CL Round of 16: AC Milan (2) vs Manchester United (3) - 16/02/10

man_u_milan said:

Hi

I'm a United fan from Manchester but I also follow AC quite fondly as i've signed up on this forum a long time before this draw was made, but never really posted much.

I think this is going to be a great game personally. Obviously as a United fan i reckon we'll win this but i think it will be close and i'm not totally confident.

Defense wise i think on paper our's is a little better and we have a little more substitutes than Milan do. I'd say Vidic is on par, maybe slightly better than Nesta now. I'm no way saying that Nesta is bad, in fact a prime Nesta is probably the fourth best defender i've ever seen, behind Beckenbauer, Baresi and Costacurta. However now he is rather injury prone. I'd have Ferdinand over Thiago Silva because he has tonnes of experience and two seasons ago he was, IMO the best centre back in Europe. I have not seen Silva often enough, but he has a good future ahead of him barring injuries of course. I don’t rate Oneyawu, and I never will do. I think Johnny evans is a far better defender than him. I reckon that Evra is one of the best left backs in Europe and although jankulovski is excellent he is not as good as Evra. Right back I don’t rate Bonera or Oddo. I think Gary Neville is better than Bonera. As for Oddo well I think he is around the same as Brown. Zambrotta is good but keep in mind we also have Rafael and Fabio on the fullbacks reign coming through I do think Kaladze is a good player but I believe he is on the decline and I although I reckon he is still better than John O’shea he won’t last that much longer.

Central midfield is the place I believe Milan are a bit better than United on paper. Pirlo is better than all our midfielders but I believe although the first Xi Milan CM is better, we have better bench players. You guys have Flamini, Pirlo, Gattuso, Ambrosini and Seedorf as your first team. Gattuso I reckon is past it and doesn’t really have the legs his game depends on. Pirlo as mentioned is still class. Flamini was excellent at Arsenal but I don’t think he is as good anymore and he is not really on the first team anymore. Ambrosini is a hard worker who is a very good leader and he is a rare midfielder who can head the ball. Seedorf is very good again a bit old and on the decline. We have Carrick, Fletcher, Anderson, Scholes, Giggs, Hargreaves and Gibson. You won’t have heard of Gibson but he is a decent distributor and has one hell of a powerful shot. Fletcher is probably our best midfielder as he never tires and can control the midfield very well. Anderson is very topsy turvy. On his day he can be immense pumping 50 yard balls to the wingers but when he is bad he cant even place a 10 yard pass. However he gives our midfield something different and he is one of the few players in our midfield who can run with the ball. Scholes you must all know, he is on the decline but still good. Giggs again you will know, he is actually playing immense considering his age and has become one of our best players again! Hargreaves is an uncertainty, if he is fully fit then he is excellent, as he is very hard in the tackle and is a good clone of Gattuso, but the thing is he is rarely fit. However I think in the game Carrick must play. His style suits Serie A teams as he is slow but an excellent passer and most Serie A teams play slow paced football. Carrick has excellent vision and is the closest thing to Pirlo that we have Overall I think that Your XI is better than ours in central midfield but our bench is far better.

Wingers. I won’t go into AC Milan wingers as you don’t have any real wingers lol. But we have quite a lot. First off is Nani. Waste of space. Don’t even consider him. On his day he can rip the best full backs to shreds. Unfortunately his day is 1/38. Can cross beautifully but never does it at the right time. Tries to rip the entire opposition team but then dribbles to the corner flag and looses it. Has one hell of a good accurate shot though. However he overdoes things and is selfish and has poor decision making.
Valencia is probably our best winger. He is quite complete. He can pass very well as he can also play CM, he can dribble well and his acceleration is incredible. He can cross very well and can also score goals. Only think is he is a bit one footed and is often rather predictable and does not cut in very often. Obertan is the next coming of Christ, honestly! Next Ronaldo! Okay, not quite but you know what I mean. He has tricks, and bags of them. If you see highlights of the Wolfsburg game, he alone dribbled past 3 defenders with a load of stepovers and other tricks and squared it to owen who scored a tap in. Gonna be a great one for the future. Very quick, decent cross and has immense dribbling skills. Finally, Park Ji-Sung. He is a workhorse on the wing, he will mark somebody all day long and not tire. He can get into good positions and his interchange is pretty good. However he is good and nothing more, squad player for us.

As for forwards, I think we have the advantage in that respect. Rooney on paper is the best player on the pitch and can do some incredible stuff. He is like a striker who scores lots of goals and creates lots of passes and assists. You all know about him though, he is explosive. Pato is a very good player and will cause us problems. Huntelaar is do not rate, has been average in every league apart from the Dutch. Ronaldinho I’m not sure, if he plays to his full ability he will be better than Rooney but he has been clearly on the decline and I doubt he will play to his full ability. Berbatov is a very creative player who can keep the ball and is very hard to take off him. He plays with a very relaxed and smooth style but can often be a little frustrating.

Overall I think we have the edge but we will have to see as paper really means nothing. Here are my predicted scores

San Siro – 1-1 (Pato 37), (Rooney 68)
Old Trafford 1-0 (Berbatov 31)

Hope for an excellent game

I've left Beckham out because i havn't really seen him play for years literally and i'm not sure if he will start...

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man_u_milan said:

and what is the reason for thinking that lol.

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man_u_milan said:

Lol tbh Dida used to be excellent now IMO he is a bit fat and shocking lol. Some really ******** mistakes...Abbiati used to be decent, what happened to him?

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man_u_milan said:

Lol tbh Dida used to be excellent now IMO he is a bit fat and shocking lol. Some really ******** mistakes...Abbiati used to be decent, what happened to him?

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man_u_milan said:

I'm pretty certain he won't start in the Champs league final. I reckon it will be Zambrotta, Nesta, Silva, Jankulovski, Pirlo, Ambrosini, Ronaldinho, Pato, Dida, Seedorf, Beckham/Gattuso. Maybe Huntelaar in sacrifice of a midfielder.

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man_u_milan said:

Because in the champions league its not all out attack...Under Leonardo really reckons he will go for it? :O

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man_u_milan said:

You missed my point. In a Champions league game against a club of similar strength and stature you don't play 4-4-2 straight on. You have to play a bit more cautious. I doubt that Leonardo will drop pato to play Boriello. You need 3 CM's, an AMC and 2 strikers, or maybe christmas tree, 4-3-2-1. Pato up top, Ronald, Seedorf AMC. Pirlo, Ambro, Flamini/Beckham/Gattuso CM. Doubt he will drop Pato/Huntelaar to accomodate Boriello.

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Pedro said:

You don't know Borriello is first choice striker over Huntelaar?

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english teams with all respect are pathetic...

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IMO, dida on his day is better than VDS.

VDS is like zanetti. consistently good a few oustanding things. is consistently good

dida is like ronaldinho, can make extroadinary saves that no-one can dream of but can fumble balls into the goal. blows hot and cold.

nesta is better than any of your defender's IMO and ferdinand is a shadow of his old self, he's slow and doesn't read the game aswell as he used to.

i would take ronaldinho, nesta, pirlo all over rooney in the blink of an eye.


he doesn't score much goals and many of them are penalties, he gets lauded for being a striker but defending. WOW. why doesn't borri play as a stationary GK wall and then maybe he'll get some praise.

also, jankulovski has fallen out of favour and match fitness. if anything our best team is:

----------dida
oddo--nesta--silva--zambrotta
-------ambro---pirlo----------
-----------seedorf-----------
pato-------------------dinho
----------borrielo------------

that is not a bad team.

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i don't see barcelona playing a 4-4-2 do i

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Az. said:

Were going to make the devils wanna be cry again ,FORZA MILAN !!!!

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man_u_milan said:

Really? Is that why we dominated Inter Milan home and away for 180 minutes, the same team which is currently untouchable in Serie A for the past 3 or four years?

is that why for the past 3 years in the champions league 3 of the four semi finalists have been an English club? is that why you were beaten 2-0 by England's FOURTH BEST club that year? Surely if we're pathetic that wouldn't happened.



Do you watch the premier league? Rio is one of the paciest defends in the league. Would you really take those 3 players over Rooney in a blink of an eye? Have you ever seen Rooney play? Doesn't score much goals!?@ Rooney is top assists in PL. Second top scorer and is the centre to most of our attacks.

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man_u_milan said:

^ Dunno if that will happen. Vidic keeps the best strikers in his pocket, he only does awful against Liverpool...

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man_u_milan said:

Inzahgi is still alive :O. Jesus when was the last time he played a full match?

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Jasper said:

Blazed?

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goals against smaller sides

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