Called up players

We have a friendly against Freiburg tonight. Will check on what time it will be played

Probable XI vs Freiburg (4-3-3): Donnarumma; Abate, Paletta, Antonelli, De Sciglio; Kucka, Montolivo, Bertolacci; Honda, Bacca, Bonaventura.

Man, we have a serious shortage at CB atm. I hope Montella gives Gomez a chance to start so we can see what he offers. No point playing Antonelli there. DS is a better fit for CB than him anyway

Vangioni, Lapadula, Suso, Niang and Alessio are all injured

Diego Lopez was left out of the squad (GdS saying it's because he'll be sold not because he's injured)

It's pretty sad that one week from the start of Serie A our starting team looks exactly the same as last year's.

Yep

I know we won, but did anyone see this game? How was it?

Yeah, watched it sort of. I guess the usual. You can obviously see what Montella is trying to do with the possession of the ball but I find it highly unlikely that it will actually work with this group of players. Especially the insistence to play out from the back could cost us heavily as we end up putting unnecessary pressure on Donna.

On a positive note, Gomez played for about 15 to 20 minutes and although we weren't doing much defending then (it seemed like they were going through a training drill of playing out from the back at that point) he seems very confident on the ball and is cool under pressure. I think he and Romagnoli could form a good partnership (at least from the little I could deduce - could be totally wrong though )

Milan-Torino thread?

Will open it now

Bournmouth 1-2 Milan

Suso and Niang (pen).

Did you watch? I did and I was impressed and given a bit of hope by some of the things I saw.

Just to recap for those who didn't watch the game, we played a 4-3-3 but it had shades of a 4-4-2 as well (probably because of the players that we used)

Sosa and Pasalic started in midfield and Sosa was used in the CM spot. I'm not going to say the regista role because that's not how he was interpreting the position imo, but honestly, I was impressed with how he did, the speed of thought and movement was such a difference from the walking pace Monto plays at that it was a big breath of fresh air to see us transition the play so quickly from defence to attack. And this is not just because of Sosa, I thought Pasalic was very good as well and him and Sosa did a couple of really good combinations which is impressive considering that they've barely been in training together and with the rest of the team for a week.

I really do think we can work something out with Sosa in the midfield, but the only issues is that we'll be exposed defensively. Only solution I can think of atm is to play Kucka in a holding mid type role and play Sosa and Pasalic/Mati on the sides of him.

As for Lapadula, honestly, I don't see anything all that special about this guy, don't want to judge too early and this could be because he hasn't trained much all summer, but he looked sluggish and out of touch out there

Another player which I fail to see what attracted us to him is Vangioni, this guy is not a LB, at best he's a mediocre winger that has a decent cross.

Abate looks terribly out of form atm. We need him to get back in shape or we'll have trouble in those FB areas this season.

Gabriel is a tragedy and mistake waiting to happen, so many mistakes today, especially with his kicks. Plizzarri the Primavera keeper was more sure of himself than him. This makes giving Lopez on loan even more stupid imo, I get that he wanted to play and was unhappy sitting on our bench but we've put ourselves in a terrible situation now

AFC Bournemouth 1-2 AC Milan - (Friendly) All Goals & Highlights 03/09/2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ1s64TxsyA

More rumors suggesting we might play 4-4-2 against Udinese due to a lack of midfielders. Monto-Sosa in the centre, Bona-Suso on the flanks with Bacca-Lapadula in attack.