I remember everyone on A-M clamouring for us to copy Milan's methods and invest heavily like they have in a more scientific approach to injury prevention. Where's the famous "Milan lab" now? They have injury on injury, and it can't all be down to old age.

Klaus wrote:

Tony Montana wrote:

I have only seen a few games.

But i'm talking about the CL though. And let's be honest, english teams have done better against italians than vice versa when plaing each other.

And Italian teams have won the tournament twice in the last four years. English teams have won it once. The Italian players won the World Cup in -06. The English players weren't even close, for all their supposed superiority.

Serie A is not as competitive as Premier League but the top players would raise hell in England too if given the opportunity. You can't judge an entire league based on a one-off game or a few comments you've read on an English forum, and you can't judge the strength of a team based on how they perform when they miss half a dozen key players.

I'm talking about the club game as I mentioned earlier, not the National team.

I'm talking about English league players not English players.

And English teams v Italian teams since 2000 favours English teams in wins.

Spurs were missing players as well, and if Milan are better than Spurs, then any first teamer not playing for Spurs is a big deal.

Ricky: Preventing injuries isn't their only function though. They keep track of each individual player on a weekly basis and develop personal training methods to specifically enhance certain technical attributes by optimizing the training of the concerned muscle groups. Player by player Milan have been the fittest team in the world for over a decade. The fact that they break down a lot nowadays is down to Berlusconi more than anyone else. Since he started to cheapskate through the league they've introduced very few new players in the team while growing overly reliant on aging ones.

Tony Montana wrote:

I'm talking about the club game as I mentioned earlier, not the National team.

No, you were talking about players in Serie A versus those who play in English clubs. Every single player in Italy's world cup winning squad played in Serie A, thus making it a relevant point.

Tony Montana wrote:

And English teams v Italian teams since 2000 favours English teams in wins.

Maybe. I haven't looked it up so I won't argue, but it doesn't mean anything else than what you just wrote: that English teams have won more games against Italian ones during the last decade than vice versa.

Tony Montana wrote:

Spurs were missing players as well, and if Milan are better than Spurs, then any first teamer not playing for Spurs is a big deal.

Spurs were only missing Modric and Bale that could be considered regulars.

It does suggest that the overall quality of the Premier League is still as high as it was 3 or 4 seasons ago. Makes a bit of a mockery of the idea that standards have dropped over here.

Ricky1985 wrote:

I remember everyone on A-M clamouring for us to copy Milan's methods and invest heavily like they have in a more scientific approach to injury prevention. Where's the famous "Milan lab" now? They have injury on injury, and it can't all be down to old age.

Thought the 'milan lab' got exposed as a myth a while ago. Can't remember the story or where I read it but I have a vague recollection of somebody 'outing' them.

Klaus wrote:

Ricky: Preventing injuries isn't their only function though. They keep track of each individual player on a weekly basis and develop personal training methods to specifically enhance certain technical attributes by optimizing the training of the concerned muscle groups. Player by player Milan have been the fittest team in the world for over a decade. The fact that they break down a lot nowadays is down to Berlusconi more than anyone else. Since he started to cheapskate through the league they've introduced very few new players in the team while growing overly reliant on aging ones.

Tony Montana wrote:

I'm talking about the club game as I mentioned earlier, not the National team.

No, you were talking about players in Serie A versus those who play in English clubs. Every single player in Italy's world cup winning squad played in Serie A, thus making it a relevant point.

Sure, but when these players play for their clubs, many along with foreigners, they are found wanting against English teams. Look, they're not terrible but it's basically Milan that have been the best. Even Inter last year won with essentially no or just one Italian player (although that's not my original point). It was piss easy for United last season and Spurs beat them this year. Honestly would you be worried even playing Inter?

Klaus wrote:

Tony Montana wrote:

And English teams v Italian teams since 2000 favours English teams in wins.

Maybe. I haven't looked it up so I won't argue, but it doesn't mean anything else than what you just wrote: that English teams have won more games against Italian ones during the last decade than vice versa.

Yeah but what do you think is the reason for that? I say it's because English teams are stronger and faster...more intense.

Klaus wrote:

Tony Montana wrote:

Spurs were missing players as well, and if Milan are better than Spurs, then any first teamer not playing for Spurs is a big deal.

Spurs were only missing Modric and Bale that could be considered regulars.

Exactly. Throw in Hutton, King, Huddlestone and few others. But if Milan are better surely this would have harmed Spurs quite a lot. Missing Bale for them would be big.

Tony Montana wrote:

Honestly would you be worried even playing Inter?

Since Leonardo took over? Very worried. Last season when they beat Barcelona? Extremely worried.

Tony Montana wrote:

Klaus wrote:

Maybe. I haven't looked it up so I won't argue, but it doesn't mean anything else than what you just wrote: that English teams have won more games against Italian ones during the last decade than vice versa.

Yeah but what do you think is the reason for that? I say it's because English teams are stronger and faster...more intense.

I don't know why it is. I haven't seen the numbers so it's hard to make any broad claim. Premier League is a stronger league though, I've already admitted as much. That's not what the discussion's about.

I also recall that Milan didn't win Serie A in any of the two seasons when they won Champions League.

Tony Montana wrote:

Exactly. Throw in Hutton, King, Huddlestone and few others. But if Milan are better surely this would have harmed Spurs quite a lot. Missing Bale for them would be big.

No, I don't buy that argument. A football team doesn't work like that. When you're missing top class players it's usually even more noticeable that they're not there. If you're missing half of your starting eleven and a big chunk of your bench you're going to have a hard time against any opponent - especially in Champions League - and that's true for every team in the world.

Klaus wrote:

Milan would've won the game if half of the players they're missing had been available. They played like a sack of shit tonight, though, injuries or no injuries, and didn't deserve anything.

Love Gattuso though. Like James said, what a gooner.

Gattuso's a cock. And Spurs were missing just as many players.

Imagine if they got Schalke/Valencia in the next round. :gah:

Tim wrote:

The Bundesliga is stronger than Serie A right now imo.

In terms of...?

Can't imagine a German team winning the Champions League for a very long time.

Caligula wrote:

As for the English league having more technical players, you'll find that to be untrue if you just watch a random Serie A game this weekend. The players are very technically sound. What they lack, as Daimler noted, is the pace of British football.

i agree with that. just from an aesthetic standpoint, i can't watch a game of football that isnt played at a high pace. world cup? boring. serie a? i've never gotten through more then 15 mins of a match. la liga? snoozefest.

that said, the teams need to be able to play, too. to be honest, i find the vast majority of premier league matches not involving arsenal to be unwatchable.

So basically, you don't really like football very much?

Captain wrote:

So basically, you don't really like football very much?

GaelForce wrote:

Tim wrote:

The Bundesliga is stronger than Serie A right now imo.

In terms of...?

Can't imagine a German team winning the Champions League for a very long time.

In terms of quality and standard of football. And I think you're wrong Gael, there will be an increasing number of german teams going to the latter stages of the Champions League in the next 5-10 years imo.

Klaus wrote:

Ricky: Preventing injuries isn't their only function though. They keep track of each individual player on a weekly basis and develop personal training methods to specifically enhance certain technical attributes by optimizing the training of the concerned muscle groups. Player by player Milan have been the fittest team in the world for over a decade. The fact that they break down a lot nowadays is down to Berlusconi more than anyone else. Since he started to cheapskate through the league they've introduced very few new players in the team while growing overly reliant on aging ones.

Tony Montana wrote:

Spurs were missing players as well, and if Milan are better than Spurs, then any first teamer not playing for Spurs is a big deal.

Spurs were only missing Modric and Bale that could be considered regulars.

Is it really any more advanced than what we do, or other top teams do, though?

I thought Modric came on around the hour mark?

Captain wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

I remember everyone on A-M clamouring for us to copy Milan's methods and invest heavily like they have in a more scientific approach to injury prevention. Where's the famous "Milan lab" now? They have injury on injury, and it can't all be down to old age.

Thought the 'milan lab' got exposed as a myth a while ago. Can't remember the story or where I read it but I have a vague recollection of somebody 'outing' them.

Never saw an article or story about that. When you say they were outed, do you mean they were found to be not really doing anything cutting edge or massively different from everyone else?

Basically, yes.

This wasn't the article and it is very anecdotal (but then so are the positives spun) but she highlights some issues here.

http://www.football-italia.net/blogs/sc105.html

Captain wrote:

So basically, you don't really like football very much?

hah i thought of that while writing the post, too.

frankly, i don't think the level of play in the european leagues is very high. or at least, it's often not very entertaining to the neutral. i'd prefer watching the better teams in various local amateur leagues in nyc to stoke v blackburn or osasuna v mallorca.

i think there's a lot of blame to go around for that: cowardly/inept managers, impatient clubs, poor training in many parts of the world, corruption in spain/italy, poor refereeing, cultural preferences for slow football in some countries.