MilanLab - News about Injuries and Suspensions

dostoevsky wrote:Just play Mastour and be done with it. The kid can't do worse than what we've been doing.

Absolutely. And Pacifico, etc. while we're at it.

The fact is that despite being the primavera coach last season, Inzaghi has done less for our youth development than his predecessors.

The way our central defenders are dropping like flies he might actually have to.

Reality: Zaccardo makes ten straight team sheets.

dostoevsky wrote:The way our central defenders are dropping like flies he might actually have to.

Reality: Zaccardo makes ten straight team sheets.

Eventually it will come to Zaccardo - Zapata - Mexes - Bonera

Worst Milan back 4 in history?

MDS out for the season

great

Abate is out for at least two weeks, ruling him out of our clash with Juventus.

superb

Both Montolivo and De Jong are ruled out of our game against Hellas Verona.

But Van Ginkel has been injured so often that we don't need to pay the 1 million euro fee for his loan, so we've got that going for us, which is nice.

Milan would be better off hitting the reset button on the club, selling everybody and playing a bunch of kids at this point in time

Wouldn't even mind that. At least losing every game 7-0 would be entertaining for the neutrals

Cruijf wrote:Wouldn't even mind that. At least losing every game 7-0 would be entertaining for the neutrals

What is staggering is that we have given extremely few chances to young players in the first team. Nobody thinks that playing whole team of kids is going to win us anything, but now is the time to gradually integrate the next generation into the first team. I refuse to believe that we don't have better defenders in our primavera team than some our first team players.

My point is that whilst we cannot afford to invest heavily in our current playing group, we should still be doing the same decent thing that any responsibly managed club in the world would do as a matter of course - replace old, past-it players with young, high-potential players.

High potential is the key word though, I think the fact that three straight managers have refused to use youth is more of an indication our youth just suck.

I'd still like to see them though, because as at least when they play and inevetably screw up they'll learn and get better, something that we won't see from Bonera or Zaccardo.

Cruijf wrote:High potential is the key word though, I think the fact that three straight managers have refused to use youth is more of an indication our youth just suck.

I'd still like to see them though, because as at least when they play and inevetably screw up they'll learn and get better, something that we won't see from Bonera or Zaccardo.

I strongly dispute this. What really happened is this: 3 managers in a row made extremely poor choices in putting players like Bonera and Zaccardo on the field. This denied our youth players an opportunity to bridge the gap from primavera to first team. I refuse to make so-called "poor quality youth players" a scapegoat for poor management when there is no evidence of this fact. The situation is quite the opposite. It is completely and utterly beyond believable that 3 seasons of youth teams have produced only 1-2 players better than Essien. The myth of our "poor quality youth players" is an untruth. A falsification. A blatant lie if there ever was one. It's an excuse to justify poor management and I won't have it at all.

Honestly I don't think assuming our youth are world class until proven otherwise is the logical approach here. Look at Inzaghi. He's a man that's clearly run out of ideas and just has no clue what to do to improve the teams condition.

Do you really think he wouldn't turn to the players he coached if they were any good?

Do you really think Seedorf, who apparently was fired for wanting to change too much, wouldn't have turned to our youth if they were any good?

Do you really think Allegri, who showed both at Cagliari and Juve his willingness to use youth, wouldn't have turned to our Primavera if they were any better than what he had?

I just find it very difficult to believe.

I agree with you , Cruijf .

I've shared this opinion for quite some time now and i rather not repeat it in length here once more , though yes , Milan's primavera remains at best your average primavera . Though , to be fair . We have improved in the last couple of years. that's a facht. However. Even in it's best years and that was ages ago , it only produced precious little - let's say- , 1st-team quality youngsters.

I mean lel , you only need to look at the results , since who even remembers now who was the last one . 1 De Sciglio

You could also count in the ones who returned , Abate , Antonelli , Antonini , Matri or Borriello ... even then , it only proves the essense of it : Mediocrity . It is so undeniably true , that i personally don't see the reason defending such a point. I mean what the hell , pre 2008 that Borriello and Antonini got back to MIlan , everybody laughed and mocked the notion of playing any of our primavera. Everybody and their mother's mother knew our primavera players wasn't on par with the best of Italy at least , let alone world famous youth academies-B-teams. They were this bad and the then primavera players are your definition of mediocrity today. Check the afforementioned names ^^ (we could also add the now forgotten Donadels and Donatis of this famous bunch and many others who were beyond our level of expectations anyway)

Finally , there's one very serious , criticaly important matter which both of you didn't drop on the table of this discussion . The power of the contract. The contract. When you're paying folks like Muntari and Essien and Zaccardo and Bonera and Robinho and fast-forward = all the finished grandpas we've been paying all these years , well ; you can't afford time to the majority of youth , regardless of the name of the coach.

Nobody does that , nobody ever did that. When the management gives you players worth millions , you can't even neglect them in their face , hate it or not , the coach plays them. Check Inzaghi's words a while ago , "there's a reason i play Muntari and Essien" , guess what the reason is. They pay such players too much to play a youngster in their stead.

But EVEN THEN. Our primavera is pretty mediocre anyway. I'd take maybe 1-2 of them at best , right now. And certainly for the bench. (which counters me picking them in the first place , cause let's face it , they need to play to grow)

EVEN IF our primavera is the worst youth team in the whole of Serie A, they are not worse than Essien.

But let's not speculate when we can just look this stuff up...  the current Milan Primavera currently sit at the top of the ladder in their group. The top. #1 Numero uno.

More to the point, we can't look at the 1st team and say "oh, look at this team sheet, only 1 of the primavera players made it in" and then use this as proof to say that the primavera are poor. That's not proof of anything.

However, based on my knowledge of the respective quality of our first team and our primavera team, my opinion is that this is poor management on the part of everyone involved.

Forza wrote:EVEN IF our primavera is the worst youth team in the whole of Serie A, they are not worse than Essien.

Really? You're VASTLY underestimating the importance of experience I think and VASTLY overestimating the impact a fresh kid can have.

Cruijf wrote:

Forza wrote:EVEN IF our primavera is the worst youth team in the whole of Serie A, they are not worse than Essien.

Really? You're VASTLY underestimating the importance of experience I think and VASTLY overestimating the impact a fresh kid can have.

Firstly, let's not overlook the rest of what I wrote above that is cut from your quote - our Primavera is objectively one of the best in the country at the moment.

To answer your scepticism: Am I overrating our youth? No. Essien is rubbish, that's proven. If the only impact the young player has is being completely anonymous, he still will have bettered the "Essien standard". In fact, I think you're overrating Essien.

Once again, there seems to be this paradoxical idea that we can't give "fresh kid" Primavera players game-time because they don't have enough experience. Of course they're inexperienced! They haven't been given a chance to play!

We need to give the young players an opportunity to improve in first team conditions in order for the team to progress.

Playing older, stopgap players is what we have done so far and it has comprehensively failed. So why keep doing it? These types of players are generally already well past their peak and descending the downhill right off the edge of a steep cliff. There's no point persisting with such a futile "strategy" - if you can call it that.

In short, the anti-primavera campaign is just a "better the devil you know" argument. In other words, "let's keep doing the same thing and hope we get different results". Isn't that the very definition of insanity?

For any sensible club, it's a no-brainer choice between playing the potentially good or playing the perpetually bad.

Milan have released an update on the condition of Stephan El Shaarawy, saying his metatarsal injury is healing as expected.

The Italian international has been out of action since January with the foot injury, and said this week he’s targeting a Derby della Madonnina return.

It appears that target is still possibe, as the Rossoneri confirm that the striker will have another scan in a month’s time.

“Today, and in line with the times set out after the injury sustained on the 24th of January, Stephan El Shaarawy underwent a specialist visit, which also included x-rays, with professor Niek Van Dijk,” Milan announced on their official website.

“The outcome of the visit was satisfactory and the compound fracture at the base of the fifth metatarsal bone in the right foot is healing.

“The next step is more rest and treatment for around 1 month. At the end of this stage, Stephan will undergo another check-up with a specialist.”

http://www.football-italia.net/63801/milan-%E2%80%99el-shaarawy-healing%E2%80%99

El Shaarawy wrote:Milan have released an update on the condition of Stephan El Shaarawy, saying his metatarsal injury is healing as expected.

The Italian international has been out of action since January with the foot injury, and said this week he’s targeting a Derby della Madonnina return.

It appears that target is still possibe, as the Rossoneri confirm that the striker will have another scan in a month’s time.

“Today, and in line with the times set out after the injury sustained on the 24th of January, Stephan El Shaarawy underwent a specialist visit, which also included x-rays, with professor Niek Van Dijk,” Milan announced on their official website.

“The outcome of the visit was satisfactory and the compound fracture at the base of the fifth metatarsal bone in the right foot is healing.

“The next step is more rest and treatment for around 1 month. At the end of this stage, Stephan will undergo another check-up with a specialist.”

http://www.football-italia.net/63801/milan-%E2%80%99el-shaarawy-healing%E2%80%99

I hope he's not the next Pato.

I hope so too..these injuries are getting more frequent unfortunately..

Forza wrote:Firstly, let's not overlook the rest of what I wrote above that is cut from your quote - our Primavera is objectively one of the best in the country at the moment.

To answer your scepticism: Am I overrating our youth? No. Essien is rubbish, that's proven. If the only impact the young player has is being completely anonymous, he still will have bettered the "Essien standard". In fact, I think you're overrating Essien.

Once again, there seems to be this paradoxical idea that we can't give "fresh kid" Primavera players game-time because they don't have enough experience. Of course they're inexperienced! They haven't been given a chance to play!

We need to give the young players an opportunity to improve in first team conditions in order for the team to progress.

Playing older, stopgap players is what we have done so far and it has comprehensively failed. So why keep doing it? These types of players are generally already well past their peak and descending the downhill right off the edge of a steep cliff. There's no point persisting with such a futile "strategy" - if you can call it that.

In short, the anti-primavera campaign is just a "better the devil you know" argument. In other words, "let's keep doing the same thing and hope we get different results". Isn't that the very definition of insanity?

For any sensible club, it's a no-brainer choice between playing the potentially good or playing the perpetually bad.

But how can you assume all a youth player will do is remain anonymous? He's just as likely (if not more) to make stupid passes, comical errors, or idiotic runs forward.

Again, I understand the mentality of, 'no one can possibly be worse than Essien', but I also firmly believe Pippo is not a complete idiot, however many mistakes he's made. If someone who coached our youth team and did well with them doesn't think anyone we have would do better than Essien, how can we really say otherwise, having never seen them?

I'm all for using youth, but I think your expectations are a bit high. If we replaced Essien and Muntari with the best two midfielders in our Primavera, I can't see them doing any better.

You have to remember in the last five years the best player our academy has produced is MDS, and we're seeing now he's hardly a better option than Bonera.

Young =/= better, especially when three different managers have said otherwise, one of them a former youth coach.

But again, we won't really know until we see them used, which I am in favor of. I just don't have particularly high hopes.

Menez has been suspended for four games as a result of his tirade against the officials.

Abate and Mexes will also miss the Napoli game due to an accumulation of yellow cards.

Niang has successfully undergone surgery after sustaining a metartarsal injury. His condition will be reassessed in six weeks.

Feel so bad for Niang :/ hopefully, he recovers well and gets a fair chance to prove himself.

Antonelli is out for two weeks with a hamstring injury.