Milan-Sampdoria Preview: Besieged

After the terrible awful unspeakable performance in the Europa League on Thursday, Gattuso is feeling the pressure. And he should. His grinta has vanished and now he is throwing tactics out like candy in an effort to pull up out of this horrific nosedive the team is heading in, ready to crash and burn at any moment. And now we are hosting Sampdoria, I cannot imagine the Milan fans will be kind unless there is a 180° performance and a resounding win. And that is highly unlikely.

Clueless and possibly soon to be jobless

Giampaolo’s team are sitting in fifth place with 15 points. After beating SPAL and Atalanta before the break, last week, they drew 0-0 with Sassuolo. For that match, Giampaolo lined up Audero; Anderson, Tonelli, Murru, Bereszynski, Quagliarella, Ekdal, Ramirez, Praet, Barreto, Defrel. He will be missing Rolando and Regini for this match.

Gattuso’s press conferences are like watching someone slowly lose their mind. As if the rapidly deteriorating performances didn’t make it obvious enough, this press conferences demonstrate unequivocally that he has no idea what is broken, let alone how to fix it. And to make matters worse, both Kessie and Calhanoglu are in doubt with minor injuries. Conti was called up, but is unlikely to feature for another week or more, after he’s played a match with the Primavera. Caldara was meant to be back, but has a new minor injury himself, so won’t play.

Our dynamic duo are amazing, but can they save Milan from themselves?

No one wants to see a repeat of Thursday, and Gattuso’s lineups are the first step to prevent that. The second step is tactics, and he has indicated he could lineup a 3-5-2 or a 4-4-2, but if the team don’t play for the shirt or remember how they played before, he may as well line up Donnarumma as a striker, it won’t make any difference. All eyes are on the team this match, and if it’s anything less than perfect, the rumors will fly faster than birds away from Borini’s new haircut. And Gattuso will find himself besieged… again.

This post inspired by the music of She Wants Revenge’s “Tear You Apart”

Serie A Week 10

Milan vs. Sampdoria

Sunday, October 28 • 18:00 CET (1pm EDT*)

This match will be shown on ESPN in the U.S.

* Note the time difference due to the end of European Daylight Savings