Dispelling the DMilan Myth

Milan's actions this transfer market have been absolutely woeful. But amidst that truth, somehow the myth has arisen that the midfield is made up entirely (or at least mostly) of DMs. Nigel De Jong will probably arrive from Man City soon and I expect that the DMilan taunt will be levelled at Milan fans once again. Seeing as the average joe on this forum isn't motivated enough to find out if this is actually true before using the term "DMilan", it's time to find out the real reason behind this...

Firstly, DMilan was invented by Milan fans well before the transfer season started. In fact, it was used to describe Allegri's annoying tendency to play 2 or 3 DMs in our 3-man midfield last season, even though more creative, attacking players were at his disposal. Needless to say, this tactical decision almost invariably produced awful results with our midfield being completely static and bereft of ideas.

Secondly, Milan currently has 12 midifelders in the squad. Of these players, only Ambrosini and the youngster Strasser are primarily defensive midfielders. The latter is out for 8 weeks with injury. Meanwhile the ageing Ambrosini is having fitness issues of his own, missing the first game of the season, and he can no longer be relied upon to play a full game every week. Muntari, Traore and Flamini are capable of playing as DMs, but are, in fact, central midfielders. The former is out injured until January and the latter two are inept.

Thirdly, van Bommel's departure has not been rectified by any new signing. All of the aforementioned players are nowhere near adequate to fill that spot. Whilst Strasser is very promising, he still needs to mature (and recover from his injury) before he can even attempt fill the former Bayern captain's shoes. It's only after this evaluation of the club's midfielders that you can understand why Nigel De Jong is so badly needed at Milan. He landed in Milan on Thursday evening to finalise terms with the club. Of course, a new quality attacking midfielder is also desperately needed, but in the meantime, De Jong's signing will certainly be welcomed by many Milan fans.
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So, how did the DMilan misconception come about? My theory is that it was probably perpetuated by fans of "FC Europa League Place" - there's no honour and grace in that.

TLDR

Typical DMilan fan

just kidding, good read but you need to come up with something catchier than FC Europa League Place

Muntari, Traore, Flamini CM's?

BarrileteCosmico wrote:TLDR

Typical DMilan fan

just kidding, good read but you need to come up with something catchier than FC Europa League Place

Yeah, but it rhymes with honour and grace

Swanhends wrote:Muntari, Traore, Flamini CM's?

From transfermrkt...

Also, Muntari scored 3 goals from 13 games and Flamini scored a goal in the only game he played last season. Pretty good stats for DMs.

I haven't seen enough of Traore to be honest, however I'd be comfortable with classifying him as a defensive midfielder from what I've seen of him thus far.

Flamini's time at Arsenal is the only thing that classifies him in people's minds as a defensive midfielder. Flamini makes Song look disciplined, he doesn't restrict his movements to protect space nor does he win the ball back, he occupies an elevated position on the pitch, attempting to regularly get into the box to score.

I wouldn't classify Muntari as a defensive midfielder primarily either, however he's sufficient in the position and can realistically fulfil this role. A player like Flamini or Nocerino simply can't.

Given the age, injury record and quality of the players who are actually defensive midfielders in our squad, a defensive midfielder is a justified purchase. Whether De Jong is the right choice is another matter entirely and this purchase does not alleviate our need for yet another creative midfielder, however the DMilan tag is fairly sad and desperate.

I haven't seen much of Traore either, but he seems to be generally crap at everything and that's no reason to label him as a DM. Hopefully De Jong will turn out to be good at Milan, we can't afford any more deadwood at the club. If any more purchases are made, they need to be of high quality or youth (and preferably both).

Such lies lol. It was me who invented DM Meelan to troll the milan fans (and its clearly worked ).

But theres no myth about it, heck even Boateng used to play DM(ish) for Portsmouth occasionally and now buying De Jong? you gunna try and convert him into a striker or something?

DM Meelan will never be de-mythed.

players worth calling CM in your squad are Montelivo and Constant. even Nocerino played DM role in his previous club. You are obviously not playing all the players in DM position but the players you play in CM position has actually ball technique of a DM and most of them (dejong,Flamini,Strasser,Traore,Flamini,Muntari,Nocerino ) has played DM role for many matches in their career.

They might be CM's, however they're in the category of DM's imo. Just like Khedira is a CM B2B, however is the equivalent of a DM.

mtfootball wrote:They might be CM's, however they're in the category of DM's imo. Just like Khedira is a CM B2B, however is the equivalent of a DM.

How does this make sense? I hope you acknowledge the positional difference of a DM and CM or B2B.

Fact is Milan only have 2 DMs now as Ambrosini and De Jong are our only ones.

Not Flamini, not Constant and definitely not Bakaye who in pre season functioned as our CM.

DMilan not embracing their heritage of DM's

You should never go back on your heritage

mtfootball wrote:They might be CM's, however they're in the category of DM's imo. Just like Khedira is a CM B2B, however is the equivalent of a DM.

So Khedira is a CM, but a B2B, but a DM?

I don't even.............

Yes, we have many players who have DM capabilities, but there are only 2 out and out DMs in the squad. E.g. Nocerino has some DM capabilities, but he's clearly not used as a DM. He scored 10 goals in 36 games last season.

I think mtfootball was trying to characterise CMs as either defensive, attacking or B2B. If I've interpreted that right, it's irrelevant anyway. A defensive CM is still a CM.

EarlyPrototype wrote:

mtfootball wrote:They might be CM's, however they're in the category of DM's imo. Just like Khedira is a CM B2B, however is the equivalent of a DM.

So Khedira is a CM, but a B2B, but a DM?

I don't even.............

Well Khedira is our equivalent of a DM. He does all the hard work etc.

mtfootball wrote:

EarlyPrototype wrote:

mtfootball wrote:They might be CM's, however they're in the category of DM's imo. Just like Khedira is a CM B2B, however is the equivalent of a DM.

So Khedira is a CM, but a B2B, but a DM?

I don't even.............

Well Khedira is our equivalent of a DM. He does all the hard work etc.

Khedira is a B2B. He isn't a DM and he does not play DM for us for god sakes.
Hard work doesn't mean your a DM lol.

De Jong has now officially joined Milan, not DMilan.

Cassius_Case wrote:

Such lies lol. It was me who invented DM Meelan to troll the milan fans (and its clearly worked ).

But theres no myth about it, heck even Boateng used to play DM(ish) for Portsmouth occasionally and now buying De Jong? you gunna try and convert him into a striker or something?

DM Meelan will never be de-mythed.

De-mythed? or.... DMythed?

Embrace the name Milanisti, we can't escape it.

EarlyPrototype wrote:

mtfootball wrote:

EarlyPrototype wrote:

mtfootball wrote:They might be CM's, however they're in the category of DM's imo. Just like Khedira is a CM B2B, however is the equivalent of a DM.

So Khedira is a CM, but a B2B, but a DM?

I don't even.............

Well Khedira is our equivalent of a DM. He does all the hard work etc.

Khedira is a B2B. He isn't a DM and he does not play DM for us for god sakes.
Hard work doesn't mean your a DM lol.

a b2b cm can and often is deployed as a DM, regarding madrid he is used as a b2b cm but he isnt prominent in madrid's attack therefore considering him a DM wouldnt be that crazy as what he does excluding DM's job isnt often noticed

Ninis wrote:

EarlyPrototype wrote:

mtfootball wrote:

EarlyPrototype wrote:

mtfootball wrote:They might be CM's, however they're in the category of DM's imo. Just like Khedira is a CM B2B, however is the equivalent of a DM.

So Khedira is a CM, but a B2B, but a DM?

I don't even.............

Well Khedira is our equivalent of a DM. He does all the hard work etc.

Khedira is a B2B. He isn't a DM and he does not play DM for us for god sakes.
Hard work doesn't mean your a DM lol.

a b2b cm can and often is deployed as a DM, regarding madrid he is used as a b2b cm but he isnt prominent in madrid's attack therefore considering him a DM wouldnt be that crazy as what he does excluding DM's job isnt often noticed

Being capable of playing DM =/= your a DM

Khedira could play DM if asked to, but he isn't one and he doesn't play as one for Madrid.

He doesn't play DM, but he's there instead of a DM. Alonso can't play in the DLP spot on his own, without some sort of DM next to him. However it might change though with Modric.

BiasedMilanFan3 wrote:

Cassius_Case wrote:

Such lies lol. It was me who invented DM Meelan to troll the milan fans (and its clearly worked ).

But theres no myth about it, heck even Boateng used to play DM(ish) for Portsmouth occasionally and now buying De Jong? you gunna try and convert him into a striker or something?

DM Meelan will never be de-mythed.

De-mythed? or.... DMythed?

Embrace the name Milanisti, we can't escape it.

Good one man

Everybodys saying it wrong. Its DM Meelan. not DMilan

I agree with the general consensus that Muntari, Flamini, Traore, Strtasser, Ambrosini and De Jong are DM.

Apart from Montolivo and Constant-who is more of a winger judging by his days at Chievo, all the other Milan midfielders are more or less defensive mids, hence the DMilan tag.

I think Forza is implying we should be called CMilan.

Sorry Forza, I know i'm not helping.

Forza DMiloan!