Week 4: AC Milan 3-2 Palermo - Sat 19/09/2015 - 20:45 CET

Milanista_7 said:

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The difference between the running in the derby and Palermo game is astonishing.
Was the derby really THAT slow?

Qaas said:

Really an entertaining match.

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It was.

Samaldinho said:

Montolivo did a great job today, there really is no question about that. His distribution and positioning makes our team look so different, it's not even funny.

It's funny how many RB/LBs we've produced in the last ten years, but why haven't we produced one credible CB? Like, our youth department has produced Antonelli, Abate, DeS, Darmian, and now Calabria. I guess we'll see if Ely comes good.

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Hopefully Montolivo can keep this form and keep #dedication on the bench for the rest of the season.

And as for CB keep an eye out for De Santis in our primavera. The kid is progressing extremely well. The same can be said for Locatelli.

Any download links for the game?

Where are the Montolivo haters (99.9% of this forum) at? Great performance by him. Amazing how much better we've looked since he was introduced in place of De Jong. He takes pressure off the rest of the midfield and defense whereas NJD is just like having a 3rd CB out there.

De Sciglio is a completely different player when he plays on the left IMO. I thought he's been good on the right so far this year. Really bad performance, although I blame Lopez on the first goal, not him.

Bacca, Bona, Kucka, Calabria were all beasts.

This team is trending upwards. Hopefully we can sustain this, because it looks like we're starting to put it together. Obviously some stuff to patch up, but that's expected. Interested to see if Bertolacci is introduced back into the starting lineup with Bona and Kucka playing so well. Maybe try him or Bona in place of Honda?

Sven said:

The difference between the running in the derby and Palermo game is astonishing.
Was the derby really THAT slow?

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yeah wtf....I thought they used some different system that doesn't count movements when the ball is not in play, or something...

The last 35 mins did feel VERY slow though. I only remember set pieces, breaks, time wasting, not much urgency from Milan.

great performance and pleasantly surprised by the imminent resurgence of Montolivo.

A lot of positives to take from this game. We are growing and each wins speed up the process, improving our fluidity and confidence. But Sinisa shouldn't let them get big headed, always need to improve. I think we've learnt a lot. The midfield should remain like it is. Kucka was my man of the match. Very influential. Montolivo's passes have a purpose, he controls the pace and is our key. De Jong shouldn't even be the back up. I wonder if Bonaventura could be disciplined enough to fill the role, if something happened to Monto. I'm starting to think Balotelli deserves to be a starter. The more creative players, the better. Balotelli is showing some great passes, we need to exploit that earlier in the game, with a fully fit Bacca, who has incredible movement and that killer instinct. Maybe you think Adriano is better than Balotelli at certain things, like finishing, but I really believe we'd be more effective and dangerous with Balo, who is at worst, a slightly lower threat than Adriano, but much more of a creator.

Attacking wing backs are so important. Remember how we were known for it when we had Cafu, Pancaro D) and Kaladze? Even if the wing backs don't have great delivery, it helps, but with Antonelli and Calabria, we have two who know how to cross. Antonelli gets involved a lot and is intelligent.

Zapata and Honda are two positions up for grabs. I'd happily see someone replace them, as it'd mean an improvement. Otherwise, they both need to improve. Such a bad decision, letting Palletta go. He's the experienced partner, Romagnoli could do with.

Diego Lopez is one of the worst I've seen at throwing the ball or passing it. Seriously needs to improve on that. I swear someone said that was one of his strengths before we signed him too.

tonyb said:

Diego Lopez is one of the worst I've seen at throwing the ball or passing it. Seriously needs to improve on that. I swear someone said that was one of his strengths before we signed him too.

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"an 11th outfielder"

Replayed both Jack's and Bacca's goals 10 times each, thing of beauty.

tonyb said:

I'm starting to think Balotelli deserves to be a starter. The more creative players, the better. Balotelli is showing some great passes, we need to exploit that earlier in the game, with a fully fit Bacca, who has incredible movement and that killer instinct. Maybe you think Adriano is better than Balotelli at certain things, like finishing, but I really believe we'd be more effective and dangerous with Balo, who is at worst, a slightly lower threat than Adriano, but much more of a creator.

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It's very matchup specific. Adriano takes up space by working so far forward, which gives Bacca more room to operate. Against teams that play back more and counter attack, the space is desperately needed.

Happy to see the guys (seemingly) have the right mentality and didn't collapse after the Palermo goals like they would have under Inzaghi.

Bacca, Bonaventura and Kucka easily top 3. Goals. Assists. Off-the-ball. Running into space. 5 stars.

Was very impressed with how much Montolivo has improved since last season (though tbf he did have a rough 2014/15).

Diego Lopez was to blame for the first goal, but I can't really fault anyone for the second. Gila's touch was just too perfect that no one could really do anything about it. Maybe MdS could have marked Hiljemark better...but then again, De Scilgio was on the left, so you know...

Luiz Adriano worked really hard today and I was impressed with him as well. Was unlucky to miss a couple of passes to him, but he did tonnes of work.

Calabria. Bastard is younger than I am, haha, and played really well. We're STACKED in the fullback department...or at least RB. I hope Abate's injury is not too serious. Before he came off, he kept needing massages to his thigh before the collision.

Honda? He made those two AMAZING flicks early in the match, before overshooting it. He also had a really high pass completion rate. Looking good as well.

There's two awesome positives to take away from this match. First and foremost, it's refreshing to see milan winning close games. We wouldn't have won this game last year. Same goes for the empoli match. These games are starting to verify that Milan's team really is something different this year. We have more quality and it shows, and even carries us when we are not playing at our best.

The second thing, is that we are still far away from our best. But it will come. No doubt about it. There's not really any negative direction to go. It's not like we are riding a wave of good form and will come down inevitably. Milan right now has a lot of new players, a new coach who the squad is adapting to, and even a few injuries(menez, berto, antonelli) that are keeping milan from their peak. And we are still fucking winning. This is great, bc it allows mihajlovic patience to work with the same system. The last coaches were losing so often that they tinkered week to week. We are now seeing roughly the same starting eleven and it will pay off in a months time or so. Really promising

No protection in defence,, kuco need to help (c) more in defence..

Full game download anyone?

Very enjoyable ac milan game.

don't under appreciate a win like this. the former Milan would have lost that game or drawn it. sometimes these sort of games are the ones that decide a season. last year we were shit but how many times were we in leading positions and had we held onto those how better would our overall finish have been. win ugly get confidence and then destroy.

my concern is the amount of goals we are conceding.

we need to sure up that defence and midfield.

Benny20 said:

don't under appreciate a win like this. the former Milan would have lost that game or drawn it. sometimes these sort of games are the ones that decide a season. last year we were shit but how many times were we in leading positions and had we held onto those how better would our overall finish have been. win ugly get confidence and then destroy.



my concern is the amount of goals we are conceding.



we need to sure up that defence and midfield.

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yeah against Palermo we let them have 3 shots on goal from which two went in. 3 shots on goal conceeded over 90 minutes is very good, while 2/3 balls on goal going in is very bad.

I think this issue can be corrected with time.

Alo88 said:

yeah against Palermo we let them have 3 shots on goal from which two went in. 3 shots on goal conceeded over 90 minutes is very good, while 2/3 balls on goal going in is very bad.

I think this issue can be corrected with time.

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This really has been our problem since Allegri's last season. I blame it on concentration and lack of leadership quality in any of the defensive players.