Milan Obsession: Dress Rehearsal

Tomorrow in Shenzhen, Milan will face off against Bayern Munich. Not only will we face our old friend Carlo Ancelotti once again, but there will be another face off with another transfer target: Renato Sanches. Normally, it would just be a preseason friendly in which the results don’t matter. But with the Europa League qualifying next week and two poor performances already, Montella is under pressure to pull off a decent performance. Just think of it as a dress rehearsal.

Ready to rule the world... or China... or something

One would think that at some point we might see something resembling a starting eleven ahead of next week’s Europa League qualifier. We talked on the recent podcast about how the Europa League may or may not be worth worrying about, but Montella insisted this week that it is important to the club. Also, there are the four brand new players who have only just arrived in China and will have only trained with the team a few times, so it’s hard to know how much time they would get.

There is also the matter of the third kit unveiling, in which the concept of a dress rehearsal continues visually as well. The kit is fan designed, voted on by fans worldwide and then selected by a panel of legendary Milan players. A fresh new look for a team that has had a €200m makeover.

Dressed to impress

With the poor friendly performances thus far, it would be great to see a whole new team take the pitch against Bayern. Or at least some much improved football. I personally am not invested in the Europa League qualifiers, and certainly don’t want any injuries. But it would be nice to not fall flat on our faces, either. So here’s hoping tomorrow is more of a dress rehearsal.