After two straight draws, Milan got back in the win column last game and are neck and neck with 3 other teams in the top 4. With those other teams playing midweek in Europe, and Inter waiting on the other side of the upcoming break, taking all 3 points back to Milan are crucial. Can Milan do it?
MATCHDAY:
LAST FIVE
PARMA: LDDLL
MILAN: DWDDW
FORMATIONS
PARMA (4-4-2): Suzuki; Del Prato (C), Valenti, N’Diaye, Britschgi; Sørensen, Keita, Bernabé, Løvik; Pellegrino, Cutrone
MILAN (3-5-2): Maignan (C); De Winter, Gabbia, Pavlović; Saelemaekers, Fofana, Modrić, Ricci, Estupiñan; Nkunku, Leão
TIME/LOCATION
TIME: 2:45pm EST/6:45pm GMT
PLACE: Stadio Ennio Tardini, Parma
WHERE TO WATCH:
***New season, so tell me if this needs to be updated***
Paramount+ and FuboTV here in the US of Aye (Spanish broadcast on Fox Deportes in the US); FuboTV and TLN for Canada; TNT in the UK (maybe?); ESPN for Mexico; DAZN for Germany, Austria, Switzerland; a website called GXR for our friends in India; and illegal streams that support dictators and oligarchs everywhere.
*Let us know if this needs updating or if you have additional broadcasters to add*
WHAT TO WATCH FOR:
The last few weeks I’ve shared my concern for teams starting to learn how to play Allegri 2.0’s Milan after seeing them come out of the gates hot even with that opening loss to Cremonese. Milan did indeed slow down starting at the beginning of October and it was nice to see them break out of the back-to-back draw mini-slump with the 1-0 win over Roma last weekend. But the question still remains: are other teams starting to figure out how to stop Allegri and Milan?
I think the answer is yes but it’s not a resounding yes nor is it the only thing at play since the start of this ho-hum run Milan have been on. As you know, injuries to Pulisic and Rabiot compromised what Allegri was leaning on for that hot start, and although Leão has been more than adequate to replace Pulisic, Rabiot’s impact has been harder to come by.
So, what should Allegri do today? Clearly he needs to lean on Leão and figure out how to get him into space. That’s going to be tricky as I don’t think Parma is coming in to play free-flowing football today despite being at home. We all saw how Leão scared Gasperini last game after he burned them on the counter, setting up the games only goal. Parma is very likely going to do all they can to prevent that and those opportunities.
This all means that Nkunku is going to have to have an impact and the midfield is going to have to be better than they have been since Rabiot got injured. You know I like and want Modrić more advanced but Allegri seems to be fine keeping him back and letting Fofana and Ricci be the ones Milan is relying on to finish the offensive buildup and score. This worries me. If Milan aren’t able to counter-attack, I worry about a drab and lifeless attack overall.
PREDICTION TIME:
I can see another 1-0 type of game coming for all the concerns I shared above, maybe a 0-0 or 1-1 draw. Bummed Bartesaghi isn’t starting but I’m sure we’ll see him. Hope we don’t have to rely on a late RLC sub to try and spark something…
Forza Milan
gillis