Week 34: Torino vs Milan 28/04/2019 20:30 CET

Qaas

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A MUST win match.
Forza Milan!
 

Tobinho

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Yes a win is unbelievably important.

If we lose here we could fall out of not only the CL places but the European places altogether and drop to 7th. Toro would also be ahead of us in the head to head, so would finish above us in the table if we were level on points.

Calabria is out for the rest of the season. Hopefully we see Paqueta start again and I'm sure we'll see RR, Gigio and Hakan return to the starting lineup.

Maybe Rino will stick with Caldara, or maybe he doesn't have a full game in him yet.

Kind of hard to feel optimistic in this run of form but hoping a well rested Paqueta can make a big difference.
 

fray

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Bench Musacchio and give Caldara a chance in this one.
 

Raghav

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Think Rino will go back to the 4-3-3 with Baka Kessie Paqueta midfield and Suso Piatek Hakan attack . Can’t be too optimistic but hopefully we can get an individual moment of brilliance from some one or a Toro mistake to give us a tough win .

Sami hasn’t played wel off late but I’d start him over Suso on the RW. He’s been played Out of position and has done decent when playing RW. This can also be a fluid 4-3-1-2 in a way with Samu as SS
 
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truant

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I would like:

Reina; Conti, Caldara, Romagnoli, RR; Kessie, Bakayoko, Calhanoglu; Paqueta; Castillejo (or Cutrone), Piatek

What is likely we will see is:

Donnarumma; Abate, Musacchio, Romagnoli, RR; Kessie, Bakayoko, Calhanoglu; Suso, Piatek, Borini

Either we we need to win this. I feel like this season is going to pieces but let's hope for one last push of brilliance to secure fourth place with 5 wins in a row.
 
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Hitchens

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Sami hasn’t played wel off late but I’d start him over Suso on the RW. He’s been played Out of position and has done decent when playing RW. This can also be a fluid 4-3-1-2 in a way with Samu as SS

No thanks. He needs to bulk up first. Use steroids if you have to, he merits a dispensation from the doping laws.
 

Tobinho

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No thanks. He needs to bulk up first. Use steroids if you have to, he merits a dispensation from the doping laws.

Haha, he could get a decent cycle done before the start of next season and easily put on 5-7kg.
 

Tobinho

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I would like:

Reina; Conti, Caldara, Romagnoli, RR; Kessie, Bakayoko, Calhanoglu; Paqueta; Castillejo (or Cutrone), Piatek

What is likely we will see is:

Donnarumma; Abate, Musacchio, Romagnoli, RR; Kessie, Bakayoko, Calhanoglu; Suso, Piatek, Borini

Either we we need to win this. I feel like this season is going to pieces but let's hope for one last push of brilliance to secure fourth place with 5 wins in a row.

That's what I'd like to see too, or possible Paqueta and Suso behind Piatek to start.

I'm sure we'll see Paqueta from the start, just hope he's in a more advanced position than Hakan.
 

truant

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That's what I'd like to see too, or possible Paqueta and Suso behind Piatek to start.

I'm sure we'll see Paqueta from the start, just hope he's in a more advanced position than Hakan.

I hope you are right and Paqueta is ready to play. We need his spark and link-up play so badly.
 

Forza AC Milan

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Conti looks terrible defending and lacks pace to cover in defense after going forward. He keeps playing opponents onside and has little tackling 1 on 1 ability. Musacchio is also weak 1 on 1 so that creates problems on that side.
 

necromancer

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Yeah our right side is a massive mess at the moment. Conti is really average at actual defending (which he rarely had to do at Atalanta) and Musacchio as you said doesn't help much at all. With Suso's inane games these days, that's a really weak right side. Almost every team playing against us now is just trying to use their left wingers to press us and to get into the area from that side. We need something to change on the right side.
 

Pingu

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No Paqueta no party.
 

Pingu

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Yeah our right side is a massive mess at the moment. Conti is really average at actual defending (which he rarely had to do at Atalanta) and Musacchio as you said doesn't help much at all. With Suso's inane games these days, that's a really weak right side. Almost every team playing against us now is just trying to use their left wingers to press us and to get into the area from that side. We need something to change on the right side.

I remember it was the left side for the longest time that was a problem. Now they're both as bad as each other :lol:
 

necromancer

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I remember it was the left side for the longest time that was a problem. Now they're both as bad as each other :lol:

Since we signed Paqueta, our left side has been pretty good. Rodriguez always knows how to defend, Paqueta and Hakan combined pretty well during the run we had from January till the derby in March. I had always thought the left side issues were overstated here.
 

Az.

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Hoping for some Paqueta + Piatek magic, otherwise i don't see how are we going to get the 3 points.
 

Boban1982

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A win or we lose 4th place as simple as that. Roma and Atalanta are unlikely to drop points at home.

5 Serie A finals to go.

Forza Milan!
 

brk

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Since we signed Paqueta, our left side has been pretty good. Rodriguez always knows how to defend, Paqueta and Hakan combined pretty well during the run we had from January till the derby in March. I had always thought the left side issues were overstated here.

Agreed. We have a good balance with those three. With Paqueta out Hakan has had a really hard time moving the ball forward. Those quick one-twos with Paqueta are a great way to move up the field. Would have liked to see Bonaventura with Paqueta also, I feel like those two would play well together also.

On the right Suso needs to get more comfortable releasing Conti whenever the guy overlaps. I have no idea why he always hesitates. It's almost like he's too good to play that ball, like he's admitting defeat because he has to do his trademark cut inside first. If he starts to play that ball faster we'll be more effective on the right side. That triangle of Kessie, Suso and Conti can start rotating and overloading the right side, but i've been waiting for this to work all season and it hasn't yet. I don't know why.
 
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mleite

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This match will be on Premier Sports in the UK from 7.25pm (UK time).
 

necromancer

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Agreed. We have a good balance with those three. With Paqueta out Hakan has had a really hard time moving the ball forward. Those quick one-twos with Paqueta are a great way to move up the field. Would have liked to see Bonaventura with Paqueta also, I feel like those two would play well together also.

On the right Suso needs to get more comfortable releasing Conti whenever the guy overlaps. I have no idea why he always hesitates. It's almost like he's too good to play that ball, like he's admitting defeat because he has to do his trademark cut inside first. If he starts to play that ball faster we'll be more effective on the right side. That triangle of Kessie, Suso and Conti can start rotating and overloading the right side, but i've been waiting for this to work all season and it hasn't yet. I don't know why.

^I think it's because Suso does not have the tactical intelligence nor composure to play in a system. He's a soloist, and a limited period effective soloist over the course of a season.

His hesitation and cluelessness annoyed me even more when watching from the stadium. Piatek's frustration was so obvious on multiple occasions when Suso simply couldn't understand that a pass ahead would work better than just skipping horizontally with the ball.
 
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brk

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^I think it's because Suso does not have the tactical intelligence nor composure to play in a system. He's a soloist, and a limited period effective soloist over the course of a season.

His hesitation and cluelessness annoyed me even more when watching from the stadium. Piatek's frustration was so obvious on multiple occasions when Suso simply couldn't understand that a pass ahead would work better than just skipping horizontally with the ball.

Even though it's not an ideal pairing but i'd rather we play with Cutrone and Piatek up front and keep Suso on the bench. They won't play good football but at least they'll be unpredictable and the defense will be challenged a lot more. With Suso doing his thing and Piatek all alone the defenders can stop us pretty much on autopilot. Make sure Suso doesn't cut inside with space to shoot, and keep two defenders tight on Piatek and you're good. It's ridiculous how easy teams have managed to shut us down. We need unpredictability in the final third, and Paqueta has that. That's why i'd like to see him further forward somehow. What Suso does is great but it's too easily countered and nullified, and Piatek needs space and if he's suffocated he's useless.

I'm getting tired of us doing the same thing over and over again. Even when he played 343 he persisted with Suso on the right (even though he hoped he'd stay central but that was never going to happen) and Piatek stayed isolated. I think I finally lost patience with Suso. He needs to be benched for Cutrone and for us to play two up top.
 

Tobinho

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Even though it's not an ideal pairing but i'd rather we play with Cutrone and Piatek up front and keep Suso on the bench. They won't play good football but at least they'll be unpredictable and the defense will be challenged a lot more. With Suso doing his thing and Piatek all alone the defenders can stop us pretty much on autopilot. Make sure Suso doesn't cut inside with space to shoot, and keep two defenders tight on Piatek and you're good. It's ridiculous how easy teams have managed to shut us down. We need unpredictability in the final third, and Paqueta has that. That's why i'd like to see him further forward somehow. What Suso does is great but it's too easily countered and nullified, and Piatek needs space and if he's suffocated he's useless.

I'm getting tired of us doing the same thing over and over again. Even when he played 343 he persisted with Suso on the right (even though he hoped he'd stay central but that was never going to happen) and Piatek stayed isolated. I think I finally lost patience with Suso. He needs to be benched for Cutrone and for us to play two up top.

I'd like to see that also. Especially now we're forced to play with Conti. Suso seems totally unable, or at least unwilling to use Conti when he overlaps so if Suso gets the ball then Conti is stuck by the sideline and we're effectively attacking with 1 less player.

Since Conti will always bomb forward and RR is strong in a 3 man defence we could switch to more of a 3 man defence when moving forward, or when Conti is forward, especially if Caldara is there to organize. Cutrone will make more space for Piatek, and also find space himself and then we would have Hakan, Paqueta and Conti in advanced positions to try to find them with Kessie coming through the middle too.
 

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I want to see Paqueta closer to goal, more like SS where he could use his trickery to unsettle the defense, open spaces for Piatek who is normally isolated. Paqueta should not waste his energy with all the defensive work in a deeper role when he could be more potent closer to the opponent's goal.


----------------Piatek------Paqueta

-----------------------Hakan

----Laxalt---------Baka------Kessie----------Conti

----------Rodriguez----Roma------Musa

-------------------------Reina

Another option is to move Hakan to Laxalt's role, Paqueta as a playmaker and Cutrone pairing Piatek.
 

Hitchens

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I want to see Paqueta closer to goal, more like SS where he could use his trickery to unsettle the defense, open spaces for Piatek who is normally isolated. Paqueta should not waste his energy with all the defensive work in a deeper role when he could be more potent closer to the opponent's goal.

I think Paqueta should be played behind Piatek and Cutrone. You're on point with Paqueta creating problems with his trickery unsettling the defense and freeing up Piatek. We need to get him scoring going into these last games.
 

Hitchens

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Gattuso: "Can Milan defend the fourth place to the end? Seeing the last games I would say no, we thought we were out of the crisis after the games with Juve and Lazio, we must do everything to stay together. We have to close to hedgehog "

Gattuso: "Team without soul guilt of the players? I am disappointed in myself, because I expected to get better in the head of the players, you can go wrong at the technical level but should never miss the desire to know how to suffer. Disappointed more than myself than the players "
 

Hitchens

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Sorry, old news.
 

Hitchens

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“Tomorrow we will play for the shirt, the careers of the players and the entire Milan universe,” said Gattuso at the start of his Press conference.

“We have a lot to play for. We’re coming off a negative moment and the criticism we have received is justified. Tomorrow we’re up against a Torino side that has similar characteristics to Atalanta, so we need physical strength and sharpness. It is our duty to do better.

“In moments of difficulty, we have always shown soul, but at the moment that is lacking. You can play badly, but get out of the situation with heart and suffering. We seem to have got ourselves stuck in this situation now and absolutely need to find our soul again.

“I am not punching anyone, we just need to make sure everyone understands the importance of being united and doing something more. We have to think with one mind, not just look at our own little patch of land, but the bigger picture.

“I hear too much chatter about my future and that of the players, but enough is enough. We must think only of the future of Milan. We’ve got to prove it all out there on the pitch.

“At this moment, we seem to have switched off in every respect. Talking is meaningless at this stage, we need action and results. It’s not a physical issue, as we do still run, but it’s the mentality that has to change.

“Everyone knows what is at stake, nobody plays badly on purpose. Milan hadn’t been challenging for a Champions League spot for years, instead I hear people suggest we’re worthless. That’s not true.

“We have strengths and weaknesses, but these lads deserve respect and a negative period can happen. You can’t purchase leadership at the supermarket, go in and ask for €10 worth of leadership. It takes time, a journey and everyone is bringing their piece of the puzzle.”

It’s a battle royal for that fourth place, as Milan are level on points with Atalanta (ahead due to a superior head-to-head record), one point clear of Roma and two in front of Torino.

“Everyone will struggle in these final rounds and the Champions League spot will go to whoever doesn’t let go. Looking at recent performances and results, I’d say Milan are not favourites for fourth place, but football is a strange sport. We’ll do everything to remain united, clam up and do our duty. Then we’ll judge at the end of the season.

“We need to play Torino with guts, hunger and mentality.”
Gattuso also had little patience for the continuing questions over his future on the bench.

“You’ve been telling me since July that I am no longer the Milan Coach, it’s a different name every day in my job. At this moment we are not playing good football, we are struggling mentally and the results aren’t coming, but the team hears this sort of gossip every day and is now accustomed to it.

“I am disappointed with myself, because I expected to make more of an impact in the minds of my players. You can make technical mistakes, but motivation must never be lacking. I am more disappointed by myself than by my players.”


Enough whining, start winning!
 

necromancer

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I agree with the immediate and desperate need to drop Suso. He brings absolutely nothing to the table and it's pretty much like playing with 10 men.

With Suso out of the picture, the only worthwhile way to play is with Paqueta behind two strikers. It looked quite good against Udinese until the injury, and is a worthwhile gamble.
 

Hitchens

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Brilliant. :fp:

That's just admitting we've been shit.

He says words means nothing now and only actions counts. I like that. Time to wake the fuck up, Rino!
 
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