[This is really long, my bad. If you make a joke about "not reading" or tl:dr, wow, so original, but... totally fair, lol.]
We are dealing with an injury crisis, for the second year in a row. If we weren't hurt last year, we would have pushed Inter for the title. If you want to say that the medical staff is holding back our team from reaching its potential, I'll co-sign that statement.
We didn't "barely qualify" for the CL, we didn't have to depend on any other results going our way, we had our destiny in our hands, we could have won against Cagliari, and that would have wrapped up the CL, but we tied, but we still had qualifying in our hands, so this whole "barely qualifying" crap is just a way for you to feel better about shitting on this team and what it has achieved.
This team has literally broken records. We're not some small team, this is Milan, a club that has incredible history and has had incredible squads before this. So breaking records isn't because we're PSG and our history was shit and all of a sudden we've built a super team. Our 90's teams, our 80's teams, our 2000's teams, none of them have done what this team has done, winning as much as they have until this point. Does that mean anything? No, neither does being "winter champions," but you guys are saying "barely this" and "barely that," but don't you see progress? This squad's window of success is changing, the performances of the players are growing, the team is getting stronger, and you're saying "well, they're not dominant!" or you're saying "we're dominant, but we didn't do well!" or you pick out "OMG! WE DIDN'T DO WELL AGAINST PORTO!" Who gives a shit?
Carlo's Milan was the best team in the world from 2002-2007, we should have won the CL every year that year. Against Juve in 2003, we were better, but it was clear that when Kaka came into the side, we pushed into the next gear, 2005, Liverpool, we were so far superior to them, it was insane. We got robbed against Barca in 2006 in that semi-final, and would have battered Arsenal. 2007 we were the best team in the world, people say Kaka carried the team, but forget the defensive solidity to that team, Kaka wasn't part of that.
But in that period, that same team, had huge hiccups. Against Ajax in 02/03, they were better than us, we got through on a last minute goal. That Ajax team was young, and filled with future stars, but still, we weren't comfortable. In 2007, we struggled against Celtic and needed Kaka magic to push through. How about the meltdown against Deportivo? We lost 4-0 after being up 4-1 in the first leg. A team with Nesta, Maldini, and Cafu conceded 4 goals. That's not supposed to happen, but it did.
The point is, even in the CL, teams have shit games. I've seen plenty of shit games. Did we deserve to lose against Atletico? No, and everyone (neutrals) says that we got robbed. Against Porto, in the first leg, we played like dogshit. But, when you're missing 4 starters in the first leg, and their goal should have been disallowed, while in the second leg, we are missing 3 starters, and again they should have had their goal disallowed, that means we should have 4 points from Porto instead of 1. Shitty games but getting the points is what is most important, and we deserved them, but we didn't get them. If Man Utd or Barca got those sorts of calls against them, there would be a meltdown and every sports show would talk about what is wrong with UEFA. We should have 7 more points in our CL group and be cruising to the next round.
Then to hear complaints about our match against Atletico, where have you been the last 10 years? Do you know who Atletico are? Their coach is named Diego Simeone and he's an asshole, he plays ugly, dirty, disgusting football and they just play on the counter. They wanted us to pour forward for this all-out attack strategy you are calling for, letting anxiety and desperation push you into making mistakes, so that they can catch you on the break. And unlike shitty relegation teams, when you're countering with Greizmann and Suarez, they just need one chance to punish you.
If we were playing like shit, with our full squad, sure, I'd understand. But you wave away injuries like they're nothing. Liverpool, the team that with Man City, looks like the most dominant on the planet, were absolute shit last year. They haven't brought in some new super players, they were injured last year, and even then people were like "Ohhhhhhhhhh, Liverpool sux now." No, they had injuries, and not even as bad as us! Look at them now. And look at what we've achieved, with our injuries.
We lost against Fiorentina. Gabbia made some big mistakes. Tata did. Theo did. We still pushed, and should have at least tied. Leao was wasteful. Ibra was wasteful. We should have scored more, but we didn't. But we dominated them. We probably deserved to win our games against Juve and Inter, as well. So even in our losses and draws, we've deserved more. Have we had bad games? Yeah, we have. Against Porto, against Torino, but Jesus Christ, listening to this "we dominated Atletico, but our attack was bad!"
What in the fuck? You have to be patient in games, it's like you're complaining that a player recycles possession instead of always going forward and attacking with the ball. Sometimes you need to pass back, you need to reset, change the point of attack. Seeing how Leao looked when he was able to rest for a little bit on the International Break, wow, and looking at how great it would be to have Rebic there, and seeing Alexis with some rest, look at the energy he brought against Inter, you are saying "we don't do this, we don't do that," but it seems you don't see what sort of amazing progress there is here.
Is the team finished? No. They're fucking children. In our 2003 final against Juve, Pippo was 30, Sheva was 27, Pirlo was 24, Rino 25, Seedorf 27, Rui Costa 31, like they were all in their prime. Theo is 24, Tomori is 23, Maignan is 26, Calabria is 24, Brahim is 22, Tonali 21, Bennacer 23, Leao is 22, Alexis 22, etc, they're kids. We have the youngest team in the top 5 leagues, that's with Giroud and Ibra pushing up the average age. They are growing. Learning. Winning. Showing up in big games. Taking responsibility when they lose, when they don't perform well, when they make mistakes.
Do we need to add? Yes. But saying that Faivre was "just a a few million" is wrong, actually. Faivre acted like a fucking moron and stopped being a professional. The management at Brest were like "we're a small team, sure, we might be facing relegation, but we're not going to let some player force us into a shit decision." The same Faivre kid is now giving interviews and making his team look bad. If Maldini doesn't want that sort of character on our squad, good. If he still wants him, fine, I'll let him make the judgment call. But people are saying we're cheap and we've been one of the biggest spenders this last summer, in the world.
Again, you want to shit on our medical team, I'm with you. Xavi just fired a bunch of people at Barca, and the fact that there aren't reports over our training staff is weird to me. Maybe we've really just had bad luck? Who knows? From the outside, it looks bad, but other than that, which is the major thing impacting our team more than anything else, what can you say other then "wow! we're playing exciting, attacking football, fast-paced, strong, and we're winning!" Pioli is doing tactical things that is being covered by English pundits, because it's unique and taking stuff from elite teams and mixing it to new, devastating effect. This Milan team is exciting!
After all that, a bunch of you are saying that things are not good? And I'm supposed to say, "hm, good point, we are shit!" What would please you? I don't even care that this is long, because it's annoying to have to argue with fans of other teams, its even worse that after beating Atletico--thanks to a player many of us (including me) didn't want!--we're supposed to say, while being top of the league, "wow, we're shit."
Pioli has had his full team ONCE in 106 games. Once. You said "oh, second season he will be shit!" He hasn't been. He's in his third season and he's still kicking ass. People said: "Pioli will be found out!" He's introducing new formations and tactics, while dealing without his best players. I didn't want Pioli, but he's made me eat shit, while showing that he's actually tactically creative. The annoying part is you take his mistakes as proof he isn't good, when everyone makes mistakes. He isn't Ole, he's actually doing things, he's not just relying on players to bail him out.
Whatever, this is long as shit, but the negativity on here annoys me. I hope we can recover some players, play well and win tomororw, and keep this up, because I fucking love this team. Winning a CL with these boys is going to be special, because we watched them grow, and struggle and fight, and they've proven that they are Milan quality, and hopefully, by pushing themselves to the next level, we can start comparing them to the greats that have worn this storied and beautiful shirt.
idiots
