AC Milan defender Alessandro
Nesta has had surgery for a fractured arm and should recover
for their opening Serie A home game against Lecce on Aug. 29,
the club said on its website (www.acmilan.com).

Portsmouth’s Kevin-Prince Boateng has arrived in Italy where he is expected to sign for Genoa before being immediately loaned to AC Milan.

News out of the boot today is that KJH is on his way to Schalke for 15M Euros. While this is still just an unconfirmed rumor it brought up an interesting point from Moka:

“GF it’s not a need for a striker. It’s the fact that KJH might leave and without KJH, we lack depth up front with only Borriello, Pato, Inzaghi and a couple of kids. Allegeri said he wants a midfielder if possible.”

So it leads me to ask a few questions:

1. If the sale does go through for 15M and Milan can spend the money what do you spend it on?
2. Do we need striker depth with Primavera players on the ready?
3. Can anyone explain to me why management does not see the fact that we don’t need to chase strikers!??!

For me it is rather simple, let us go out and get the CAM that Allegri and his 4-3-1-2 so desperately needs. For those fearing the playing time of Ronaldinho he can be employed as a striker when Allegri sees fit. As for depth we can easily call upon Baretta or Oduamadi throughout the season. I guess someone just has to convince KJH now…

As the summer draws to a close and the season gets closer I will post a season preview as well as a Serie A preview. I would also like to preview Allegri’s plan’s but at the moment they have yet to take any real shape so we will keep holding on that note. In the meantime here is the fixture list for the upcoming season:

Round 1 – Sunday 29 August, MILAN-LECCE (return 16/01/11)
Sunday 5 September – No matches: European Championships 2012 Qualifiying Round
Round 2 – Sunday 12 September: CESENA-MILAN (return 23/01/11)
15-16 September – First Round Champions League 2010/2011 Group Phase
Round 3 – 19 September: MILAN-CATANIA (return 30/01/11)
Round 4 – 22 September (First midweek round): LAZIO-MILAN (return 02/02/11)
Round 5 – 26 September : MILAN-GENOA (return 06/02/11)
28-29 September – Second Round Champions League 2010/2011 Group Phase
Round 6 – 3 October: PARMA-MILAN (return 13/02/11)
Sunday 10 October – No matches: European Championships 2012 Qualifiying Round
Round 7 – 17 October: MILAN-CHIEVO (return 20/02/11)
19-20 Ottobre – Third Round Champions League 2010/2011 Group Phase
Round 8 – 24 October: NAPOLI-MILAN (return 27/02/11)
Round 9 – 31 October: MILAN-JUVENTUS (return 06/03/11)
3-4 November – Fourth Round Champions League 2010/2011 Group Phase
Round 10 – 7 November BARI-MILAN (return 13/03/11)
Round 11 – 10 November (Second midweek round): MILAN-PALERMO (return 20/03/11)
Round 12 -14 November: INTER-MILAN (return 03/04/11)
Round 13 – 21 November: MILAN-FIORENTINA (return 10/04/11)
23-24 November – Fifth Round Champions League 2010/2011 Group Phase
Round 14 – 28 November: SAMPDORIA-MILAN (return 17/04/11)
Round 15 – 5 December: MILAN-BRESCIA (return 23/04/11)
7-8 December – Sixth Round Champions League 2010/2011 Group Phase
Round 16 – 12 December: BOLOGNA-MILAN (return 01/05/11)
Round 17 – 19 December: MILAN-ROMA (return 08/05/11)
Sunday 26 December and Sunday 2 January – Winter Break
Round 18 – Thursday 6 January 2011 (Third midweek round): CAGLIARI-MILAN (return 15/05/11)
Round 19 – 9 January 2011: MILAN-UDINESE (return 22/05/11)

Our four big games are in bold, but our last three games are not exactly welcoming fixtures with a trip to Rome and Udinese. If you are an optimist and believe Milan will have chance, the season will most likely be won early in the year with the idea of taking at least taking 15 points from the first six games. Look at the bright we have some time to get things sorted before the derby! The past two seasons Milan have started horrendously slow, here is to hoping Allegri can get this team kick started before Week 3.

It is funny that no matter how frustrated I get through the transfer season or with players in the summer, when the fixture list comes out I already start to get that sense of nervousness and maybe even a glimmer of hope. With the first game comes a new beginning for a Coach, a team, and a season. Excited yet?

While I don’t put enough stock in preseason friendlies to do a full blown preview or even an in depth review, they are a great opportunity to take some observations about Allegri’s choices and how the players responded.

For those who didn’t see the game Allegri’s starting eleven was a 4-3-1-2 with Abbiati, Zambro, Nesta, Silva, Ants, Rino, Seedorf, Flamini, Merkel, Borri, Oduamadi.

-Oduamdi reminds me of a miniature version of Adebayor, I always loved the Togolese striker and maybe Oduamadi can make a claim for a starting spot.

-Allegri went with Seedorf as the deep CM as discussed this week, probably more of necessity than anything else.

-Antonini looks silky smooth and very dangerous, bombing up the wing and getting onto passes, looks jacked up from his call up.

-20th minute Merkel digs out a tackle at the top of the eighteen, imagine that a CAM back tackling? Terrible pass though after a great take. Looks more comfortable tackling than he does passing, but have to admire his effort.

-Anyone else surprised that Silvio and Fester haven’t sold the space below the numbers to some ridiculous Sponsor?

-Flamini looks like a man with a point to prove and seems poised to repay Allegri’s confidence.

-I am going to reserve the right to take back my previous praise for Flamini, it is infuriating to see him receive the ball and immediately put his head down so close to goal!! Release Mathieu, RELEASE!

-29th minute super sloppy defending on a set piece by Zambrotta, defense is playing well but organized poorly on set pieces.

-31st minute great combo play Borri to Merkel, who could have shot, but lays off to Oduamadi who is closed down, very nice.

-Seedorf 0 for 3 on set pieces and passes over 10 meters are way off, not good.

-35 minutes and Allegri has yet to sit down, I like it.

-Rino tries a bicycle kick in the 41st minute, on goal, but weak, have to applaud the effort.

-That is the half, not bad in terms of possession but the defensive line looks bad. Flamini and Rino not filling to hold up the ball and Cisse is able to find space in front of the CB’s which is a problem, hopefully Allegri can address this issue sooner rather than later

-Two changes to start the second half, Bonera in for Silva and Amelia for Abbiati.

-Nesta gets burned early, he needs to find his legs because that won’t work in the season.

-Milan get burned for pace in the back, Amelia makes a huge save, ball appears to go in but goal is not given. Shambolic defending…should be a goal.

-Milan look OK in possession but the CB’s look very susceptible to the break, they actually look stuck in the mud.

-Sokratis for Nesta and Strasser for Seedorf

-I thought Flamini would slide central but Strasser is holding the space.

-Borri looks very strong good touches and passes but you can see a big gap in chemistry and understanding with Oduamadi and Merkel.

-67th minute Strasser almost connects with a Merkel FK, he looks devastated by the missed chance.

-When you watch Amelia you can see why folks in Italy were so high on him, his fundamentals and form are excellent, reminds me of Peruzzi.

-Borri off for Beretta with Abate for Rino to follow, both Borri and Rino looked strong and fit tonight.

-Anybody wonder how on Earth Cisse can still be so fast with both his legs broken? Unless of course our defense is slow it makes Cisse look lightning fast…

-Merkel off Novinic on, Zambro, Antonini and Flamini are still on the pitch. Have to give credit to Merkel early in the match he was sharp and very dangerous but he faded as the match wore on and no longer asserted himself, but he has a nice skill set to build on. Check that Oddo on for Zambro.

-Curious to see Novinic, under 21 Slovenian, supposedly great on the ball.

-Oddo embarrassed on his first tackle by Leto who has been on the pitch all 80 minutes, nice work Massimo!

-Thought I mentioned it earlier but can anyone tell me what the shamrock symbolizes for Panathiniakos?

-A fan has invaded the pitch, it is safe to say that I have grown tired of such shennanigans.

- Great ball from Antonini and Beretta gets the head on it but not solid enough, either way it was a solid combo. Good to see the youngster stick his nose into the play.

-Great run by Strasser, you can see the cohesion with the Primavera players working the ball forward and moving as a unit.

-Novinic has yet to get his feet on the ball, Strasser is the polar opposite, he is like a missile b-lining for the ball.

-Milan win on penalties, FSC messes up the broadcast and they don’t show the kicks!

Well the match is over, Milan remain undefeated in the preseason a far cry from last year, but still not exactly a finished product. Has to be said the youth are doing their best to impress, but the question still needs to be answered, who are they trying to impress?? Milan or some suitor on loan? It would probably be prudent to start to integrate them into the squad so that in the upcoming seasons they are ready to contribute with the same intensity they play these matches.

I would like to kindly introduce Mario, he is a reader and commenter on the blog who decided to email me with an idea. His idea was to use his Brazilian background to help shed some light on the issues surrounding the risk of signing a Brazilian player, their transition to Europe, and ultimately their value to AC Milan. This piece will run for the rest of the week in four parts so enjoy.

Part I
Part II
Part III

Part IV

So now that we have determined that Brazilian players 1) have incredible skill, 2) are noticeably weaker defensively than offensively, and 3), are undisciplined and volatile, the question becomes is it worth it? Is it worth buying players straight out of Brazil, or buying the Brazilian rejects of other European teams?

This is the one point for which I will not attempt to provide a complete answer, simply because I don’t know. What I do know, is that buying Brazilian rejects of other teams is one of the dumbest things anyone could possibly do. If a Brazilian does not fit in to a team, chances are, its not because he doesn’t have skill. It is much more likely that the team is trying to get rid of the player because they are either too undisciplined, unwilling to adapt, too old, or all of the above. When a Brazilian player successfully makes the switch to Europe, it is much more likely that the team that purchased him will NOT want to part ways with him without an exorbitant fee.

The Brazilians that are being offloaded cheap are broken merchandise. They have been tried, and they have failed. Because of this, I am completely against buying players like Emerson, Mancini, Ronaldinho (bear with me here, yes he is great, but he was being pushed out of Barca not for lack of skill but for lack of discipline) and other European Soccer rejects simply because they are Brazilian.

Milan’s management seems to believe that our team’s “family atmosphere” and history with Brazilians can fix these “broken” players, but alas, it cannot. Players like Ronaldinho will show flashes of skill as often as they show flashes of laziness and stupidity. Yes he was our best performer offensively last year, but imagine how much better it would have been had we spent the money used on him to rebuild our aging squad? If we had bought a trequartista, a better striker, and better midfielders, all funded by some some of the Ronaldinho and Ronaldo money, we would be a lot better off today . Instead, in the case of Ronaldidnho, we are relying on a volatile inconsistent player who is just as likely to dazzle us all as he is to show up hung over.

Part one of my answer, should we risk buying Brazilian rejects from other teams? In my opinion, NO. This leads to the second, and much more difficult part of the question. Is it worth the risk to buy promising youth from Brazil? We could be getting the next Kaka (though its unlikely there will ever be a player like Kaka since he grew up in a good family, very different from the conditions of those who grew up in poverty), or we could be getting the next Robinho. On one hand, a player who will positively contribute for years, or on the other, an unquestionably great player that we will end up selling for less than we purchased in a few years because he does not perform as expected, for a combination of reasons. Obviously, no one at Milan regrets purchasing Kaka. But I promise you, a lot of Madridista’s regret the purchase of Robinho.

Should we spend 15-20 million euros on a greatly skilled Brazilian player? It could be disastrous or it could be great. I trust our scouts, and the likes of Cafu, to identify talent, but how easy is it to predict what will happen when these talented players are let loose in Europe? Should we take this risk, and become players in the Brazilian lottery, or should we play it safe, and spend 30-40 million euros on the same player once he has established himself in Europe and proved that he can handle the pressure, the culture shock, and the change in scenery while still working hard and performing as well for his Club as he would for his country?

My opinion is that it depends on a few factors: the club’s current situation as to whether the risk is worth it and if bring in the player can benefit the teamIf we are already set at all other positions (like we were when we purchased Kaka), it is a risk we should be willing to take. Worst case scenario, we lose 10-15 million euros on the deal once we sell a player who doesn’t prove to be good enough, but we still have a great team without him. However, when we are a team that needs to be completely rebuilt, is it worth it risking a huge portion of our transfer funds on one Brazilian player, a proverbial “single lottery ticket,” which historically has a higher chance of failing than succeeding? I don’t think so. We couldn’t afford that kind of loss when we have a whole team to revamp. It is for this that I believe we need to focus on Italian youth at these times, and why we should push for Italian players. While their possible upside may not be as great as a young Brazilian’s, there is a much greater chance that 15 million euros spent on young Italian players who are more likely to do well in Serie A will provide us with a better foundation then 15 million euros spent on one “Ganso type player” who might very well tank as soon as he hits foreign soil.

Should we risk most of our transfer funds on one high stakes lottery player, or should we invest in less exciting yet less financially dangerous Italian youth? Hopefully, this series of posts has helped some of you at least see mine, Gianfranco’s, and other’s point of view when we ask for Italian youth. It has nothing to do with ardent nationalism or prejudice against Brazilians, it is more of a calculated look at the risks. The young Italians may not be as flashy as the young Brazilians, but it is always a lot better to build a foundation out of bricks than out of gold.

AC Milan have the final say on
Ronaldinho’s future amid renewed reports of interest from Los
Angeles Galaxy, his agent and brother has said.

I would like to kindly introduce Mario, he is a reader and commenter on the blog who decided to email me with an idea. His idea was to use his Brazilian background to help shed some light on the issues surrounding the risk of signing a Brazilian player, their transition to Europe, and ultimately their value to AC Milan. This piece will run for the rest of the week in four parts so enjoy.

Part I
Part II

Part III

To understand why so many Brazilian players have discipline problems, one needs once again to look no further than Brazilian culture for the explanation. It is no secret that most successful soccer players, and most other athletes in the world come from poor beginnings. This is especially true in Brazil, where at least 80% if not more of the players that make it professionally grew up in the “favelas,” the infamous slums of Brazil. It is by looking at and studying the living conditions in these favelas that it becomes easy to understand where all these problems come from.

Life in the favelas is rough. Very, very rough. Money and food is scarce, while guns and drugs abound. For an accurate portrayal of what these people have to deal with every day, I suggest watching the movies City of God (Cidade de Deus), Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite), and Brazil. Violence is everywhere, caused by warring drug dealers who from a young age symbolize power and manliness to many kids growing up. With the drug trade being very profitable, the drug dealers are the only ones in the favelas with nice clothes, expensive watches,jewelry, and money. Inevitably, unless their parents do a very good job raising them (which is difficult since the mothers are most likely working 12-16 hours a day being a maid at a middle class or upper class home and the dad most likely works long hours in a factory or begging on the street) these kids start to idolize the drug dealers and what they stand for. It goes without saying that their education is also very poor, if existent at all, so they have never truly been taught how to act. Once they become professional players and start to get paid, they begin to emulate those they know who are also rich: the drug dealers. They have no other examples of how to deal with money, and so they believe that the correct thing to do is to blow it on clothes, partying, prostitutes, alcohol, and drugs akin to what they saw growing up.

You’re probably now thinking that while this all sounds plausible, you don’t see every single Brazilian player turning into a mess the minute they get money, and there is a very good reason for that; the disciplinary system among youth teams is incredible. From watching practices and interactions between caretakers, coaches, and players when I visited Cruzeiro’s youth premises, I saw firsthand how they managed to assert control over these kids. They all live in dormitories situated on the team’s youth facilities, they get little free time, have enforced curfews, and work almost as if they are in a boot camp. Misbehaving is simply unacceptable, so they behave; more because they are being forced to instead of doing so under their own volition. . Even among the first team, many Brazilian teams have dormitories for the players that they must sleep in one or two nights before games. They are shut off from the world for one or two nights prior, to ensure focus.

Throughout this whole process of growing up, playing in a soccer school, and joining a youth academy, one crucial part of any person’s upbringing is severely neglected: education. Simply put, a lot of these guys are dumb. Not for any fault of their own, they were just never given a a proper education. They were always working to get money, playing soccer, and practicing. I was shocked to learn from my aunt’s friend (who is a member of the board of directors of Cruzeiro) that many of these players are near illiterate. The youth academy has a school that they attend, but it is very basic and there is no real consequence for not passing classes. If the kids don’t pass, but continue to play well, they continue on the team, so there’s no incentive for them to focus on it.

Taking all this into account, what do you think happens when a player makes it big and secures a transfer to Europe? For one, their salary multiplies many times, even though they already have more money than they know how to deal with. Secondly, the bootcamp-like disciplinary institutions are removed. They are no longer playing for their hometown team (which they are happy to play for due to the love they had for the team growing up), and many are playing more for the opportunity to one day represent the country than for their love of their team. It is for this reason that we see players, such as Robinho, put in incredible performances when he plays domestically in Brazil as well as for the National Team, but looks disinterested and lazy in games for his club (Real Madrid and Manchester City). The same applies for Felipe Melo, who with the exception of his pathetic show of composure in Brazil’s last World Cup game, has always played much better for Brazil than he has for his club. In their excess of money, these players regress back to what they know and learned in the favelas: they turn to partying, alcohol, and even drugs.

There are obviously players that adjust better than others. Not all which I have just laid out happens to every Brazilian player, but at least part of it is true for most of them. Some drink too much, some don’t try on the pitch, some party too much, some simply don’t integrate well with the culture and long to return home due to either stubbornness or stupidity, while some are guilty of all of the above. This never happened with such frequency in the past because most Brazilian players would play in Brazil most of their lives. European teams would only take the Brazilians which they were sure could handle living outside of Brazil; so fewer would ply their trade abroad. With the globalization of soccer and more and more Brazilians making the switch to Europe every year, problems which have always been around simply become more magnified. Even in the past some Brazilian players had well documented disciplinary problems, such as Garrincha’s penchant for alcohol and easy women.

Players such as Kaka usually adjust better, for one he came from a middle-upper class family. He never lived in a favela, his friends were all normal adjusted kids, and he grew up with good influences and a whole lot of Jesus. He knows how to handle money as he saw his parents handling it well, and doesn’t have the same idolatry of the drug dealer/partying life as he was never exposed to that lifestyle, he was always given better examples growing up. There are other Brazilian players that come from middle or upper class families, and these have never had problems like the others. Unfortunately, these are the exception not the norm, and are usually not nearly as good as those who hail from more modest backgrounds.

Now that I have hypothesized why Brazilian players develop disciplinary problems, my final effort will be to tie all the parts together. In the next and final post, I’ll discuss how all this ties in to AC Milan, what it means for our transfer policies, and make the title I chose for the series clear. Once again, if you have any questions I’ll be reading all the comments and I’ll be happy to answer.

I would like to kindly introduce Mario, he is a reader and commenter on the blog who decided to email me with an idea. His idea was to use his Brazilian background to help shed some light on the issues surrounding the risk of signing a Brazilian player, their transition to Europe, and ultimately their value to AC Milan. This piece will run for the rest of the week in four parts so enjoy.

PART I

Part II

Before I tackle the question of discipline among modern players, it is first necessary to understand why Brazil has historically overlooked defending prior to the evolution of the modern game. I, like many other soccer fans, strongly believe that national styles of play are greatly influenced by the culture of their respective countries. Stereotypes such as “Germans are efficient,” “Italians are very tactical and bend the rules (furbizia),” and “South Americans are tricky” are more often then not based in truth. Therefore, to understand Brazil’s infatuation with dribbling, flicks, and the attacking side of the game, one needs to look no farther than the country’s culture. Brazilian’s are generally very happy, energetic people. This attitude shines through in many Brazilian traditions and arts. Search google for Brazilian art, and the pieces you will see are brilliantly colored and display a relaxed, almost cartoonish style of composition. Take a step further and look at the fast-paced, rhythmic dance of the samba, and what you will see is an expression of joy through the movements of the body, the sounds of the music, and the colorful costumes displayed in performances, parades, and larger events such as Carnaval.

Once you understand Brazilian culture and traditions, it is very easy to see where the fluid play, and encouragement of individual skill and creativity comes from. The average fan in Brazil cares more for a player’s ability to twist, turn, and “dance” on the ball than for his placement, tackling, and defending. From a young age, Brazilian players are taught how to dribble, how to nurture and love the ball, and how to move with it. Those who do not do this well become defenders, or god forbid, goalies. A young Brazilian defender’s dream is to play as a striker and score, and so they continue to practice the dribble, the pass, and sometimes overlook defending in the hopes that they will become good enough to eventually play further up the pitch. After reading his autobiography, I learned that even Pele as a young child was made to play as a goalie. He would try to play with the older boys, and so they would put him in the goal since he was small and young, which led to his desire to develop his touch and dribbling skills to an inhuman level in order to prove them wrong.

Before players are old enough to play for a club’s youth team, they often play in a soccer school. After regular school time is over, they go to the soccer school and spend 2-3 hours a day being taught soccer. Once they are old enough to try out for a team, they leave the school.. In the 2 years I played for a soccer school, I was a first hand witness to this philosophy that those who are not good enough attackers become defenders. Beating opponents on the run has never been my forte, and so I was played as a right back. I, like all other defenders on my team, dreamed of becoming skilled enough to maybe one day be a right mid, and eventually a striker. During practices, the focus was always on the attackers. They would be coached on how to break through defenses, and we (defenders) would be thrown out on the pitch and told to take the ball from them; instructions never really went further than that. Occasionally, we would receive some advice in the form of a tired Brazilian expression- “em jogo de campionato, chuta a bola pro mato.” In english- “in a championship game, kick the ball to the woods.” Those were our instructions. Get the ball back, and if you can’t pass or dribble, just kick the ball as hard as you can and let the attackers take care of everything else. Meanwhile, they were taught how to make runs, how to find combination plays, and how to trick defenders.

Once you make it onto a club’s youth team, you are finally taught how to defend. For the longest time however, this was too little too late, and helps explain why up until recent times Brazil has never been known for its defense. This lack of focus on defense inevitably leads to the reason why Brazilian players lack defensive discipline. Instead of working on defending, Brazilians are more interested in working on feints and tricks, defenders included. This also explains why Brazilian defenders are almost as good at said feints and tricks as their attacking players. A disclaimer: I realize that today Brazilian defenders are some of the best of the world, but even so, you can still see in all of them a tendency to try and do to much on the attacking side of the ball or make as many runs forward as possible (Lucio, Dani Alves, Maicon, etc.).

It is a well known fact in human development and psychology that praise is a much better way to nurture skills and abilities than criticism. So why should a young Brazilian player work hard on defense and learning to defend if they receive little praise for being a good tackler and a lot of criticism for getting beat on the run? It is only natural that any young boy hoping to one day be a famous soccer player (which in Brazil, means all of them) will therefore gravitate to working much harder to beat players, dribble, and create space as they know they will receive 10 times more praise for being good at that. It is for this reason that aside from true defenders (center backs, outside backs, etc) many Brazilian midfielders and strikers have very poor defensive discipline. Players like Gilberto Silva, Felipe Melo, and Dunga back in the day all receive constant criticism of being boring players as they play in a midfield role but prefer to focus on the defensive side of the game. Why would anyone want to work their entire life towards playing a role that they will receive constant criticism for, no matter how much they excel at it and how much it is needed for team balance?

Now that I have reasoned, to the best of my abilities, why Brazilian players work a lot harder on the offensive side of the game than the defensive, I will try to explain why in modern times they have garnered a reputation of not only being undisciplined defenders, but also of being undisciplined behaviorally in the next post. As always, direct any questions my way in the comments section and I will try to answer everyone I can.

Sevilla striker Luis Fabiano has attacked AC Milan by saying they are a club who break promises.

Sevilla striker Luis Fabiano has attacked AC Milan by saying they are a club who break promises.

Arsenal edged out Celtic 3-2 to
win the Emirates Cup friendly tournament on Sunday after
Olympique Lyon and AC Milan had settled for a 1-1 draw.