Chievo-Milan Preview: Come Fly With Me

It has come to this. Tomorrow, we face bottom of the table Chievo, and we Milan fans have real and valid concerns about the result. Despite the Flying Donkeys having only one win and two draws, Milan could easily drop more points to the bottom of the table Verona team. It’s enough to want some wings of our own and someone to say “Come fly with me.”

Chievo are flying low this season... will Milan rise to the occasion?

Chievo manager Sannino is one of the few managers in Serie A with worse results than Allegri, but with a squad that cost a fraction of Allegri’s. In a scoreless draw with Bologna on Monday, Sannino lined up Puggioni; Dainelli, Cesar, Pamic, Sardo, Frey; Radovanovic, Estigarribia, Rigoni; Paloschi, and Thereau.

However, Sannino is missing Claiton, Bentivoglio, Drame, and Calello to injury, as well as Guana to suspension. Despite the missing players, they have home advantage, and the Bentigodi is always a bit of a fortress. Historically, Milan have still dominated this matchup, but will they be able to capitalize on the poor form and injuries of the Flying Donkeys?

Will Paloschi hurt us?

In addition to long term injuries to Pazzini and El Shaarawy, De Sciglio has been all but ruled out due to some swelling on his knee. Players returning from injury or recently injured who are doubtful include Nocerino, Silvestre, Amelia, and Bonera, while Balotelli is suspended. As for Balotelli, it’s hard to blame him for getting a game ban for card accumulation, as he gets to spend more time with his beautiful girlfriend.

But while Balotelli attempts to score off the pitch, our striker options dwindle significantly on the pitch. For example, Chievo own half of our Paloschi, who actually has 2 goals, compared to our own Matri, likely to start tomorrow, who only has one goal this season. So this should be fun.

Will he double his goal scoring tally?

Midweek, Allegri whipped out a theoretically defensive 4-4-1-1 formation and benched Balotelli from the start. This coming off of yet another ritiro, so plenty of time to work with the players on tactics. That lineup failed pretty epically, and the pressure on Allegri has finally set off the Galliani confirm-him-every-day-alarm, so it’s really impossible to guess what formation or lineups Allegri will praise after failing to get results this time. Maybe he’ll pull an Ajax and have the boys sit back for the entire first half because Chievo is a “superior” team. I could never tell you what goes through that man’s mind, if anything.

So while the battle of a relegation-destined team vs. a team in a nosedive (I’ll let you decide which is which) sounds fascinating, at 6am my time, I really doubt it will be. It’s a chance for Allegri to snatch a valuable 3 points, but that is usually his cue to amaze and astound with his “genius” (read: epic fail) tactics, so I highly recommend the alcohol, no matter what hour the game is for you. Milan could fly away with this game, or could fly off into the sunset and into Serie B with the Flying Donkeys. Let’s just hope it’s the former.

This post inspired by the music of Frank Sinatra’s “Come Fly With Me”

Chievo vs. Milan

Sunday, November 10 • 15:00 CET (9am EST)

This match will NOT be shown LIVE in the US

If you have beIn Sport, you may be able to watch on beinsportplay.tv

Check comments for stream links ahead of the match