3-3, he just doesn't have the attributes to pull that position off as we saw last season when Pippo played him there, and Cerci is just plain old useless.

I personally don't understand the logic in going for a formation that absolutely requires wingers (really good wingers that is) to function, it's just plain old stupid, especially after we got rid of all the players who could actually play in that formation.

A 4-3-2-1 would be the smart solution for us, it would help us pack in the midfield, keep us more compact and probably be the best go at actually functioning anywhere remotely like a proper team. Also, we can use Bona and anyone from Menez, Cerci, Honda or even Balo to play behind Bacca or Adriano in this one and it would work much better than using a system that either relies heavily on a great trequartista, which we don't have or great wingers, which we don't have either.

4-3-2-1 won't make much of a difference. It still relies on creativity and a capable midfield, which we don't have. I think Miha has finally realized that he has a team full of mediocre players, so he's doing what most small/average clubs do: counter-attack and use the wings. There's no other way to get out of it this season. Hopefully Menez comes back soon and we sign a decent winger in January.

How can you use the wings though if you don't have decent to good wingers who can exploit those situations?

A 4-3-3 if not utilised properly will leave us even more exposed than the 4-3-1-2, just like it did last season, with fewer numbers in midfield.

4-3-2-1, will give us the advantage in midfield but it can also be a more fluid formation when attacking or even counter attacking. As the 2 behind the striker can be given a free role when we're attacking.

Also, we've proven to be terrible at counter attacking and not once this season have we exploited a situation where a counter was on to our advantage, and that really has nothing to do with the formation and more to do with the players themselves

I think you're looking at this on paper without considering the quality of our players. 4-3-2-1 requires two technically gifted trequartistas and a midfield that can hold ball possession. We have none. There's no other way to play it. Just crowding a bunch of mediocre players in midfield won't give us any advantage at all.

4-3-3 on the other hand gives you depth, and doesn't require that your wingers are the best in the world as long as all the players are involved. Obviously we won't turn into world beaters by the push of a button, but given the quality of our team I see no other possible way. 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 is the clear way to go.

Disagree, especially about the 4-4-2.

And I also disagree about how you're looking at a 4-3-3 vs a 4-3-2-1. It's not just about how it looks on paper, it's about how it will translate on the pitch, and given the players we have an the level of quality at our disposal, I think a 4-3-2-1 is our best solution. For me a 4-3-3 requires a great midfield that must be equally capable of holding possession as a midfield in a 4-3-2-1 but also wide players capable of exploiting the wide areas as well, which we do not have either.

Anyway, he'll go for a 4-3-3 tonight, so let's see if it's another epic failure.

We'll probably go through every formation in the book anyway to try to come up with some sort of tactical system that works

Let's agree to disagree then. Let me ask you just one question though: who would you play behind the striker in a 4-3-2-1? I'm curious.

Bona and any one from Cerci, Menez, Honda, Suso, heck even Balo can fit in there.

Aside from Cerci and Menez, we really have no one who can play on the wings in a 4-3-3. Bona imo simply does not have the attributes needed to play on the wing. Maybe Suso as well

How's that any different from 4-3-1-2 then?

Torino: Padelli; Bovo, Glik, Moretti; Zappacosta, Acquah, Gazzi, Baselli, Molinaro; Maxi Lopez, Quagliarella

Torino bench: Castellazzi, Ichazo, V Mantovani, Gaston Silva, Vives, Benassi, Prcic, J Martinez, Belotti, Amauri

Milan: Diego Lopez; Abate, Alex, Romagnoli, Antonelli; Kucka, Montolivo, Bertolacci; Cerci, Luiz Adriano, Bonaventura

Milan bench: Abbiati, Donnarumma, De Sciglio, Zapata, Mexes, Calabria, José Mauri, De Jong, Poli, Suso, Bacca, Honda

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At least we'll settle the Alex vs Zapata debate so that Han and X-off can go with their lives. Perhaps..

http://milanfan.better-than.tv:5005/stream.flv

And we're live

For who's intrested , channel is BT sport. If freezes , give me a shout and I'll lower the settings for you.

Cheers Nova!

Nice one Torino defence

Frantic start

Bona and Cerci so far completely absent, they should both push inside

Zapata already answered that question for us trice over imo

Man, these commentators are a couple of dicks.

How is that not a foul FFS!

Nice move by Montolivo. Shame it didn't go in.

Watching BT sports?

If so..yes. ffs

Yeah.

Nova, my stream keeps freezing. Could you lower the settings a bit?

Done Better ?

Yeah, thanks.

That commentator of BT Sport keeps saying Montolivio . It's Montolivo !!!!

All the english commentators say his name like that...

btw Nova, thanks for the stream, it's been great!!

You're welcome mate.

Goal Bacca !!!!

BACCA!!

BACAAA!!!

Noooo Bacca thought he was offside

Could or should have had a second there!!

Cerci is garbage.

FFS!

We score and we suddenly can't keep the ball to save our lives!!

Something is seriously wrong with this team

Can't say I'm surprised..

Yeah. It's a mentality thing.

Why on earth is Cerci still on the pitch is beyond me.

Cerci, what a waste of space!!

Very frustrating to watch this !!

Getting so sick of watching this same old BS every week! This could even turn out to be worse then last season, which is no small feat to achieve!!

We control a game for the majority of the 90 minutes, we score and instead of that being a platform to take even more of a stronghold on the game, we simply crumble, and it has happened in every gave we've played this season

Another shitty season, but it was to be expected. Counting the days for Miha to get fired, and Galliani after him.

Another day another disappointing result. I will say that at least in this game there were some bright spots, for me Monto and Berto were our two best players, the defense also seemed to be pretty solid, despite conceding that goal. Speaking of which, did anyone else think that Belotti was offside when he shouldered it to Baselli? I didn't see a reply of the line, but to me it seemed clear as day on the live watch.

Back to the team, Miha is seriously frustrating with his substitutions. I mean it was obvious to everyone that Cerci should have come off around the 50 minute mark, the guy was absolutely smothered by Molinaro of all players. For me this should be his last time seeing the field for us. He was our worst player. Adding to this, Adriano should not be starting games either. He should be the second choice whenever Bacca is fit and healthy, he was also getting his butt whooped by Glik. Finally Kucka, that early (undeserved) yellow card seemed to take all of the wind out of him, the guy has been an industrious force for us since joining up, but today he went completely missing.

This cb partnership seemed to work, and there were some positive moments from Monto and Berto. This game gave me some hope, not for this season of course but for the future. I have high hopes from Romagnoli who seems to grow in confidence and skill from game to game. Bonaventura is looking like a bonafide talisman for a team without role models and Berto finally showed a glimpse of the player who we all hoped he could be. This season needs a miracle to end with a cl spot, but at least the team is beginning to gel. I had completely lost hope after the implosion against Napoli. I knew we were gonna tie the game but I thought it would be a Glik header off of the countless corners we conceded.

Alex did well yesterday, but we simply can't give him more than a backup role! Mexes needs to comeback ASAP. And we do need a new CB to partner Romagnoli. Romagnoli has been a good acquisition imo..I really like him and can see him constantly improving.

Our midfield was much better in this match as maldini said. We actually controlled the tempo specially through Montolivo. The problem was that Luiz was too isolated, and Cerci was just terrible. I understand that Miha wanted to show faith in him with all our other strikers on the injury tabe, but it didn't pay off sadly.

So maybe, with our starting striking partnership we could have done much better here, but we still we were controlling the game so well in the second half before our goal! Then, after that, it was mostly all Torino..

I was really happy with the defending and performance yesterday overall and generally speaking. Having said that, I was left with a bitter taste after the game due to the nature in which we conceded that goal and I was really hoping for the 3 points after the Napoli game.

I can't wait for the Sassuolo game, hope we can win that convincingly/comfortably.

From the line up perspective, I really wanted to see Mexes, was excited when I heard that he was in the squad. Also it seems to me that Sinisa prefers Luiz Adriano to Bacca, when you consider the price tags of each player I'm not too sure, I ain't a big of Cerci either.

You can't wait for the Sassuolo game??? Why? Where do you find all the enthusiasm? For me it's reached a point where I simply don't give a crap anymore, because I know this season has gone down the shitter, like last season, and the season prior to that.

Also, I don't think Miha prefers Adriano to Bacca. Bacca was just tired after his games with Colombia, so he couldn't start.

Not sure yet. But Adriano has been overall played more regularly, yes?

Adriano has, and one moment I remember was in the derby when I was thinking Adriano would face the chop for Balotelli as he didn't capitalise on a few missed opportunities. Mihajlovic took off Bacca instead which baffled me.