After listening to them say nice things for so many years now, I wanna hear bit of mongrel

All this is meaning to say that Ancelotti can only do so much. As many of you have previously observed – Milan is creating chances, its the finishing that has been poor. Ancelotti could start a 3-2-5 formation and get 20 shots per game, but the strikers can’t finish, you won’t get goals. And you can’t blame the midfield and defense – the defense is playing well enough to keep the pressure off of the offense, and the midfield does a phenomenal job of getting the balls to the men up front. Why no one chooses to let rip from just outside of the box when given space instead of trying to pass around and find the perfect goal, I have no clue.

All this is evidence that Milan’s financial position is not as strong as it was back in 2002-03. I am confident that if ancelotti had an unlimited war chest, he would have let Sheva rot in Chelsea (I know, berlusconi was likely behind that deal, not carlo, but just saying). Remember that period? When Milan had so much money they could afford to splurge cash to prize away Italy’s top young defender from a title rival Lazio? Don’t tell me that if Carlo had 70Million euros available this past summer that he would not have spent in the 10’s of millions if not higher, to get a five-star defender to replace Maldini in the near term? Instead they are scraping the proverbial bottom of the barrel and get Senderos on loan. Carlo’s tactics are of a man who knows reality and use players (like Sheva and Emerson) who are not his ideal, but who were forced upon him by financial considerations. I even have a sneaking suspicion that they knew Gourcuff could blow up and are farming him out to increase his market value for a future sale.

What I like about the current team is that there is a great deal of humility in the squad, and yet they have individually (in the case of Maldini, Kaka, and Dinho) and collectively won at the highest possible levels of football. The humility is there because many players have something to prove; all of the defenders (sans Zambrotta) because their inspirational leader is leaving soon, and they want him to leave on top. Dinho because people are for whatever reason saying that he is finished, Flamini because he is new, Abbiati because he’s been waiting for this chance for years, Seedorf is fighting for a spot on the field, Shevchenko because he is a prodigal son. There is always good comraderie – you can see that after goals, rarely to guys celebrate by themselves, almost always congratulated by several.
Yes, the number of games played to reach the level of success has left many of the players tired and jaded (Ronaldinho last year, kaka and pirlo for the last couple of years), but that is just the price of success. Realize that for a transition year, things are going damn well so far.

Good point about the “sitting-back-and-absorbing-for-15-minutes” point, GF. Because here’s the thing – if we’ve figured it out, you can sure as hell bet the rest of Serie A teams have as well. This wouldn’t hurt us so much if we were 3 nil up, but the fact that we continue to do this on 1-0 advantage is scary.

This weekend is a must-win. With Inter facing Juve, obviously a draw would be hoped for, but no matter what happens, this is a great chance to gain points over either of these two.

4-3-2-1 formation is fails faaaar more than it succeeds in the Serie “A” yet for the past 4 years he’s continually marched his troops out to the beat of that drum.

Take one of those 3 holding midfielders out and stick a striker in and play a 4-2-2-2.

Kaka & Ronaldinho will be forced to comback a little bit more than they are now but i’ve seen signs from Ronaldinho that he could do it. The holding midfielders would have a little more running to do also. The flanks would push up as they do now to provide crosses/support in attack & the CB’s would stay deep.

Pato needing to start is an understatement. Boriello has to make it happen enough excuses. Kaka hasn’t been where we need him to be either.

Anyways I digress. We looked horrible in attack last week!!!

3 Outta 4 strikers rotting on the bench!

ANCELOTTI – USE 2 FREAKIN STRIKERS TO GET CONSISTANT RESULT…GET IT THROUGH UR THICK SKULL.

i really hope we get Zapata in January. he’ll solve lots of problems in our defense.

Ancelotti is now saying he wants to coach Ivory Coast. i really like his style of coaching. maybe because i just got use to it, but he is a genius at the end of the day, well maybe not every day, he screws up sometimes. more of at the end of every 7 years he is a genius. (2 CL Champs, 3 CL finals, 4 Semi Finals in 5 years)