The Story of Milan, the Vulture Fund, and the Returning King: 18/19 Season

RealGunner wrote:Is there a reason why Milan aren't playing this weekend?

Sampdoria and Genoa both had their matches postponed because of the bridge disaster

While my heart goes out to the victims, if some of the games were postponed all should have been.

Meanwhile, dafuq going on with Inter?

I was perplexed to see all those stars on the bench and the clueless Asamoah in the starting XI! What gives? One can't even confidently claim that the likes of Versaljko and Perisic are still not match-fit due to the world cup, because Brozovic did start. But what about Candreva? Keita Balde, anyone?

Congratulations to us, anyway. We can at least head into the Napoli game safe in the knowledge that, even if we lose, we won't have done worse than Inter.

GiancarloC wrote:While my heart goes out to the victims, if some of the games were postponed all should have been.

Totally agree. Napoli will be more match-fit compared to us, and that's absolutely unfair. It was such a gut-wrenching disaster, but not only for one city! As always, Italian football decision-makers didn't miss the opportunity to amaze.

It would be fair to have postponed all the games. We do have an EL match coming up I believe.

I would be really afraid to locate to a place like that. Any possibility  that these type of incidents may come into play when a player thinks about moving to Italy?

Crumbling infrastructure isn't just an issue in Italy but many other developed countries. Some bridges in America are over 40 years old and haven't seen any major improvements since then. There have been many rail accidents too.

I think Spain and England too have issues with poor infrastructure.

Suso - Higuain - Hakan in front. Some descent chances.

It's obviously hard to make radical decisions, but they have to be made somehow, by someone, sometime.

More and more it is becoming evident (at least to my malfunctioning brain) that Suso does not belong in this formation. Suso is a Guardiola player, an Ancelotti player, not a Klopp player; not a Gattuso player.

Gattuso, for better or worse, is a fan of high-octane i.e. Kloppish football. This kind of team can only have a maximum of one slow playmaker. We can't play both Hakan and Suso. It's damaging our direct approach. We need a Bale on the right wing, not an Ozil. In other words, it seems inevitable to me that at some point in the following months, Gattuso will finally make the hardest decision of the season and ax Suso for Samu Castillejo.

The way we played after the introduction of Laxalt and Samu was just too good to ignore, too good to leave for the final ten minutes.

Why do I say Suso and not Hakan, despite their similarities? Because we have a fast-ass RW in Samu, but no better LW than Hakan. Plus, Hakan runs more and defends better.

Personally, I'd rather even see Bonaventura, much more dynamic than Hakan, play on the LW of a 4-2-3-1, with Hakan behind Higuain and Samu on the right. Our team is practically built to play 4-2-3-1.

I don't know when, but this thing will happen.

Shouldn't have let the Napoli game slipped... I would have been somewhat content even with a draw, but that's just the way it goes. The Roma game is where we really showed a strong intensity. I can't say much wrong about the players. The only one that was not good was Donnarumma. He needs to step it up, or Reina could unseat him.

Calhanoglu and Suso played very good games, and Castillejo was bought for a clear reason. So was Laxalt. These are players we needed. But still the others played a great game. Even Ricardo Rodriguez played well, though he started to tire towards the end. Calhanoglu and Suso have clear parts to play in this team, and should be included in the future project.

As far as Cutrone? What can you say about him? I'd like to see Higuain and Cutrone play together if that's possible.

These are ratings I mostly agree with:

https://sempremilan.com/ac-milan-2-1-roma-player-ratings

Every player in this squad right now has a part to play, and while many of us wanted one more midfielder, we did get a striker of the highest order. Higuain's movement throughout this game gave Roma nightmares... and while he did not have a goal, he was a constant threat. I also would like to see Caldara start. Come on Gattuso. Trust him a bit more.

I expect to see more of this from this team. It's so refreshing to see Higuain upfront instead of freaking Kalinic. As far as another midfielder, perhaps there will be an opportunity in the winter.

As a Juve fan obviously we are massive rivals but its nice to see Milan doing well again.... For many years i just wanted milan and inter back in europe and compete with us for the good of italian football to bring back the best players. Now milan and inter and even roma seem to be on a good path and attracting good players I can go back to hating them and not supporting them and enjoying the rivalry haha.. Was great to see kaka back at the san siro with a big noisy crowd it was a great sight to see.

We definitely have a more competitive squad this season, that is more well covered. We'll see if they can stay cohesive and strong. We had a big lapse against Napoli that should not have happened, but we're playing a different kind of football now. I'd like to see Higuain start scoring, but it's obvious his contribution is going to be immense. We literally haven't had a striker of his caliber since Ibrahimovic. Cutrone is turning out great, but is still very young. Higuain and Cutrone could do a lot of damage to other teams this season.

I still have regrets about Andre Silva leaving, but it's obvious he didn't want to stay as he wouldn't have much space. And perhaps we needed to sell him to balance the books for the possibility of Higuain.