Red card for Kev Prince Boateng
Boateng clawed at Chielliniās forehead there.
Abbiati :lol: :lol:
Marchisioās tame volley from outside the box goes right through Abbiati. 2-0 in injury time.
Abbiati is back to his worst after two sensational seasons.
Marchisio has been outstanding tonight and Giaccherini made a big impact in the second half.
Milan look in bother this season. The midfield lacks energy, pace and creativity. Van Bommel is done and is getting overrun in the centre of the pitch all too frequently. Nocerino is a decent player and offers some energy to the team but hasnāt much in the way of creativity, Boateng is another decent option but again not the most creative player. Apart from that the midfield looks really poor, Aquilani hasnāt settled down yet and I donāt think he can play effectively in the advanced role Milan are asking him to do.
Last night also showed the importance of Abate, with such a narrow midfield, devoid of flair and pace, they rely heavily on Abate to offer width and drive to their attacks. When heās out the likes of Bonera, Antonini and Zambrotta just donāt have the legs or ability to offer that support. They need to get a left back in and they also need to replace Van Bommell with a younger, fresher and more assured midfield destroyer. They also need to address the trequartista position, Seedorf is getting on now and becoming more inconsistent while Aquilani is not a natural in this role.
They were completely overrun by Juventus in midfield last night with Vidal and Marchisio proving the dynamism to Pirloās vision and creative play.
Itās shaping up to be a really exciting season and the gap in quality at the top has narrowed considerably. Napoli, Udinese and Roma will now be looking to establish themselves as title contenders while Fiorentina and Lazio are more than capable of getting in the mix too - along with the traditional big three (Inter, Juve, Milan).
This may be an interesting read or it may not:
http://ghostgoal.coā¦-about-serie-a/
by Adam Bate
Sam Wallace (The Independent): āYou go to Stoke, theyāve got an identity. You go to Bolton and that clubās got an identity. When I watch Serie A you donāt feel that so much about the smaller clubs there.ā
Shaun Custis (The Sun): āYou watch Serie A do you? I didnāt think people did that anymore. Genuinely, I didnāt.ā
Neil Ashton (Daily Mail): āIf you watch the last couple of weeks both the games have been 0-0 draws.ā
Shaun Custis (The Sun): āItalian football has dropped off the map. You do get the feeling there is so much more competition in this country ā you do feel that teams at the bottom can win the big games at any point.ā
Sunday Supplement, Sky Sports, 25/09/2011
Itās quite an exchange and while it kicked up a storm on Twitter it may well have tapped into a common view among English football fans.
Thankfully, some of these views can be challenged by looking at the statistics.
Goals
Neil Ashtonās facile point that the recent televised games had ended goalless suggests he is of the view that there are fewer goals scored in Italian football. Is this true?
In short, yes it is. Over the past three seasons there have been 2935 goals in Serie A at an average of 2.57 per game. In the Premier League there have been 3058 goals at an average of 2.68 per game.
Interestingly, however, Ashton may be surprised to note that in two of the past three seasons there have been more goalless draws in the Premier League than in Serie A. In total, in the last three completed seasons there have been 98 goalless draws in England compared to 82 in Italy.
So why are there both more goals and more goalless draws in the Premier League than in Serie A? That may have something to do with the heavy beatings that the top teams in England are capable of dishing out on a regular basis ā and it strikes at the heart of the debate about competitiveness.
Competitiveness
Custisās claim that the teams at the bottom of the Premier League can win the big games at any point is an interesting one.
If it were true that Englandās weakest sides were getting better results against the top teams than their Italian equivalent then that would certainly indicate a greater competitiveness. But it isnāt true.
Comparing the results of the bottom three sides against the top three sides in both England and Italy is revealing in so much as what it does not reveal. It does not bring to light these miraculous results that justify Custisās āfeelingā he gets.
In 2010-11 the three relegated teams from the Premier League (Birmingham City, Blackpool and West Ham United) managed one win, three draws and 14 defeats against Englandās top three (Man Utd, Chelsea and Man City).
That one win was for Birmingham against Chelsea (memorable for you Shaun?) and, admittedly, itās one more than the Serie A sides managed. However, Italyās bottom three (Bari, Brescia and Sampdoria) did get seven draws against Serie Aās top three (Milan, Inter and Napoli) meaning that they took more points off the top sides than their English equivalent.
Perhaps Custis and co were hinting at a more general competitiveness than is shown in the results. But a look at other key performance indicators only serves to highlight the competitiveness of the Italian league.
The spread of average possession stats for 2010-11 ā per the WhoScored website using Opta statistics ā show a greater disparity in England (38% to 60%) than in Italy (43% to 59%).
The pass completion rates tell a similar story. The spread in England is from 64% to 84% but in Italy there is remarkably consistent with Lecce bottom of the pile with a respectable 73%.
Itās a similar story so far in 2011-12 and the early indications are that Serie A is set for a wide open title race with just three points separating the top eight.
It adds weight to the argument of Italian football expert James Horncastle when he says: āAt this moment in time Serie A is the most competitive itās ever been.ā
Identity
The notion of identity is a more difficult matter to prove. And yet, it should come as no surprise that an English person should detect a greater sense of identity among English clubs.
Sam Wallace points out Bolton Wanderers are a club that he sees as having a clear identity ā but one wonders whether this identity resonates among the Italian public?
Itās tempting to conclude that this supposed contrast between England and Italy reveals nothing more than the journalistās own ignorance.
Perhaps itās best to leave the final word on this topic to James Richardson, former presenter of Football Italia on Channel 4, who says: āThere is no country with a stronger regional identity than Italy and it is absolutely expressed through the clubs.ā
Was reading that earlier and meant to post it. Decent rebuttal of what amounted to a nonsensical argument in the first place from the insular tabloid hacks.
Jesus, some horrific comments by Custis and his cronies there, especially the one about competitiveness, the EPL is like an all-to obvious-script when you compare it with Serie A, usually the same teams in the same places every season and there is much more of a disparity betweent the top teams in EPL than there is in Serie A.
Idiotic comments about the identity too.
In recent seasons Udinese, Lazio, Napoli, Roma, Milan, Sampdoria, Inter, Fiorentina and Juventus have occupied the CL places. In England Arsenal, Chelsea, United and Liverpool. The demise of Liverpool has let the likes of City and Spurs in, in the last two seasons.
Napoli lost 2-1 at home to Parma last night, a very disappointing result for them.
Catania came from behind to defeat Inter 2-1 to further compound Interās miserable start.
Milan were comfortable winners at home to Palermo last night, 3-0.
Controversial decision in the Juve game as Pirlo was caught in possession as the last man as the Chievo player went on and scored but a late whistle from the referee (blowing for a foul on Pirlo) ruled it out.
Looked very, very soft.
Six games today. The scores were :
0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-2
Iād say the Mafia won a nice few bob
Totti has move to new stadium impacted on Juventusā attendances? Hope Juve can do it tonight for Del Piero.
Seems to have been a massive uptake in attendance this year alright Larry.
Milan were 3-0 down at half time to Lecce but two goals from Boateng means itās 3-2 with an hour gone. Smashing game of football.
Boateng hatrick now!
Juve beat Fiorentina 2-1 tonight. Matri with the decisive goal in the 25th minute. Juventus now go top, for the time being. Vucinic with yet another unimpressive display, delighted at that. Osvaldo is a better player anyway.
Nasty business for Rino Gattuso.
From Sky Sports:
AC Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso has vowed to come back stronger from a potentially career-threatening injury that will keep him sidelined for around six months.
The 33-year-old has already been out of action for more than a month after being substituted during his sideās Serie A opener against Lazio on 9th September.
He had to be replaced after colliding with team-mate Alessandro Nesta and was later diagnosed with sixth nerve palsy, a disorder associated with the dysfunction of the cranial nerve that controls eye movement.
āThat (collision) was not the cause of my problem, but it was an incident that helped me discover I had one,ā Gattuso said in a press conference.
"The 20 minutes I played against Lazio were a nightmare.
āI felt drunk. I could see (AC Milan team-mate) Zlatan Ibrahimovic in four different positions.ā
The 2006 World Cup winner, who has been at Milan since 1999, is set to miss most of the rest of the season as he will not be able to undergo an operation for another four months.
āIn 25 per cent of cases the palsy of the sixth optic nerve occurs for unknown reasons,ā explained Milanās chief medical officer Rodolfo Tavana. āOften this kind of problem clears up by itself in a period of two to six months.ā
Gattuso is determined to overcome the biggest battle in his career.
āFootball is my life,ā he said. "Iām a lucky man.
Seriously scared
"Three weeks ago doctors told me there was a chance I might never play again, but now they are saying that is not the case and I will fight hard to return.
"For a while I was seriously scared about my health and worried for my life, but now I have undergone several tests Iām calmer.
"Itāll take more than this to beat me. The important thing is to not give up.
"I feel an important part of the dressing room here. I feel respected after playing here for so long.
"My team-mates know Iām full of enthusiasm, so age is certainly not a problem. As long as the enthusiasm is there, I can keep playing.
āI hope you will see me back on the football pitch.ā
The former Rangers midfielder hopes his condition, which has affected his daily life, will improve.
āBefore I had triple vision, now I see double,ā he said. "There has been some improvement.
"I can train, but I canāt play because I canāt see well enough.
"Right now I canāt send an email, I canāt watch TV, I canāt drive and itās tough not to be able to take my children to school.
"I will need to wait another four months before an operation can take place to resolve everything.
āThe important thing is to get back to normal life and to come out of this stronger than ever.ā
Napoli 2-0 against Udinese tonight HT. Two headers, scored by one of the centre halves and some other guy who is not Cavani.
Lavezzi got the opener, Napoliās most important player, IMO.
Milan are two up against Parma. Nocerino, whom Iāve always held in high regard, with both and he continues his very impressive start with Milan. Think the fee mentioned for him was only 500k. :o
Inter are drawing 1-1 away to Atalanta. Sneijder gave them the lead. Lazio are leading Catania.