Summer mercato 2012

[Gabriel426]

Only going to reply the Ibra part.

Well, my other post actually explained why I think the bad results from Milan is not a direct result of Ibra playing bad.

I know you and some other journalist kept using stats to say the general play of the team is better and it is not like Milan can't win without Ibra, and other players tend to step up more instead of sending the ball to Ibra. However, what I had been saying is that, due to injuries and forms, who really stepped up this season for Milan beside Ibra?

Last year, when Ibra was suspended, Slowdorf, Cassano and Boateng really played well to pick up the creative role and offense role for Milan. However, they pretty much played the same even before and after Ibra's suspension. So it is unfair to say it was a direct result of Ibra's absence. Robinho plays did became more lively without Ibra last season but they often never materialize into scoring chances. I think the only player who really shine when Ibra is not playing is Pato, but same can be said the other around.

As for this season, who stepped up beside Ibra? Robinho is like Slowdorf, who will have a great game followed by crappy games with or without Ibra. Slowdorf might have only played 3 good games all year. Boateng has been injured. While Pato is too busy being at the Doctor's office. Cassano got his heart thing.

As I mentioned in my other post. If the team is healthy, I believe they could play better without Ibra, but with all the injuries this season, if it were not for Ibra, Milan will not even be 3 pts behind Juve, they might actually be 3 pts behind Lazio. Abate will not become Cafu if Ibra is not around, nor would Muntari, Urby, Nocerino and Ambro start playing like Cesc, Xavi, Iniesta and Thiago all b/c Ibra is on the bench and suddenly these players realize their true potential.

If results are still positive when Ibra's not around, then players must be generally stepping up to get those results. This season, I remember when Ibra was out suspended, Robinho generally played better during that period, El Shaarawy got more chances to show his ability and Maxi did help the side a great deal. Add to this players like Nocerino, Urby and Muntari who also did well during that period and it's possible to see that while we didn't have the greatest players, our results don't necessarily depend on Ibra and our team play often improves when he's out, as if I remember correctly it was around this period that we were at our best this season. Our opposition were no pushovers either, we beat Udinese 2-1 (the match that many consider turned our season around), 3-1 away to Cesena and 1-1 with Juve where we were desperately unlucky.

You said it yourself, we've not had many players to fallback on due to injury for when Ibra's been out, but even without them our results didn't falter. If I go a step further and think ahead to next season, we can assume that our injury situation won't be worse next season (it simply can't be) and we shouldn't even assume it will be the same as this season. Also, while I'm suggesting we don't need Ibra, I'm not saying that if we sell him we should keep what we have. We'd have to replace him with someone of very high quality who can lead our attack, meaning an influential player who can take on a large amount of responsibility.

When you talked about results, here are the stats for this year.

In Serie A, 33 matches played.
Ibra played 27matches, 17W, 4L, 6D
W/Out Ibra, 6 matches, 3W, 2D, 1L

Statistics speaking,
Milan with Ibra is 63% win, 22% D and 15% loses
W/out Ibra is 50% win, 33% D and 17% loses

In CL, Milan played a total of 10 games.
With Ibra, 3W, 3L and 2D
W/out Ibra, 2D.

In a way, Milan can't win without Ibra in CL, but at the same time, they can't lose either.

I am not going into detail of how each of those games were won, draw or lose, bc then it will have too many factors and variables.

Dev, you might think that Milan played their best during the 3 games Ibra was suspended. But to me, it was the period from mid October to Dec, where Milan pretty much beat anyone and scoring around 2 goals each match, I think their only bad games were against Juve and Viola in the league and that Draw with one of the others CL teams in the group.

As for thinking ahead, well, I agree with what you said but at the same time,
why replace your primary offensive output with someone who is equally talent but might not gel well with the current team and other new players then just get better players to suit both Allegri's system to support Ibra and take it from there.
B/c I know that if Milan actually were healthy and did manage to get someone like Vidal or Honda(in Jan), or a dream signing like Hamsik or Hernanes, Milan at this moment could very well be in a position for a treble winning season.

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In a completely parallel universe we should buy Gareth Bale and Van Persie.

I think in that Universe, Hunter would have stayed, Leo would have gotten Hernanes right out of Sao Paolo, and Kaka managed to come back to Milan b/c Real needs to balance their book.