This match proves Pazzini should start

I've said OVER AND OVER that we play our best football with Pazzini on the field. I think there is a way to work Balotelli, Pazzini, and SES on the field at the same time. Why not drop Prince to RCM???????? Pazzini is on great form and I feel he deserves first team football.

Milantildeath wrote:I've said OVER AND OVER that we play our best football with Pazzini on the field. I think there is a way to work Balotelli, Pazzini, and SES on the field at the same time. Why not drop Prince to RCM???????? Pazzini is on great form and I feel he deserves first team football.

While he is in great form, Pazzini and Balotelli just won't work. Both are out and out center forwards and SES is best on the wing.

A little bit of healthy competition will only help both of them, and Pazzini will always be our first choice in CL games.

Agreed with ACM, competition will be good for Balo and Pazzini. Just let Balo start in Serie A unless he is injured/suspended for the time being and Pazzini in CL

I don't know, Balotelli actually made a name for himself at RW at Inter.

Balotelli was a physically different specimen in his Inter days; he's sacrificed a degree of acceleration with the ball for strength as he's been moulded from a player more comfortable operating with a centre forward as a reference point to being the very player taking the knocks in the centre of the park himself. Pazzini provides a great hunger for the back of the net and will provide great competition and relief for Balotelli, however given the performances of Boateng and Niang from the right, I see no reason to take Balotelli out of position. This was a match which saw the best from Pazzini, however we will not always have so much control over a match. Throwing both of them on at the same time remains an option when chasing a match in which we have lost our way, however the general play offered by Boateng's movement from the RW into a deeper and more central position as required of the midfield battle was integral to much of the play that Pazzini benefited from this match. I fail to see how placing Balotelli on the right flank would have improved our performance tonight.

This little-known thread is my opinion...

http://www.goallegacy.net/t27578-pazzini-cassano?highlight=Pazzini

In short: Pazzini fills that weight of goals that we were missing from a secondary striker last season.

Last season Ibra was the star of the film, but there was no supporting cast to speak of. In contrast, this year we have SES in the spotlight opposite new arrival Balotelli with a brilliant supporting cast in Niang, Pazzini and Boateng. Not to mention Robinho and Bojan make this quite a remarkable ensemble of attacking talent.

As far as positions go, I think Balo was limited at Inter by his RW role and would be limited on the wing at Milan. You have to consider that Mou's Inter had 2 top shelf strikers in Milito and Eto'o + Pandev on the bench (who is not fantastic, but can't play as a winger either). Whereas, at Milan we have SES and Niang who are at their best on the wing + Boateng who is showing some form on the wing recently. Meanwhile Balo's only real competition for that CF or false-9 role is Pazzini.

I think that it would be a mistake to play both Pazzini and Balo at the same time. It would mean that one of them will be out of position and KPB or Niang will have to be sacrificed. That means the whole team suffers.

For the meantime, I think Balo's cup-tied status might give us a solution to who starts which games.

Personally I think we (Milan fans) are rushing into conclusions a bit when it comes to Balotelli. The man can set his house on fire an elope to Brazil next week for all we know about him.
He is a player with one hell of potential and skill but I need to see him tested in Serie A at least half a season before I start deeming him a given in a starting line-up next season.
Granted he's scored four goals already but one of them was from a penalty which we were lucky to get and at times he's looked static. A bit of the Zlatan syndrome where he gets the ball in a forward push, the team is moving forth and he wants to make a decisive pass while standing on the ball. The flicks, wiggles and shite. It can look technically aesthetic and at times it does work, but during 90 min it can also bring down the whole in efficiency.

I can't help but wonder what the game today against Lazio would have looked like with him starting instead of Pazzini. We played some wonderful football today. Fast-paced, skilful, attacking football which was a joy to behold. There were combinations where we moved with such speed, grace and determination I even forgot to curse when Allegri brought on Robinho. I lost count how many times we moved with just 2-3 passes from own half to Lazio's penalty area.
I don't think we'd have seen the same aggressive runs from the team as a whole if Balotelli would have been on the pitch. Not for a full 90 min.
Same goes with last game against Inter, I wonder what the outcome would have been if Pazzini would have played instead.

I must say I had my doubts about Pazzini. He scored 16 goals in 50 appearances for Inter and 88 goals in 284 games during his whole career prior to Milan. Not a too impressive record for a 28 year old striker. But he's been bloody brilliant when he's played. Not least his effort against Barcelona where he took one for the team and worked very hard in defence.

I think Balotelli should start for now but if it continues over several games to look like it did against Inter in the second half, where quite frankly Balotelli was the worst of all in the starting eleven over the whole game, there's no need to carry on with Balotelli just because it's Mario who drives a camouflage coloured luxury car and cost us a fortune. Then by all means play Pazzini.

Once we signed Balo, I wanted Pazzini out and Paloschi in for the next transfer window, but Pazzini has been impressing lately with his performances against Barca and today against Lazio. He is very good finisher, one that we missed last year as a replacement for Ibra like most of you have pointed out.

Having Pazzini and Balotelli is great because there will be more competition between the two, so we should expect better performances, also, they both have different styles of play and offer different attributes on the pitch; pazzini is a poacher and is always a danger inside the box, while Balo is a faster Ibra but with less authority over other players (he does not shout at others and act bossy, something that I hated about Ibra). We are lucky to have both players on our team. I honestly think that all we are lacking is a good defence (CBs), our midfield will be better next year with the promotion of Cristante and the addition of Saponara. Finally, I want us to give Gabriel a try, I watched 1 or 2 games of him in the U21 WC and he was amazing.

Paloschi was a lost case once he moved from Parma. He has something like 20 goals in 90 games over the last 7-8 season.
I thought it mad when he was sent on loan from Milan.

Comi is a striker for the future. He has 9 goals in 11 games for Reggina this season.

Agreed with you guys, Pazzini has really impressed both on and off the field, even when Balotelli arrived he didn't complain and behaved professionally.

I think Pazzini should start against Genoa as well. We have 4 days between Genoa and Barca so 60 mins for Pazzini won't do any harm. He deserves it. This will also teach Balotelli that he needs to work for his place in the team.

That one play where Pazzini held off 4 defenders and crossed for El Shaarawy in the first half (when el92 headed over) was pretty amazing.

I agree both shouldn't play at the same time. Not only does it provide competition, but you are always going to have dips in form, tactical adjustments and injuries (god forbid), so it's useful to have both.

Great job Pazzo

So proud of him. Not going to lie, I had my doubts about him at the start but he really has been consistent when being played. This is good for him and Balo for some competition.

Pietro Paolo Virdis wrote:Paloschi was a lost case once he moved from Parma. He has something like 20 goals in 90 games over the last 7-8 season.
I thought it mad when he was sent on loan from Milan.

Actually I was basing it off this season alone, he has been playing well.

Great from Pazzo, well deserved. Now Balo and Pazzo must both fight for the CF position, which is great. Also love that De Sciglio is upping it in every damn game! We actually have a full back luxary problem

the return of PAZZOLIVO!!!

Couldn't watch the match ffs

Anyway heard Niang nearly broke the post again pls confirm if true.

Niang indeed hit the post

I did nickname him " Le Poste Destroyeur" after that Udinese match xD

Also, Pazzini probably has the coolest goal celebration in all of football!

MTD, are you thinking that we should move Balo to RW just so we can play Pazzini , cant agree with that. Its just wrong on so many tactical levels.