True, but you've entered The generous Genoa paradox where they give us money to buy players and we can pick theirs a la carte

Genoa have benefitted from our little partnership as much as we have.

We paid them 10m + Merkel for half of El Shaarawy, we paid them 10m to get back half of Boriello, we paid them a substantial amount to get the other half of Prince, etc

So don't think they'd be in this unless it benefits them as well. Preziosi and Galliani know how this works, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, that's why they've taken on players we couldn't get rid of at times. And it still benefits them. I think they have a much better chance of actually selling Traore then we ever did.

De Sciglio has some knee problem, will be checked today.

Good thing there's the NT break.

Here's the link by the way: http://www.milannews.it/da-milanello/de-sc...erazione-121948

They hope it's not a surgery serious.

If he has to have surgery on it then it will be another case like Pazzo's knee surgery would mean some serious time out and at his age it does not bode well at all to already be going under the knife

Abate was stretchered off with a thigh problem

Abate seems to get injured every time he plays for Italy.

If he's out for a few weeks we're f@cked especially with DS also injured (any word on whether he'll have to have surgery on his knee?)

Still quiet about DS.

Who will be our RB then? Zaccardo?

Saponara scored in the friendly against Chiasso. So I guess that answers the mystery surrounding him.

How? It just adds to the mystery why he wasn't listed for the CL.

We probably won't need him for the CL..even if Kaka is injured..we'll probably adopt a 4-3-3. I really think he can explode, but given the circumstances...and the way we deal with our young players..he'll probably be loaned up come January.

Not that I agree with it, but I think the CL thing is just like they did with El Sha, adding him to the list only in January because they want to see if he's good enough first, not to pressure him early or some other Allegri bullshit reason. He should have been there instead of Birsa.

Btw, Allegri yesterday confirmed that DS will be back in training tomorrow and they don't think Abate's injury was serious.

So at worst we'll be without Abate against Torino but hopefully he'll be back before then

Aside from that I don't think we have any injuries atm aside from Pazzini's long term recovery after surgery

http://football-italia.net/node/39301

:'(

****!!!

Need to be mentally prepared to watching Zaccardo as our RB...

Wonder why Allegri said he'd be back in training this week if this was the case...

So currently we have zero FBs available...

Actually, we have Constant, Emanuelson and Zaccardo available as FBs. Personally, I would play Pedone from the primavera rather than frigging Zaccardo on the right.

Constant and Urby can't even be considered actual FBs, they can cut it (just barely) against most sides in Serie A but against the better sides they're all seriously weak links.

Can Silvestre play at RB?

He's definitely better than Zaccardo, plus he's very strong aerially both offensively and most importantly, defensively.

Hopefully Abate will be back before Celtic if we're lucky

Am I the only one who thinks Zaccardo is not as bad as he is made out to be. I mean, this Constant chap is nothing special, and I'd put him in the same bracket as Zaccardo. Scig, Abate and Mexes are the only real defense we have, guys who play with their eyes and ear open.

The rest are all prone to mistakes, and regularly at that. As for Emanuelson, he can play as the GK and it would not make a diddlysquat of a difference. He is the very definition of mediocrity.

Zaccardo can be a half decent defensive RB. But offensively he's terrible and untrustworthy in the centre

I think both Constant and Urby are decent LBs against run of the mill sides but anything more advanced and they'll get exposed for the average players they truly are.

Also, I think Urby gets a lot of unfair criticism here simply because he's used at every position bar the aforementioned GK position. He's just a victim to the Allegri "tactical machine"

One last thing on Zaccardo, I'm sorry, but personally, I'll never see him as anything more than the terrible RB who sliced a horrible own goal in the WC in 06 against the US to mar a perfect defensive record (Zidane penalty aside)

Yeah, well, add to the fact that he's a dud in every role. I mean, I've never seen him really shine in the myriad of positions he has been forced to play in. Still waiting for that moment, but he's just, well, pedestrian. Boateng and Nocerino had their moments, I'm yet to see it from Urby. Not that we don't need a player like him for rainy days.

I don't even mind him playing or starting. I know what I'll be getting.


Ha, that's what I feared. This was one thing that was on my mind while I was hitting submit on my previous post. Apologies accepted, but man, he's just an average Italian defender, and they are not all that bad. Just okay. And own goals can happen to the best, unless you are Maldini or Nesta.

But the thing is he was barely even average. Even in his Palermo days, the only reason he was called along with the other Palermo duds was because of some corrupt business between Lippi's son and some agency so his father did him a solid and called up the players he was representing. It was part of the huge Calciopoli fiasco that created a domino effect with things being revealed at each turn.

Personally, I think against the better sides and in the CL Allegri should go for a 4-5-1 to give extra cover to the FBs and pack up that midfield because our defence is too vulnerable atm

Oh, quite agree. Then again, Allegri is not one to readily change formations on demand, unlike some of the bigger coaches in Europe. I'm curious how he will go about tackling Barcelona at home this season. That may yet be a match that I have download in HD, been a while since I've done that.

But now with extra firepower in Kaka, it will be really interesting how we come out of it.

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Poli on the right.

That would just be.........

No words!

Zaccardo is the obvious choice, maybe Silvestre, anyone else would just be plain stupid

I seriously cannot see us going 4-3-1-2 against Barca and coming out with anything other than a loss.

Either SES drops back and helps out defensively with Balo alone up front or we drop the extra striker and pack in another mid

Something along the lines of


This way Muntari and De Jong can double up to help the FBs and Monto and Noce/Poli drop in their places so there isn't a huge hole left when Muntari and De Jong are stretched wide

Silvestre had surgery as well.

Is this going to be the start of another injury plagued season ala 11/12?

I don't think so. Just bad luck.

So Zaccardo is both our starting RB and back up CB right now.

Thank god we have Zaccardo.

This is our karma for wanting to get rid of him...

Or is this you not being able to say it's good you wasn't right for once

Well we still need to get rid of some players, and in the grand scheme of things Zaccardo IS technically dead weight in this team.

I mean who could have guessed that not only would we lose DS for more than a month, we'd lose Abate for 2 or 3 weeks and Silvestre, the OTHER dead weight we signed for absolutely no reason from Inter would also need surgery? Just ridiculous.

So sticking to my karma story

Oh boy, that's rich!

?? Sorry might be a bit dense today but don't understand what you mean here.

Well, I for one am not surprised at all. Considering our past luck with injuries (who came in series), this was a quite plausible scenario. Especially with the luck we had last season.

Oh no, you're not dense. I meant to say that I got a good chuckle out of your comment. Not just dead weight, but the other dead weight, which Silvestre is, I guess. Thanks for the laugh!

Well I personally thought things would improve mainly because of last season. I thought they had fixed whatever issues there were with the medical and fitness techniques they were previously using to give us a record number of injuries in one season

It was sheer luck I guess.

I think this is actually sheer bad luck. None of these injuries are muscular as far as I can tell, and muscular injuries are the ones that plagued us two years ago.

Just on cue, El Sha has some light muscular problem.

http://www.milannews.it/da-milanello/sky-l...ontrolli-122957

So he's not going to be in the squad tomorrow?

He's traveling to Turin so I guess it wasn't serious.

Guess again. Official statement from the club: muscular strain, further evaluations will be made.

Me thinks he'll be out for a couple of weeks. Time for Matri to shine!

So convenient that the thigh strain flairs up now

Now I'm just praying for Robinho, this is what I've been reduced to.

Still convinced?