

Coppa Crash and Burn
By: Gianfranco | January 17th, 2008Yesterday’s game was a prime example that not everything is a peachy as we would like to think. I believe there is no excuse for a squad with the history, financial backing, and cast of players to lose in the Coppa Italia. If our second squad is as “strong” as Berlu and Fester claim it is, once hailing it as “World Class” for every backup, the forget to add “Formerly World Class.” Take nothing away from Catania, they are a well led squad, with a great line up and a phenomenal player in Vargas, whose goal last night was just fantastic. The complacency shown by the team, by Carlo, and just about everyone in Milan hurts me as a fan. Your team is supposed to go down fighting, not laying on its back, Juventus won 5-3!, answering every Empoli goal with a thunderous attack, not a lackadaisical shot high and wide.
Last night was painfully obvious that this Milan lacks real depth, it is present in the players, as we have plenty, but their quality is really lacking at the moment. Emerson and Cafu could not even work together, let alone with another 8 field players. As we discussed in the past a lineup containing Brocchi and Emerson is a lineup that will not score, will not playing exciting football, and just plain will not win.
Gourcuff may have played his way out of the Rossoneri with a loan or sale. He really tried to do to much last night, shooting when he should have passed, and trying to maintain possession when he could have loosened some pressure on himself. He did have a few top class, his header for example was Zidanesque, but his choices of shot and passes showed that he still has A LOT to learn, and the San Siro is not ready to teach him. If a commitment was made to get him quality minutes, surrounded by good players, he would improve, but why hurt a player with a potential with lack of playing time and even more lack of supporting cast. He is not Kaka, and cannot command an offense on his own, he needs coddling and with that he will grow.

That leaves me with one last man to really question, and that is Gila. I have supported Gila time and time again, but after watching yesterday I just wonder if he is in over his head. He suffers from some of the same problems as Gourcuff, he lacks support from the line ups he is slotted into. He looks lost when he is alone up front but Carletto perseveres to play him that way. I hate to say but it appears there is very little for Gila at Milan, and quite frankly that is a shame. To let a World Cup winning, and Seria A goal king walk away without a real opportunity to play game in and game out with no criticism or fear of being benched for a half fit Ronaldo is only the fault of the Rossoneri brass. To me it stinks of lack of commitment to a talented individual, and I am not happy about it. Gila will do fine somewhere else, especially Fiorentina, where he will once again be a king, and we will only be able to reminisce about what could have been.
Congrats to Paloschi for working very hard last night and putting himself on the map for another club to purchase, as we will probably put him up for sale or loan in not time. My mood is not as high as it was this weekend, and with an upcoming trip to Udinese this weekend I do not feel that it will get any better. With Fab Quags and Toto DiNatale lurking around the corner we may need another five goal victory to earn three points this weekend. Look for Ro-Ka-Pa to start again, and the return of a fit non suspend Rino Gattuso should give us a fighting a chance.
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Comments
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Good post. I think you are basically right about Gourcuff, incidentally, who needs a sale/loan in the worst way. I still think he is going to be a very good player in the long run, (as evidenced by his good second half and not the awful first) but he is clearly a player trying to score on nearly every possession. In my mind this is a result of playing only sporadically and trying to do too much with the few chances he gets on the field. I would love to see him get a run-out of starts at a mid-level Series A Team, or even a move to France or Spain. Hard to think we will see much more of him except the odd ten-minute relief efforts in the league or in Europe if he stays with Milan.
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Ted I agree with you, he even looks nervouse and anxious. The question comes on what to do, how soon, and where. He would be a man among boys in France, but Spain? It is tough to tell. A move somewhere in Serie A would be nice, a loan only for obvious reasons, every hates to think what could have been.
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I didn’t watch the match, but apparently there wasn’t much to watch…I love Gila, but he just isn’t doing well at Milan. I’ll wait and see how he does paired with Pato or another striker, but he just isn’t the Gila that was at Parma. Perhaps a move would do him good, I don’t like seeing him waste away.
Tell me why I love Rino SO much. I mean, seriously. If I ever meet this man, the first thing I’m going to do is hug him. Read this: http://goal.com/en-US/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=550314
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Let me just say that yesterday’s Coppa game means nothing. Did you SEE the players they put out? Clearly, they don’t care about the outcome, so it means nothing really. And same thing with the first leg, they really don’t care, it isn’t in their interests. We’ve got more important things to worry about, like our CL campaign and the Serie A, so we had to rest some of our players, like Kaka and Pirlo who have played non-stop this season.
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Word Mele
That’s all i’ve got to say although I would like to see paloschi play more that kid is good!
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Mele, I agree with you that it is not in their interest’s but their performance, first team or not was disgraceful.
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coppa italia is for teams who know that they cant win the scudetto or champions league, look at inter for the past 20 years
getting it out of the way is a good thing, its not worth it, and im not saying that because we’re out.Milan must not sell Gourcuff, but they do need to loan, best option would be to a top team in France or probably even a mediocre team in Serie A.
Here’s a nice video from milan channel on youtube. we were so bad the past season in the beginning, no one would expected the outcome in 2007. we accomplished exactly what every team in the world wants and fights for, Champions League + UEFA Super Cup + World Club Cup.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=TjpgCB-LZqg&feature=user
Lets do it again, just for IL CAPITANO.
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YEAH Fetyani!
P.S. your really optomistic aren’t you? Lol jk I BeLIeVe!!!!!
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well recently i found out (actually ive always knew, but now its official) i have 3 objectives in life.
1-Forza Maldini
2-Forza Milan
3-Odio “Fuck” Interseriously, if i didnt beleive in god and religion, my god & religion would be Maldini, no jokes lol.
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Canada

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Milan hasn’t taken this this tournament seriously because it would mean playing starters. As you correctly stated QUALITY depth is sorely lacking on our team.
Therefore, for the past two year since we’ve been chasing fourth, we can’t afford to play our starters in the COPPA matches.
Solution: Don’t fall behind by 20 points plus at the mid-way point of the season and spend some money on some quality players so that when we field our back up team they don’t look like a crappy Serie B team.
Having said that if Gila doesn’t choke with his one on one opportunity with the keeper & Paloschi still scores…are we still having this conversation?
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good point Big Dawg but we would have still been behind on aggregrate, what really makes me upset is knowing that teams like Inter and Roma have depth with good young talent, and we have depth in the form of a Brazilian retriment home…
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hey gianfranco it’s not that bad we do have some pretty good young talent in the primavera squad.
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yeh totally agree with you Gianfranco
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Australia

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