Serie A 2011-12

To a certain extent, yes. But I am most worried about the away game to Palermo...at the Renzo Barbera. In the last 8 encounters with Palermo, Juve has lost 6 games and won only 2. They seem to be our bogey team.

Forza Italia!Forza Milan! wrote:
Their schedule gets a bit easier now.

I don't get why Pirlo is unhappy about season. Milan is still 1st in Serie A and they still got a good chance of getting into the 1/2 finals of the CL.

An interesting article by Adam Digby that I came across. Talks about the present crisis at Inter.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature/_/id/1041230/board-level-cull-the-only-cure-for-inter-milan?&cc=4716

Vidal was impressive, not only because of his stunning strike. Btw, what decides title in Italy if both teams would have the same amount of points? Goal difference? Matches between them? Additional game?

stinger wrote:Vidal was impressive, not only because of his stunning strike. Btw, what decides title in Italy if both teams would have the same amount of points? Goal difference? Matches between them? Additional game?

Play-off between them IIRC

Pras_tama wrote:

stinger wrote:Vidal was impressive, not only because of his stunning strike. Btw, what decides title in Italy if both teams would have the same amount of points? Goal difference? Matches between them? Additional game?

Play-off between them IIRC

No, head to head record, then goal difference. They stopped the play-off system in serie a about six seasons ago,

Pirlo wrote:

Pras_tama wrote:

stinger wrote:Vidal was impressive, not only because of his stunning strike. Btw, what decides title in Italy if both teams would have the same amount of points? Goal difference? Matches between them? Additional game?

Play-off between them IIRC

No, head to head record, then goal difference. They stopped the play-off system in serie a about six seasons ago,

bluenine wrote:

Fey wrote:Haha! 3-0! Juventus are amazing! Again so entertaining to watch.

Napoli playing better footie then Juve? Your havin a laugh!

This Juve play a great game IMO, only I am surprised you are a fan. They play such a physical, efficient game based on a very solid, tight defense and a skillful attack. A quintessential Italian side, I thought you hated this style of football?

Maybe there is hope for you yet, Fey!

Skillful attack? Im impressed with their midfield position play mate. Defense is pretty solid I must admit. But I don't think they are your average Italian side at all, otherwise I wouldnt be able to watch it for 90 min

Serie A is improving again though, I think we can all agree on that.

Fey wrote:

bluenine wrote:

Fey wrote:Haha! 3-0! Juventus are amazing! Again so entertaining to watch.

Napoli playing better footie then Juve? Your havin a laugh!

This Juve play a great game IMO, only I am surprised you are a fan. They play such a physical, efficient game based on a very solid, tight defense and a skillful attack. A quintessential Italian side, I thought you hated this style of football?

Maybe there is hope for you yet, Fey!

Skillful attack? Im impressed with their midfield position play mate. Defense is pretty solid I must admit. But I don't think they are your average Italian side at all, otherwise I wouldnt be able to watch it for 90 min

Serie A is improving again though, I think we can all agree on that.

Skillful - Del Piero, Quagliarella, Vucinic... Though it is quite likely that we don't really agree on our footballing defination of "skillful", so lets not even go there!

It is improving, though no where near as fast as we would like... unfortunately, the infrastructural & environmental issues will prove to become a low ceiling capping this improvement.

Agree with Bluenine here. I think the league has been slow to foresee the stagnation creeping in in terms of infrastructure and modernization and even slower to react to it. One can argue that it is the responsibility of the big clubs to lead the show. And it's true to a large extent. Recent example was complains by Barca regarding the San Siro pitch. And Juve's new stadium is not even one year old yet. Other clubs have only started thinking about modernizing stadiums leave alone having a concrete plan to do so. Once we see modernization that can take the league at par with other big leagues in that regard, we will see money flow in. We will be able to attract more players from outside like we once used to. The overall quality of football even in terms of mentality will improve too. By mentality, I mean that most people who don't watch Serie A regularly still believe that Italian sides play a very dour and defensive brand of football. Which I think is not entirely true.

bluenine wrote:
It is improving, though no where near as fast as we would like... unfortunately, the infrastructural & environmental issues will prove to become a low ceiling capping this improvement.

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/04/01/juventus-3-0-napoli-3-5-2-v-3-4-3/

Time to sack Pato or the 'medical team', i'm happy with either or both going to be honest, both are absolute shit.

Pirlo wrote:Time to sack Pato or the 'medical team', i'm happy with either or both going to be honest, both are absolute shit.

Wow, maybe i'm out of the loop but I just don't get this Pato bashing.

Romford Pele wrote:Wow, maybe i'm out of the loop but I just don't get this Pato bashing.

It's a bit too much in some cases, but for the best part of the last couple of years, with a few notable exceptions (like last year's Napoli game), he's been playing average/crap whenever he is on the field.

In addition to that, this season, he is literally injured 90% of the time, he gets back from injury, plays 10 mins then gets injured again like it happened last night (not his fault, but it fuels the fans frustrations).

Some voices also say he's not the most professional player around, lack of work ethic, lifestyle is a priority not football etc.

This is why, as crazy/mental as Tevez is, it was a no-brainer for most Milan fans to get Tevez in January, even if it meant Pato gone.

With Cassano returning and El Shaarawy affirming himself, it's increasingly likely he will be sold this summer, unless Berlusconi vetoes it. Galliani already sold him in January.

Romford Pele wrote:Wow, maybe i'm out of the loop but I just don't get this Pato bashing.

Some similarities to Arshavin - talented but doesn't deliver that on the field. Had a lot of promise but hasn't improved on it.

Pato also has too much off-field drama...his first wife turned out to be a gold digger (not his fault) and took most of his money. Now he's fooling around with Berlusconi's daughter.

He'll be at PSG in the summer.

Ah, thanks for the heads up guys. It's a real shame about Pato. Saying that though, he's still young so there's plenty of time to rectify the situation.

Maybe a move could put some fire back in his belly. The EPL would be a good challenge for him, i'm thinking Spurs specifically. He'd be the main striker there and would be able to link up well with the likes of VDV, Modric, Bale etc.

I have way too much love for Spurs these days

Why would Pato want to got to Spurs?

I think it's a better option than PSG.

PSG are loaded with cash though, and Ancelotti-Leonardo are there, so I think it's quite likely especially if they throw some crazy money his way (I think Carlo makes 13 mil a year or something at PSG).

That may be a determining factor, and if so, I can see French football becoming what it was like a few years back when Lyon won it at a canter.

Romford Pele wrote:I think it's a better option than PSG.

No disrespect, but if I was a player, I would prefer PSG over Spurs because of many reasons...

- More money
- Better chance of winning domestic silverware
- More chance of playing in the CL every year
- Part of a growing project, expected to become even bigger in the future

All sound reasons. Add to that Pato's specific reasons - Ancelotti + Leo + more Brasilians...

Money would be the only reason for me.

- Spurs is a growing project
- Providing they get CL this year, I think they're here to stay
- They have a settled team
- The lure of a better, higher quality league would be good as well

Pirlo wrote:Time to sack Pato or the 'medical team', i'm happy with either or both going to be honest, both are absolute shit.

I can't believe you guys turned down a 35m offer for Pato this Jan... you would be lucky to get half of that now.

bluenine wrote:

Pirlo wrote:Time to sack Pato or the 'medical team', i'm happy with either or both going to be honest, both are absolute shit.

I can't believe you guys turned down a 35m offer for Pato this Jan... you would be lucky to get half of that now.

We didn't turn it down, the player didn't want to leave. Why do you think everyone's so pissed off? Not only could we have offloaded the idiot and conned PSG out of a fortune for a waste of space, but that 35m could have given us the means to buy a world class mobile goal-scorer we need to move on.

Wasn't it Silvio vetoing last minute?

abundance wrote:Wasn't it Silvio vetoing last minute?

I wonder why he did that....

Papa....

People should stop buying Brazilian. It reminds me of Alfa Romeo, looks brilliant at first sight, but will sooner or later brake down.

Murray wrote:

looks like it was a goal. From Marcotti on twitter.

Tough for the linesman to get that right though

Even after watching the slowest of replays, and pics like these, I am not entirely sure whether it was a goal. I hear some people (not on this forum) say that the ball was clearly over the line because you can see some green between the ball and the line, but thats a wrong interpretation of the rule. The rule is that the ENTIRE CIRCUMFERENCE of the ball needs to cross the line. Unless we get a perfect right angle, which the linesman probably had, or a top view of this shot, we just cannot be certain.

In other words, I agree with Pirlo. That was an awesome decision by the linesman, without the benefit of all this technology, and he must be commended for that. The only solution is goal line technology.

And Galliani is a disgrace for his reaction tbh, specially after that "showing class" hyperbole.

Pirlo wrote:

abundance wrote:Wasn't it Silvio vetoing last minute?

I wonder why he did that....

Papa....

Haha... I guess he didn't want his daughter to move to Paris!

But that was what I was refering to, Milan (Berlu) turned it down. I don't think Leo & Ancelotti would have created all that hype about that transfer without speaking with Pato, clearly they have some kind of an understanding... we could speculate why Pato suddenly changed his mind, but I have a feeling that if he had Papa's blessing, he would have gone...