Michael Essien

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Came into the thread expecting some people to spin this into positive  and say Essien is still great when he isn't.

Nearly left disappointed, but the greek ray of sunlight that is Dante made it all worthwhile

i approve the sarcasm , but in any case , i am simply giving Essien the benefit of the doubt , i don't think there's any wrong in that. Most if not all said the same things about Van Bommel once . Or Stam and Cafu years ago.. e.t.c

Besides , Nocerino left . Essien must try hard to prove worse on the field , so i remain neutral for the time being is all.

Fair enough Dante i can respect that.

Problem is Essien has lost all which made him great.... two ACL tears will do that to you tbf.

He might do a decent job but still think its a waste of time and wages.

I would think there's much better options for you.

•MilanDevil• wrote:@Dante
The 4-2-3-1 can be switched to a 4-3-2-1 without much change in both tactics and player positioning. This allows us a different option when we are having difficulty in attack or even when we become exposed defensively.

So let's say we are playing against Chievo in a 4-2-3-1 . Montolivo-De Jong in the pivot. Do you see any room for Poli ? Yes we can change into 4-3-2-1 to fit Poli , but is it worth it? And if it is , why's not Poli a starter. It's not that simple and i would really worry if we had to change formations just like that.

The thing is , Poli must improve his athletisicm and workrate to fit properly into the 4-2-3-1, before anything. Then comes the question of the formation and since he's not a winger .. at least 1 central midfielder has to be left out. You will either have one of Ses-Kaka-Honda out for Poli in the 4-3-2-1, or Poli in and out in the 4-2-3-1. I personally agree with what Seedorf chose to do , because it seems to me the long term benefits are going to be that much more.

And if it's a game with the christmas tree , say Depolivo in the 3 and we are behind/cant score. We need to get more agressive and Seedorf goes 4-2-3-1. How can you use this 3 into the 2-3-1 , without changing the entire picture of the squad , i am curious. Solely the fact that the defensive midfield gets split into 2 , changes everything in the game. Poli is a faster but less based on technique Montolivo . He will do ok at best on the wing(real winger) and he will do ok at best as an AM. Montolivo is a deep lying playmaker . De Jong , yeah no need to describe. So as you can see , Poli got automaticaly benched with the 4-2-3-1 and with good reason. He's not more important than any of Ses-Kaka-Honda or Montolivo and De Jong and the addition of Essien , may or may not complicate things.

TL;DR :

In a few words , no it's not the same. Without much change is this , from 4-3-2-1 to 4-3-1-2 (in some cases even 4-3-3, the mid.diamond won't break). There yes , ok. But in the 4-2-3-1? You could argue a 4-1-4-1 . When you have 3 central midfielders , you automatically don't have a 4-2-3-1 on the field and with Poli in the 4-2-3-1, one of Montolivo or De Jong will always be out , or should.

It does complicate things now that Essien is here , up to an extent , because less room to join in. The thing is , Poli has the opportunity to work harder and if he's worth it more than the others , he will be playing more than the others eventually , of that i have no doubt. Otherwise , making any changes in tactics or formation for Poli , unless the circumstances of a game demands it , then no , it is no so simple.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Fair enough Dante i can respect that.

Problem is Essien has lost all which made him great.... two ACL tears will do that to you tbf.

He might do a decent job but still think its a waste of time and wages.

I would think there's much better options for you.

there are , but others pay better. It's not that i am jumping out of joy for Essien , not sure how my posts pass on to you all ; it's just that i find it unessaicary and up to an extend unwise to speak against of something before i judge it with my own eyes first. Tbh , i've seen what little i've seen of Essien and yeah , he seems a ghost of the player he has been.

Yet , we are not on the same level as Chelsea or even Real last season. Under the right conditions , Essien can prove usefull. If not , then yeah he would be a waste of time and wages and yes we could have done better , but that goes for almost any bad transfer anyway . Like i said , benefit of the doubt. If it turns badly which is very possible , i suppose you would be right i won't deny it , but what's worth complaining for us Milan fans at least ? when we cannot actually get top players anymore to complain about 2nd rate , seems out of place to me.

I don't know if i sound delusioned or disillusioned , but truth is , all i want is to be supportive and down to earth. Going by realistic terms , we should be ok with Essien for the moment , than let's say Milan had kept Nocerino because they couldn't get anyone. If we could spend more and got Essien , then i would agree with everyone .. i don't think that was the case tho , because we did try for other options first and failed.

He was shit for us as I remember.

the xcx wrote:He was shit for us for I remember.

Well , like i said previously , we are not anywhere close to Real(or Chelsea , dont know what's your team)atm. The same standard of quality isn't present on both teams and Essien for all his past it image , may or may not have it in him to prove something yet. We may be in a very difficult state but Milan is still a challenge for every player and i want to believe Essien is of the same mind.

If he can't adapt or perform , that's obviously the case here , but imo it's a high risk , out of the blue gain for Milan if it works. If it doesn't , we still have players who are already in front of him. Actually , the reasons to at least be neutral like me is more than being against such a move , but i defo get why there's such talk. Obviously..

Once again , if we could have done better then i would join you , but since we couldn't do better and Nocerino turned uselless for us , i won't complain straight away for Essien .

the xcx wrote:He was shit for us as I remember.

What is 'us' in your case, Madrid or Chelsea?

Madrid, I think.

@Dante I meant we can switch formations mid game when our midfield is lacking dynamism or when we are having difficulties breaking the opponent's defence for whatever reason. I believe that Poli can play as a central AM as well since he can link up well with Balo. The good thing about Poli is that he is versatile, this gives a higher chance of playing time for both Essien and Cristante.

"I know Essien quite well," Clarence Seedorf told journalists at a press conference.

"I spoke with him clearly and transparently. We know him as a player and he's a very big positive for us. He'll be a big help.

"I'm happy with Essien's arrival. He'll play in the middle - he can also operate as a full-back but I always like to see players in their best position.

"Maybe it's a good thing [if he's had a sceptical welcome]. If you look at the benches of Real Madrid and Chelsea, there are some great players who are maybe surplus to requirements. I have guarantees regarding Essien. He's a warrior with a lot of experience."

http://www.repubblica.it/sport/calcio/serie-a/milan/2014/01/26/news/essien_rischia_di_saltare-76952791/

According La Repubblica Essien has failed  medical exams.
Knee problems. Now other tests will be decisive.
Gazzetta dello Sport confirms this.

•MilanDevil• wrote:@Dante I meant we can switch formations mid game when our midfield is lacking dynamism or when we are having difficulties breaking the opponent's defence for whatever reason. I believe that Poli can play as a central AM as well since he can link up well with Balo. The good thing about Poli is that he is versatile, this gives a higher chance of playing time for both Essien and Cristante.

Let's take it from the start. I don't think Poli is a viable option for the central attacking midfield position , even as a sub. Not in modern standards at least. He may be creative , but there's one common secret that separates central midfielders that can viably play AM and those who cannot. It's called comfort zone.

Some CM's creativity is almost solely based on that ; in order to be creative and cool and usefull , they need to be in their comfort zone and in football terms that translates into playing behind the am , centraly and deeper the better. Poli fits right under that category, for the moment. CMs like Iniesta who are much more advanced and experienced , have no such issue . Iniesta is actualy an AM who's playing CM with AM targets. And it works because the formation & tactics suit him.

We have a 4-2-3-1 right now. We 100% need a true and pure AM in the AM. End. Otherwise , the flow of our passing game will be restricted to central activity more than it should and it automaticaly transforms into 4-3-2-1 with wingers instead of AMs. Poli is a player who's not comfortable being the main provider of attacking energy and ideas. He needs others in front of him to do that , so he can add to the play with his quality , a complimentary player who helps . Removing that , taking him out of his comfort zone doesn't work , as of now at least. Whenever Allegri moved him elsewhere other than cm , he was not the same player. Sure he again tried to be as flawless as possible , but that's his playstyle , that's what he knows to do.

But on the wings or in the AM position , you don't look for such traits. You look for flair , for fast dribbling , for stamina and workrate ; not delicate dribbling and control and 90%+ passing accuracy. Poli isn't that kind of player and if he does well outside / near the box sometimes with Balo / x player , it's because he will go forward in 1/3 attacks to burst his quality and try to make a chance for the team. Get him to do that all the time and he will fail .

And there's also the fact that Honda or Kaka , even Robinho , are all better than him in AM. Seedorf playing Poli there would be really awkward and would probably raise complications in the dressing room. Almost everything i said , count almost the same for Poli as winger too. There he's maybe more at ease than AM , but the once i saw him looked apathetic , even though it was against Barcelona and he hadn't played much wing in the first place. Still , some things you can tell even with that odd once team and would be the same a thousand times more. His playstyle doesn't suit the wing and he really doesn't look the player who would withstand the effort and work the wing demands. He's no Ronaldo either , lol , so there's not much to say else.

He's a pure CM , with quality and imagination that can be surprising if he has quality to share the burden in front of him , but he's no utility player , yes despite being able to play rightback 2 times a year; what he really is capable of , he compliments the more agressive players in front of him and helps them to reach their in game goals . No AM/wing for Poli , imo at least. Besides he lacks in speed too , tho he's not bad. Let's say in par with most of the team.

I very much disagree that we could drop him in to change the dynamism in the mid by dropping Poli and going 4-3-2-1.If there's a case like that , we should have started this way( in theory ) We will just have more and better possesion , which will defo take points from the flair and dynamism in attack. Here's what Seedorf could be doing if he needs to change things ; drop Poli in for De Jong/Essien/Muntari and play Montolivo in De Jong's place and Poli in Montolivo's , which will add some more quality in the reflow of the ball and maybe some creativity more. Or just rest/replace Montolivo. Changing the formation mid game from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-2-1 , to introduce Poli for different traits into our game , will mean he will either have to play AM/wing , which even Seedorf agrees he wants players to play in their position , or replace De Jong/Montolivo which would make a change in formation needless.

I personally don't think it's a good idea to remove one of Ses-Kaka-Honda for Poli , one of the attacking 3 in general lines , for a cm. It's ok and sometimes smart to do this in their own department , say play with the roles in the 2 or in the 3 , but if you mix them , the result will differ from the original plan to the point it's almost a change in formation , if the player isn't accustomed to the position. I don't think Poli is accustomed to either AM or as Winger.

Poli should stick to what he's good at and keep working to earn playing time , Essien and whatnot . If Essien is going well , he will miss play time tho. But i think Seedorf sees how incompetent we are and he wants to rotate more than Allegri , our players tire too soon because they aren't used to the effort hungry system that is the 4-2-3-1. So i suspect that all will be playing nonetheless , down the road , so we can keep our play as fresh as possible.

Something last , going 4-3-2-1 mid game , can only mean bad news if we were playing 4-2-3-1 anyway. Unless the game is like 3-0 and we want to keep the score intact by passing to the death , i don't really see many obvious benefits , because we go back to missing impactful traits in attack.

Also , i promise to try and stop posting these walls of text. Idk why i do it , it's so boring to type all that , not to mention any of you who read that will need medicine

TL-DR . I don't think it would work like you think it will , because Poli isn't suited to either AM or wing and i doubt he's a utility player , just because RB once or twice a year. Besides , it's better to stick to the 4-2-3-1 and have the players accustomed to it and not the other way around. It's the formation that suits most our players anyway , despite not being used to it's stamina demands , atm at least

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1/1546096_703830269649240_1787393453_n.png

M99 wrote:https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1/1546096_703830269649240_1787393453_n.png

I wish his spell goes well at milan. I have affection for the player and the club.

New favourite player found, even though he lost everything that made him good   I can finally let flamini go..

Dem takles


I also know why Arq hates Essien

#jahbless

i cant deny essien is a great player but i mean what i hate is that, after 2-3 years we will be probably talking about essien's replacement.

fortunately though, we have allegedly acquired fernando of porto. which is good. so we have de jong, him and fernando.

in addition we got montolivo and poli which means, we want to see nocerino and muntari kicked out.

Michael Essien has revealed he left Chelsea for AC Milan as he wasn’t getting enough game time under manager Jose Mourinho.

The Ghana international, who has made just 12 appearances in all competitions for the Blues this season, spent eight-and-a-half years with the Premier League club before joining the Italian giants on a 17-month deal.

“Why did I play so few games this season? I don't know, it was Mourinho's decision,” Essien told reporters. I know in Serie A the atmosphere is not as hot as in England, but it doesn't matter to me, as long as I play and we win matches.”

The 31-year-old is looking forward to playing under Clarence Seedorf at the San Siro, while he has also revealed that Mourinho helped persuade him to move to Milan.

"I'm very honoured to be at AC Milan, I'm a good friend of [Sulley] Muntari and Kakà and I already know Seedorf.

“When I spoke to Clarence it was very easy to make my decision, I haven't the desire of going anywhere else. Mourinho told me a lot about Milano, he told me I will settle easily.

“When you join a club like AC Milan, you don't talk about target, you already know you have to go for the best. This isn't probably the best season in the history of AC Milan, but we'll do our best to win as much games as possible.

“My shirt number will be 15. I'm fit to play, all I have to do is train hard and remain at Seedorf's disposal.

“I don't know Seedorf as a coach, I know he's been a great player but I'm sure he'll do as well on the bench.”

Only Galliani could make me miss Flamini

He's finally gone.



Michael Essien has joined Panathanaikos on a free transfer. Thanks for nothing and don't come back.

1 ghanaian down, 1 to go

El Shaarawy wrote:1 ghanaian down, 1 to go

Reported for racism.

This guy was once one of the best CM's in the world, now look at him .

Party at my house when Muntari leaves.

i know some Panathinaikos fans over here and , i try to be this good guy who wants to warn them about Essien. I tell them he's a retired player , that he will have at best good games for their team , but they won't listen . They think they made a legit transfer .

Really glad to see him finally gone. Muntari is set to leave as well and i have to say , summers starts on a positive note .