A new post?! Say what?!
Yes, it’s true. The second half of the season for me personally has been very busy but there is a very real aspect to this that I don’t enjoy writing for Allegri-coached teams. This has made motivation hard when Milan isn’t a fun watch or getting results AND time is short. Hopefully this summer I’ll have time to revamp what we’re doing here so it’s fun for everyone, myself included.
Ok, with that housekeeping out of the way, let’s dive into today’s game.
MATCHDAY:
LAST FIVE
MILAN: LWLLW
JUVENTUS: WDWWW
FORMATIONS
MILAN (3-5-2) *Predicted*: Maignan (C); Tomori, De Winter, Pavlović; Saelemaekers, Fofana, Modrić, Rabiot, Bartesaghi; Pulisic, Leão
JUVENTUS (3-4-3) *Predicted*: Di Gregorio; Kalulu, Bremer, Kelly; McKennie, Locatelli, Thuram-Ulien, Cambiaso; Conceição, David, Yildiz
TIME/LOCATION
TIME: 2:45pm EST/7:45pm GMT
PLACE: San Siro, Milan
WHERE TO WATCH:
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:
A couple of weeks ago, with news that Allegri was going to finally switch to a winger formation (4-3-3), I made a loose comment in hindsight, reminding me to be more precise with Allegri-coached teams. I basically said that as long as Leão played Milan would win. Well he did play and Milan lost 0-3 at home to Udinese. What gives? Well, our Einstein-in-chief did start Leão but started him AT CENTER FORWARD. Too clever by half? Something like that.
So, last week her reverts back to the 3-5-2 and gets his trademark 0-1 win…against a team 19th in the table. Oh well, better than dropping points like Milan has done half the time to bottom of the table teams all season. Hellas Verona didn’t do much all game, and Milan wasn’t exactly imposing, the opponent was even worse. With a top 4 goal the only thing worth playing for after dropping out of the Scudetto race, getting this win and really just a few more should secure that goal. The problem for me is that Allegri will remain with that outcome so my enthusiasm is somewhat tempered.
And that brings us to today’s game, against Juventus, the team 4th in the table and right behind Milan just 3 points back. With Como winning earlier today, Como sit just 2 points back of Juventus and 5 points back of Milan. This should have the attention of both teams and Milan should expect a dogfight today especially since these two teams drew in their first meeting this season, so the winner would own the head-to-head tiebreaker.
If you forgot how that first meeting went, it ended in a 0-0 draw. Milan was the better team and missed some major chances. Juventus was also coached by Igor Tudor at the time and we all know how that went, so not taking home all 3 points felt like even more of a missed opportunity. Expect an aggressive Spalletti-coached this time around, and if that’s the case then I actually like that if Allegri plays his Allegri-ball. Sit and counter aggressively earlier, get the early lead and then wait to sting them with a perfect against-the-run-of-play counter-attacking go against the run of play. We all know Allegri-ball works best with aggressive teams trying to get forward, but that carries risk if Milan can’t take advantage of it.
PREDICTION TIME:
My last prediction against Udinese was terrible! I’m never predicting again…but I think this lines up well for Allegri-ball but Milan still has to execute. Juventus have been better under Spalletti. They were tied for the second-highest scoring team entering the round and have been hot, winning 5 of their last 6 in the league play. A draw here is better for Milan than Juventus, but a win and they are tied for second and more importantly, up 8 from 5th place (we can talk about the potential Calciopoli next week should Milan get the win). Let’s see what happens.
Forza Milan
gillis