I've been away a little while, but here is what's on my mind

I've seen a lot of knee jerking here asking for the heads of Aquilani and Nocerino then they both have brilliant games and everyone is suddenly devout followers of them. They are both good players and very worthy of Milan in my opinion. They both have the technical abilities and attributes to be successful for our squad. As for an Attacking Mid, I personally prefer Robinho there and don't see any reason to replace him. Our team is obviously a completely different squad with him there, I've said before he is the unsung hero of our squad. He has it all, an eye for goal, speed, movement and creativity I personally love the guy. I also said before Cassano would be a great player for us, when a lot of us wanted him sold, but now he has proven to be one of the most important elements of the squad. With all that said we are an aging squad and have to start thinking of life after Seedorf, Van Bommel Ambrosini, Gattuso, Nesta, Zambrotta, Inzaghi and Yepes. We will start making signings to compensate the losses of these players, but they will all not leave at once so it will be a process to replace them. Back to the topic of Nocerino, once Van Bommel leaves, I think Nocerino should be put in the defensive mid role, he is tenacious, technical and has vision; he would be great for that position. We can drop Prince into the right center mid position and put Aquilani on the left. I like Prince a lot in any position, but I know a lot of you don't fancy him as a center mid, but I think he can be very successful in that position, he gets stuck in hard, has vision, tracks back and is technically gifted. If you don't fancy him that much we can compensate with the purchase of Montolivo. We should really bring back Merkel whenever we get the chance because he can play any of the mid field spots, he is young and has something to prove. He is going to be a great player with a bright future and will add youth to the squad that is desperately needed. We should also look into trying to get Ogbonna, we have Mexes sure, but he is also 30 years old now and is coming off of a torn ACL I'm not sure how long he will last. Ogbonna has said on many occasions he is a Milan supporter, and would jump on the chance to play for Milan. He is incredibly fast and strong, he and Thiago Silva would be impossible to beat on the ground and in the air. Now, I got that off my chest.

cool +1

Agree, nice to see you back MTD!

Also Ogbonna can play equally as well as a left back, something to be considered

always good to hear a player wants to come to Milan and apparently he is promising.

welcome back bud

Milantildeath wrote:I've seen a lot of knee jerking here asking for the heads of Aquilani and Nocerino then they both have brilliant games and everyone is suddenly devout followers of them. They are both good players and very worthy of Milan in my opinion. They both have the technical abilities and attributes to be successful for our squad. As for an Attacking Mid, I personally prefer Robinho there and don't see any reason to replace him. Our team is obviously a completely different squad with him there, I've said before he is the unsung hero of our squad. He has it all, an eye for goal, speed, movement and creativity I personally love the guy. I also said before Cassano would be a great player for us, when a lot of us wanted him sold, but now he has proven to be one of the most important elements of the squad. With all that said we are an aging squad and have to start thinking of life after Seedorf, Van Bommel Ambrosini, Gattuso, Nesta, Zambrotta, Inzaghi and Yepes. We will start making signings to compensate the losses of these players, but they will all not leave at once so it will be a process to replace them. Back to the topic of Nocerino, once Van Bommel leaves, I think Nocerino should be put in the defensive mid role, he is tenacious, technical and has vision; he would be great for that position. We can drop Prince into the right center mid position and put Aquilani on the left. I like Prince a lot in any position, but I know a lot of you don't fancy him as a center mid, but I think he can be very successful in that position, he gets stuck in hard, has vision, tracks back and is technically gifted. If you don't fancy him that much we can compensate with the purchase of Montolivo. We should really bring back Merkel whenever we get the chance because he can play any of the mid field spots, he is young and has something to prove. He is going to be a great player with a bright future and will add youth to the squad that is desperately needed. We should also look into trying to get Ogbonna, we have Mexes sure, but he is also 30 years old now and is coming off of a torn ACL I'm not sure how long he will last. Ogbonna has said on many occasions he is a Milan supporter, and would jump on the chance to play for Milan. He is incredibly fast and strong, he and Thiago Silva would be impossible to beat on the ground and in the air. Now, I got that off my chest.

First off, great to have you back mate!

Now, to your post:

I'd like to first point out that I never called for the heads of Aquilani nor Nocerino neither did I suddenly become instant supporters of them after one good game. I have stuck by my opinion since we signed them.

They're average.

They're not terrible, but for those of you that think they are the future world class midfield we've been dreaming about, I have to tell you: come back to reality.

Aquilani is a good player to rotate with Seedorf in the midfield as they both possess similar qualities. Otherwise, Prince should be our RCM with Van Bommel in the DM spot. That's the now.

The future however is not a midfield consisting of Aquilani-Nocerino-Prince. I'm sorry, but that's just pathetic.

Look at that again:

Aquilani-Nocerino-Prince.

That?

That is our great future midfield?

We are Milan. We do not fill in blank spots in the Starting XI with young average players just because they show a bit of promise. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if you think that can and should be our midfield in 2012-13, I must respectfully disagree. Make no mistake about it. We need midfielders. Nocerino, Aquilani, and Prince are NOT the future.

ACMRox wrote:

Milantildeath wrote:I've seen a lot of knee jerking here asking for the heads of Aquilani and Nocerino then they both have brilliant games and everyone is suddenly devout followers of them. They are both good players and very worthy of Milan in my opinion. They both have the technical abilities and attributes to be successful for our squad. As for an Attacking Mid, I personally prefer Robinho there and don't see any reason to replace him. Our team is obviously a completely different squad with him there, I've said before he is the unsung hero of our squad. He has it all, an eye for goal, speed, movement and creativity I personally love the guy. I also said before Cassano would be a great player for us, when a lot of us wanted him sold, but now he has proven to be one of the most important elements of the squad. With all that said we are an aging squad and have to start thinking of life after Seedorf, Van Bommel Ambrosini, Gattuso, Nesta, Zambrotta, Inzaghi and Yepes. We will start making signings to compensate the losses of these players, but they will all not leave at once so it will be a process to replace them. Back to the topic of Nocerino, once Van Bommel leaves, I think Nocerino should be put in the defensive mid role, he is tenacious, technical and has vision; he would be great for that position. We can drop Prince into the right center mid position and put Aquilani on the left. I like Prince a lot in any position, but I know a lot of you don't fancy him as a center mid, but I think he can be very successful in that position, he gets stuck in hard, has vision, tracks back and is technically gifted. If you don't fancy him that much we can compensate with the purchase of Montolivo. We should really bring back Merkel whenever we get the chance because he can play any of the mid field spots, he is young and has something to prove. He is going to be a great player with a bright future and will add youth to the squad that is desperately needed. We should also look into trying to get Ogbonna, we have Mexes sure, but he is also 30 years old now and is coming off of a torn ACL I'm not sure how long he will last. Ogbonna has said on many occasions he is a Milan supporter, and would jump on the chance to play for Milan. He is incredibly fast and strong, he and Thiago Silva would be impossible to beat on the ground and in the air. Now, I got that off my chest.

First off, great to have you back mate!

Now, to your post:

I'd like to first point out that I never called for the heads of Aquilani nor Nocerino neither did I suddenly become instant supporters of them after one good game. I have stuck by my opinion since we signed them.

They're average.

They're not terrible, but for those of you that think they are the future world class midfield we've been dreaming about, I have to tell you: come back to reality.

Aquilani is a good player to rotate with Seedorf in the midfield as they both possess similar qualities. Otherwise, Prince should be our RCM with Van Bommel in the DM spot. That's the now.

The future however is not a midfield consisting of Aquilani-Nocerino-Prince. I'm sorry, but that's just pathetic.

Look at that again:

Aquilani-Nocerino-Prince.

That?

That is our great future midfield?

We are Milan. We do not fill in blank spots in the Starting XI with young average players just because they show a bit of promise. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if you think that can and should be our midfield in 2012-13, I must respectfully disagree. Make no mistake about it. We need midfielders. Nocerino, Aquilani, and Prince are NOT the future.

And where will Milan get the money for this new midfield?

Montolivo-DM-Boateng
AM

yes, nocerino and aquilani did pretty well in the last two games but i wouldn't call them quality midfielders just yet, after all it was a poor palermo and a crappy bate side we were playing against..


we still need atleast one world class midfielder/trequartista...

Fadi wrote:yes, nocerino and aquilani did pretty well in the last two games but i wouldn't call them quality midfielders just yet, after all it was a poor palermo and a crappy bate side we were playing against..


we still need atleast one world class midfielder/trequartista...

Eriksen. That's it. I'm fairly confident that he will make the difference. Think about it...

Eriksen takes the CAM spot :arrow: Boateng moves back into the 3-man mid :arrow: Nocerino goes to the bench

I see no reason to drop Aquilani at all. He has been great IMO.

Personally I like Robinho on the field as the AM, Nocerino can move to the role of Van Bommel once he leaves in the summer, and Prince can drop into the 3 man mid along with Aquilani

Milantildeath wrote:I've seen a lot of knee jerking here asking for the heads of Aquilani and Nocerino then they both have brilliant games and everyone is suddenly devout followers of them.

This is an understandable reaction imo,we've been on a roller coaster since the start of the season, after all the Mr. X hype we got Aqua and Nocerino both of whom fell way short of our expectation.

They are both good players and very worthy of Milan in my opinion. They both have the technical abilities and attributes to be successful for our squad.

Agreed that both are good players, but neither of them are proven at the highest lvl of competition.

As for an Attacking Mid, I personally prefer Robinho there and don't see any reason to replace him. Our team is obviously a completely different squad with him there, I've said before he is the unsung hero of our squad. He has it all, an eye for goal, speed, movement and creativity I personally love the guy.

Robinho is crucial for our squad and general play yes, and i remember you constantly reminding us of what a great job he is doing. However i don't like the idea of him playing Am, Robinho has the technical qualities to play Am , however his defensive work rate and lack of a physical presence is a tactical liability. I need to explain this further, as it is crucial to understand why Allegri favors Boateng over Robinho in the Am position.

Firstly its not a personal thing, one thing i've learned about Allegri's choices is that its mostly tactically motivated. What are the differences between Robinho and Boateng, well they are nearly in complete contrast to each other, Binho is a dribbler, likes to drift wide( predominatly on the left ), is very agile ,doesn't favour running through the middle , doesn't prefer to get shoulder-to-shoulder with his marker, is weak in his determination to get back possession. Robinho is speed, trickery and clutch.

Boateng is a power runner, he likes to be in the centre, isn't discouraged from a physical tussle or getting his hands dirty, he is tall and presents a physical presence in the centre, he runs predominately through the centre, likes to apply pressure and displays great determination to get back possession. Boateng is power, energy and determination.

Imo Boateng is better suited to be our Am for the following key reasons:

* He stays central, no matter what: Unlike Robinho who's natural instinct and play style tends him to go wide, Boateng stays central and persevere's when the going gets tough, whereas in the same scenario Robinho will most likely go wide and start from there. Tactical discipline is key for our system to work effectively and Allegri can't allow his Am to wonder around.

* Energy : What was evident throughout last season in Serie A was that many teams found it hard to come to terms with the energy in midfield, technically & creative wise its not very impressive, but we compensated for that by working extremely hard on & off the ball ( we paid for that later in the season when nearly all our midfielders were injured or exhausted), Boateng provides much more energy than Robinho in midfield i.e we competes in aerially , applies pressure when we don't have possession, and runs hard through the centre ( which in give's the forwards good momentum , as well as our fb's), with so many midfielders on the wrong side of 30 it has become really important to have players that have great energy and dynamism.

*Natural position : Am is Boateng's natural position, whereas Robinho is naturally a wide-man

*Ability to shoot from range : A trend we've seen die out the last couple of season, was our ability to score from range, ever since Kaka left, seedorf's and Pirlo's decline we've become less of a threat from range and thats put lots more pressure on us to create clear goal scoring chances, as we have seen Boateng is much more inclined & equipped to shoot from range than Robinho or any other midfielder we have bar Aqua ofc.

*Att & Def equilibrium: With Boateng in the Am we balance out our Attacking threat with our defensive capablities.

* Am not the primary source of creativity: In Allegri's system the Am is NOT the primary source of creativity, the creative duties is shared or spread across the midfield and attack, the reason for this is simple... Ibrahimovic. He gives us the benefit of having a striker and a "10" sort of speak, also its important to note that Ibra doesn't create out of necessity, but because its part of his game and Allegri noticed this and exploited this benefit by acknowledging that he doesn't require a pure am ( one that specializes in threading through balls, in the creative mold). What we tend to ignore as well was the tactical switch of moving the most creative/technically astute midfielder to the left or right of midfield in a deeper role, which thus further decreases the need of the Am to be the sole creative outlet .

PS : i am not finished, got caught up with work *sigh*

BiasedMilanFan3 wrote:

ACMRox wrote:

Milantildeath wrote:I've seen a lot of knee jerking here asking for the heads of Aquilani and Nocerino then they both have brilliant games and everyone is suddenly devout followers of them. They are both good players and very worthy of Milan in my opinion. They both have the technical abilities and attributes to be successful for our squad. As for an Attacking Mid, I personally prefer Robinho there and don't see any reason to replace him. Our team is obviously a completely different squad with him there, I've said before he is the unsung hero of our squad. He has it all, an eye for goal, speed, movement and creativity I personally love the guy. I also said before Cassano would be a great player for us, when a lot of us wanted him sold, but now he has proven to be one of the most important elements of the squad. With all that said we are an aging squad and have to start thinking of life after Seedorf, Van Bommel Ambrosini, Gattuso, Nesta, Zambrotta, Inzaghi and Yepes. We will start making signings to compensate the losses of these players, but they will all not leave at once so it will be a process to replace them. Back to the topic of Nocerino, once Van Bommel leaves, I think Nocerino should be put in the defensive mid role, he is tenacious, technical and has vision; he would be great for that position. We can drop Prince into the right center mid position and put Aquilani on the left. I like Prince a lot in any position, but I know a lot of you don't fancy him as a center mid, but I think he can be very successful in that position, he gets stuck in hard, has vision, tracks back and is technically gifted. If you don't fancy him that much we can compensate with the purchase of Montolivo. We should really bring back Merkel whenever we get the chance because he can play any of the mid field spots, he is young and has something to prove. He is going to be a great player with a bright future and will add youth to the squad that is desperately needed. We should also look into trying to get Ogbonna, we have Mexes sure, but he is also 30 years old now and is coming off of a torn ACL I'm not sure how long he will last. Ogbonna has said on many occasions he is a Milan supporter, and would jump on the chance to play for Milan. He is incredibly fast and strong, he and Thiago Silva would be impossible to beat on the ground and in the air. Now, I got that off my chest.

First off, great to have you back mate!

Now, to your post:

I'd like to first point out that I never called for the heads of Aquilani nor Nocerino neither did I suddenly become instant supporters of them after one good game. I have stuck by my opinion since we signed them.

They're average.

They're not terrible, but for those of you that think they are the future world class midfield we've been dreaming about, I have to tell you: come back to reality.

Aquilani is a good player to rotate with Seedorf in the midfield as they both possess similar qualities. Otherwise, Prince should be our RCM with Van Bommel in the DM spot. That's the now.

The future however is not a midfield consisting of Aquilani-Nocerino-Prince. I'm sorry, but that's just pathetic.

Look at that again:

Aquilani-Nocerino-Prince.

That?

That is our great future midfield?

We are Milan. We do not fill in blank spots in the Starting XI with young average players just because they show a bit of promise. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if you think that can and should be our midfield in 2012-13, I must respectfully disagree. Make no mistake about it. We need midfielders. Nocerino, Aquilani, and Prince are NOT the future.

And where will Milan get the money for this new midfield?

The short answer is, we don't. Well, not all at one time.

Galliani has his famous 'out one in one' policy, and we still have a couple of years before FIFA fair play comes into the mix. So we gradually phase out the older players and bring in newer ones.

Don't get me wrong. I wasn't asking for Ganso, Sneijder, Fabregas, and Khedira all in January.

All I said was Nocerino and Aquilani are NOT the World Class injections in our midfield that we so desperately need.

In my opinion with the form of Antonio Cassano, Robinho has no chance of making it on the field as a striker. I want Robinho on the field with Cassano and the best solution is to have Robinho as the AM, he also works a lot harder at that position as well.

ACMRox wrote:

BiasedMilanFan3 wrote:

ACMRox wrote:

Milantildeath wrote:I've seen a lot of knee jerking here asking for the heads of Aquilani and Nocerino then they both have brilliant games and everyone is suddenly devout followers of them. They are both good players and very worthy of Milan in my opinion. They both have the technical abilities and attributes to be successful for our squad. As for an Attacking Mid, I personally prefer Robinho there and don't see any reason to replace him. Our team is obviously a completely different squad with him there, I've said before he is the unsung hero of our squad. He has it all, an eye for goal, speed, movement and creativity I personally love the guy. I also said before Cassano would be a great player for us, when a lot of us wanted him sold, but now he has proven to be one of the most important elements of the squad. With all that said we are an aging squad and have to start thinking of life after Seedorf, Van Bommel Ambrosini, Gattuso, Nesta, Zambrotta, Inzaghi and Yepes. We will start making signings to compensate the losses of these players, but they will all not leave at once so it will be a process to replace them. Back to the topic of Nocerino, once Van Bommel leaves, I think Nocerino should be put in the defensive mid role, he is tenacious, technical and has vision; he would be great for that position. We can drop Prince into the right center mid position and put Aquilani on the left. I like Prince a lot in any position, but I know a lot of you don't fancy him as a center mid, but I think he can be very successful in that position, he gets stuck in hard, has vision, tracks back and is technically gifted. If you don't fancy him that much we can compensate with the purchase of Montolivo. We should really bring back Merkel whenever we get the chance because he can play any of the mid field spots, he is young and has something to prove. He is going to be a great player with a bright future and will add youth to the squad that is desperately needed. We should also look into trying to get Ogbonna, we have Mexes sure, but he is also 30 years old now and is coming off of a torn ACL I'm not sure how long he will last. Ogbonna has said on many occasions he is a Milan supporter, and would jump on the chance to play for Milan. He is incredibly fast and strong, he and Thiago Silva would be impossible to beat on the ground and in the air. Now, I got that off my chest.

First off, great to have you back mate!

Now, to your post:

I'd like to first point out that I never called for the heads of Aquilani nor Nocerino neither did I suddenly become instant supporters of them after one good game. I have stuck by my opinion since we signed them.

They're average.

They're not terrible, but for those of you that think they are the future world class midfield we've been dreaming about, I have to tell you: come back to reality.

Aquilani is a good player to rotate with Seedorf in the midfield as they both possess similar qualities. Otherwise, Prince should be our RCM with Van Bommel in the DM spot. That's the now.

The future however is not a midfield consisting of Aquilani-Nocerino-Prince. I'm sorry, but that's just pathetic.

Look at that again:

Aquilani-Nocerino-Prince.

That?

That is our great future midfield?

We are Milan. We do not fill in blank spots in the Starting XI with young average players just because they show a bit of promise. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if you think that can and should be our midfield in 2012-13, I must respectfully disagree. Make no mistake about it. We need midfielders. Nocerino, Aquilani, and Prince are NOT the future.

And where will Milan get the money for this new midfield?

The short answer is, we don't. Well, not all at one time.

Galliani has his famous 'out one in one' policy, and we still have a couple of years before FIFA fair play comes into the mix. So we gradually phase out the older players and bring in newer ones.

Don't get me wrong. I wasn't asking for Ganso, Sneijder, Fabregas, and Khedira all in January.

All I said was Nocerino and Aquilani are NOT the World Class injections in our midfield that we so desperately need.

I think that the squad we have is good enough to get into the top 3 of Serie A by January and to win our Champions League group by then. Does everybody realise that if this happens, our supposedly 'failed transfer strategy' will have worked perfectly? We got budget buys and added enough depth to do the best we could in the first half of the season. Provided that we sign the 'missing link' in our team's midfield in January, I see no reason to complain. If we don't get that player (and I think we only really need 1 more great midfield player), then it's time to complain. :king:

Forza Rossoneri wrote:

ACMRox wrote:

BiasedMilanFan3 wrote:

ACMRox wrote:

Milantildeath wrote:I've seen a lot of knee jerking here asking for the heads of Aquilani and Nocerino then they both have brilliant games and everyone is suddenly devout followers of them. They are both good players and very worthy of Milan in my opinion. They both have the technical abilities and attributes to be successful for our squad. As for an Attacking Mid, I personally prefer Robinho there and don't see any reason to replace him. Our team is obviously a completely different squad with him there, I've said before he is the unsung hero of our squad. He has it all, an eye for goal, speed, movement and creativity I personally love the guy. I also said before Cassano would be a great player for us, when a lot of us wanted him sold, but now he has proven to be one of the most important elements of the squad. With all that said we are an aging squad and have to start thinking of life after Seedorf, Van Bommel Ambrosini, Gattuso, Nesta, Zambrotta, Inzaghi and Yepes. We will start making signings to compensate the losses of these players, but they will all not leave at once so it will be a process to replace them. Back to the topic of Nocerino, once Van Bommel leaves, I think Nocerino should be put in the defensive mid role, he is tenacious, technical and has vision; he would be great for that position. We can drop Prince into the right center mid position and put Aquilani on the left. I like Prince a lot in any position, but I know a lot of you don't fancy him as a center mid, but I think he can be very successful in that position, he gets stuck in hard, has vision, tracks back and is technically gifted. If you don't fancy him that much we can compensate with the purchase of Montolivo. We should really bring back Merkel whenever we get the chance because he can play any of the mid field spots, he is young and has something to prove. He is going to be a great player with a bright future and will add youth to the squad that is desperately needed. We should also look into trying to get Ogbonna, we have Mexes sure, but he is also 30 years old now and is coming off of a torn ACL I'm not sure how long he will last. Ogbonna has said on many occasions he is a Milan supporter, and would jump on the chance to play for Milan. He is incredibly fast and strong, he and Thiago Silva would be impossible to beat on the ground and in the air. Now, I got that off my chest.

First off, great to have you back mate!

Now, to your post:

I'd like to first point out that I never called for the heads of Aquilani nor Nocerino neither did I suddenly become instant supporters of them after one good game. I have stuck by my opinion since we signed them.

They're average.

They're not terrible, but for those of you that think they are the future world class midfield we've been dreaming about, I have to tell you: come back to reality.

Aquilani is a good player to rotate with Seedorf in the midfield as they both possess similar qualities. Otherwise, Prince should be our RCM with Van Bommel in the DM spot. That's the now.

The future however is not a midfield consisting of Aquilani-Nocerino-Prince. I'm sorry, but that's just pathetic.

Look at that again:

Aquilani-Nocerino-Prince.

That?

That is our great future midfield?

We are Milan. We do not fill in blank spots in the Starting XI with young average players just because they show a bit of promise. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if you think that can and should be our midfield in 2012-13, I must respectfully disagree. Make no mistake about it. We need midfielders. Nocerino, Aquilani, and Prince are NOT the future.

And where will Milan get the money for this new midfield?

The short answer is, we don't. Well, not all at one time.

Galliani has his famous 'out one in one' policy, and we still have a couple of years before FIFA fair play comes into the mix. So we gradually phase out the older players and bring in newer ones.

Don't get me wrong. I wasn't asking for Ganso, Sneijder, Fabregas, and Khedira all in January.

All I said was Nocerino and Aquilani are NOT the World Class injections in our midfield that we so desperately need.

I think that the squad we have is good enough to get into the top 3 of Serie A by January and to win our Champions League group by then. Does everybody realise that if this happens, our supposedly 'failed transfer strategy' will have worked perfectly? We got budget buys and added enough depth to do the best we could in the first half of the season. Provided that we sign the 'missing link' in our team's midfield in January, I see no reason to complain. If we don't get that player (and I think we only really need 1 more great midfield player), then it's time to complain. :king:

I think something went wrong somewhere if you believe this, but disagree with me...

Does everyone get that all I said was that Nocerino and Aquilani aren't the World Class midfield injections we need for the future?