AC Milan vs Manchester United - Pre-Match Thoughts
As the day approaches, the semi final between Milan and Man United that is, it is very tempting for people around to start spouting their share of opinions left, right and center. We here at Soccerlens, make no mistake, will not hide such pretensions and yes, will spout our own opinions for you to read. So here are some pearls that are not meant to be taken with the proverbial (and cliched) pinches of salt.
Now that I have heightened your expectations, sit tight as I start off by picking on one such opinion I read on the Guardian; the one by Richard Williams. Go read it, it’s got quotes from Milan’s prime assets by the name of Zeljko Kalac so it’s going to be priceless. 
Anyway here’s a quote from that:
… the techniques of the Milan Lab are closely studied by ambitious clubs keen to prolong the active life of players whose experience can exert a crucial influence on big matches… “They’ve got a very clear philosophy,” Forde says, “and the biggest element is a belief in treating the players individually - not just physically but mentally and emotionally. They’ve invested well in their facilities, obviously, but there’s a cerebral process going on there.
…”The key to it is that each player undergoes a screening process on a daily basis - biomechanically, neurologically, and so on. It’s about finding the nuances of what makes a player tick so that they can say, ‘This is where he is today and this is what he needs to be doing.’
Hmm… how interesting! Especially for a fan to know that his team is going to age and not much effort is going to be put into youth development. All will be focused on the 35+ players who despite their clear lack of pace will be egged on to play on. Make no mistake, the ageless Maldini and co are great but doesn’t it also mean that there really isn’t much coming up through the ranks, or rather should we say aren’t their any substantial efforts being made to bring in someone for the future?
Mr. Williams, we know how much you want to emphasize the value of experience in your article, but I would definitely want to have more than the solitary mention of Kaka in a preview to the game in my column. As one of the commentors in your column said to the effect of, had Bayern been just a tad conscious, you might have been talking about the battle between ageless Ottmar Hitzfeld and Sir Alex.
Or conversely, bemoaning the average age of the Milan team as a cause for their departure. Because, you must realize that a Milan team in their peak might not have conceded those two home goals in the first place. Hindsight can give such joy to the opinionated, but I digress.
Getting back to my opinions for the match, from a United point of view Kaka cannot be afforded space and Pirlo cannot be afforded time on the ball. All said about the age of Milan’s defense, I doubt they will play as high up the park as Roma did and Gattuso will have a lot of water carrying to do. Frankly I wouldn’t have really worried much about this leg had Ferdinand managed to come out of the Boro game in one piece.
But now, having Brown and Heinze together against the opportunist that is Inzaghi, gives me the jitters. Their understanding is of prime importance; a second of negligence would surely be punished, and all we would then see would be the animated celebration of Pippo running wildly around the San Siro after just a tap in.
In attack, I wouldn’t mind the 4-2-3-1 system that worked against Roma, as long as Carrick sits deep. Hopefully we won’t see Scholes annoying everyone and himself with his rubbish tackling and quick one-twos are the way around the Milan’s defense. Oh yes, and I really don’t need to talk about the importance of Ronaldo and Rooney do I?
From the Milan’s side, Pirlo and Kaka are the usual suspects that Inzaghi would look upto for his scraps. Although we wouldn’t expect them to go all out, unless they are a goal down, their quick counter attacks have proven time and again as their most potent weapon with Kaka at the heart of most of them.
Also expect reasonable amount of aerial balls (due to a make-shift United defense) from Jankulovski in particular, although I am not sure if Maldini might play in his preferred fullback role. Something still tells me experience might force him to play at fullback to negate Ronaldo.
There, now that I’ve given my comprehensive analysis of the game, apart from mentioning Kaka more than once, I deserve a pat on my back, don’t I? Wait, here’s my prediction so that you can comfortably snipe me once it all gets horribly wrong.
My Prediction: United to win 1-0. Heinze to go scot free after a professional foul, and all hell to break loose in the San Siro. Such joy will come of it!
Go ahead keep your eggs ready at your own risk!
- Manchester United vs Milan - Post Match Thoughts
- Football Headlines: 24 April 2007
- Manchester United can beat Milan at San Siro (match discussion)
- CL 2nd Round Draw
- Manchester United update: Chelsea match report and player evaluation
Discussion - 21 Responses
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I wouldn’t be surprised with any controversy.
Williams’ piece is a puff piece, attracts attention and is an interesting insight into the life at Milan but ultimately useless in telling us anything.
He’s a decent writer though
I agree with everything you said above Ahmed except for the prediction.
In a way you are right that a single goal could be the difference at the end of the day between the two teams, however if that is the case then it would be in Milan’s favour. Nonetheless, I think it will be a draw; either 0-0 or 2-2.
Correction: I was directing my comment to Red Ranter not Ahmed Bilal.
Despite the fact we’ve been decimated by injuries, I’d still back us to beat Milan simply because the attacking spine of this team is intact. Sure, the defense might look dodgy but I think it’ll do its job. As for Maldini marking Ronaldo, I have a lot of respect for Maldini but I reckon that there will be occassions when Cristiano will beat him for pure pace and those are the situations we have to take advantage of.
MANCHESTER FANS , cant get enough of them . You guys need to understand that a team in this case AC MILAN dont always play the same way , I mean a player might have the same skills or attitude but not the game strategy .You cant really talk about how MU is going to do this or that or what not , because AC MILAN and MU they are currently studying each others tactics, shifting their gameplay on to another gear so all we can do here is chat for the sake of the argument , but it truly comes down to the game , therefore lets see who did their homework .
Forgive me but I was directing my comments to karan .
I think if we catch them on the break, we will destroy them, they’ll play the christmas tree so its important to have carrick deep and heinze on kaka while brown watches inzaghi, There all bloody good in the air except fletcher, evra looks like making the bench, we dont want him doing a ferdinand now do we?
You cant effectively close down Kaka and Pirlo because they play a fair way apart. I think Inzaghi is injured for the first leg so they’ll be no wild celebrations.
Man U also need to think about yellow cards, wont go into much detail on that cos i wrote an article about it on my webpage and dont want to do it again.
As a Milan fan I would love to see them beat Chelsea in the final. At first I thought revenge against the pool would be good, but after thinking about it beating the top 2 in the premier league and FA Cup and sticking it up that traitor b***ard Shevchenko, who buggard our last chance of winning in 05 would be fantastic.
!!!FORZA MILAN!!!
I think our ‘finnishing’ will be the deciding factor. Damn I miss Ruud.
Milan will go through fo’ sure…..but Man U must feel an advantages on Italian side coz of big win on Roma….But it will not happen again this morning…..
http://lets-joga.blogspot.com
manchester united i am sorry to say may find their self out of the competition as from today because they lack lack the technique and depth to match the milan team they will suffer their first loss today and go out of the competition because i dont see milan lossing or drawing today forget the liverpool miracles man utd will not escape the wrath from the milan team am predicting 1-2 in favour of milan and 2-0 also in favour of milan agg 4-1
[…] is an art form itself.” * If you are a Milan fan this is a must read from the Guardian (via Soccerlens) describing the training techniques at the famed Milan […]
What else to say ….FORZA MILAN !!!
i think manchester united are the greatest they will win 3-2 first leg and draw 0-0 in the second
manutd will win everton and ac in the next to meetings
It’s not so easy to predict these games. Milan will learn from their mistakes, United will be stronger (possibly) personnel wise, and United will not, should not, give Kaka that much space next time around.
[…] And I also now blog at Soccerlens. Among the fastest growing Soccer (Football) blogs, where I wrote a preview last week ahead of the Manchester United - Milan first leg UEFA Champions’ League game. I […]
You don’t expect Milan to score? Ranter…. indeed
1st leg, Man United 3 AC milan 2.
KaKa’s 2 goals are very lucky for him because of Man United’ defeners faults.So he got it ,otherwise he cannot make.
Man United 3 goals are good.
2nd Leg,
Man United surely can win.Maybe Man United 3 AC Milan 1.
We need to know that the present form of Man.U is such that for every game the team plays, it scores. For a match as important as this, Man.U is definitely going to score goals. If Milan will go through? then we’re going to get a goal feast result.