For ten seasons now, Massimiliano Allegri has been coaching
professionally, and for all ten seasons, his teams have always started slow.
This week, however, he declared the reason for this, that September is simply
not lucky for him. Well thanks to his unlucky September, Milan fans everywhere
must also endure yet another Unlucky September. Thank goodness it’s almost
October. I wonder how his luck will be then?
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| Maybe it's his tactical genius that makes him so unlucky. |
My guest again this time is the cofounder of Milan
Obsession, Jovan. He is also the mastermind behind three amazing Fantasy
Football sites: fantasyseriea.com, fantasybundes.com,
and fantasy-liga.com. When he is not
overseeing the fantasy football, he is a lifelong Milanista and well versed in
the beautiful game. Today we talk about:
• News of the Week: Fininvest fine upheld, Milan medical fail,
Missing Balotelli, Allegri’s “luck”
• Talking Tactics: formation quandry
• Reviews: Serie A wk. 3 at Torino, Champions League Group Stage
vs. Celtic, Serie A week 4 vs. Napoli
• Upcoming Matches Preview: Serie A wk. 5 at Bologna, Serie A wk. 6
vs. Sampdoria, Champions League Group Stage at Ajax, Serie A week 7 at Juventus
• Player Profile: Nigel De Jong
Thanks
again to Jovan for an awesome podcast. Check out his amazing Fantasy Football
sites and get in the game! Serie A: fantasyseriea.com,
Bundesliga: fantasybundes.com, and
Spanish La Liga fantasy-liga.com.
Milan vs. Bologna Mini-Preview: Now
Recruiting
Midweek games are challenging enough, but with the injury
situation, morale low due to Slow Start Allegri™, and losing our singular star
player to suspension, this trip is going to be no vacation. It seems like Milan
are pretty short-handed, so I would like to suggest to Milan that they ask for a
little help from their fans… on the pitch.
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| Traveling to Bologna... literally |
Pioli is missing midfielder Krhin to injury, as well as a
long term injury to his defender, Cherubin. More recently, though, on the
weekend, he lost Natali and Kone to suspension. That match was home to Torino
where they lost 2-1, and they were a bit unlucky. Natali was the gamechanger,
first scoring the equalizer, then seeing his team down to 10 men having been
sent off. Pioli fielded a starting 11 of Curci; Antonsson, Garics, Natali, Cech; Della
Rocca, Diamanti, Pazienza, Kone; Bianchi, Moscardelli. Despite losing a couple
of key players, Bologna will want all 3 points at home to stay out of early
relegation trouble, as they currently sit in 16th place. I am sure Pioli would
love to take advantage of Milan’s current woes.
Speaking of our woes, our available strikers are Robinho,
who still seems to be struggling with fitness, Matri, who has yet to put a
decent ball on goal for Milan and is a provincial player at best, and Niang,
who is clearly talented, but is also young and has failed to score yet in Serie
A. Otherwise known as a toothless attack. Perhaps we will be looking to our
midfield and/or defense for our goals. For once Muntari might be a welcome
sight in our starting lineups, seeing as how he has our best scoring form of
available players. (did I just type that out loud?)
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| Watch out, Bologna, here comes our best striker/brute/killer |
Allegri is less popular than ever, but I don’t envy his job
on this one. His squad selection will be like hitting a store the day after
Black Friday and trying to find anything at all worth buying. Add the fact that Tagliavento I can only hope
that what we lack in availability we more than make up for in heart and in
focus. Three points away at this point in our nosedive season would be massive
for morale worldwide. Given the positives we saw vs. Napoli, I have a bit of
hope, something that is in increasingly short supply these days for Milan fans.
Maybe they’ll take us up on our offer and let the players see how hard it can
be to live up to expectations. Milan: Now Recruiting. Forza Milan!
Our next match is
Milan vs. Bologna
Wednesday, September 25 • 20:45 CEST (2:45pm EDT)
This match will NOT be shown LIVE in the U.S.
If you have BeIn Sport, you may be able watch LIVE online in HD at beinsportplay.tv
Check here for streams ahead of kickoff