Podcast: Rotations and Substitutions

Milan’s performances and results recently are lacking, but things are improving off the pitch. The announcement that Ivan Gazidis is finally going to come to the club as CEO was contrasted by lackluster performances on the pitch. Gattuso’s lack of experience is starting to show more as the number of games per week increases. So with things at the top improving while things on the pitch seem to be unravelling a bit, we focused more on rotation cultivation.

"There's something I'm supposed to be doing at this point, but I forget..."

We spoke once again with Francesco, the lifelong Milanista currently watching Milan from Argentina. Follow him on Twitter @FrancescoPetra8 to keep up with his perspective. This week, we chatted with him after the Atalanta match about:

• News of the Week: Presidential cap, Carletto’s slip of the tongue, UEFA’s motivations, season tickets, new CEO, and feel good story of the week

• Match Reviews: review of recent matches

• Squad Rotations: discussing Gattuso’s subs and rotations

• Two Months Later: the Elliott Fund ownership after 2 months

• Coming up: upcoming matches

Download this episode

Thanks again to Francesco for his insights and sense of humor. Follow him on Twitter @FrancescoPetra8 as he represents in South America.

Empoli-Milan Preview: Midweek Blues

Tensions are rising at Milan due to less than stellar results. As if that wasn’t bad enough, we face a deluge of games, all games that we need results from. With Cutrone still not training regularly, we are quickly becoming Higuain-dependent, and that only makes the situation more depressing. But the games must go on, so like it or not, we face the midweek blues.

Nothing to fear but fear itself

Empoli only have one point less than us, but have played one more game than us. After crashing out of the Coppa Italia early on, they are 1 win, 1 draw, and three losses in Serie A. That most recent loss was a 3-1 loss to Sassuolo on Friday. For that loss, Andreazzoli lined up Terracciano; Di Lorenzo, Silvestre, Maietta, Veseli; Acquah, Capezzi, Krunic; Zajc; Caputo, and La Gumina. Andreazzoli will be missing Zajc to suspension, after he saw red on Friday. He will also be missing our former Antonelli as well as Acquah and Polvani to injuries. Rodriguez, Pasqual, and Mchedlidze are all in doubt for our match as well.

As if it weren’t enough to be playing away, Milan have tired legs, having played in the Europa League on Thursday and in Serie A on Sunday. In addition to Strinic and Conti being out long-term, Cutrone is still not 100% as of this writing, Caldara is struggling with a back muscle issue, and Calabria has had a fever. As we discussed on the podcast, Gattuso is going to be more heavily scrutinized with his squad rotation and his substitutions. He will also be under the microscope to see if he can improve mental fitness and get a solid 90 minutes out of whatever squad he lines up.

Gli Azzurri will be hungry for some points to climb away from the bottom of the table, while Milan need to manage more points to meet high expectations from this season. Empoli have plenty of missing players, but Gattuso has some tough lineup choices to make as well. This is exactly the kind of game that fans dread, and not just because it’s on a weekday. Milan needing three points makes it that much tougher, and the papers will really dig in if we give anything but a stellar performance or come back to Milano with anything less than three points. And that is why they call it the midweek blues. 

Our next match is

Serie A Week 6

Empoli vs. Milan

Thursday, September 27 • 21:00 CEST (3pm EDT)
This match will be streamed live on ESPN+