Udinese-Milan Preview: Would it Even Matter?

After a win on Saturday, Milan travel to Udine to take on the 18th place Udinese in their house. Udinese haven’t won a game since their opener, so will be very determined to get a valuable three points in their house. Meanwhile, Milan, coming off of an important win at home, will want to keep up the streak to keep climbing the table. But with the apathy of Milan fans following that win, would it even matter?

What if no one saw his brace... would it really be a brace?

When Milan sold its two best players in 2012, I understood if some fans lost interest or left the club. And in the three years since, it has been a long, hard road to walk as a Milan fan for sure. During this time, cynicism and sarcasm dominated Milan-related social media, and understandably so. But despite not getting the final piece of the puzzle for this team in the mercato, and despite management demonstrating that nothing has really changed from their golden thrones at Casa Milan, the team itself is changing. We got enough of the pieces that the style of play is much improved, and dare I say enjoyable to watch. We have a coach with a strong personality, who works every day to change the players’ mentality and bring out the best in them. He gives amazing, straightforward, and sometimes brutally honest press conferences that are actually fun to read.

But amongst the changes for good, it seems that Milan fans have forgotten how to win. It’s almost as if they don’t have anything to say if it is not critical or cynical. So when Milan wins, they don’t know what to do and instead say nothing at all. So sad.

Menez is injured, not deaf. He still wants to hear the fans cheer

Can you imagine running a marathon, with fans only holding up critical or cynical signs along the way, only to find that there is no one at all at the finish line? And yet Milan fans seem to be offering their team and fellow fans a similar experience. If I post a meme that is critical of Galliani, for example, I would get dozens of RT’s. But if I were to say “How awesome was Bacca’s brace on Saturday?” I’m not sure anyone would even read it. How sad that we are still giving our time to the things that are wrong at the club when we finally have something to cheer about. So if Milan win tomorrow, would it even matter?

Milan will be facing a team that is notoriously much better than their roster would show. And while Colantuano may never fill Guidolin’s shoes in that regard, they do have home advantae. Also, their single win was away to Juventus, so we cannot count them out at all. On Saturday, at home vs. Empoli, Colantuono lined up Karnezis; Wague, Danilo, Piris; Badu, Iturra, Edenilsom, Kone, Adnan; Duvan Zapata, and the legendary Di Natale. Kone was sent off for a double yellow in that match, so will be suspended for ours. Also missing will be our own former Merkel, as well as Widmer and Guilherme to injury, with Evangelista still in doubt.

Their Zapata scores. 

Milan still have injury troubles of our own, with Mexes, Bertolacci, Antonelli, Menez, and Niang still out with injuries. Additionally, as of this writing, it is not known the severity of Abate’s injury from Saturday, and even Kucka could be in doubt, despite playing through the end of the match. Despite having seen better performances from a midfield that does not include Montolivo, Mihajlovic mentioned that he is unlikely to change anything, so there’s something Udinese can take advantage of.

But I am no longer worried about my team, they are in good hands. They are also starting to show signs of consistency, and playing with heart, so a consistent string of results is more likely than not to follow. What I am worried about is if they win tomorrow, will it even matter? Where are all of the Milan fans now that there is less to criticize? What happened to celebrating a win with fellow fans and being excited when good things happen to your team? I hope I am not celebrating alone again after the whistle blows. Because if there’s no one to celebrate with you, would it even matter?

This post inspired by silence.

Udinese vs. Milan

Tuesday, September 22 • 20:45 CEST (2:45pm EDT)

This match will be shown LIVE on RAI and BeIN Sports in the US

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