#fossadeileoni

There is a new DON in town!

Quick review: The first half was a wash. We tried going down the right with some effectiveness but it seemed labored and obvious. The defense was good but honestly Chievo was just strolling around hoping for a draw. The first half stats were awful. Zero shots on target for us and 1 for them. ZZZZzzzz....

Then the second half came. The attack switched from the right to the left. Seemingly Chievo never really adjusted as Antonelli and Jack had acres of space to get the ball up the pitch down the right. Up and down we went, chance after chance until FINALLY Bacca laid off a gorgeous pass to Antonelli and BINGO... we had a lead. We had what seemed like 20 chances after that (actually it was 11 more shots of which only 2 were on target). Other than one breakdown on D and a gorgeous save by THE DON, all was quiet. You see but that is the key... a keeper might have to make only one big play all night long but he has to be ready to step up. AND HE DID! Clean sheet baby! 

The last time we had a clean sheet Abbiati was in goal and SIX players started that are no longer even at the club. It was 156 days ago. Pippo was still coach. I think Ronald Reagan may still have been president! Yugoslavia might have still been a country! 

In short, it’s been a while.

A grade and a sentence on each:

THE DON: B+ Cool as the other side of the pillow. THE YOUNGEST KEEPER IN THE HISTORY OF SERIE A TO KEEP A CLEAN SHEET!

DESCIGLIO: B Replaced Abate, ruled the right and even launched a beutiful speculative shot.

ALEX: B Strong, dependable and solidifying his spot beside Romagnoli.

ROMAGNOLI: A So silky smooth that he almost never seems to put forth an effort. Remind you of anyone?

ANTONELLI: A Put away his chance and covered serious ground... MOTM along with Romagnoli.

KUCKA: B Covered acres of ground and made us remember what a midfielder is... but was a little selfish with his shot selection.

MONTY: A- Great cover in front of the CBs and held his ground.... a captain-like performance?

BERTOLACCI: C Popped up for some nice stretches but seemed to disappear for others

CERCI: C+ Put in some nice crosses in the first half but the action moved away from him later

BACCA: A Worked his ass off to make plays and lay off some gorgeous passes. Only Antonelli converted but could have had 2-3 more assists.

JACK: B The moonshots seem to have returned but his work rate and crosses are becoming invaluable.   

There you go folks. No minute by minute tonight because I was actually able to sit down and watch almost the entire game. That’s rare but I’m glad I could. Miha is slowly figuring this out. 

Cheers and FORZA MILAN!!!!!

Milan visit the refurbished Stadio Friuli today in the middle game of a tricky 3 game stretch. 5 days from now we head to Genoa. Udi only have 3 points and have found goals hard to come by. Their only win somehow came on the road against Juve in the opener but they have lost 3 in a row since. 

Expected 11: Lopez, Calabria Zapata Romagnoli Desciglio, Poli/DeJong? Monty Jack, Bacca Honda Balotelli

Calabria gets a full start. While he is good going forward and further up, Zapata and the MF will have to help him out a little. This could leave space for Di Natale, who is always one to watch. Udinese are no slouch as I’m also a fan of Widmer and Danilo. Widmer will come right at DeSciglio who must play better this time around. We also get a chance to see Balotelli from the start. In his first start during his first tour at Milan he scored a brace against Udinese. Perhaps a repeat? Who knows. I’ll be curious to see whether he goes the full 90 and just how much energy he has. He was great against Inter and still pretty good against Palermo. Bacca/Balo should be fun to watch. Neither of these guys is afraid to take on anyone and Jack on Honda just need to do a good job of feeding them the ball. Feed them. Feed those Lions!

^^^ A nice little flashback from the origins of this blog. 

Prediction? 2-1 Milan. Bacca scores at least 1 if not both. The guy is a first rate poacher the likes of which we haven’t seen in a while. A killer. A LION!! The defense is still figuring this stuff out but I think we have enough fire power to get the win and get to the weekend on 9 points. 

Cheers and IFIT!!!!!

Lisi

After much complaint about numbers I’ve decided to switch to letters. Why? Because less complaining and because I can. So ha! Also, I thinks it’s dumb that on a scale of 1 to 10 that 99% of ratings are between 5 and 7. What’s the point of having a scale of 1 to 10 if no one ever receives a 1 or a 10? Really? Like you’ve never seen a player crap his pants on the field and deserve a 1 or score 5 goals in a Champions league game and deserve a 10? Blah.

Here goes!

Lopez: D+ Those two goals were putrid. Sure the defense kinda fell sleep on the second goal, but he was in PERFECT position and let it go through. Inexcusable. The corner was just as bad. that’s not on DeSciglio as matteo Bonettti attempted to explain, that’s on Lopez for not running through everyone to get a hand on the ball. Phil Schoen nailed it. His blunders are mind boggling at times. Yes, i still don’t like him.

DeSciglio: C Some good runs but some plays where he ended out of position and a step slow. Not unexpected when once again played on the left.

Romagnoli: B- It’s gonna help when we get a proper left back on the field and he (Antonelli) and Romagnoli get some more games under their belt together. I’m 100% sold that he is a 10 year starter.

Zapata: C He’s a solid fill in til we figure out that spot long term. I still miss Paletta. Will we see Ely again? Not so sure. Really had to bust his hump to help Calabria out... let’s go B- instead of a C.

Abate: Incomplete..... but I think he’s officially 3rd behind DeSciglio and Calabria on the right now. Either a January sell or a sell next summer if you can get anything for him. More than likely the new Bonera. Speaking of....

Calabria: B+ Really wanted to go A but Zapata had to work pretty hard to cover him as palermo decided to go right at the 18 year old after coming on. Crosses? Steals? Tackles? Did it all. Future is bright.

Kucka: B Quickly making Poli a bench player and NDJ too... for now. Lots of heart and steel. Gattuso’s Slovakian brother.

Monty: A- Metronome... solid passing and possession. This is what we need in that spot and he was fantastic. I love NDJ, don’t get me wrong, but Monty is a much better passer and I think finally fully fit after the broken leg 18 months ago.

JACK!: A + BABY! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PASS THE BALL AND GET SHOTS ON TARGET JACK! TRUST BUILDS! YOU MAKE KEEPERS WORK! WOO HOO!!!!!!! THANKS FOR MAKING ME LOOK LIKE A FRIGGIN’ GENIUS! MOTM!!!! Moving on....

Honda: D Ok, hit the road man. It just ain’t happening. He just seemed to be more in the way than anything else. Jack is now the CAM and Bertolacci slides into the MF. Time to put the Honda on the curb with a FOR SALE sign on it. BUT, until Berto is ready is probably the CAM... for now.

Adriano: C Kinda getting frustrated here. I know it’s early and chemistry takes time... but those are just excuses. Look at Bacca. That dude is ON POINT. In his defense though, Adriano is unselfish. He’s no ball hog. Guys like Balo or Menez might drive Bacca crazy with all the time they spend on the ball. Niang or SES would sure look nice with Bacca. 

Bacca: A Worth every penny. Nuff said!

Balotelli/Poli: Nothing to see there really.........

Quick turnaround against Udinese tomorrow then Genoa this weekend. Three games in 9 days. Gonna be interesting to see what kind of lineup we see in both of those games. We’ll find out pretty quick who Mihajlovic trusts and who is stapled to the bench for good.

Cheers and IFIT!

Hard to tell really. Yesterday’s game was such a bizarre mash-up of highs and lows it’s still tough to tell what we have and where we are going. I’d like to think we are building something but is what I’m seeing real?

Let’s look back and then you can look forward. 

We were THIS CLOSE to starting off the game the game with quick 1-0 lead. I was dissappointed that Bacca decided to lay it off to Adriano instead of taking the shot. It seemed the perfect chance to let one rip with Adriano’s run just enough to distract Hando. But alas, we came up empty. So close to starting the Derby with a bang. After that, it was a lot of back and forth. there were some nice runs but also some nifty defending to shut things down. Both keepers made some superb saves, honestly Lopez and Hando put on a clinic, while an alarming number of shots went JUST wide. Sadly, in a similar situation to Bacca’s early misstep, Guarin capitalized later on. With the defense giving him just enough space, instead of waiting Guarin decided to let one rip and found the corner. Not much Lopez could do on that one.

After that things got a little weird as Bacca was subbed off for Mario 2.0. Miha explained this by saying he didn’t want 3 strikers but then later brought on Cerci for Honda. Anyone else find that a little odd? Poli was brought on for Kucka, but that was a pretty simple like for like switch as Kucka had already earned a yellow and was VERY lucky that he didn’t see red moments later.

Mario was Mario. Set pieces improved, a few long shots were taken but it was like a flashback to 2 years ago. There was a little more movement on his part, but it wasn’t much different than Mario 1.0. lot’s of head shaking and chirping at the ref. If he’s involved, he tries. If he isn’t, he doesn’t. On one particular play in the 78th minute Adriano let a through ball go by thinking Mario was cutting in. to his surprise, he won’t be surprised again I’m sure, mario was still outside the 18 and had hardly budged. Adriano just rolled his eyes and shook his head. Lesson learned meu amigo brasileiro. 

Ratings and sentence on each:

Lopez -8- rock solid in my opinion. the defense sagged just enough on the Guarin goal to reveal the opeining. Not his fault. made some fantastic saves. Very active.

DeSciglio - 6- A nice matchup with Santon. Played very well and did a nice job helping out the CBs.

Romagnoli -6.5- other than one instance erased Icardi. Love this guy. Getting more confident carrying the ball which is great to see.

Zapata -7- giving him a 7 because not only did he play well, but he repeatedly had to cover Abate’s backside. A nice pairing is taking shape. 

Abate -4- the speed has vanished and therefore so should he. Too many times the whole back line had to slide over to compensate for his failings. 

Kucka/Poli-6.5- did a great job slowing down Kondogbia and winning balls. very happy there

Monty- 6 - Was ok but didn’t really effect the match either way. Looked exhausted at the end

Jack - 5- STOP TAKING SHOTS FROM DISTANCE AND LAUNCHING THEM INTO THE 40TH ROW!!!!!!!!!!!! WE HAVE AT LEAST 10 GUYS ON THE TEAM THAT CAN SHOOT BETTER THAN YOU! Honestly, i’m getting sick of him fast.

Adriano -6- good movement, good work rate... but will he be the odd man out if Balotelli 2.0 starts? Stay tuned.

Bacca -5.5 -Dissappointed by his early decision but not bad after. really want to see him up top. looked to be playing too deep

Honda -6- Seems he’s getting blasted by a few different pundits out there but I like the way he played. there did seem to be some confusion in positioning from time to time but I think that was more due to Mha’s setup and no fault of the players.

Cerci-2- i don’t want to ever see him on the pitch again. too fat to outrun a 1 legged donkey at this point. I’d rather see Menez get 10 minutes. that’s right... I said Menez. 

Balotelli 2.0 -INCOMPLETE- I’m gonna watch those last 30 minutes again and probably write a whole column on him for Wednesday.

Lots and lots more to discuss on this match. Quick question though..... who starts up front next week???? Balo? Bacca? Adriano? Honda? Jack? Suso? NOT CERCI!

With Balo in the mix everything has changed...

Cheers,