Milan - Barça. Today at 20:45

Tata brought all 22 available players. Will be interesting to see who starts at the back, who starts among Xavi-Cesc- Iniesta, and who starts upfront among Pedro-Alexis if Messi is fully recovered and starts the game.

I would like to see Bartra and Pique at the back, Xavi and Iniesta in midfield and Alexis on the right. Everything else as you can probably guess.

If Messi shouldnt be risked, Pedro on the left and Neymar in the middle.

Regardless of who plays, I expect the same struggle as last season. Thankfully they no longer have Boateng, but we still have to defend well on the counter attacks and avoid giving away set peices.

If you expect to struggle , then what should we expect ? lol

Amelia , Matri , Robinho , Birsa , Muntari , Constant . They are going to play tonight , 99% from the start. Barcelona will need to press hard when we have the ball in front of your half of the field and that will be it , imho. We are mediocre with the ball against good pressing and it will show , especially if Tata instructs his players to stay / play / press higher up the pitch . We struggle hard against teams who invade our half to press and close down spaces when we have the ball near there.

You would also be wise not to give us just one option to attack and by that i mean on the counter. It would be smart to let the likes of Muntari play , trust me , lmfao . We trully suck when caught in an unnorganised manner on the counter and if i was a Barca fan , i would like the team to exploit this .

Anyway , i hope for a decent game first of all , since it really doesn't matter that much who takes the 3 points other than prestige reasons. We will have our chances to take at least a point of this match , at least i hope the game will be open when Kaka and Balotelli come in..

Whatever the outcome of the two games , we all know it's going to be Barcelona and Milan that will progress in the end , so here's to a good game above all.

If all the games against Milan taught me anything its that it doesnt matter who play, your plan is repeatable. More important than individuals is the team and its organisation and structure which I am quite sure Allegri will get right.

But yes, your correct. We must press. I think Serie A teams struggle with it generally and Milan are no exception. Zapata is a disaster waiting to happen with the ball and it would be criminal not to put him under severe pressure.

But you can't press if the opposition makes a 50 meter clearence every time they touch the ball...

Hey , that's not fair FreeCat. It doesn't happen every time , it happens when it's not possible to begin a counter under severe pressure. It's the simplest counter pressure tactic available and since we lack the quality we used to have in the backline , it's normal for some players to do so.

In any case . Milan doesn't have nowhere near the same quality like Barcelona these days and it's only normal we will try to break your game first .It's up to you too , to not go empty handed back home .

The Franchise wrote:If all the games against Milan taught me anything its that it doesnt matter who play, your plan is repeatable. More important than individuals is the team and its organisation and structure which I am quite sure Allegri will get right.

But yes, your correct. We must press. I think Serie A teams struggle with it generally and Milan are no exception. Zapata is a disaster waiting to happen with the ball and it would be criminal not to put him under severe pressure.

Yes , it has been repeatable as long as your own game has been repeatable. Since you've changed a bit lately , i don't expect things to be the same as last time. More importantly , any plan depends on the quality available and it's suspect at best in our case.

We can even exceed expectations and Amelia cost us the whole game in the next chance. It's very difficult to have expectations when you play with half a team , although i already expect to have a much better 2nd half when Kaka/Balotelli get in , at least i hope they will.

Not sure how the game will unfold tbh , you have the quality necessary to finish the game from the first half , whilst we tend to go all in the 2nd . I suppose we will try the usuall we've been doing against you , but we will need to attack properly this time , since imo you too are not that compact at the back like before.

All in all , i expect Barcelona to have the upper hand in the game , even though i guess we should have our chances to take something from the game , especially when Balotelli gets in.But for what it will account in the end ... with the forwards for the majority of the game being Matri and Robinho , two players that not only they can't press but also can't score to save their lives , i don't really know..

free_cat wrote:But you can't press if the opposition makes a 50 meter clearence every time they touch the ball...

If thats what they do, then fantastic. You cant play accurate passes for counter attacks with clearances.

Only Zapata does that more than often. I suppose there could be the odd occasion when it will be necessary as well , but that's about it . We don't play american football , even with the players we have .

The thing we have become predictable and vulnerable without our best players is where we regain the ball and try to build inch by inch from the back. We don't have the quality necessary . It's easy to close down and riskfull to see through , before the ball passes the middle of the park . That's where you need to press for your lives , not when you lose the ball near our penalty area and Zapata out of fear fires it away , lmfao.. to be fair , sometimes players have to do this , even when you have certain instructions. Depends on how the player sees the situation i suppose , but in any case , that's not something we preffer doing or even usually do .  

It's different blasting the ball away and trying a long ball from distance , even when the cause of any of these two options was to escape pressure. Both things should happen tonight , but it won't be the same occasion each time. We will try and escape pressing within our own game and that's pass by pass , even though i don't suppose we will have the ball like we are used to , but anyway.

If we are able to do it right and that will depend on your pressing mostly , it remains to be seen.

Barcelona line-up (official): Valdes - Alves Pique Mascherano Adriano - Xavi Busquets Iniesta - Alexis Messi Neymar

Mascherano and pique over bartra!!

Please Tata... so poor.

Hopefully no injuries for Adriano and Messi.

free_cat wrote:Mascherano and pique over bartra!!

Please Tata... so poor.

Bartra possibly rested for Clasico?

Would also have played Cesc over iniesta, I'm fine with Alexis, let's see if we can take advantage of his awesome form and he can finally do anything of merit in a big game.

Thank god for that being offside.

we are a funny team sometimes...

And we concede.

watch how we are going to have next to zero shots on target for a whole half time

My god Messi that balance

We should be losing tbh. I can't fathom how on earth they allowed Messi to have that much space. When he received the ball there was no one in a 5 meter radius.

Sanchez should've made that 2-1.

and not to mention that we are as predictable as always.... same plan, same execution

Tactically we seem to be building on the Tito tactics. Messi and Alexis swap roles quite often, and I'd be interested to look at a heat map because it looks to me that Messi has played more time on the right wing than on the center. In fact i twas coming from the right wing that Messi received the pass to score the goal. And Alexis' best chance came while playing as the 9. Alves playing a role similar to the 'cover the entire wing' one.

Pique and Masche are both awful today. Wouldn't mind either to come off, or both.

Neymar needs to work on his finishing.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Neymar needs to work on his finishing.

It is not so much his finishing that can be worrisome as as his obsession to score a Hollywood goal. He had all the time in the world to take a touch and get a better angle on that last chance but decided to volley.

Poor choice.

this is painfull

we are ridiculous. milan are barely pressing and we are a disaster ready to happen