Other results, highlight to reveal: We might be the only Italian team besides Viola to advance as Juve fcuks up at home, loses 4-1 to BM and who knows about Inter tomorrow. So Juve will focus on the league fully now and our coefficiency for CL drops. If Stutgart wins, Germany will have 3 teams.
can't get fiorentina, they are italian and same countries can't match up until quarters. nice to get through, even if very lucky. back to focusing on the league.
Not necessarily. Highlight to reveal: Wolfsburg is knocked out through a loss to Man United and CSKA has gone ahead to the knock outs. If stuttgart makes it through it would be 2 German teams. Juve can go far in the Europa League and hopefully help our coefficients in those terms.
We didn't play well today. Zurich is just one of those teams that knows how to play pompous, overly confident clubs like Milan and they nearly embarrassed us today. Looking ahead the midfield needs some serious tweaking. We're getting constantly exposed by these athletic clubs that just make our middies look old and decrepit. Beckham's enthusiasm will help but I'm thinking more along the lines of a Hernanes or possibly a Drenthe (even though Drenthe is cup tied.) Bottom line is we need more urgency in Europe. If we draw a top club in the next round one of two things will happen: either it brings the best out of us and we claw our way back into the European forefront or we get obliterated.
my guess is the latter. our midfield got completely overrun in the first half. i didn't see much of the second due to streams crashing, but it looked like bringing flamini helped stop the bleeding some. if we're going to play with 3 forwards, we need some legs in the midfield. seedorf, ambro, and pirlo won't cut it against young athletic teams that want to run and stretch the field. i can't imagine what it will look like if we draw man utd, chelsea,arsenal, or barca. it would be a total bloodbath because our midfield will be nonexistent. our three geriatrics are fine for most serie a games where minnows are content to sit back and defend us and counter, but it just isn't going to work against the top teams in europe.
How the f$% we only get 1 point out of 2 matches against Zurich, while we were better than Madrid and took 4 points from them. Thats the reason why im kinda optimistic about the next round, a good opponent usually makes us better(not counting the inter-debacle) how serious is Silva hurt?
I hope we get Sevilla, maybe Lyon, but basically anyone in Group A, E, or G. It also depends on who we get in January - if we get Hernanes, Rafinha or someone like that then I'd be more inclined to be more OK with Arsenal, ManU and Barca. I would still hate to face Carletto and the Blues.
I don't think we're suddenly crap, but one thing i advise everyone to go back and look at is the play of Ambrosini. It may be because he picked up a knock before the game, but I didn't see him do one thing right. His positioning, timing, aggression, areas where he committed fouls, decision making, possession... I was pissed. Him being the first to be subbed only confirmed what I was thinking. Abate and Antonini both were apparently told to play high up the field, which left our possession desirable, and our attackers were too slow to come help move the ball into the opponents half. Overall, a very tedious and irritating game.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aezZjUYDxQ"]YouTube- Direttastadio 7Gold - (Zurigo-Milan: 1-1) rossoneri deludono[/ame]
sorry I dont speak Italian what was the aboave thing about between the commentators also my heart is glad that Ronny scored and AC progressed
To the ones excited about the possibility of Hernanes, how many of you have actually seen him play a few full games? He's great but I don't think of him as the solution, by any means. If São Paulo let him go (I'm not sure how much they want, but I thought it was around 10 million Euros?) in January -- you can look forward to him not gelling until the very end of the season. I still think it would be a positive step.
i don't know that anyone thinks hernanes is THE answer to our decrepid midfield. most of us think that acquiring his services is a much needed step toward the future. right now we have flamini and abate to provide our midfield with youth and energy. abate seems to be our new right back, so that makes flamini our only midfield spark player. hopefully, becks will help out too in the spring, but our entire midfield needs an overhaul in the coming seasons if we are to remain competitive. hernanes and flamini can be pieces of that project, but i don't think any of us expect them to change our situation on his own.
yeah, gattuso is on the way out and within 3 seasons almost all of seedorf, ambro and pirlo will be gone or on their way out and becks is just a short term solution for depth so he is not just for the current squad. Really, we have a very good midfield against certain opposition still, it's just against athletic and physical midfields, especially if they are quality as well will give us fits. the zurich coach actually had an interesting commentary though before we heap all blame on the midfield being overrun, and it is true as well. In a 4-3-3 the 3 attackers have to do a lot of running and work and come back, and he said that our attackers don't do near as much as say barcelona's do and hence that makes our midfield have a lot more gaps and look worse against quick opposition. So, blame for being overrun isn't just on the midfield fwiw. If we praise the attackers to high heaven when they create and score, we need to also be fair when they have matches where they are not getting back and/or moving well
I partly agree with the above statement by the Zurich manager about how Barcelona`s front 3 work much harder and pressure the ball much more opposed to how are front three play...But besides the formations, how we keep possession, and style of attacking football at times...we still play very differently when we lose the ball... Barcelona have a unique high pressure system that is very complicated and precise...so that they will able to get the ball right back after they lose it.. Now we will pressure, but not nearly as high...we also like to drop men behind the ball..and then counter teams... its a typical Italian style of play.. Now if we were to play the same way Ronaldinho, Borri, and Pato would have to pressure very high... therefore the midfield would have to pressure high to avoid a big gap in the midfield... and the back line would also have to play a high line...Now the front three should do this ...but I dont know if the midfield would be able to sustain pressuring that high throughout the match...We dont keep the ball long enough to tire out the opposition and then steal it away right away... Also the front three dont pressure as high because we drop men back behind the ball and when we do that..they have to also retreat...so when we do when it back they`ll be able to recieve the ball and start a counter... Barcelona and Milan`s style of play when they lose the ball is significantly different... Barca pressure system is quick organized and they double up on the opposition very quickly... We dont play that way....
footage of Ronny at his best, Forza Ronaldinho [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ_0AnRgJtw"]YouTube- Ronaldinho - FC Zurich[/ame]