Cagliari - Milan | Serie A Week 21 | 26.1.2014

Game starts in about 15 minutes.

Official lineups:

Cagliari: Avramov; Pisano, Rossettini, Astori, Murru; Dessena, Conti, Ekdal; Cossu; Sau, Pinilla
Cagliari bench: Adàn, Perico, Del Fabro, Eriksson, Cabrera, Ibraimi, Solinas

Milan: Amelia; De Sciglio, Rami, Bonera, Emanuelson; De Jong, Montolivo; Honda, Kaka, Robinho; Balotelli
Milan bench: Gabriel, Coppola, Abate, Mexes, Constant, Cristante, Muntari, Birsa, Pazzini

Yeah, I'm here... no chat... oh well. I'll comment here.

Kaka should have gotten a rest imo

Would have been interesting to see Honda start central, since that is his natural position.

We need to come back after our loss against Udinese, a win here will boost our confidence.

If we win today we'll be 4 points away from 5th due to Roma beating Hellas

4pts from 5th that almost sounds good   

I'm just trying to find a silver lining whenever i can

Wait until Essien reveals his real age to be 45. Silver lining: could've been 46.

Good to see Rami in the starting line-up. Mexes seems to be really out of favor... to Monaco perhaps?

Also, surely Abate is injured or something, because Scrubmanuelson was proven crap right in front of Seedorf's eyes vs. Udinese.

I have no clue on Abate, he was injured mid December iirc and it was said that he would be back in 3 weeks :/

Amelia such a bad pass

What the hell

Emanuelson cross count:

1 attempted
0 successful

Robinho shot count:

3 attempted
0 successful

ROBINHO WHAT THE ACTUAL FU*K

That 1-2 between Honda and Kaka was beautiful, but Robinho

Balo needs to cut this rubbish out

Balo should have passed it to Honda.

Chat is open btw

FFS that dramatic comeback

Balo
Pazzo
Seedorf

Although our win came in the last minutes, I thought we played really well today. We created many chances, we just couldn't finish them off. Our defending wasn't that bad, there goal came from a GK blunder.

Seedorf

Seedorf is the most succesful Serie A manager with a 100% win record

Robinho and Kaka are way past it both look clueless on the ball most of the time...I want to see Sapo given a try in place of one of them and put Honda central

nichabr wrote:Robinho and Kaka are way past it both look clueless on the ball most of the time...I want to see Sapo given a try in place of one of them and put Honda central

I agree with this. Both Kaka and Robinho should either be subs or rotation players. Also, Honda's best performances always came from the centre; his ability is limited on the right.

Rather daft writing off who has been our best player in the past month or two after two average games. If we are going to be so quick to allocate what Kaka's position should be, we should look back into the reaction of his signing, to which was met with lukewarm reception-one of them including me. Even tonight he was the only one linking the attack to midfield well.

Fatigue-has been the obvious link to his recent 2 performances, given the physical responsibility that has been on his sinewed legs, showing all the signs of overplaying.

Robinho on the other hand can be a useful threat on change of tangent needed yet has problems with inconsistency, and serves little use to our Starting XI.

As for the match itself, despite finding positives in the previous 2 Seedorf bouts, this one was almost unwatchable. Points have been made on our defensive blunder from Bonera-Amelia yet as a whole the team looked thoroughly uncomfortable on the ball, often resorting to aimless crossing and passes within the final third. Cagliari on the other hand had a much better plan in exploiting spaces to which were created from our poorly functioning dual-pivot. Montolivo does not have the pace or defensive prowess in his legs to cover such ground in a role that will not suit him.

Seedorf's subs which did NOT actually change the game, were more incidental to the actual change needed than than being drastic. Yes, Pazzo scored yet the two goals out of a moment of individual brilliance does not excuse our obliviousness to attack from a rather weak Cagliari. Positives defensively are our increased movement within the box, opting for reactions to balls in the air rather than being static. Mattia De Sciglio has summed up his fantastic form with another consistent performance while Rami has looked quite solid. We do need Rami to use his physical authority more and cover more ground rather than zonal interceptions. Bonera-Zapata are a walking disaster individually.

Balotelli despite the set-piece goal needs to better his movement and quit being so wasteful, as a player he needs much work before we can even speak of him reaching world class levels. Such an enigmatic yet frustrating player to watch. Cannot build the side around him.

Pazzo is Pazzo. Clutch and intelligent, can actually finish his chances. The roundhouse used to bury the nigh impossible chance was absolute genius.

Work needed to the system is the connection between midfield and defence which is strange considering our high line and pressing. Ball retention must compliment the improved movement as often we lack composure within the 4-2-3-1.

Seedorf is yet to acquire the staff he actually needs to work his philosophy and is quite obviously opting for long term changes rather than a band-aid. His response to changes within the game need to improve yet this 2nd half of the season will serve as the complete learning process.

4-2-3-1 is a mere semantic and will not provide miracles. Yet it will provide the blueprint to a more attacking side who also choose to press and actually bring some urgency into our midfield transition, to which we are sorely lacking.

Cannot wait for Torino, perfect game to test our incremental ideas, despite them being excellent in big games.

I think balo misses next game due to YCs, pazzo will step in and do what matri could not