Derby Della Madonnina: Inter Milan vs AC Milan

my man of the match was between balotelli and bacca

milan will loose or draw lot of matches because of midfielders that i know for sure, its been the case for past 4-5 years and nothings been done about it.


galliani needs to be fired ,

Balotelli made such an impact after coming on. He should definitely be tried out in the TQ slot behind Bacca and Adriano.

1. It is painful, isn't it? While Kucka was certainly not a negative presence and did quite enough, imagine what a master technician like Axel Witsel could've done.
I have nothing against Bertolacci, not even his jaw-dropping price tag, but come on, where does he stand compared to Witsel? What a pity.

2. Balotelli is stupid and his football brain is simply not good enough, but as an impact substitute, he can be as good as any in Serie A. He was exceedingly confident, demanded the ball every time and looked authoritative.

3. What a fantastic purchase is this kid, Romagnoli. He is easily on a par with Varane and Marquinhos. Wonderul anticipation and positioning, unusually composed for a 20-year-old and a ball control reminiscent of Nesta's. Far out, Milan.

4. Sinisa certainly understood that we need as many technical midfielders as possible and his midfield choices definitely worked, but I was in shock when Bacca, our best player, was subbed while Honda and Kucka remained on the pitch. Honda was not bad, either, but come on, he wasn't doing great. Poor Bacca is doing the job of a trequartista and a striker at the same time, and he is vital to this team. Bad call.

5. Cerci is not a goddamn footballer. Cerci is not a goddamn footballer. Cerci is not a goddamn footballer.
For Chrissakes somebody save us from this non-player.

6. I lost a bet to a University friend, true, but I am really happy with my team. We were dominant for at least 80% of the match and created chance after chance. This time, however, it wasn't ONLY the two attackers who did all the work. Bonaventura, Montolivo and the fullbacks were excellent throughout. This team is by no means complete and the third place could be a little bit unrealistic, but with a couple of competent midfielders, wingers and center backs, we are going to be Scudetto winners. I believe in our spirit, if not quality, and this could simply make the difference.

Ye our midfield wasn't good enough but it wasn't bad either. We made mistakes closing Inter down on some occasions, one of which led to the goal

From what I saw today, the link between midfield and attack is what we really lacked, that creative presence behind the strikers. Honda had the worst game I have seen of him ever. Substituting Honda for Cerci was just a waste, we should have as well played with nine players

Well we did some things wrong, other things good but Miha's subs left a lot to be desired. I for one would have taken Honda off for Balo at first since we were already chasing the game and with Honda sucking so bad, yet Miha subbed off our most threatening player just when we needed him most

Guys, I seriously think a 4-2-1-3 could do wonders for us. De Jong is too good a warrior to rot on the bench, and he and Montolivo are our best shot at creating a respectable midfield duo. Bonaventura in the hole behind Balotelli, Bacca and Adriano can be tried at some point and these four attacking guys can switch positions and run defenders ragged. Honda will function well at late stages in complicated games, but his work rate does not resemble that of a starter.

I am a believer in our defense and attack. Just fix this chronic midfield crisis somehow and we're good for 2nd or 3rd place.

i agree for time being balotell bacca adriano should be playing with bonaventura, montolivo and de jong

i still dont get it, we spent 90 million and not even buy a quality midfielder, actually should been broguht atleast two quality midfielders.

all hope do well this season will depend on bacca balotelii and adriano...

#firegalliani

First of all, our midfield actually bossed today. Anyone who actually watched the game would know that. As painful as it is to say, Monty was great as a regista. He defended astutely and dictated the play. Bona provided a really good attacking presence and Kucka was actually awesome. He was industrious and technically sound.

In all honesty, we absolutely should have won this game. All this nonsense about Inter being a better team on paper is ridiculous. We were all over all game.

Poor finishing and a defensive lapse cost us this game, but I look forward to the rest of the season. This was the most cohesive, energetic display I've seen from Milan in years. We'll do fine this year.

As for the players.

Lopez: 7/10 - Played well aside from one awful distribution that almost cost us a goal.

De Sciglio: 7.5/10 - Some lapses in positioning but a beast going forward and unbeatable in 1v1 situations

Romagnoli 7/10 - The guy is worth 30m. Such poise at such a young age and incredible positioning all game.

Zapata: 6.5/10 - Played surprisingly well. Good in the air.

Abate: 6/10 - One of our weaker performers. Has the first touch of a rapist and not the most sound defensively. '

Monty: 7.5/10 - Hate to say it, but he played really well. Defended astutely and dictated play.

Kuco: 6.5/10 - Lots of grinta and some technical skill to back it up. Not a bad signing off of his first two performances.

Bona: 7/10 - Showed that he can play in midfield. Really good display. Would like to see him replace Honda at AM and have Berto in that lcm spot though. He has to start games though.

Honda: 4/10 - Absolutely useless and anonymous all game.

Adriano: 6.5/10 - Missed 3 great chances which I'm confident Bacca would have scored. General play was good though. He works hard, makes excellent runs, and can play with his back to goal.

Bacca: 6.5/10- We HAVE to give him the ball more. Every time he touches it you feel like he's going to do something great with it. Set up Adriano twice in the first half.

SUBS

Balo: 8/10 - OMG. He left destruction in his wake. It was all about him when he came on. Hit the post, forced a great save out of Handanovic, set up a handful of chances. Made the game his own. Really impressive.

Cerci - This guy plays football? Looks about 5 steps off the pace.

Poli - Replaced a yellow carded Kucko and had a typical solid but unspectacular Poli performance.

@Cookie Monster, I agree with the analysis and the ratings.

I hope that Balo can be tried as a CAM and this would be our formation:


--------Bacca-----L. Adriano-------
----------------Balo----------------
---Bona(berto)-------Kuco-------
------------Monto(De Jong)-------
-Anto----Romagn-----Zapata(Ely)----DES
------------------D. Lopez------------------

I feel that Balo has the skills required to play as a TQ and he almost always drops back to either make a pass or take a shot. By playing Balo as a TQ, he would have more space to work with and this is enhanced further with the presence of L. Adriano and Bacca since they would be able to make runs that free more space. The only disadvantage is that Balo may slow down play at times but this depends on how his chemistry might develop with the strikers.

In midfield, Monto and De Jong can be tried in different games depending on the opponents and their style of play. Monto can be played to add creativity when needed (opponents defending), and De Jong could be used to break up play and allow for counterattacks (opponents attacking).

While Balo has the skills necessary to play in that position, I'm not sure he has the required work rate. If he hustles and puts in some defensive work (along with Adriano who defends quite a bit) it could work.

I could see it working against smaller teams for sure, but against better teams a more balanced approach would be preferable.

Cookie summed up everything well

The fans called for wetwork, and the players answered. No greater good. No just cause. Except Honda, on the ball he is when you set the game speed on PES to -2, he can't cut it in professional football i'm afraid, as much as i hate to say it but we should experiment with Bertolt behind the strikers. I have a feeling that he's gonna BUUUUUUUUUUUUUURNN IT UP there.

Also, drop the idea of Balo playing behind the strikers, Miha said in an interview that he won't do such a thing.


Finally, Melo is a dick, such a lust for a red card....

























































WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A little comment on work-rate from what I learned from a Football analyst...

Generally, the amount of time a player is active in a game, on or off the ball, in proportion to his idle time is called work-rate. It is an accepted rule that, unless you got a one-in-a-million genius such as Zinedine Zidane, players with the highest work-rate have to be starters as they are usually the ones with the highest stamina, too.

Therefore, starting a player like Honda in a Milan team that is being pushed to its physical limits by the brutally demanding Miha, is simply dumb. As is starting Balotelli, unless he's gone through an unlikely transformation. Kuco or Bertolacci may be awful technically, but they never shy away from action and could give a hand from start to finish. When opposition players have gotten pretty tired, it is time to insert a creative guy like Honda or a long-ranger like Balotelli.

What I truly fail to find any reason for, was Miha's decisions to field Honda from the start, and the club's willingness to even loan this intruder Cerci, let alone signing him outright.


As for last night, we had a good shot at cutting open Inter's slow defense with our outstanding attacking duo supported by Bonaventura and flanked by our two fast fullbacks. And you know what? We did that! It worked. It was just that there was the inadequate presence of Honda who time and again killed our tempo; not because he is bad or he's stupid - he's neither - but because it's his style, which could be used in the right place at the right time i.e. late in the game.

More and more are we perceiving the magnitude of the club's folly in its failure to sign Witsel. He is no Fabregas creatively, he is no Matic tactically, but a strong, speedy all-rounder who is good on the ball: the kind of box-to-box beast missing in Milan for ages. A like-for-like Rakitic who's now indispensable at Barcelona.

What we are left with, is a car that has a strong engine but whose transmission system couldn't go beyond 4th gear. Even El Shaarawy could've been of enormous use right now by taking over the left wing and combining with Antonelli or De Sciglio, while Bonaventura would play in the middle connecting the lines.

Our solution, right now, is simply to either go all-out kamikaze like Leonardo did, or close the midfield and pack the defense and become increasingly dependent on our two main attackers to muster something, somehow, on their own. Like Mourinho's 2010 Inter which often seemed like having 8 defenders, one midfielder and two attackers.

I don't know what will happen in January when Mr. Bee is finally a stake holder, but I believe without that one midfielder, we are really unlikely to finish above 4th. And that is IF all our starters stay uninjured, which is wishful thinking.

There's no two ways about it. The club has to spend or our hardworking players' sincere efforts all go to waste.

I'd be in favor of trying Jack behind Bacca and Balo next game tbh. Bonaventura is simply too much of a headless chicken to be trusted in any sort of defensive role. It was his mindless pressing that lead to Inter's goal, and he was undoing the good defensive work of Montolivo and Kucka all night.

The trouble is, we don't really have anyone that can replace him in that third midfield slot. De Jong would do a much better job defensively, but he wouldn't offer anything going forward.

How badly we need someone like Moutinho...

A side note: although its been said before, I have to reiterate just how fantastic Monty was. Brilliant performance from him, he absolutely needs to be starting in that role whenever fit.

Read the posts , i mostly agree as well , so i am not going to say much . I think we did well for the most part , it's a shame we lost but what can you do , it can happen , more so in a derby .

I also liked how Montolivo played , and i wasn't surprised a bit. It's been a while now that i've been spamming this in conversation about Montolivo. I honestly hope he keeps playing there , we can only expect good games from him if this keeps going.

Anyway , despite the loss , i don't think we were that bad .The season is long and although it sucks a little because of how we lost , i am eager to see how we continue .

I want to see Montolivo in front of the defence , Kucka-De Jong in front of him and Bonaventura behind the strikers. I think , that's probably our best midfield atm .. even though , we don't seem to have that many options anyway , at least right now .

I shall be brief but there are a few things that I believe require discussion.

Firstly, Montolivo demonstrated just what we miss in his absence despite being brought back into the line up in the most difficult of circumstances. Making his first Serie A start in more than six months he didn't look out of place at all and must simply be on the pitch whenever available. It was not a perfect game by any means but his peak form will come with increased physical conditioning and a run of games. One turn under pressure after retrieving the ball in front of the back four to quickly release Bonaventura who slid a lovely through ball in for Adriano who should have finished off the move was a highlight and showed everything any team needs to transition effectively.

What is particularly strange then is to read that some people hate to admit that Montolivo played well. Why should we regret the return of our captain and best midfielder? I assume that some might interpret his performance as spelling the end of De Jong however it is still plausible that they may be used together. If not, it merely ensures that whichever plays, they will have to be on their toes and maintain a high level to keep their place.

Adriano and Bacca continue to grow as a partnership however the former's misses in front of goal cost us the match, plain and simple. The first opportunity was a gift after Murillo's poor pass and after doing well to dribble the centre back and combine with Bacca he rushed his shot. The second chance when sent through by Bacca I can excuse due to the angle and his isolation from other team mates however he should really have blasted Bonaventura's through ball in to the back of the net when fumbling to switch feet. I'm still very happy with Adriano, however he has a debt to pay to us next week.

Sinisa argued that to introduce Balotelli for Honda would have been too aggressive a move, which I understand, however given that we were down at the time, it was arguably worth taking the risk. Honda, as has been brought out repeatedly in this thread, was disastrous and should hit the bench. He is a very hard working professional who gives his best at all times at the very least. It's certainly not a lack of effort, the game was simply too intense for him.

His performance was made all the more painful by watching Saponara continue to thrive at Empoli in his role. Given that Honda is the only 'true' AM in the squad, he may well retain his role but for the sake of making a statement, I would move Jack there next week. I don't view it as a long term solution - indeed I think he should ideally be an impact substitute as we continue to address our issues through the market - but anyone deserves a chance there after the show Honda put on.

Kucka was surprisingly effective I thought at driving through the middle, though he'll need to demonstrate some end product. Given his unfamiliarity with his team mates and the quality of the opponent, it was a solid introduction to the starting line up however.

I disagree with the assertion that De Sciglio had a great match however, I thought he was far from solid. He was completely asleep on three or four occasions in which he ruined our offside line, most prominently when playing Icardi onside for what should have been Inter's opener if not for Lopez's heroics. He struggled a lot in the first half an hour, particularly with Santon, however I shall admit that he was an improved figure in the second half and got forward fairly well, though I do wish he'd stop shooting for goal.

All in all, probably an unfair result but if we put in that sort of effort every week, we'll be back this season.

dostoevsky wrote:
Sinisa argued that to introduce Balotelli for Honda would have been too aggressive a move

I understand his sentiment, but I disagree with the logic and am a bit concerned by it. Why not put Balo and Adriano up top and use Bacca in 10 role? He was doing Honda's creative job all night and he certainly doesn't lack the work rate to do the necessary defensive work. As you mentioned as well, if you won't take risks when you're 1-0 down in the derby, when you will you?

Completely agree with your post however, good summary. Glad to see Kucka's been getting recognized as well. I was pleasantly surprised by his performance and I hope it didn't go unnoticed by Sinisa.

Calabria is better than Bellerin imo