You guys are looking at the glass half empty, when in actuality it is half full. Is what I am saying.

This crop of players and this coach have over achieved all expectations. Now the expectation is to sign the Neymars of world football, having a rightful place in CL and a shot at Scudetto contention.

This is not the original target of the club, but the over achievement of the team. This has caused us to dream like that, and when the team falters we go mad and start pointing fingers.

Take a deep breath guys, calm down this is a long road and my target for Milan is an EL birth. If they do better, then it is euphoria for me.

We can?t sign the Neymar's of world football cos we can?t afford them. That?s a dream-pipe. But we can achieve CL without a question of doubt. Lazio did it last year with a pretty mediocre roster. Atalanta have been doing it for a couple of years. RB Leipzig, Sevilla, Borussia M, Rennes, to name a few from the big leagues.

Like I said, attaining CL football this season is a must and something we can comfortably achieve if we continue playing as we did until a month ago. What is even a EL birth? Winning the EL? That?s way harder, besides the fact that I don?t think we really care about the competition that much.

What's wrong with the question mark in your keyboard XD

No clue.

This is my point. My exact point. I quoted to you earlier this year if we were delivering summer's form during tail end November December time, I'd believe this turnaround was real.

But it hasn't happened.

We've not crumbled, but we've not sustained that level.

I'm guessing this forum will go into hibernation now for the next two weeks.

Think it's been in hibernation the past two years

Stupid Nations League.

And Euro playoffs. Which Scotland managed to qualify for. So it'll be the first time in this forum's history my country will be at a major championships.

So, Pioli has the Covid and his assistant also resulted positive today. So, the team might be led on Sunday vs Napoli by...

*drum roll*





























Bonera.

So far doing a good job, Bonera haha... always kind of liked him. He never was top class, but a very good backup.

Yep, we just need another goal.. it's too tricky like this

And here is the second

Forza milan

We shouldn't conceed that! That wad a foul on Kessie in my opinion.

Bakayoko red card!

Theo is a beast..whar a beast

Ibra injured:(

Hauge!!!

Great result but ibra could be missing fir few weeks now it looks hamstring

The potential Ibra loss for weeks dampers today's result.

But, we went to the San Paolo and we got the job done. Don't tell me this is the same Milan of old. Napoli for me were the trickiest team to face so far imo, them not having Osihmen was a huge bonus for us.

Btw, where were Leao and Diaz?


Let's hope that Ibra injury isn't serious...

Wow, never thought we'd win this. Last time we beat Napoli at the San Paolo was in 2010.

It was an ugly match by all means, but I've come to accept the fact that we'll never play great football as we are right now. We're just that cynical team that goes for the 3 points in the most difficult way possible, but at least so far it's working.

And yeah, that looked bad for Ibra. Could be out a couple of weeks.

Leao is out for a while. No idea about Diaz. Probably on the bench. Should have subbed him in instead of Castillejo, but that's something else I guess we'll have to get used to.

Meh, I'm not worrying about the beautiful football, it will come again just like it did last season. The most important thing right now is that we're winning games, even difficult ones that we wouldn't have won in a million years before.

I think we have a relatively easier schedule in the league for the next few weeks or so. That should give Ibra time to recover and Leao should be able to replace him in the coming games. We've won matches without him this season.

He is? Didn't know that, do you know why?

Well that's a wrench in my "Leao can replace Ibra" plan. The fact that Colombo is the other option is worrying. We'll probably have to move Rebic to CF again...

He came injured from NT duty. Biceps femoris muscle injury according to Transfermarkt.

It's a pity also because Rebic was just starting to own that left flank again. We'll have to "de-naturalise" him again as CF. But hopefully that means Hauge starting on the left. I want to see more of him. His goal tonight was great.

I think all games are difficult at this point. There are no easy wins.

No, of course you're right, hence the term 'relatively' because all of them could be potential mine fields, especially without the presence of Ibra.

However, our next big test is against Sassuolo. We have Fiorentina, Samp, Parma and Genoa before that. We have to make sure to not drop points in any of those. Samp could be tricky though.

Hopefully Ibra's problem isn't so serious.

Effing international break!!


Agreed re Rebic. Him and Theo have such good chemistry and understanding in their play. It's like with Bennacer and Kessie, they're not the same without the other working in tendem.

Re Hauge. Maybe we could push him up instead, on the wing, if we have to move Rebic I'd still choose Diaz first. That kid is special and we need to play him more

Our position last season during week 8

Tonight was Milan's first win in Naples since October 2010 - a 2-1 victory in which Zlatan Ibrahimović also scored. (Sky Italia)


All these 2010 Scudetto mirrors are giving me vibes I don't even want to think about

+1

Football is about winning. Titles are about winning.

But the Ibra loss is a big issue - he's our quarterback and losing him could well change things a lot.

I'm already a happy happy man with this win. Imagine a scudetto!

I agree. I mean there is something definitely wierd about it. We never seemed in control of the game. But, we made it count when it mattered. Party due to Ibra, but also Theo and Rebic feeding him these balls. I don't know what I would change exactly, it's a tough one though. (Probably Hakan) Romagnoli should have done better on that goal. I would have thought he'd improve with age. But for me, he seems to be regressing. Always too worried about the fouls and complaining. On the other side, Kjaer is pure class. I really loved that goal by Hauge. BUT, it is clear he is still a bit lost and hasn't yet fully geled with the team. This could only come with training and playtime.

Anyway, let's see what happens with Ibra, this will be a huge factor going forward.

Agreed about Romagnoli. I wouldn't say he has regressed, but he certainly hasn't improved as much as I had wished for. He's been making some notable mistakes recently.

Kjaer is definitely the better of the two at this point. A true leader, so good at decision-making, very few mistakes. We certainly hit jackpot with his signing.

As for Hauge, like I said earlier his goal was a marquee goal. He has a tough defender like Manolas ahead, but the way he feints his body movement and then accelerates was top class. It reminded me of Kaka's goal against Boca Juniors in some way.

But he hasn't gelled with the rest of the team, I agree. He doesn't understand the mechanisms yet and how to move in the pitch. That can only come with playing time.

Serie A table is hot at the top, 2nd place are 2 points away, 3rd are 3 points and 4th are 4 points away.

I don't like this Scudetto talk coming out of the official representatives of the club. Team should stay humble and work to achieve the ultimate target that it can by season end. No expectations, so whatever is delivered will make me happy.

It doesn't matter what management says. What matters is how the players feel. If they believe they can sustain these results in the long run, then why shouldn't we consider the Scudetto? If anything, that's an extra ambition that can only be a positive thing.

If we play games with the mentality that all we need is a 3rd or 4th spot, we'll eventually lose points where we think it's not necessary. Like the game vs Napoli. Or Inter. The fact we beat those two title contenders both away should mean something. We almost beat Roma as well.

And at the end of the day, if we don't win the Scudetto then it won't be the end of the world cos at least we'd have still achieved our goal, i.e. CL qualification. That's the advantage of being an underdog. You don't feel the pressure like title contenders do.

Hamstring injury for Zlatan, 10 days of recovery after which he will be re-evaluated. I expect him to return after two weeks, so he'll most definitely miss the games vs Fiorentina and Sampdoria, and make his return vs Parma on 13 December.

Saelemaekers also out for an ankle injury.

Agreed, but I also think it matters how you are able to achieve it, at least for Milan it does. I look at Juve for example, they are a soulless machine that romped to the title 9 straight times without barely any competition while playing some really terrible football along the way. I personally like the fact that whenever we've won titles, we've done it by playing memorable football

Of course, I'm not going to complain that we're winning, and I don't agree that we're playing badly either, that 2nd goal for example was a quintessential move since the turn of the year. I just don't think we're pressing with the same kind of intensity we saw last summer post lockdown and we're not as sharp in our passing, but all of this can be improved upon. We still press a lot, I don't see us parking the bus for example, even last night when Napoli had most of the possession, we defended by pressing them and forcing errors. And even though they did control most of the game, I was never really that worried about conceding.

The Ibra injury is a huge blow no doubt, but thankfully it comes when we're facing relatively weaker teams, so we should still be able to pull through without him


I don't really see any Scudetto talk from the club, who is talking about the Scudetto?

But honestly, if that is the players' aspiration, even better, it means that this team has belief. Setting low expectations for ourselves has really helped us to achieve big goals in the past... #sarcasm


Agreed completely.

That Roma game burn more than the Verona one, we lost points there due to a false positive on Donna's covid test


I read it will probably be 3 to 4 weeks...

Thank you.

x

x

Ibra: "The injury is not serious. I'll only be out 1-2 weeks"

Link

Hauge with the biggest brain fart I've seen in a wasted counter attack...

2 dropped points, but oh well, we'll probably close this out against Celtic next Thursday


Man, I have to say though, props to Lille. Tactically and physically, I'm going to go out on a limb and say they're the best side we've faced this season. They're so compact and resistant to the counter. Not to mention they also employ a high press which suits their physicality to a T. I don't think we've found any other team so far this season that's frustrated us as much imo. We should have won it based on the chances we created, but these are growing pains, especially for players like Gabbia, Hauge and Tonali, who all had their good and bad moments.

One thing I don't understand though is why we didn't play our best setup today and rested players in the Fiorentina match, it's clear Lille are the far superior side, not having Kessie, Romagnoli and Calabria imo was a a big loss for us especially against such a physical side.


Gabbia needs to improve his passing though

Because we don't give a crap about the EL.

And I agree. Serie A is a priority. We should play the best setup in every game, even against the bottom teams. EL is a bonus. We may try to go as far as possible without much effort. If it works, very well. If it doesn't, no-one will care. But in the league 3 points against Fiorentina have the same weight as 3 points against Juventus.

That being said, I actually do think we played the best setup. Romagnoli had to recover from an injury, Kessie was too fatigued, and Calabria is not a game changer. Everyone else was a starter. Don't forget Saelemaekers, Leao and Ibra are injured.

Maybe we could have played Brahim from the start instead of Castillejo. That's the only change I would have made.

Second best side in France is you going out on a limb?

Would you put like ?1 on a 1/10 odds or something haha.

And now I know why X's keyboard was doing the ? marks.

The forum software is glitched.

You really think we don't care about it? I disagree on that one.

That being said, I do see your point re Serie A. But Fiorentina have been probably the worst side in the league so far next to Torino. We could still play Tonali, Dalot, etc against them and do just fine imo. If we had won yesterday we'd have practically qualified for the next round.

Anywhoo. Onwards to Fiorentina. Let's put in a good performance and this weekend could be great for us in terms of the table if we get the 3 points. Some big fixtures happening elsewhere in the league namely Inter-Sassuolo and Napoli-Roma IIRC


We've faced, Inter, Napoli and Roma. A lot would disagree with me simply because they're a Ligue 1 side.

I think the ? marks have to do with the keyboard settings because it doesn't happen to everyone. The forum needs updating badly though

I ain't one of them. They are the best team we've faced.



Ha, not going to happen - forums like this are a dying breed. Only shocked Mike's still keeping the lights on!

Wierd footballing week with very very wierd results everywhere.

Hoping we snatch those 3 points!

We're being completely outplayed in these first 15 minutes.