Milan-Frosinone Preview: Like Canaries in a Coal Mine

Miners used to carry caged canaries down into the mines with them to help warn them of carbon monoxide or other gasses. If the canary died, the miners would know to exit the mine before they, too, were fatally poisoned. Frosinone are called the Canaries, and they are likely taking their last breaths in Serie A at this point. The question is, will Milan heed their warning? Our team gifted our fans a 4-2 win over Frosinone for a Christmas present, but are now more like canaries than miners themselves. Maybe we can pull off a win vs. the 19th place team, maybe not. Given the current overwhelmingly toxic climate at Milan, I’d say both teams are like canaries in a coal mine right now.

It may be too much to hope that Abate could score again against Frosinone

Frosinone lost 2-0 to 18th place Palermo last week, but that shouldn’t give us false hopes. Remember, Milan were beaten by the 20th place team last week. For their Palermo loss, Stellone lined up Leali; Russo, Blanchard, Pavlovic, Rosi; Gori, Gucher, Kragl; Ciofani, Soddimo, and Paganini (Luca, not Niccoló.) Stellone has a few players coming back from injuries, but will be missing Chibsah, serving his third match suspension after receiving a card and cursing out the referee.

Meanwhile, back at Milan, Coach Silvio is preoccupied with the decision of whether or not to sell the club he is slowly destroying, so I’m guessing Coach Brocchi will have to coach this one all by himself. Normally, anything besides taking Silvio’s advice would be an improvement. But Brocchi recently earned himself the distinction of least convincing coach on the Milan Obsession Podcast, so I’m not sure he’ll be able to do much of anything at all. And I can’t blame him. With the Facebook petitions, combative board meetings, and the press constantly reporting rumors of the club’s sale, it’s difficult to get a team to pull any kind of a performance off with that much turmoil.

Nothing says 'canary in a coal mine' like a two month contract

Then there are the injuries. De Sciglio was reportedly back in training after a minor injury, but Ely suffered another injury to end his season. Then there are Bertolacci and Bonaventura still out, as well as Niang, who has started rehabbing but is far from fit. Perhaps they are the lucky ones, though, as they are not out on the pitch drowning in the Milan quagmire trying to beat a nearly-relegated team.

Even if it’s Frosinone who wear the yellow kits and are called the Canaries, they have nothing to lose in this match. Milan, their dignity already stripped from them, have everything to lose. We have only a point margin between us and Sassuolo keeping us in sixth place. We desperately need the three points, not only for some semblance of dignity, but also to try to keep any morale whatsoever at the club. So perhaps on Sunday it will be Milan playing the part of the canaries… like canaries in a coal mine.

This post inspired by the music of The Police's “Canary in a Coal Mine”

Milan vs. Frosinone

Sunday, May 1 • 15:00 CEST (9am EDT)

This match will be shown on RAI and BeIN Sports in the U.S.