Calling all Serie A Followers

They were a Neymar dive from being in that game.


What does it say about la liga?

we ant got time for that shite

what goes on in the stands is more interesting than what happens on the field

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They were a Neymar dive from being in that game.

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LULZ

(no message)

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Milan have gotten off to slow starts since Allegri took over, but this season has been especially terrible for them for a couple of reasons, IMO:

1. They just don't have a lot of good players to compete with the top of the league. Past Balotelli and maybe SES, no one else really strikes fear into the opposition...and Balotelli is as inconsistent as they come. Milan didn't invest this summer (Kaka does not count, sorry), and now they're paying for it dearly.

2. Injuries. Injuries. Injuries.

3. Like in the transfer market, Milan don't appear to have any real plan tactically, besides "Let's just see what Mario can do."

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This is a pretty good breakdown. I'd add Montolivo and De Sciglie to the high quality players and probably Pazzini (as far as someone who's going to get you goals to not drop points against mid/bottom table sides). All these guys have missed all or part of the season.

These injuries and Balotelli suspension is probably the main reason they're just 3 points out of relegation but I doubt they'd really be up there with Juve, Napoli, Roma, Fiorentina and Inter regardless.

INJURIES: They've had most of their best players sidelined for all or part of the season: (Montolivo (who's the real quality of their midfield and Poli not really stepping up in his absence), El Sharawaay and De Ceglie have both been out pretty much the whole season and were key to their success last year attacking on the left flank. Not to mention Pazzini who they really need if Balotelli is out. Kaka as well though that's hardly something that should have been unforeseen. De Ceglie may be the biggest blow of all these.

It's also true that Allegri's teams seem to always stumble out of the gate and come on strong after the break.


However, the point about the transfer market strategy being a bit confusing is also true.

1) ATTACK: Kaka and that they will also bring in Keisuke Honda at Christmas (having failed to get a deal done before deadline) fuels rumors that El Sharawaay may be sold to build around Balotelli. It's hardly clear what the plan exactly may be.
So far it's only resulted in having none of these players nor Boateng.

2) MIDFIELD: I suppose more was expected of Andrea Poli and Nocerino (though his brief flowering probably had more to do with Antonio Cassano's eye for a key pass). It's hard to see that Sulley Muntari was the planned first choice to partner with Montolivo and De Jong. Allegri does like a midfield with a DLP surrounded by two athletic ball winning types but his best teams get more a lot more creative production out these 2 mezz'ale and none of Poli, Muntari nor Nocerino offset also having the pure destroyer in De Jong.

This lack of creativity from anyone other than Montolivo probably puts too much pressure on the front line and that it's been so decimated so far just throws this problem into stark relief.

Not sure what their transfer market plans were/ are in midfield. Supposedly they were interested in players like Strootman and Nainggolan this summer and obviously needed one of them.

DEFENSE: this is another example of just not getting a deal done like with Honda. They'll bring in Adel Rami at Christmas but needed another strong CB sooner.



That said, I didn't see the match yesterday but they were hardly overrun by Barcelona in the first leg as the 1-1 draw seemed a pretty fitting result. Their larger problem, like in Serie A, is more that look even more lost to create a goal against Celtic than Barcelona.

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El Sharawaay

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someone Arsenal should definitely target if he's made available