Re: Forum Milan Channel: LIVE!

[Guest]

didnt watch the first half but 2nd half he was ok. .... .i mean acerbi...

but to me it looked like boateng el sharawwy traore antonini they just looked not so good.

hope its just preseason stuff and they show up in first game .... pretty mediocre performance ... schalke was bossing the entire game

[Ganso]

we were missing a lot of starers today:Pato,Cassano,Nocerino, Montolivo,Abate,Mexes + our other buys and we still won against Schalcke at their home.I know its just a friendly but that was impressive

[Ganso]

our b team is winning against chelsea.....wtf.schalke match 2.0

[BiasedMilanFan3]

And Emmanuelson is the one to score... again...

What is happening

[Ganso]

i know its a friendly but it looks like chelsea are taking this seriously

robinho not in the squad for some reason

[FennecFox7]

mesbah

[arabprince]

Huzzah! Forza Milan

[DRK]

Very Happy with this result.

[dostoevsky]

i know its a friendly but it looks like chelsea are taking this seriously

robinho not in the squad for some reason

Robinho had passport trouble somehow and missed the flight, he'll meet up with us in Boston apparently.

[Eivindo]

Urby Emanuelson is showing at least in pre season how the new Milan should be; pacy, full of stamina and movement.

To be honest, I am still not seeing any improvement from the Pharao, lets hope its not a lost talent. He cant score 1 on 1ns. Hoping it gets better with more playing time.

Traore will probably not be another Nocerino, but you never know with these typical Milan signings. Good worker, not so good first half but improved in the second before he got his balls caved in.

Hope this winning mentality will stick with us through the season. Normally, Milan are horrible in pre season, so this is kind of interesting.

[dostoevsky]

A scrappy win and a disappointing game which saw the chance to grant our youngsters experience spurned. The first twenty minutes from our team was shocking to watch, simple passes were being routinely misplaced, placing our team under needless pressure and the culprits were everywhere. Traore---Ambrosini---Flamini should have been recognised as a midfield ill equipped to manage a 4-3-3, particularly with no centre forward and it showed in Chelsea's easy dominance of possession. Our lines were too far apart, our forays forward driven by a single carrier rather than organised attacks and we would have been behind very early against an opposition with greater chemistry in attack. El Shaarawy was effectively pointless when found on the right hand side of the trident with no overlapping fullback and no presence in the box, with Emanuelson and Boateng too far removed from the play at times. Mesbah was a willing outlet in attack however his delivery was poor and futile, Traore showed a willingness to run with the ball and looked solid defensively, however his distribution was often wayward and cost us several decent attacks. His support of the attack from midfield was the most noticeable and he deserves credit for his effort, though his lack of technique puts an obvious limit on his potential usefulness in our team. Flamini deserved an early substitution for his first twenty minutes of play and improvement from him as the game wore on was minimal. In all, the game exposed the inadequacy of our backups in midfield whilst no new faces were given sufficient time to impress.

Bonera and Yepes were very solid at the back, however they were the last players who needed to be on the pitch. Antonini has evidently forgotten how to attack from the right flank, his forays forward consistently ending in a poor touch which gave the ball away whilst dribbling and even his passing was disappointing. Mesbah had a good showing overall, he may not be a fantastic player however given Didac has left, I'm actually in favour of him staying as a back-up until we bring in a more obvious first choice or someone such as De Sciglio steps up, in which case Antonini can become the reserve.

The arrival in the second half of Montolivo, Nocerino, Abate and Acerbi, not unsurprisingly, saw more confidence on the ball, however after Emanuelson's goal we had little interest in going forward save for the first few minutes after our lead was taken. Montolivo was used in front of the defence in a promising substitution and Acerbi was guilty of giving up a late chance after being dispossessed in a battle for the ball, however Bonera covered for him well.

Our need for a player such as Cassano or Robinho with the ability to slow down the play and find an avenue of play through the centre was highly evident with our play entirely dependent upon making progress down the flanks. We lacked a player of personality in the centre and the team is far from psychologically dealing with the absence of Ibrahimovic, however this will come in time, however our need for a centre forward is highly evident and it is a pity that we can not see how the rest of our team plays around Pato at this time.

The issue of Emanuelson is a tricky one, for whilst I'm eagre to see his energy and ability used in central midfield, I can only really see a role for him in a 4-3-1-2 at this stage, not a more expansive 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1. He's wasted too far forward when we're not able to move the ball with confidence and take our time in attack to build the play, however he doesn't have any experience as a more disciplined central midfielder - only against Arsenal in London was he ever really used in this particular manner - and we're unlikely to see him trained in a deeper role unless it is in our standard formation.

A few comments on Chelsea, Hazard was their stand out player, however he lacked the support to really make them dangerous, particularly when we were unsettled at the beginning. Lukaku has much to learn and it is unfair to burden him with comparisons to Drogba, particularly when he's so far away from his level at this stage. He needs game time and I would personally loan him out, with Sturridge as a very capable back-up for Torres, I don't think Lukaku can be given the time he's needed, though depending on RDM's plans there may be space for him.

It was nice to get a win, however I honestly don't care about the result. Valoti received all of 15 minutes of game time when all we cared about was hanging on, Ganz an insultingly low 5 minutes and Acerbi should have been given far more time than 25 minutes. De Sciglio was unused and Cristante couldn't possibly have given the ball away more than Flamini did. A wasted friendly which has only really shown us that such a weak attempt at a 4-3-3 should not be attempted with such a line-up again. We need a far more positive midfield and a reference point up front should we field such a line-up again.

[Forza]

Emanuelson is having a great pre-season so far. Could he make his way into the starting line-up for the season proper?

[DRK]

I think he could. He is great on the counter thats for sure

[dostoevsky]

Emanuelson could potentially break into our first eleven as the final piece of our midfield beside Montolivo and Nocerino, however I'm not sure that I consider this likely. I'd like to see how Emanuelson would manage the RCM position over time however, it could be a very interesting experiment if he could grow into this position. How stable our defence would be with such a line-up and how Allegri reacts if Boateng is injured will affect Urby's position in the line-up however, his flexibility may be used against him in the long term.

[Guest]

i didnt watch the full game, so have no idea where the weakness showed against chelsea. so if someone could enlighten me.

watching the highlights though, i have to say, now our team works more as a unit. not like when zlatan was our focal point.... so in that respect i am a little happy and optimistic about future, that allegri can make this squad play a more team oriented style ... attacking defending and holding possession with the help of one another.

perhaps zlatan departure could be very good for us, time will tell..

[shamr9pato]

I think he could. He is great on the counter thats for sure

thts for sure remember this??

[Guest]

The Serie A superstars deservedly took the lead in the 68th minute through their Dutch international striker Emanuelson... says The SUn ... LMAO!!!

did we even have superstars in our team like chelsea did in this friendly???

[shamr9pato]

urby on fire

[dostoevsky]

i didnt watch the full game, so have no idea where the weakness showed against chelsea. so if someone could enlighten me.

watching the highlights though, i have to say, now our team works more as a unit. not like when zlatan was our focal point.... so in that respect i am a little happy and optimistic about future, that allegri can make this squad play a more team oriented style ... attacking defending and holding possession with the help of one another.

perhaps zlatan departure could be very good for us, time will tell..

The highlights flatter our attack, our game was highly disjointed and our possession game lacked any sort of fluidity. Our midfield when Montolivo and Nocerino arrived evidently improved however given that we showed little interest in asserting ourselves during the last period of the game they weren't truly tested. There was wastefulness and a lack of poise from deep which translated into the lack of direction up front and whilst some of our individual moves were quite positive we really lacked consistency throughout the game. We were very solid defensively though, to mention the positives, though this was largely because their only real threat was Hazard, who had an excellent game. There's only so much you can do on your own however, we'd have been better tested had he and Marin been together on the pitch for longer.

[Guest]

i didnt watch the full game, so have no idea where the weakness showed against chelsea. so if someone could enlighten me.

watching the highlights though, i have to say, now our team works more as a unit. not like when zlatan was our focal point.... so in that respect i am a little happy and optimistic about future, that allegri can make this squad play a more team oriented style ... attacking defending and holding possession with the help of one another.

perhaps zlatan departure could be very good for us, time will tell..

The highlights flatter our attack, our game was highly disjointed and our possession game lacked any sort of fluidity. Our midfield when Montolivo and Nocerino arrived evidently improved however given that we showed little interest in asserting ourselves during the last period of the game they weren't truly tested. There was wastefulness and a lack of poise from deep which translated into the lack of direction up front and whilst some of our individual moves were quite positive we really lacked consistency throughout the game. We were very solid defensively though, to mention the positives, though this was largely because their only real threat was Hazard, who had an excellent game. There's only so much you can do on your own however, we'd have been better tested had he and Marin been together on the pitch for longer.

thanks for the review man... appreciate it...

[Eivindo]

Allegri clearly wants to build confidence ahead of the season after selling the 2 best players. I think its wise. If we played with tons of youngsters and lose all friendlies it might not be very good for our mentality.

Anyway, this is the season for Allegri to shine. He will get more glory if we do well this season, and if he loses, he can at least always blame our economy.

[Ganso]

patogol

[Eivindo]

I CANT WAIT ANYMORE I NEED FOOTBALL NOW

[Ganso]

watch the olympics(all sports),its really fun.thats how im using my spare time

[celikmilan]

Half time Milan vs Olimpia 3:0 Robinho, Nocerino, Nocerino

[Guest]

super impressive stuff.... pass pass pass pass pass!!! great stuff... not being barca here but cassano robinho el sharawwy nocerino montolivo constant showing impressive stuff.

cassano robinho and nocerino has been on fire! great stuff..lovin the play.

el sharawwy needs finishing. great forward runs and linking but its been a while now in preseason he has missed good chances.

would be expecting host of changes in second half....

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