Italian Football Thread

Looks like the battle for 4th spot will be between Udinese and Lazio. Hoping for Udinese to get that spot.
 
Yea , its either Rome or no Lazio for me . There is only one team in the eternal city ! Come on Udinese ! :thumbs
 
Pirlo leaving Milan | Sky Sports | Football | Serie A | News

Heard coach Max Allegri said he wants a player with more defensive characteristics compared to Andrea when sitting in front of the defence.

Well if he wanted a new defensive mid-fielder to sit in front of defense. GET A NEW ONE!!...they still keeping old legs like Guttuso & Ambrosini & maybe sell Flamini who has been useless . Van Bommell is still @ the top of this game, but of my head Milan if they wanted could buy:

- M Diarra from Monaco
- M Sissoko from Juventus
- Tiote from Newcastle
- Yan M'Vila from France
- Sandro or Palacious from Tottenham

All quality fresh young defensive midfielders. Who could compliment Pirlo beautifully i'd say.

Damn i'm stunned how could you sell Pirlo. If Carlo Ancelotti was stll Milan coach, this would never happen. You got to back legends like Pirlo (like what Ferguson did @ United with Giggs & Scholes), the only reason he has been forgotten is because he has been injured alot & Milan has declined. On his day he is still as good as Xavi. This could be on the worst transfers in recent football history.
 
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Martial arts during celebration eh ? :facepalm
 
War said:
Pirlo leaving Milan | Sky Sports | Football | Serie A | News

Heard coach Max Allegri said he wants a player with more defensive characteristics compared to Andrea when sitting in front of the defence.

Well if he wanted a new defensive mid-fielder to sit in front of defense. GET A NEW ONE!!...they still keeping old legs like Guttuso & Ambrosini & maybe sell Flamini who has been useless . Van Bommell is still @ the top of this game, but of my head Milan if they wanted could buy:

- M Diarra from Monaco
- M Sissoko from Juventus
- Tiote from Newcastle
- Yan M'Vila from France
- Sandro or Palacious from Tottenham

All quality fresh young defensive midfielders. Who could compliment Pirlo beautifully i'd say.

Damn i'm stunned how could you sell Pirlo. If Carlo Ancelotti was stll Milan coach, this would never happen. You got to back legends like Pirlo (like what Ferguson did @ United with Giggs & Scholes), the only reason he has been forgotten is because he has been injured alot & Milan has declined. On his day he is still as good as Xavi. This could be on the worst transfers in recent football history.
Click to expand...
It's the right thing for both parties. Pirlo's in a position where he's no longer guaranteed a place in the starting lineup and a player of his quality is wasted on the bench.

Allegri's transformed the way their midfield and attack work compared to how it was under Ancelotti. Under Ancelotti, they had Pirlo as the regista being the creative hub of the team and worked around him. Under Allegri, they have Ibra as the fantasista up front working his magic. He's tried fitting the two of them into the side at times but this has often resulted in Pirlo playing a slightly wider role a la Iniesta.

While the likes of Ibra, Robinho, Pato, Cassano etc. are very creative up front, they leave a lot to be desired defensively so Allegri did the clever thing and beefed up their midfield with a bit of muscle in the likes of Boateng and van Bommel.

Pirlo doesn't fit into the equation anymore but he's exactly what Juve need at the moment, so it's not all bad.
 
Auwais said:
It's the right thing for both parties. Pirlo's in a position where he's no longer guaranteed a place in the starting lineup and a player of his quality is wasted on the bench.

Allegri's transformed the way their midfield and attack work compared to how it was under Ancelotti. Under Ancelotti, they had Pirlo as the regista being the creative hub of the team and worked around him. Under Allegri, they have Ibra as the fantasista up front working his magic. He's tried fitting the two of them into the side at times but this has often resulted in Pirlo playing a slightly wider role a la Iniesta.

While the likes of Ibra, Robinho, Pato, Cassano etc. are very creative up front, they leave a lot to be desired defensively so Allegri did the clever thing and beefed up their midfield with a bit of muscle in the likes of Boateng and van Bommel.

Pirlo doesn't fit into the equation anymore but he's exactly what Juve need at the moment, so it's not all bad.
Click to expand...

Ha hmm you know i tried hard to find something to disagree with here my friend, but i couldn''t since this all makes perfect sense.

Just one point on the section in bold i highlighted. You say @ times this season when Allegri has tried to play both Pirlo & Zlatan together it has resulted in etc etc. But if i recall correctly, Pirlo has played so little this season & they few times he has played i dont recall Milan playing any formation like this:

-------------------Guttuso----------Van Bommell-----Ambrosini/Boateng---------

-----------------------------------------------Pirlo-------------------------------------

-----------------------------Ibrahimovic-------------Robinho/Pato------------------

I think a fully fit Pirlo could still work his magic perfectly in such a formation. Especially if they could get some fresh young defensive mid-fielders to replace Guttuso & Ambrosini...
 
War said:
Ha hmm you know i tried hard to find something to disagree with here my friend, but i couldn''t since this all makes perfect sense.

Just one point on the section in bold i highlighted. You say @ times this season when Allegri has tried to play both Pirlo & Zlatan together it has resulted in etc etc. But if i recall correctly, Pirlo has played so little this season & they few times he has played i dont recall Milan playing any formation like this:

-------------------Guttuso----------Van Bommell-----Ambrosini/Boateng---------

-----------------------------------------------Pirlo-------------------------------------

-----------------------------Ibrahimovic-------------Robinho/Pato------------------

I think a fully fit Pirlo could still work his magic perfectly in such a formation. Especially if they could get some fresh young defensive mid-fielders to replace Guttuso & Ambrosini...
Click to expand...
Yeah, I thought of that as well. That's where he used to play prior to Ancelotti moving him back into a deeper role.

But it looks like they're trying to replace him with someone more dynamic, the likes of Asamoah, Hamsik, Fabregas, Sandro and Essien.

I'm not sure you'd get the best out Ibra in that role though, since he likes having space vacated behind him so he can drop deep. Barca had problems last season when they tried a variation of 4-2-4 with Pedro on the right and Messi in behind Ibra. They ended up getting knocked out of the CL by Inter when they probably would have done better benching Ibra and playing Messi in that central role alone up front like this season.

I'm not saying it's the right decision by Allegri but you can see why he's doing it. The Milan side might suffer from the problems Mancini's Inter had without a regista in their side.

Here's a good post about it from another forum I post on:

plays are designed at midfield, not in the 3\4. and there's a simple reason for this. the higher up the pitch u go, the smaller becomes the pitch. the higher up the pitch u go, the more pressure u have to deal with.
there is only 1 single scheme in football wich is designed to start from the 3\4 in football (pressing on the defender-ball carrier, steal the ball, pass and shot... it's not even a proper scheme actually). schemes are always built at midfield, and if u don't have someone who can do that, it doesn't matter how many quality players u have upfront.

u might aswell have messi, cristiano ronaldo and maradona upfront... if they aren't supported by at least 1 proper passer at midfield, it becomes relatively easy to neutralize them. all u have to do is shift your defensive line higher up the pitch. by doing this u increase the pressure on the attackers and deprive milan of any depth whatsoever. with this simple adjustment u force milans strikers to drop back, shorten the distance between your defensive line and your midfielders and make it extremely difficult for ibra, robinho, pato and cassano to do their magic.

this way u have milan's forwards having to work in a very tiny space, stepping on their own teammates toes... in a small area crowded with opponents (by decreasing the distance between the defensive line and midfield, the opponent's filter at midfield becomes pretty much a wall).

i know this might sound to u a bit too easy and simplicistic, but trust me, it really is. u milanisti might not be aware of this coz u've always had a regista for the last 10 years, but ask any inter fan, they'll know exactly what i'm on about here.
this has indeed been the major issue of mancini's inter (or ibra's inter, if u like). all inter's major losses in that period came because of this very simple expedient.

and in milan's case this is going to be even more of a problem, coz, even though that inter didn't have a proper regista, they certainly didn't lack good passers and brains at midfield (stanko and cambiasso).... wich can't be said about a flamini-van bommel-gattuso midfield (or a flamini-van bommel-ambrosini midfield).

just by staying there, even without doing anything at all, a regista gives depth to the team. he stretches the pitch and gives his teammates in attack more space to work with with his bare presence. the only way u can achieve this result without a regista is by lining up very offensive sidebacks (on both sides) or by lining up side midfielders.... and u don't have any of theese.

next season coaches will strategize against milan. and it will be much easier than before. u will see many teams facing u with a high defensive line. many teams putting much pressure on your defenders\ball carriers (there won't be pirlo anymore helping them to build a play, so the opponents will try to exploit this situation).
u won't be able to stretch the pitch on a vertical line, because u don't have a single passer at midfield and u also don't have several threats coming from the sidelines (wich would be the only alternative to a regista in order to force the opponent's defensive line to stay deep).

u can quote me if i turn out to be wrong next season... but i'm sure i won't turn out to be wrong on this one.
Click to expand...

We'll just have to see whether they replace him properly and how they do next season before we can judge whether it was the right decision or not.
 
Ye ha nice post & ye i'll be watching with keen interest to see who they replace him with & how they good next season. Since as you said in that post, teams will CERTAINLY employ strategies vs Milan next season to expose the lack of Pirlo (proper passer).

One indicator i will look @ is how Pirlo performs for Italy. Since i can certainly see him playing in a more advanced role now in Italy's mid-field in something like this:

----------------Aquillani/Montolivio--------Motta------De Rossi-----------------------

------------------------------------------Pirlo----------------------------------------------

-------------------------Pazzini---------------------Cassano-----------------------------

If he does well en route to Euro 2012 in this advanced role. Milan will look dumb next season selling him ha..
 
You saw the difference at the World Cup when Pirlo replaced Montolivo against Slovakia and Italy were much more dangerous going forward.
 
Udinese in the CL! :D

Can remember the last time they qualified, they had Toto Di Natale up front with Iaquinta and were a goal away from the knock-out stages.
 
What a shame really if that move was to materialize , I was totally expecting Carlo to make his comeback to the Stadio Olimpico . :(
 
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