All of my biggest worries when Allegri was announced is coming true. Yes, I know most of us hate how he approaches the game, a style of football that is only barely tolerable if you’re winning, but Milan is going through the very late-season collapse I brought up numerous times in the summer, a collapse we saw nearly every season in Allegri’s Juventus 2.0 stint. The only thing that maybe gives me hope heading into this game (it doesn’t), is that Atalanta is playing just as poorly as Milan right now. With Roma winning earlier and getting level on points, will Milan take advantage of this game in hand and get back the 3 points distance they have from the 5th place team…
MATCHDAY:
LAST FIVE
MILAN: LLWDL
ATALANTA: LDDLD
FORMATIONS
MILAN (3-5-2): Maignan (C); De Winter, Gabbia, Pavlović; Saelemaekers, Loftus-Cheek, Ricci, Rabiot, Bartesaghi; Giménez, Leão
ATALANTA (3-4-2-1): Carnesecchi; Scalvini, Hien, Kolašinac; Zappacosta, de Roon (C), Éderson, Zalewski; De Ketelaere, Raspadori, Krstović
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:
So, of course the game last week was mostly decided on Tomori’s stupid second yellow and rather than get a run of games out of Jashari, to get a sense of what he’s truly capable of with Modrić out for the rest of the season, Allegri benches him and is going to play Ricci there as the deep-lying player/DM. Now, did Jashari light it up last game? No? Hard to tell whenever your team goes down a man, as it makes evaluating a player difficult. But god forbid we get a look at him to end the season! (I also think he gives us the best chance to win when it comes to midfield influence on the game)
The other news is that Giménez is going to start, I think to the liking of most of us. Of course, as with all strikers especially at Milan, his effectiveness will largely depend on the service he gets, although he can also have ancillary impacts like occupying the CBs and opening up space. The service he gets will of course depend on how aggressive Allegri gets…which is he won’t. Sigh…
PREDICTION TIME:
As you can tell, I’m nearing my #AllegriOut phase and dropping points today will firmly put me in that camp (I know, I know, I’m basically there already). Go win? Ugh. I hate my club.
Forza Milan
gillis