The official we need a new RB thread

[KR10]

abate is terrible offensively, doesn't know how to dribble properly.

he's ok defensively cause he's quick, but his positioning and awareness are pitiful sometimes.

bench standard. you heard it here first

[Dante]

I heard it here first and i am more than sure i will never hear it again in 2012

Bench material ? I understand the bitterness of the days , but really now. Let's not derail everything , Abate is one of our brightest players and if he had some bad games, it doesn't automaticaly transform him into bench material.

Muntari and Bonera are bench material , not Abate.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

OP YOU SPELT LB AND MESBAH WRONG.

[Ganso]

we need a LB AND a RB

Abate was our worst defender this season,if youre a FB youre supposed to add something offensively or defensively and he adds nothing

[Dante]

Abate our worst defender ? Adds nothing ?

you misunderstood Ganso , as Mole said that's Mesbah you re talking about

[pUsHa]

The main thing that people are dissapointed by him is that he didnt improve ... he's still crap at crossing and he's one dimensional . While last season he had some amazing defensive games this year he has been sub-par mostly and was burned lots of times ...

[DRK]

No we don't, although we do need a new LB but that has been repeated over and over again countless times

[Dante]

The main thing that people are dissapointed by him is that he didnt improve ... he's still crap at crossing and he's one dimensional . While last season he had some amazing defensive games this year he has been sub-par mostly and was burned lots of times ...

maybe he didn't improve , but he didn't had a worse season either . One of the same as last year and last year did worse things in some games , that people quickly forgot because we won the league.

Now that we didn't , all of a sudden , Abate is questionable at the back and uselless in attack..

Seriously , i understand the bitterness of the days , but it would be so nice if we stop derailing and go bitter about everything it doesn't or didn't went our way 100% . Abate has had a very good season , despite some occasional bloopers and if he's burned these days after his injury ,
it's because he gave 100% untill May , since September.

The least we need is a new right back , i can't believe i have to post this . There's no right back in all of Italia like Abate and very few are better than him worldwide.

[red&blacklegion]

He definitely aint our weakest link. LB MF needs reinforcement more than our RB position

[KR10]

I think several people are being blinded, to an extent, by Abate's improvement's and the fact that he's a fan favorite.

If you look at his performances this season objectively- sure he has been pretty solid defensively barring a few mistakes, but like Ganso said, he doesnt offer much going forward. The only move he has is kicking it down the flanks and trying to put in a cross.

In a 4-3-1-2 where the fullbacks are the only source of width, it is critical that the RB adds a lot to the attack. Abate doesn't really do that.

Perhaps saying he is bench material is an exaggeration, we can't ignore the fact that Abate has a lot of shortcomings for the wingback position in our system and he hasn't improved at all since last season. At 25/26, the chances of him improving next season, in my opinion, are very slim.

I know RB isn't the most important position to reinforce this season, but in my mind it definitely is a weak link in our team

[Cruijf]

He is a weak link. Not THE weak link.

Defensively he's only average and offensively does very little.

Honestly I think we're not knee jerking after a couple bad games, it's you who knee jerked after a couple good games and refuse to consider Abate's weaknesses.

[BiasedMilanFan3]

I personally have no interest in seeing Milan sell Abate. Yes, he was not fantastic this season but he has shown that he can be a monster on the right flank. He just hasn't had a whole lot of luck this season. If Milan want to sell someone else and sign a backup RB, im fine with that, but keep Abate. We already have a player who knows Milan, he needs no introduction to the team and, if we keep faith in him, I know he'll come back even stronger for us.

[Forza]

Here's some reasoning that I hope the fans on both sides of the argument appreciate...

Selling Abate is like pulling the cart before the horse.

This old saying refers to doing something out of order. The horse must come before the cart so that it can pull it. A horse cannot push a cart.

How is this relevant to our debate?

Selling Abate = cart

Selling deadwood = horse 1

Buying players for other positions = horse 2


1) Selling the deadwood. Abate has a chance to develop and become better. Deadwood is dead. It may come in handy once or twice, but it's not worth keeping it around. It's stuck there collecting big wages and it's going to need some effort put into dislodging it.

2) Buying players for other positions. We have financial constraints that are not helped by creating another hole in our formation to fill with a new player. We have enough cracks in our line-up as it is and we need to cover them up permanently to move forward. LB, midfielders, even getting a new, younger GK to eventually take over from Abbiati all need to be prioritised over RB. Do all that and then the management can take a look at RB. People here who think Abate is our worst defender have serious memory issues.



Let's be realistic here. I agree that we could find a better player for RB than Abate, but we have more pressing issues to deal with this transfer market and we will be extremely lucky if our transfer dept. get around to fixing those up in the first place.

[S]

I agree he has been subpar this season but i just think you cant discard him away after one poor season considering he has shown that he is defensively a very capable player and thats the most important thing first and foremost.Even Lichtsteiner isnt very good attacking wise but his main job is to protect his flank and shutdown any potential threat.

Or how about Milan go in search of a attacking left full back perhaps just to balance the books on the flanks ?Besides there are bigger holes in the team which needs reinforcement and lets just say going by your transfer activity in the past few years it might not be financially viable to replace Abate as Milan quite clearly have headaches in other areas.Or you might just be looking at another mediocre bosman signing and it really would be stupid to fix something which aint broken.

Milan have clear priorities in the transfer market this summer and fixing the RB position definitely aint one.

[Milan31]

I agree, Abate has not had a great season, but if we won the league, no one would mention this. He definitely is NOT bench material. We have to focus on other departments before we even consider a "new" RB. Midfield and LB and we will be okay!

[Guest]

Abate,playing on the right,does not have any support from the player playing on the right hand side of the midfield 3..Usually it is ambrosini or Nocerino who plays there..You can't expect a full back to do all the attacking without any help from the midfield 3.Also we don't have any attacker who drifts onto the right hand side..If Ibra and Robinho play,Binho drifts to the left wing while Ibra plays in the centre...Without any support what else can he do than the crossing?

[MrDeeds]

I don't understand how he played as a winger when he does absolutely nothing offensively. BUT he is not that bad defensively (When 53 years old Milito is not around). He is a bit more than average, he handled CR7 well.


PS. I'm loving De Sciglio.

[dostoevsky]

A great team isn't necessarily built from the best individual components and Abate is perfectly sufficient for what we require. I don't think anyone needs reminding of the state of our right flank before his breakout season.

I personally believe that our search for a left back, though we foremostly require a defensive upgrade, should be an offensive threat capable of being to Abate what Dani Alves is to Abidal or Marcelo to Arbeloa. The role of a fullback who holds back his runs and provides extra security suits Abate's qualities more firmly in my eyes, however our lack of pace and movement in midfield has necessitated his use as a very constant outlet. This is not to say that he shouldn't be bombing forward, however as the previous examples, having a penetrating option down our left flank would add another dimension to our play and make the use of both fullbacks far less predictable. Only Mesbah has consistently provided width this season, however he isn't a realistic option for the future at the highest level. In the end, defensive security is paramount, however it's something to be taken into consideration and Abate is far from being the weakest link in the squad.

Even if an upgrade was demanded by one and all though, who precisely do people think we can replace him with? Maxi Pereira is in the Portuguese league, tripling his transfer fee, Azpilicueta would likely require us to outbid suitors such as Chelsea or worse, Madrid, Darijo Srna is 30 and I'm running out of vaguely realistic names already.

He's handled Arsenal, Barcelona and Madrid as well as we need. Milito aside which I can only assume is some sort of hidden psychological trauma, Abate just needs a better run with injuries and to reduce his complacency in smaller games where he loses concentration.

[tehcpeng]

If we are about to sell, there is a long list before you named ABATE! Our priority isn't Rb.

[shamr9pato]

the world is coming to an end.. abate would f**** ur asses tonyt

[Potential]

Milito penalty aside, he has been excellent in the derby, however looking at our lack of width and with Robinho drifting wide to the left; we need an attacking LB (Emanuelson could do great) rather than a defending one since we lack the width in attack.

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