AC Milan: Ch-ch-ch-changes

Silvio Berlusconi doesn't do anything by half measures.

Two seasons ago, his club was perhaps the oldest elite team in Europe.  Although football's Peter Pan, Paolo Maldini, had retired, the Rossoneri claimed the Serie A title featuring almost an entire XI of thirtysomethings (Alessandro Nesta,  Mark van Bommel, Massimo Ambrosini, Clarence Seedorf, Gianluca Zambrotta, Pippo Inzaghi, Massimo Oddo, Christian Abbiati, Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso).  These decelerating stalwarts were supplemented by some elite "younger" talent like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robinho and Alexandre Pato.

2012 sees AC Milan looking forward to their next challenge: building a club around home-developed talent rather than big-money signings.

Strictures imposed by UEFA's Financial Fair Play, coupled with a perilous Italian economy means Berlusconi and co decided the club was best positioned to stare down their future without their gamut of fourth-decade, eight-figure signings.  Over the past two years, the club has sold or released a dozen of their most experienced players (Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Nesta, Seedorf, Zambrotta, Inzaghi, Gattuso, Taye Taiwo, van Bommel, Oddo, Legrottaglie and Pirlo), players with a combined age of 402.  Furthermore, the club finally gave up on Ronaldinho, a player who aged much sooner than anyone would have thought possible.

Replacements have been younger and relatively inexpensive: Philippe Mexes, Kevin-Prince Boateng and perhaps  most excitingly of all, Stephan El Shaarawy.  Although Berlusconi and manager Massimiliano Allegri are likely to enter the transfer market, perhaps for red-half alumnus Kaka or Montpellier central defender Mpou Yang-Mbiwa, global buzzwords "austerity measures" seem to apply at Giuseppe Meazza.

In fact, to compare the anticipated AC Milan starting lineup for their first Serie A match to that of two years ago is almost - but not quite - pointless.  The fourteen  players used that day had an average age of 29.6 - incidentally, the exact same average age that of those players that started Milan's first Serie A match last year.  Only five of those players from two years ago remain at the club.  Should no further purchases be made this transfer window the average AC Milan player would be 26.2, a figure increased by goalkeeper Abbiati who at 35 years old is half a decade older than the next oldest starter.

The turnaround was needed and anticipated.  Even though it was expected, it was still brutal.  The new club, while boasting abundant pace and stamina, will rely heavily upon El Shaarawy, Robinho and Boateng for flair and goals.  Despite not appearing to have the same class as even last year, Berlusconi may have chosen the perfect time to rebuild from within: arch-rivals Inter Milan completed an awful season last term, while the whole of Serie A - particularly champions Juventus - are sweating the results of further match-fixing investigations

Only once these allegations play out will we be able to accurately forecast the Italian league.  Count on one thing though: a changed AC Milan means a changed league.

Europe's top Goalkeepers - by the numbers

Although the quality of a goalkeeper cannot solely be judged by statistics, they can provide an insight into how well they perform. They need to perform sweeping duties much more than their NHL counterparts and often are left horribly out of position by lapses in skill or concentration by the defenders they are attempting to organise.

Amongst numerous possibilities, the two major statistical categories that NHL goalkeepers are measured by are GAA (goals allowed average) and Save percentage. These stats, though accessible aren't kept as a matter of course by football leagues throughout Europe simply because they don't really provide an accurate representation of a goalkeeper's duties - for example, Ben Foster was by most accounts Birmingham City's best player last season yet the club was relegated. They do, however, allow some analysis as clankers (like Rob Green's worst nightmare) as even the occasional mishap can affect a player's numbers.

The following numbers were compiled using raw data from ESPN Soccernet. For full details, you can visit our Goalkeeper Stats page.

Europe's top ten goalkeepers by Save percentage:

League	Team	Player	Games	Save %	GAA
Serie A	AC Milan	Christian Abbiati	35	0.853	0.54
La Liga	Barcelona	Victor Valdes	32	0.826	0.50
Serie A	Inter Milan	Julio Cesar	25	0.806	0.84
Bundesliga	Hannover	Ron-Robert Zieler	15	0.804	0.73
Serie A	Chievo Verona	Stefano Sorrentino	37	0.795	1.05
La Liga	Valencia	Cesar	15	0.781	0.93
La Liga	Malaga	Wilfredo Caballero	15	0.774	1.27
EPL	Man City	Joe Hart	38	0.771	0.87
EPL	Birmingham City	Ben Foster	38	0.765	1.45
Bundesliga	B. Dortmund	Roman Weidenfeller	33	0.764	0.64
Average	Cagliari's	Michael Agazzi		0.712

And the top ten by GAA:

League	Team	Player	Games	Save %	GAA
La Liga	Barcelona	Victor Valdes	32	0.826	0.50
Serie A	AC Milan	Christian Abbiati	35	0.853	0.54
Bundesliga	Borussia Dortmund	Roman Weidenfeller	33	0.764	0.64
Bundesliga	Hannover	Ron-Robert Zieler	15	0.804	0.73
Bundesliga	Mainz	Christian Wetklo	24	0.762	0.83
Serie A	Inter Milan	Julio Cesar	25	0.806	0.84
EPL	Manchester City	Joe Hart	38	0.771	0.87
EPL	Chelsea	Petr Cech	38	0.750	0.87
La Liga	Real Madrid	Iker Casillas	35	0.717	0.91
La Liga	Valencia	Cesar	15	0.781	0.93
Average	Levante's	Gustavo Munua			1.35

There's significant overlap between the two lists - 'keepers in teams like Manchester City played a staid, solid brand of football limiting opponents' scoring chances before counterstriking themselves leading - with his considerable skill - to Joe Hart's desirable numbers.

What this overlap suggests is either down years or the early signs of the demise for two of the best custodians in recent memory, Iker Casillas and Petr Cech. Though both had above-average Save Percentages (in Casillas' case, only barely), those numbers don't correlate well with their GAA.

GKs such as Valdes and Abbiati have excellent GAA and Save Percentage numbers. To have a great GAA could reflect on team's possession statistics (ie. Valdes), a team's defensive solidity and finally, the ability of the goalkeeper. A low save percentage means either a defense prone to playing their keeper out of position, or that keeper not stopping as many shots.

The opposite was Ben Foster, who made a million and one saves - actually, 179, fifteen more than the next most called-upon 'keeper, the aforementioned Green - yet let through slightly more than average goals per game. His save percentage is high despite his facing heaps of shots, rather than perhaps youngster (and Football Manager stud) Ron-Robert Zieler of Hannover, who only faced three shots per game.