well seems like where going to need wheelchairs to bring players to the pitch this weekend! http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/feb20r.html
Ronnie and Sheva choose very awkward moment to get injured. We provided Cagliary with a needed boost up (a draw after countless losses) so this time around we shouldn't be that nice.
What about Pato - isn't he available? Play Pippo as sole striker with Seedorf and Pato behind. I f Pippo can't play, then have Pato with Seedorf and ?
As of 2/20/09, Stats are from Serie A (08/09 Season) Pato -> 11 Goals + 4 Assists / 24 Games (1604 Minutes) Played Kaka -> 11(4 P.k) Goals + 4 Assists / 20 Games (1784 Minutes) Played Ronaldinho -> 7(2 P.k) Goals + 3 Assists / 20 Games (1416 Minutes) Played Becks -> 2 Goals + 2 Assists / 7 Games (577 Minutes) Played Pippo -> 2 Goals + 0 Assist / 12 Games (411 Minutes) Played vs Acquafresca -> 9(2 P.k) Goals + 0 Assist / 23 games (1541 Minutes) Played .
Here are the 20 called up players of Carlo Ancelotti for the match against Cagliari: Abbiati, Dida, Antonini, Bonera, Favalli, Jankulovski, Kaladze, Maldini, Senderos, Zambrotta, Ambrosini, Beckham, Emerson, Flamini, Pirlo, Seedorf, Inzaghi, Pato, Ronaldinho, Viudez. Unavailable players: Kalac, Mattioni, Nesta, Gattuso, Borriello, Kakà, Shevchenko.
MILAN: Abbiati; Zambrotta, Bonera, Maldini, Favalli; Pirlo, Flamini, Jankulovski; Beckham, Seedorf, Inzaghi. pato had picked up a little knock as well, so no kaka, borriello, pato or dinho which means beckham and seedorf support inzaghi with flamini, janks, and pirlo in midfield...it will take a minor miracle to win this one
what's wrong with shevchenko? the first half was very disappointing .. it's gonna take individual brilliance from us or collective clumsiness from cagliari to win edit: If i was a Cagliari fan, I wouldn't be happy with some of the offside calls
nobody comments about seedorf putting milan ahead!? 1-0 milan, if we can hold on, this will be a great victory given all the injuries in attack.
E' finita! 1-0 milan nice victory given the tough circumstances. hopefully after a full week, both dinho and pato will be 100% and possibly kaka might be fit to return as well. I'm proud of the boys today, this is a pleasant surprise, i thought for sure we wouldn't score, and since we had no attacking punch, the defense holding a clean sheet is impressive...even if calgiari did look very dangerous at times around our box admittedly
pretty dull game, no wonder with our offensive line-up. i expected a bit more from cagliari but our midfield was quite solid i guess. that's the first clean sheet in i while as far as i can tell, although they had some pretty awesome chances. seedorf got booed a lot from the crowd (until he scored ). he has some problems with the fans, as we can also observe on the board here. also when ancelotti subbed ambrosini for inzaghi the crowd got mad, and i can understand that very well. i know we have no offensive subs at the moment but he could have replaced someone else.
ahh, i see. here's the pagelle from milannews: Super Abbiati, ottimo Pirlo: Seedorf, brutta esultanza Abbiati 7 - Sempre impeccabile, come da mesi: l'unico capace davvero di blindare la porta rossonera. Zambrotta 6 - Potrebbe spingere di più, visto che la chiave è proprio il gioco di fascia: partita "onesta". Maldini 6.5 - Regge bene, a parte qualche svarione, la freschezza di Acquafresca. Bonera 6 - Non ci voleva l'uscita: ricaduta per l'operazione all'ernia inguinale? Speriamo di no. Favalli 6 - Di solito si esprime meglio da centrale: questa volta anche da terzino non fa soffrire il reparto. Flamini 5.5 - Dopo la buona partita di Brema, si torna su standard piuttosto bassi che avevano condizionato la stagione fino ad oggi. Pirlo 7 - In crescita, di condizione e lucidità: si propone, crea, suggerisce. Beckham 6.5 - La solita partita "alla Beckham": grintoso e caparbio come un Gattuso, un distillato di classe come i migliori "piedi buoni" del gioco. Seedorf 6.5 - Match winner, rimasto in campo nonostante un fastidio muscolare: l'esultanza però è una caduta di stile che, seppur giustificabile, andrebbe evitata. Jankulovski 6 - Da centrocampista deve chiaramente coprire meno e spingere di più: i cross però restano imprecisi, un dettaglio non da poco. Inzaghi 6 - Non gli arriva praticamente alcuna palla giocabile: ciò nonostante resta sempre nel vivo del gioco, creando pericoli come solo lui sa fare. abbiati again with a great match. pirlo going back to udinese in serie a in december has had a very good patch of form for almost two+ months straight (yet most people on BS think he is playing "awful" because of one turnover in a friendly...). hopefully he keeps it up...and imho, our fans act like idiots again. seedorf fought off a muscular problem and did his best, delivering the match-winner and they whistle him the whole time. also, given inzaghi was gassed and is 35 years old, at the end we were pretty much playing a 4-5-0, and inzaghi's sub made it a 4-6-0. this is the one time i give a pass to ancleotti for a "defensive" sub with a one goal lead because given the circumstances, it was his best option this time (whereas with a more healthy attack in the past it was a mistake)...and he gets booed mercilessly. sometimes they act like a bunch of spoiled brats...
Watched the delayed taping on FSC - nerve wrecking for sure. We won as a team and although we did get a bit lucky, we played hard all 90 minutes +. Ancelotti again making a fciking idiotitc sub as he did with Genoa and it almost caused us 3 points again - WTF is he thinking? Pippo did well and ran as much as he could and he deserves props for it. Defense was just OK, midfield of Pirlo with Beckham did well and I really hope he stays, at least for the rest of the season, as with our injuries we need people. Where's Pato and Sheva (he does not play and gets injured).
hurt, but i think pato was just a minor injury, he should be back for thursday, yet alone ready for next week in the league
good result,given the crapload of injuries we are dealing with it seems like we cant catch a break i still got mad as hell when that dumbass ancelotti took inzaghi out
It's going to be a heck of second half of the season, if we keep getting injured like that. Roma, Fiorentina and Genoa are not far behind us.
i completely missed the game today, seems like i didnt miss much though. We were always going to struggle without kaka, dinho, pato seeing as they are our three top scorers. I do not get the fan booing towards ancelotti and seedorf either. Seedorf has had to deal with this for a while now. For Ancelotti its been a little more recent. Inzaghi is not capable of playing a full 90, especially when he played in a mid-week as well. I didnt watch the game but it seems to be a perfectly understandable decision.
You had to see Pippo's face when he saw his number on touchlines... But from tactical stand point Pippo was a liability at this this point of the game: can't really run, can't really hold a ball. And who else would you put on the field at this, pretty decisive, moment? Seedorf? Cagliari came ready, thumbs up for them for recognizing the treat, and crowded Seedorf every time he was near the ball, 2-3 people at the same time.