ESPN Soccernet - Correspondents - AC MILAN - Deja Vu

Posted by Matteo Bonetti on 02/02/2010

A win against Siena. A loss against Inter. A tie against Livorno. Does this sequence seem oddly familiar to anyone? If you nodded, it isn't because you hallucinated this event - it is the exact way we started off last year.

The excruciating pain has not fully subsided from the traumatizing derby defeat, which led to the lackadaisical display put on against Udinese in the Coppa Italia. The mental blow from the derby was astonishing, the fire and passion that guided the Rossoneri to a successful spell in the past few months dissipated faster than you can pronounce Salihamidzic.

Notes on Milan-Inter:

The referee decided the game. An occurrence that has seemingly become more and more common in the Serie A. The Wesley Sneijder sending off due to the clapping gesture seemed a bit dubious. How many times during the course of the game do we see players mock a referee and get away with it?

The first goal was courtesy of Ignazio Abate. Every Inter fan should send him a postcard by now for being their most improbable playmaker. His elementary defending would be somewhat forgivable if he was providing assists for his actual team, and not our most bitter rivals. The second Inter goal was caused by yet another referee blunder. Maicon's dive set up the Goran Pandev free kick strike. At this point in the game I was preparing myself for a premature heart attack. The pain in my chest started shortly after seeing Mourinho's celebratory antics on the sideline: flailing his arms like a madman as the Interisti chanted "Special One! Special One!". My blood pressure reached a new apex right after the final whistle, when Marco Materazzi was seen dancing around with a mask of Silvio Berlusconi. Now, he has always been one of my least favourite players in the football world. A classless career defined by a headbutt, dozens upon dozens of fouls committed to purposely injure. He is more of a butcher than a soccer player. Point being, would we ever see Leonardo dancing around urging the fans to keep chanting his name? No. Could you ever imagine seeing Ambrosini after a victory putting on fake yellow crooked teeth and imitating Massimo Moratti? While it would be comical, I doubt it. The only thing that could mend my broken heart at this point is encountering Inter in the Champions League and knocking them off. Nothing else will do.

Milan's attack was simply too predictable. It consisted of passing the ball to Ronaldinho every time and watching him get swarmed by Inter defenders. The Milan squad, as a whole, picked the worst possible game to under-perform. Did anyone else know in the back of their head that Ronaldinho was going to miss the penalty kick? Yeah, me too.

I love Borriello, and rate him quite highly as a striker. But I'm noticing an unfortunate trend that he seems to drift out of important games. Now in his defence, he was alone upfront and had two men around him at all times, but he missed a few important headers that could have changed the course of the game.

Notes on Milan-Udinese (Coppa Italia)

A game where Milan were thoroughly dominated at the hands of the struggling Udinese side, which somehow morphed into Barcelona against our uninspired side. Bonera and Kaladze teamed up to form a porous defensive partnership, and Davide Di Gennaro made his last appearance of the season, as he was loaned out to Livorno for the remained of the season.

We have an emergency situation at the fullback position. They are costing us precious points. Abate against Inter, and now Antonini against Udinese. An atrocious defensive sequence led to Udinese's goal.

Notes on Milan-Livorno

One of those anticlimactic games where small provincial sides field a 5 man defence, prays for one lucky goal on a counterattack. It's the anti-football. Milan dominated possession, hit the crossbar on an occasion, and couldn't get a break.

The January Transfer Market

As most of you already know, Milan made a swoop for Inter's failed signing Amantino Mancini. In a bizarre twist of events, Berlusconi came out today with some bitter comments geared towards Galliani, disagreeing with the move and saying that Milan needs a finalizzatore (Italian for pure scorer, finalizer) rather than another wing player/second striker. Berlusconi can be quoted as saying:

I do not understand the acquisition of Mancini. He is another wing player when in reality we need a finisher. He has been out of the game for nearly two years.

Mancini started off his career as an offensive fullback, a position where he can still be deployed. After all, the defending of our fullbacks cannot get much worse, so perhaps Mancini could fill in for Abate while he learns the fundamentals of defending and tactical awareness.

Regarding transfers, I'm still hoping Milan can snap up Luis Fabiano from Sevilla. Thinking of a Brazilian trio upfront consisting of Ronnie, Pato, and Fabiano is mouth-watering to say the least.

Want more ramblings? Check out my twitter page.

Comments

Posted by Kaka on 02/02/2010

Matteo make it stop. This is enough to make a grown man cry.

Posted by Anthony on 02/03/2010

How about Rossi from Villareal up front? Anderson in the midfield. Just get a replacement for Nesta, and two new full backs. Milan will be a new team.

Posted by Indra Santosa on 02/03/2010

I am sorry to see Mancini left Inter... but can understand why he is keen on Milan. He can play in the capacity and role akin to Serginho at one point a lont time ago... and I think he will make Inter regrets releasing him to Milan. Nonetheless, Mourinho does not seem to understand how to apply a strategy with a classy winger.. (althought strangely he insisted on bringing in Quaresma at a high cost too). So Mancini made the right decision to leave Jose and I wish him all the best of luck. On his day he is one of the most explosive players in the world.

Posted by Pagliuca on 02/03/2010

I agree for the most part on what you said here is my input:
a-Leondardo: right idea but wrong players and formation. 433 is OK for these little provencial nags that we get not Inter, Juve etc. Big mistakes in subing out the wrong players. Beckham should have come out not Rino (despite the argument).
b-Players: Abate, can and can't fault him. He has shown something but inexperience in full back is what did him in. Boriello; I know you love him but in my opinion he's not a Milan player. When Hunterlaar came in he connnecte harder and better than Boriello could. However noted on why he was alone up front? Roni; dissapointment not only on the field but off. Roni is half punta, he was to much in MF battling for the ball which he should of been up front in the penalty area where he would of been more affective. Favalli; can only do 20-25 min. full game is asking way to much. Dida; second goal? Sorry he needs to concencentrate.
We can do it but Silvio needs to open the wallet.

Posted by Ben on 02/03/2010

Matteo,

I'm a recent college grad and had European football introduced to me around the start of the campaign in '06. I started following Milan and by the winter break I was enthralled and have been captivated by the Rossoneri ever since. Having recently gone from watching Fox Soccer Channel 24-7 to catching the random Milan match on espn360, I thoroughly enjoy your comments and definitely look forward to them. One of my biggest worries at this point is if Milan show up over the next 2 games still hungover from the previous 3, it's anybody's guess as to what form they'll be in on Feb 16. I do like the idea of bouncing Inter from CL though.

Posted by BrunoZ on 02/03/2010

Mancini really? i liked the guy at roma thought he had some good games but since he got to inter he fizzled. But who knows maybe leonardo being a brazilian can find that spark and make he a great addition. As for the Derby, what a rough one. Boriello was on an island all damn day ronnie was no where to be found except being mugged by 3 inter players every time he got near the ball and the penalty? i knew he wasnt gonna finish it. He was havin a bad day and when he does it shows. The ref was a bit sloppy to say the least. Poor poor abate i cant fault him for his actions thats just inexperience. As for favalli tell him to go lay down that was just painful. Also i think that murinho out coached leo too i mean heres a rookie against (love him or hate him) a damn good coach with some silver under his belt. I assumed if inter scored first they would park the bus and thats exactly what happened. As for that free kick, come on dida all ya had to do was strech.

Posted by Anonymous on 02/04/2010

the mancini signin will give us some depth if ronaldinho gets injured...pato too seems 2 be strugglin with injuries..wel know his worth nly if he R80 gets injured( god forbid that!). regarding boriello. yes i too noticed that he disappears out of important games. but matteo why fabiano?? hes 31. we dont need him. how long can he play at the top?i would rather go with Dzeko who is a very powerful striker and seems consistent and more importantly age is on his side. even if he fails we can get a good resale value jus like how we can easily recoup ATLEAST 10 of the 15 million we paid for the hunter.

Posted by Samuel on 02/04/2010

Mancini is a profitable signing since he can be an alternative to both Ronaldinho and Pato. Dominic Adiyiah our latest signing will be arriving soon since the African cup of Nations is over and should be availble immidiately to start games.. i for one is keen to see if that kid will live up to all the hype pinned upon him since he scooped up all the individual awards at the U20 WC last year. the Derby againts Inter was painful so was the tie againts Livorno. Leonardo has his work cut out for him ahead of the Manchester United clash in the Cl, let's hope the Devil wakes.. Forza Milan!!

Posted by Milan 1963 on 02/06/2010

Hi Matteo,
I think the derby brought us all down to earth and as much as I would like to comment this game and the Udinese game, there is not much I can say since I did not see both games. However what stroke me in the game against Livorno is the how Leo is not able to get the right changes or even right line up from the start. Favalli was so poor that our defense looked like Livornos and theirs looked quite fabulous, I mean Rivas was simply enormous in that game. Switch these two players and we would have murdered them. Flamini was in my opinion one or our best player in the game and Leo changes him leaving Seedorf who was neither attacking nor defending. Livorno looked always dangerous when they were going forward and this really scares me how easily our opponents can approach our area without being pressed by our midfielders. This is a very worrying thought when we will face Manu, we can't let them have so much space.

Posted by Milan 1963 on 02/06/2010

part 2.
Borriello was not in good shape, his game demands a lot of energy and he may loose lucidity when necessary. Hunter did pretty well when he came in, but he needs to start putting it in the net. In summary to play Leo kind of system we need to have a solid and very fit defense, three very strong and fit midfielders (no way we can do it with Pirlo and Seedorf together on the pitch) while going forward I believe also that Dzeko will be the answer with Borriello as his second. My wish list for Milan would be Fabregas and Hernanes for midfield, Bale and De Silvestri for full backs, Mexez or Vidic for center back and Dzeko up front.....unless we are able to launch some new talented player that we have in the primavera, and god knows they are doing well this season, but we can not rely anymore on Favalli, Oddo, Janku, Kaladze, Pippo, Gattuso, even Pirlo and Seedorf are getting old and tired.....

Posted by jiyo03 on 02/07/2010

Champion's League will be coming less than two weeks from now and we only got one signing. Reports linking Vidic with AC Milan does not satisy me. What we need are young players. How about Sergio Ramos from Real Madrid? But I'm not that optimistic with that choice. Ad alos we need to snap up either Dzeko or Luis Fabiano to bolster the striking options. Please..... We need help very badly..

Posted by ARNAB MANDAL on 02/08/2010

what can i say?it is too much.we should find a replacement of borrielo.otherwise we will eliminate from remaining twos.please i want to huntellar for full time.not in as sub

Posted by Daniel on 02/08/2010

Mancini can speed up the pace of old and sluggish Milan. Which is one of many many problems in the team. A ronaldinho, flamini, manicini, ambro midfield should do better than the slow pirlo and sometimes seedorf and beckham.( did anyone else see. beckham afraid to run at a defended against inter?, seems like we just formed a semi-circle around borrielo and just tried to launch it to him.) And i can't help but remember when you stated no1 notices the loss of Pato a few post back. Bet your feeling it now. This lone striker isnt never gonna work if we have midfield afraid to run into the box. And if all we have is ronnie doing it, of course they are just gonna throw a defensive mids to focus on him and watch the rest of milan stumble.

Posted by D on 02/11/2010

'63:
No: Vidic, Fabiano, Mexes (ceilings aren't high enough to warrant the investment).
Yes: Dzeko, Hernanes, Bale - good youth infusion with great upsides.
Time to go: Fav, Oddo, Kaladze, Jank, Gattuso, and Supa Pippo.
While Fabregas would be great - Milan will get priced out. Why would Fiorentina give up De Silvestri after they just snatched him up from Lazio?
Add Bonucci and move Bonera out to the wing.
Speaking of Fiorentina, impressed with their approach at the transfer market this past January.

Posted by Gooner for life on 02/11/2010

Pray why have Milan always left Huntelaar on the bench? In the derby, didn't he make one shot on target, and later went on to earn a penalty, all in the 10 minutes given to him? This is just an example though.

Posted by ARNAB MANDAL on 02/15/2010

The game of the season is knocking the doorbell.But i am not worry about it.when my friend,a MAN U supporter,asked me if your team had potentiality to beat my lions, I said yes.They may have Rooney,Berbatov,Valencia,Nani,Fletcher,and many other deadly players , but we have God, Ronldinho,an immortal genius.I think only he can implement the dream of Milan fans .oh,sorry there is also Huntelaar .He will take a crucial part in the game. Lastly our chance.......100/100 if dinho can show what he is.

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