Champions League Group Stage: Liverpool FC - AC Milan 15/09/2021 21:00 CET

taura

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E_QHOy8XEAglCFG


Team travelling to Anfield
 

doraemon

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5 pages of ucl match thread and no post of champions league anthem? Wow
 

Milan10

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Leao rarely plays a full 90 minutes, and Giroud doesn't have 90 minutes in him so it really likely that we'll be starting Rebic and playing him the full game. When Giroud comes on (or if he starts) that means Rebic is going to be the LW. When Leao plays he's LW and it will be with Rebic up front. I don't think we will start Leao + Giroud, as you can't sub one of them off if Rebic is on the bench, unless you want to do it with someone like Ballo-Toure.

I?d definitely start Giroud if he can go 60 minutes, because his creativity and holdup play will be extremely useful here. He can help spring or open space for Leao or Sael when Liverpool are over committed in attack.
 

amanmilan

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Zlatan again ;/ I knew he was rushing back to quickly :( and now he won’t be back for a while, an Achilles’ tendon injury is no small thing
 

Az.

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Zlatan again ;/ I knew he was rushing back to quickly :( and now he won?t be back for a while, an Achilles? tendon injury is no small thing

This, man if its one thing I really really want us to invest in is: a fucking proper medical staff. The current one is an absolute joke for about 15 years now.
 

voom

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This, man if its one thing I really really want us to invest in is: a fucking proper medical staff. The current one is an absolute joke for about 15 years now.

Medical staff is bad ,but Ibra and his ego are worse. First photo was showing his knee and date. At 40 your recovery time is slower. I'm 40 and l lift weights but now i make 3-4 days rest not like before 1-2 days rest.
 

Milan10

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Medical staff is bad ,but Ibra and his ego are worse. First photo was showing his knee and date. At 40 your recovery time is slower. I'm 40 and l lift weights but now i make 3-4 days rest not like before 1-2 days rest.

Do you maintain pretty well with that added rest?

I fear losing the gains when I reach that point.
 

voom

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Do you maintain pretty well with that added rest?

I fear losing the gains when I reach that point.

I fell stronger and more focused in picking heavy ,when i rest other days i do a lot of walking uphill. Not going for mass,
Last year i quit smoking ,and i quit occasional drinking completely ,even cut the coffee ,don't drink coffee anymore.
Some of my friends already giving up with bad health and condition.Not good, that is one of the reason ,I don't want to give up yet i still feel light and strong and young.
 

joyrider

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I fell stronger and more focused in picking heavy ,when i rest other days i do a lot of walking uphill. Not going for mass,
Last year i quit smoking ,and i quit occasional drinking completely ,even cut the coffee ,don't drink coffee anymore.
Some of my friends already giving up with bad health and condition.Not good, that is one of the reason ,I don't want to give up yet i still feel light and strong and young.


You quit smoking :thumbsup:
I did too and it wasnt as difficult as i thought, sometimes i still have the urge for it.

Alcohol and coffee is hard to let go, but i will have to, sooner or later.
 

Sven

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There would be some Liverpool fans in this thread if the forum was not bugged. Some of the best and worse moments of R&B came when english fans "invaded" our match threads
 

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There would be some Liverpool fans in this thread if the forum was not bugged. Some of the best and worse moments of R&B came when english fans "invaded" our match threads

Those were fun times. Just crazy that the forum is locked.

I especially remember Tottenham fans when they knocked us out.
 

Neo'82

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There would be some Liverpool fans in this thread if the forum was not bugged. Some of the best and worse moments of R&B came when english fans "invaded" our match threads

I think they're mostly concerned about resting players, ahead of the... Crystal Palace game :lol:
 

Mr. Milanista

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This forum is North Korea
 

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Hitchens

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Liverpool's strengths are also their weaknesses. They press relentlessly, pushing up very high and their fullbacks are extremely attacking, especially Trent. This leaves a lot of space outside the CBs that we should look to exploit. I think this is the basic gameplan, but we can do that in a number of different ways.

Most of the team pretty much picks itself but there are a few questions:

Bennacer or Tonali:
I think Bennacer needs to play this one from the start. Not sure about his condition and it's unfair on Tonali after the Lazio game, but his press-resistance and dribbling are very, very important to negate Liverpool's crazy counterpress. If we don't break that often then they'll keep pinning us back. Their midfield will swarm whoever manages to collect any loose ball and if Tonali can't escape then it will be a big problem. That used to be a big liability in his game, and i'd rather he be tested a few more times before we throw him into the fire of Anfield. As for Bennacer he's perfect for this challenge and the only issue is his fitness. It depends on how he's training but if he's fit I think he'll start.

Leao or Rebic:
This is a key question for Pioli and one that I don't think there's a right answer for. It depends on how confident he's feeling and how much risk he wants to take. Leao is probably more threatening in the sort of situations that we might find ourselves in at Anfield, but Rebic can be much more disciplined in making sure Trent doesn't overload the wing with Salah. Rebic also has a lot more synergy with Theo and they can work together to release Theo behind Trent, and that's something that Leao still hasn't mastered. I think for those two reasons that i'm leaning towards Rebic starting and Leao coming on later in the game when Theo maybe needs to sit back more. The counterargument is that we will probably want to sit back early and frustrate them and then attack later on when they start to get desperate. In that case playing Leao actually makes more sense, as we would keep Theo a bit more conservative and then later on when Rebic comes on they can tag team Trent late in the game. The fact that Rebic played an intense 90 minutes two days ago and Leao walked of after an hour is another clue that maybe Pioli is leaning towards Leao starting. Liverpool really suffer when you run at them outside their defense and manage to get some players in the box for a cutback or a drilled cross. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Saelemaekers gets a goal this game from this sort of move.


Opportunities:
Ok so how do we exploit their weaknesses? Bennacer and Kessie withstanding their counterpress is key. They need to be able to get the ball and keep it even though two or three opponents will instantly swarm them. We're lucky that they're both ideal players for this sort of thing, but they haven't been tested against elite opposition yet. Theo is also a huge weapon here, as a counterpress means the opposition is running towards you, towards the ball, the moment you get it. If Theo can burst into space and we manage to give it to him then that's an opportunity for a Theo lung buster. Kessie is key here in making sure Theo can keep taking those risks, by protecting the space behind him in case it fails.

Maignan is going to show the world why he's going to be more important to Milan that Donnarumma ever was. Liverpool will press really high and try to close off our usual buildup routine. Maignan can bypass this with either a long direct ball into Ibra or Leao, but more importantly he's calm enough and has the technique to find Brahim in the middle, with a low pass that Brahim can instantly control and turn. He's been doing this a lot this season, where he would drop really deep to receive a pass from the defense or from Maignan by positioning himself in open space that's vacated because of practiced movements by our defensive unit. Brahim has a very good ability to turn and sprint almost instantly and this sort of transition is crucial to make sure Liverpool are defending by running back and not by running towards us and forcing us sideways or back. A midfield of Brahim, Kessie and Bennacer is as good as it gets for us to avoid the counterpress and make sure we have a way to move up.

Plan B if there's no space is to just thump it long for Ibra, and because Liverpool will have positioned themselves so high up, this means that Ibra will be surrounded by wide open space almost at the halfway line; close enough to reach reliably by Maignan. A flick on to Saelemaekers or Leao or Brahim and we're good to go. This threat will force Liverpool to ease up on the press, and this in turn will give us room to build up our usual way and move the ball up on the ground. This is something that we never could do with Donnarumma. Teams wanted him to hit it long as more often than not it's easily dealt with. Now we can punish you if you press, and we can punish you when you drop.

Defensively I think we'll do something similar to how we played Lazio; who played a very similar 433 on Sunday. Calabria in that game was playing a lot more defensively, even more so than usual. We kept Theo as the free man most of the time. Tomori, the RCB, kept close to Immobile most of the time, and Romagnoli kept an eye on Pedro, but the idea is that we tried to shift the center of gravity of our defense a bit to the left. We can do this because Florenzi was acting like an auxiliary RB and helping out Calabria, much more than what Leao was doing on the other side. This made sure that when Theo breaks he always had Leao ahead of him to pass to or to distract he defender. I think we'll do a similar thing against Liverpool, especially as there's no dedicated midfielder to track between the lines. We'll play a very man oriented system to make sure we can push up with Jota or Salah or whoever when they try to stretch us. Calabria on Mane, Kjaer on Jota and Tomori on Salah, with Theo the free man to track Trent's overloads. Robertson is slightly less attacking but Saelemaekers take care if him and make sure Mane doesn't go one on one with Calabria too often.

The more I think about it the more confident I get. Liverpool are still favorites for obvious reasons, but we really do have the tools to hurt them in ways most other teams can't. That awareness makes me think that we will play a really good game and that's probably something that will shock most people who aren't yet aware of this Milan.
Wow what an elite poster you are man! I need people like you.

You belong in the world of football!
 

Hitchens

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I?d definitely start Giroud if he can go 60 minutes, because his creativity and holdup play will be extremely useful here. He can help spring or open space for Leao or Sael when Liverpool are over committed in attack.
Yes, but are these feats more important towards the end of the game?

The Leao-Rebic-Giroud and how to apply is really the big crux for Pioli.
 

Hitchens

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I am fucking JACKED! This game and this event is a huge personal event.
 

vB9

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Motherfecking s.o.b just feck off!!! Been running around like a dog since 4:30 trying to get tickets, paid a small furtune for a box and then find out Ibra isnt even in the travelling party!

Who am I suppose to watch, fecking lmeao & Cala... feck off club!
 

General

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Motherfecking s.o.b just feck off!!! Been running around like a dog since 4:30 trying to get tickets, paid a small furtune for a box and then find out Ibra isnt even in the travelling party!

Who am I suppose to watch, fecking lmeao & Cala... feck off club!

Your uncle is a billionaire

Relax
 

vB9

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Your uncle is a billionaire

Relax

I swear to you, Gen... had I fecking known Ibra wasnt coming I wudve fecked this game off and just watch it on the forum with you guys.
 
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Mr. Milanista

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I'm shaking already this has never happend before 1 day before the game
 

Balo45

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Brk made some good points, I only hope this game doesn’t have the potential to ruin the teams spirit. Because no matter what happens we need to smash Juve at bury them at 11 points below us.

Pioli needs to be careful here, there have been games in the last season where the mids pressed up too high or theo did and we got punished for it. Luckily most of the team is fit and fresh early in the season, a big part of our struggles were when the team was unfit and tired and the intensity dropped. We just smothered lazio and part of me wants to see us go for it somewhat, we definitely didn’t sit back against United for example.

The left side is the biggest dilemma. Theo and Leao absolutely have the ability to expose Trent. But salah and Trent also have the ability to give theo a very hard time. Kessie at times has basically filled in at left back and he will be key tomorrow, but we will also need him agains their super physical midfield. Tomori will be needed to help there too.

I would start Leao over rebic, the debate is there but Leao is better at carrying the ball forward and I think that will be needed to make sure we don’t get pinned. Rebic is more dangerous in the final third, but we will probably not be spending extended time there. Leao can beat his man and advance the ball or win fouls, that will be needed to relieve pressure. Same principle for Diaz and bennacer like brk pointed out. If our midfield stays deep enough and doesn’t push forward to leave space, in a lot of ways they are set up to play Liverpool. Diaz is crafty and good on the turn, I hope he can survive the physicality and not get bullied. Kessie can deal with anyone, not worried about him. Bennacer can dribble and is highly aggressive too, he will be key. I think this could be a good match for Bennacer at CAM and tonali with Kessie, in case Diaz does get drowned out by Fabinho.
 

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Brk made some good points, I only hope this game doesn?t have the potential to ruin the teams spirit. Because no matter what happens we need to smash Juve at bury them at 11 points below us.

Pioli needs to be careful here, there have been games in the last season where the mids pressed up too high or theo did and we got punished for it. Luckily most of the team is fit and fresh early in the season, a big part of our struggles were when the team was unfit and tired and the intensity dropped. We just smothered lazio and part of me wants to see us go for it somewhat, we definitely didn?t sit back against United for example.

The left side is the biggest dilemma. Theo and Leao absolutely have the ability to expose Trent. But salah and Trent also have the ability to give theo a very hard time. Kessie at times has basically filled in at left back and he will be key tomorrow, but we will also need him agains their super physical midfield. Tomori will be needed to help there too.

I would start Leao over rebic, the debate is there but Leao is better at carrying the ball forward and I think that will be needed to make sure we don?t get pinned. Rebic is more dangerous in the final third, but we will probably not be spending extended time there. Leao can beat his man and advance the ball or win fouls, that will be needed to relieve pressure. Same principle for Diaz and bennacer like brk pointed out. If our midfield stays deep enough and doesn?t push forward to leave space, in a lot of ways they are set up to play Liverpool. Diaz is crafty and good on the turn, I hope he can survive the physicality and not get bullied. Kessie can deal with anyone, not worried about him. Bennacer can dribble and is highly aggressive too, he will be key. I think this could be a good match for Bennacer at CAM and tonali with Kessie, in case Diaz does get drowned out by Fabinho.

Theo needs to not dilly dally and be really casual on the ball as he seems to always do at least once in a match and it always lands us in trouble
 

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daaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
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