Milan v Napoli

Anyone remember that scene from Inception where the father was on his deathbed and all the son could make out was one word?

"Disappointed"

Flamini... If anything could make me want him out more, it was this. His handball could've easily given Napoli a deserved penalty, and his red card effectively ruined our chances of finishing second.

El Shaarawy wrote:Anyone remember that scene from Inception where the father was on his deathbed and all the son could make out was one word?

"Disappointed"

Well said, very well said.

ES didnt come on cox he might get booked and miss juve game??

shamr9pato wrote:ES didnt come on cox he might get booked and miss juve game??

The last time ES was booked, was back in November iirc. Wouldn't make sense to bench him now

Besides this game is more important than Juve

You have to stop playing SES on that position he is CF...this is destroying him, when I see him on the left side and wing it kills me even thou I am not milan fan

He's not a centre forward, he's played his entire career cutting in from the left wing, whether at Padova or his entire time at Milan. Haven't had time to watch the match yet, I'll download it tonight, however the decision to rest El Shaarawy for this match to ensure that he is available for the Juventus clash is justifiable in my eyes. One could argue that this is the more crucial match as a head to head, however Napoli are a side that we could feasibly have beaten even without the Pharoah in the line-up, where as it is difficult to see us pulling the double over Juventus without SES playing. In any case, the kid has barely had a rest all season, so hopefully he'll be ready to tackle Juventus head on next week now having had this break.

Not sure if resting SES was wise from Allegri. On one hand, we didn't get the 3pts, but on the other, he will be somewhat rested for the Juve game. We have to get at least a draw out of the Juve game now, otherwise Fio might catch us.

Flamini has no place in Milan's starting XI. He's another Muntari - drifts forward to grab a goal, but doesn't do the job he's meant to in midfield.

I didn't saw that any of you talk about that ref from last night. Second game in a row ref's are killing us. Every time that Napoli lost ball that was foul for them. It was as if they were playing basketball where every contact is a foul. And btw that was not a red card.
On the other side, we didn't deserve to win. Keeping SES on the bench was a bad idea. Playing Robinho was a terrible idea. Keeping him on the pitch over 70 minutes after he played terrible like always was terrible decision. We kissed goodbye to second place and the third place is now in jeopardy. Against Juve we must rest SES and Montolivo because we don't have nothing to hope for in Turin. It is painful to watch when we play like this.

celikmilan wrote:I didn't saw that any of you talk about that ref from last night. Second game in a row ref's are killing us. Every time that Napoli lost ball that was foul for them. It was as if they were playing basketball where every contact is a foul. And btw that was not a red card.
On the other side, we didn't deserve to win. Keeping SES on the bench was a bad idea. Playing Robinho was a terrible idea. Keeping him on the pitch over 70 minutes after he played terrible like always was terrible decision. We kissed goodbye to second place and the third place is now in jeopardy. Against Juve we must rest SES and Montolivo because we don't have nothing to hope for in Turin. It is painful to watch when we play like this.

Agree with everything but this. We're Milan, not Pescara ffs.

Fiorentina

ITA1 Fiorentina - Torino
ITA1 Sampdoria - Fiorentina
ITA1 Fiorentina - Roma
ITA1 Siena - Fiorentina
ITA1 Fiorentina - Palermo
ITA1 Pescara - Fiorentina

Milan
ITA1 Juventus - Milan
ITA1 Milan - Catania
ITA1 Milan - Torino
ITA1 Pescara - Milan
ITA1 Milan - Roma
ITA1 Siena - Milan

We mustn't let go of that 3rd place spot, I cannot stress how important it is to win those last 5 fixtures

A really strange match that was both positive and negative in many ways, but mostly left me pleased that we will retain 3rd post Juve, regardless of what happens in that match.

The first half was mostly well played by us. We controlled the game, we were dominant and we looked threatening. However, defensively I was disappointed at the episodes of lack of concentration. It's not like Napoli were brilliant coming forward, but we were slack on 3 occasions. The first was mostly a warning, where Abate was pulled forward out of position, with Napoli getting an overlap and unlucky not to get a penalty for a Flamini handball. Flamini in this instance was too slow to get back tracking his man, never mind Abate being pulled out of position easily. The second instance was the Pandev goal, lo and behold came from essentially the same move, but this time Zapata was forced to move across with Mexes not covering. Finally, a simple long ball where Cavani wasn't tracked by either Constant or Mexes should have resulted with Napoli 2-1 up. For our part, we created some good moves and chances, with Robinho excellent in the build up to the Flamini goal.

The second half was a mixture of half decent play, some confusion and ultimately a red card which resulted in no final push. We weren't awful, but again made many fundamental mistakes both tactical and technical which only meant we were playing an even game, rather than dominating. Neither side really took control and eventually Flamini lost discipline to get sent off. After that we were limited to using Niang and El Sharaawy as wingers and sitting deeper than ideal, while Napoli seemed content to draw.

Tactically, there were some interesting features to the match. Napoli didn't do too much to hurt us other than overlap on their left wing, which is where they were at their most dangerous. Thing is, we should have had this controlled as it wasn't a particularly complex move to manage, but we never did due to lack of tactical discipline and lack of focus.

On our part, Robinho moved between the lines well enough, while Boateng made decent movements, though lacked any end product. Key for us though was Flamini's running from deep to break the Napoli offside or exploit the space between their defence and midfield. I think had he not been sent off, El Shaarawy would have been allowed to play higher up the field and stretch the Napoli backline. Unfortunately, Flamini's red card meant we had to revert to 4-4-1, a system which prevented us from pressing high.

I'm disappointed as this was a winnable game. However, being 4 points ahead of Fiorentina and not losing more ground to Napoli doesn't leave us in a bad position, although I'd obviously prefer a 7 point lead on Fiorentina and being 1 point behind Napoli.

Player Ratings

Abbiati - A few decent stops, he looked solid last night
Abate - Some decent work tracking back, but was too easily caught out of position last night, one of which was costly.
Zapata - A relatively solid game
Mexes - Mixed some really good tackles and interceptions with some awful moments of concentration and positioning.
Constant - Solid but unspectacular game. Would've liked to have seen him attack more.
Flamini - Some really good runs and a great goal were marred by some awful tracking back and red card.
Montolivo - Dominated in midfield well. He was probably our best player.
Muntari - There were moments where he disappeared, others where he did well. He wasn't bad, but I'd have been happier if he made his presence felt more.
Boateng - Very good movement was marred by no end product. Got injured early unfortunately.
Pazzini - Had no luck with the ref, as he was manhandled much of the match with no freekicks.
Robinho - Decent game, despite one stupid corner. His movement and general technical quality helped us hold the ball up front.
Niang - Generally poor after coming on. He tried to do too much, like take on an opponent when a simple ball could be played, which was to the detriment of his game.
El Shaarawy - Added a little dynamism to our game, but was unfortunate in the circumstances he came on.
De Sciglio - Generally ok after coming on.


P.S- Now I know what writing a long post feels like. Dosto and Arq

celikmilan wrote:I didn't saw that any of you talk about that ref from last night. Second game in a row ref's are killing us. Every time that Napoli lost ball that was foul for them. It was as if they were playing basketball where every contact is a foul. And btw that was not a red card.

No point talking about the referee, because his biggest mistake was not giving a penalty to Napoli at Flamini's blatant handball. There was not a single SERIOUS mistake he made in favor of Napoli though.
And btw, it WAS a red card. Going in with both legs carrying a huge injury risk, don't be so biased.

You also seem to forget that in the last match Fio got a funny red card for pretty much nothing. The penalty calls were questionable but still.. Milan should be the last to cry about the referee this year..

Pls go, we don't need disgruntled Juve fans to point out the obvious.

Love Flamini though, don't know why i just do.

Someone needs to implement Flamini in the next Street Fighter

OMG THAT GIF DOST

El Shaarawy wrote:Someone needs to implement Flamini in the next Street Fighter

hes got stiff competition from pepe and joey barton and now aguero for that..

LMAO! Dost that GIF is epic.

Anyways, I couldn't watch the game because of work. I am going to download it tonight and watch it. We NEED at least a point against Juve or that 3rd place spot is going to be very hard to maintain.

Juve Fan talking about referee.

It must be said that those two images look amazing next to each other.

Let the bro down continue...