The Rumour Commode XL: Salat Makers

[Curupira]

- overperforming last seaon / regression this season
let's face it, this team overperformed last leason. no one really expected them to win the scudetto. after all, #daPlan had not projected it yet either. tomori and kalulu were titled as world class center backs but they never were, they simply had an amzing form during our scudetto run-in. players like theo or tonali are in a slump. this season we are undergoing a reversion to the mean. obviously, we're not as shitty as january would suggest, but a lot of things are coming together at the moment.
20/21 --> competing for top 4 (it's not like we were a lock for top 4, we finished 2nd with just 2 points away from 5th place)
21/22 --> scudetto
22/23 --> competing for top 4

"Constantly 1st or 2nd for 2.5 years"

Also it's a tired discussion, there is no way we just find out our "normal" level this year. Not so long ago, we were winter-2nd-place this season

 

[vB9]

Italians are a challenge at the best of times, when it comes to football... they take exception to. Hard to say anything, 4 world cups, they think their way is best. They were the best... long sad time ago.

Personally Id like to see this guy on Milan's bench:

 

[Curupira]

Pioli will be smart to resign.
Its not entirely on him that this team isnt clicking anymore but MMM will keep him until it seems like it was.

It's never smart to resign, you give up a lot of money on the table doing that.

 

[Pingu]

"Constantly 1st or 2nd for 2.5 years"

The table doesn't lie.

 

[Pingu]

Italians are a challenge at the best of times, when it comes to football... they take exception to. Hard to say anything, 4 world cups, they think their way is best. They were the best... long sad time ago.

Personally Id like to see this guy on Milan's bench:
View attachment 15077

I knew as soon as he was fired, you would be asking for him

 

[Wild]

We blew 35 m on CDK and the kid doesn't even know how the grass on SS feels.
Pioli stopped integrating young players for some reason. It is a fact. Kalulu would've been in Thiaw's position right now if Kjaer and Romagnoli weren't made of glass.

P.S. If you want a youth project, you hire the right coach. 50+ yo Italian is the last choice you should make.

A SS will play as one if he was fielded as an AM.
CDK is playing like a shit player regardless of his position.

 

[Curupira]

The table doesn't lie.

Only when it tells us we were 12 points from 1st and 2 points from 5th.

Oh wait, it’s not a lie either just a “tiring debate”

 

[vB9]

I knew as soon as he was fired, you would be asking for him

Bc yr a true friend... you know wots in my head&heart.

 

[Edu-bY-A]

Everything you need to know about transfer rumours and Twitter:

 

[Curupira]

- piolismo
this pressing system can't be executed over an entire season, especially when you have injured players all the time. teams figure it out sooner or later. elite teams expose our set-up with ease as seen in the CL. we have no tactical alternative and literally no possession game. if we can't counterattack, we almost always have problems creating clear cut chances. attacking patterns against low block teams don't even exist. that is all on pioli and thereby he also shares the blame to a great extent.

You also forget we can’t defend set pieces for shit so even if we go full like last game we will still concede goals from set pieces

 

[Il grande Milan]

even ibra can't figure out lealol but we're supposed to count on him ?

From a business point of view, Leao would be crazy to stay in Milan. This 'project' -as some like to call it- is visibly going downhill.
There is no money, there is no vision and there is a coach who lost the chemistry with his group.
The goal was to become competitive again in CL in 3-5 years, Maldini said from the start. We almost believed him when we won the scudetto, but instead of using the momentum (money was coming in, the public's perception of our brand image improved since a long time, everybody was talking about us again), investing in just a couple of spots to make this squad improve even more, we literally did the opposite. It's been a while I saw an anti-climax like this in football.

 

[vB9]

It's never smart to resign, you give up a lot of money on the table doing that.

Ppl like Capello at Madrid shudnt resign and 4go the money... ppl like pioli at Milan shud be given a zero-hours contract so he cud be let go at any hour.

 

[CDarius]

It’s fine. As long as Saele as is the RWB. Thiaw one of the CBs. Messias doesn’t see the pitch ever again. Leao is one of the 2 strikes. CDK or Diaz one of the RCM or even they can play as AM or RW in a 3-4-3 formation.

Basically I think this would work. And I swear if Pioli does this on Friday, he’ll gain back my support. (Krunic for Bennacer of Benna is still injured and I guess Tata for Big Mike)

View attachment 15071

Ill swap Thiaw for Tomori (Tomori more pacey and usually plays on the left) other than that..looks good

 

[Master Smurf]

kids/fodder/filler from worse leagues? they are most definitely shit and not exciting. hell.. our most expensive signing hasn't even managed to score a goal this season, but of course that's on pioli because he doesn't use him as a RW.

Yeah - Real's minimal backing was an 80 mill beast mid who they got as soon as the window opened - That mid played all the way to WC final and shows his ability
We haggled haggled haggled for CDK and then the kid lost his spot a few months after joining as the big hope.

We are light years away from Real but their mentality just doesnt change; it breeds ungrateful fans but they never taker their eye off succeeding.

We desperately need some of their minimal backing though

 

[Curupira]

From a business point of view, Leao would be crazy to stay in Milan. This 'project' -as some like to call it- is visibly going downhill.
There is no money, there is no vision and there is a coach who lost the chemistry with his group.
The goal was to become competitive again in CL in 3-5 years, Maldini said from the starting. We almost believed him when we won the scudetto, but instead of using the momentum (money was coming in, the public's perception of our brand image improved since a long time, everybody was talking about us again), investing in just a couple of spots to make this squad improve even more, we literally did the opposite. It's been a while I saw an anti-climax like this in football.

We aren’t prime destination for young players, despite people proclaiming our youth project a success prematurely.

At the same time, we hold on to this bullshit pride like we are way too good for selling. Look at the number of and on posts asking to sell. All the while, we are losing starters while trying to convince them our project.

Yea, those starters had flaws and were asking for more money than they are worth, it’s up to our director to navigate through that and protect the teams interest instead of time and time being taken for a ride. (Yes, giving that little rat turd Bennacer extra money that he doesn’t deserve because he dragged the deal into the season is taking a L, even though people like to proclaim victory)

Face it, with our current manager it will take at least 1-2 seasons before a player can become a consistent. And by the time they are, we enter in this negotiation zone again so we are always going to be faced with this problem.

Extremely disappointed last summer thst we once again drag things on instead of selling.

 

[Curupira]

“We don’t need to sell”

When players are not renewing contracts (3 starters is already a good enough sample size), you need to sell

 

[Master Smurf]

Fair enough but I don't think the quality of the squad is the real issue here. At least it doesn't make sense to me because I don't think Kessie is the difference between being 1st or 2nd in the table for 2,5 years straight and such the shitshow we're witnessing since 5 weeks. We've even been up there right behind Napoli without Kessie until the WC break (well, not right behind in their necks but close enough to still hold hopes for a Scudetto fight).

When I look at our games now the team looks like it's not following Pioli anymore, they don't seem to believe in him and his instructions. I think he's loosing the team if he hasn't already, and that's very hard to fix and is a way more logical explanation to why we are playing historically bad instead of one missing player (okay, two with Maignan) compared to the team that won a Scudetto only 6 months ago.

Kessie doesnt fix everything but he is a big loss - Tonali and Bennacer get t rest but also cant be complacent if they want to play, Kessie also covers much space harrying opponents so they dont get off uncontested crosses and passes.

But yes - the dysfunction of this year is a combination of multiple things and when there are only subtraction of big players and no additions, the squad just breaks down. I'm not saying Kessie, Romagnoli and Ibra were juggernauts last season but if you wanted to play and keep them out the team you had to raise your game - no player that has arrived threatens the existing ones and worse, none that have arrived can be counted on to be decisive. Couple that with Pioli not finding a new way or varied tactics to get through to the group and then things go poorly and players tune him out.

 

[Master Smurf]

Players like Adli and CDK would've been some of the hottest names right now if they were in Benfica/Dortmund/Leipzig. Maybe Lazetic and Thiaw too.

I'll give you CDK - not sure about the rest

 

[Curupira]

Kessie doesnt fix everything but he is a big loss - Tonali and Bennacer get t rest but also cant be complacent if they want to play, Kessie also covers much space harrying opponents so they dont get off uncontested crosses and passes.

But yes - the dysfunction of this year is a combination of multiple things and when there are only subtraction of big players and no additions, the squad just breaks down. I'm not saying Kessie, Romagnoli and Ibra were juggernauts last season but if you wanted to play and keep them out the team you had to raise your game - no player that has arrived threatens the existing ones and worse, none that have arrived can be counted on to be decisive. Couple that with Pioli not finding a new way or varied tactics to get through to the group and then things go poorly and players tune him out.

Also, if Kessie is here and Bennacer has his rush of blood and goes full remedial on a tackle, we at least have Tonali off the benc.

Now, playing Bennacer is all but a guarantee you have to play either Vranckx or Pobega bc of his idiotic bookings.

So before people rag on how bad Vranckx and Pobega are, maybe should hold this little rat face turd responsible from time to time instead of spewing bs like “he’s world class” and excusing all his dumb actions (all of this while he’s actively strong arming us for a better contract)

 

[CDarius]

Also, if Kessie is here and Bennacer has his rush of blood and goes full remedial on a tackle, we at least have Tonali off the benc.

Now, playing Bennacer is all but a guarantee you have to play either Vranckx or Pobega bc of his idiotic bookings.

So before people rag on how bad Vranckx and Pobega are, maybe should hold this little rat face turd responsible from time to time instead of spewing bs like “he’s world class” and excusing all his dumb actions (all of this while he’s actively strong arming us for a better contract)

Send me what u smoke..Bennacer is by far the best midfielder in this team and after Leao probably our highest prospect.

 

[Raghav]

If Pioli is sticking with 3-5-2 he needs to play CDK. He is the only guy we have who is intelligent at holding up the play moving the ball in tight spaces and releasing a good ball. There’s literally no one else in our team who can do that better than him. And this skill is required in this formation.

Id go

Tata

Thiaw - Kjaer - Kalulu

Saele - Tonali - Krunic - Theo

CDK

Rebic - Leao



I know Rebic is ridic out of form but he fucking presses like a mad man and gets in behind and stretches the team . This team has no proper striker but we fucking need movement . Giroud has been trash he needs a break and origi idk what to say even

 

[Curupira]

Send me what u smoke

I just don’t smoke bennacers penis, like many here. But if you must insist, OG kush, go find it yourself

..Bennacer is by far the best midfielder in this team

So the tallest of the 7 smurfs?

and after Leao probably our highest prospect.

 

[Master Smurf]

From a business point of view, Leao would be crazy to stay in Milan. This 'project' -as some like to call it- is visibly going downhill.
There is no money, there is no vision and there is a coach who lost the chemistry with his group.
The goal was to become competitive again in CL in 3-5 years, Maldini said from the start. We almost believed him when we won the scudetto, but instead of using the momentum (money was coming in, the public's perception of our brand image improved since a long time, everybody was talking about us again), investing in just a couple of spots to make this squad improve even more, we literally did the opposite. It's been a while I saw an anti-climax like this in football.

 

[Curupira]

World class defending outside of our box:



Theo: wtf bro, I’m not running back anymore

 

[Samaldinho]

 

[Curupira]

 

[Alo88]

it's not just the quality of the squad, but a mixture of different issues:

- consecutive bad transfer windows
@Curupira likes to say that we are currently paying for the scudetto. well he's not wrong, although i think we are paying much more for the bad mercatos( ) . not renewing / losing key players for free and bringing in a bunch of kids to replace them won't get you too far. it has been said here several times last summer that this midfield is doomed to fail. same problem with the defense. the corpse of kjaer is our first option from the bench.... alongside gabbia. thiaw? bullied by a washed lukkaku. and don't even get me started on our offense.
if we call for pioli's head, there are just as many reasons to call for MM's.

- overperforming last seaon / regression this season
let's face it, this team overperformed last leason. no one really expected them to win the scudetto. after all, #daPlan had not projected it yet either. tomori and kalulu were titled as world class center backs but they never were, they simply had an amzing form during our scudetto run-in. players like theo or tonali are in a slump. this season we are undergoing a reversion to the mean. obviously, we're not as shitty as january would suggest, but a lot of things are coming together at the moment.
20/21 --> competing for top 4 (it's not like we were a lock for top 4, we finished 2nd with just 2 points away from 5th place)
21/22 --> scudetto
22/23 --> competing for top 4

- injuries
have become normal at milan... but it's not normal for your gk to be out for half the season due to muscle injuries!! honestly if he wanted to be at the world cup so badly that he got injured again, he should be fined. tata is fine when he has to fill in for a few games. you can't expect him to replace mike for over 20 games. he is the least of our problems when our defenders produce one brain fart after another.

- piolismo
this pressing system can't be executed over an entire season, especially when you have injured players all the time. teams figure it out sooner or later. elite teams expose our set-up with ease as seen in the CL. we have no tactical alternative and literally no possession game. if we can't counterattack, we almost always have problems creating clear cut chances. attacking patterns against low block teams don't even exist. that is all on pioli and thereby he also shares the blame to a great extent.

Kessie doesnt fix everything but he is a big loss - Tonali and Bennacer get t rest but also cant be complacent if they want to play, Kessie also covers much space harrying opponents so they dont get off uncontested crosses and passes.

But yes - the dysfunction of this year is a combination of multiple things and when there are only subtraction of big players and no additions, the squad just breaks down. I'm not saying Kessie, Romagnoli and Ibra were juggernauts last season but if you wanted to play and keep them out the team you had to raise your game - no player that has arrived threatens the existing ones and worse, none that have arrived can be counted on to be decisive. Couple that with Pioli not finding a new way or varied tactics to get through to the group and then things go poorly and players tune him out.

I think both of you are very much on point. Obviously the current historical drop of form can't be pinned to just one player, person or transfer. It's a combination of lots of issues that culminated in the past few weeks. We all have our theories and I think we all have fair arguments. But then again, that drop of form? I don't think anyone saw this coming. It's scary really. Maybe even unprecedented.

I mean, let that sink:

From the beginning of this season until the worldcup break we were on a 2,2 points per game rhytm, which would bring you at 83,6 points at the end of the season, which more often than not means Scudetto (or at least a very close 2nd). And oll of that even without an adequate Kessie replacement and while missing Kjaer, Zlatan and Maignan. So the quality of the remaining ones can't be that bad, can it?

In 2023, we're currently on a 0,83 points per game rhytm (yes, with the Salernitana win included), which would bring you at 31,54 points at the end of the season. Two years ago that would have get you relegated. Last season you'd have saved yourself from relegation by one point.

We literally went from Scudetto-rhytm to relegation-rhytm in less than a month!

I absolutely agree that the team has holes and is by no means a finished work of art. No one ever claimed that, not even positivity force. We always all agreed that this team is still a work in progress, we only disagreed on how far we already are in the works. Yet, only until a couple of weeks ago - despite you could already feel that something was off and that some players are desperately missing or haven't been replaced adequately - that team still got results home. Good results. Scudetto-rhytm results. And now we're playing like a relegation side. Not only methaphorically speaking (like when we vent our disappointment after a bad display). But literally. Has a roaster of 30 players suddenly forgotten how to string two or three passes? How to stop a ball? How to aim on target? How to mark his man? How to go in a tackle? How to make the simpliest saves? There's so much off right now it's inexplainable.

The best explanation I can come up with right now - while absolutely agreeing with everyone critisizing the mercato, the budget, the fitness staff and the players who are supposed to be leaders - is that Pioli has lost the team. Or: Maybe the team isn't playing against Pioli. But definitely not for him either. Even when Pioli claimed the opposite in the last pre-match-conference. That's a serious problem.

 

[Master Smurf]

We aren’t prime destination for young players, despite people proclaiming our youth project a success prematurely.

At the same time, we hold on to this bullshit pride like we are way too good for selling. Look at the number of and on posts asking to sell. All the while, we are losing starters while trying to convince them our project.

Yea, those starters had flaws and were asking for more money than they are worth, it’s up to our director to navigate through that and protect the teams interest instead of time and time being taken for a ride. (Yes, giving that little rat turd Bennacer extra money that he doesn’t deserve because he dragged the deal into the season is taking a L, even though people like to proclaim victory)

Face it, with our current manager it will take at least 1-2 seasons before a player can become a consistent. And by the time they are, we enter in this negotiation zone again so we are always going to be faced with this problem.

Extremely disappointed last summer thst we once again drag things on instead of selling.

 

[Pigeon]

From a business point of view, Leao would be crazy to stay in Milan. This 'project' -as some like to call it- is visibly going downhill.
There is no money, there is no vision and there is a coach who lost the chemistry with his group.
The goal was to become competitive again in CL in 3-5 years, Maldini said from the start. We almost believed him when we won the scudetto, but instead of using the momentum (money was coming in, the public's perception of our brand image improved since a long time, everybody was talking about us again), investing in just a couple of spots to make this squad improve even more, we literally did the opposite. It's been a while I saw an anti-climax like this in football.

to be more precise, the last time was in 2007. after the CL winning team, instead of rejuvenating itself with some fresh legs and talents, awarded its seniors with retirement contracts and started to slowly enter a banter era.

 

[Alo88]

"Constantly 1st or 2nd for 2.5 years"

Also it's a tired discussion, there is no way we just find out our "normal" level this year. Not so long ago, we were winter-2nd-place this season

Since when have you became such an asshole? I noted you already tried to bate me yesterday. Now again. Enough already, you're really annoying as fuck right now.