Udinese-Milan PREVIEW: Casualties

On paper, Milan should win this match. Milan are fourth, Udinese are in 16th. But then you start looking at Milan’s injuries, and it puts Udinese back in the game. That, tied with our away form this season and our fragile mentality, makes this game anyone’s for the taking. And despite Milan claiming a fourth place berth on Wednesday that is massive for our team’s mentality, Udinese probably want the win more. So whether it be for our physical or mental liabilities, we could give up points to the host team because of casualties.

The problem with playing Udinese is that you might get some Lasagna on your face

Udinese drew against Genoa last week, but lost their previous four games. For their draw, Velazquez lined up Musso; Opoku, Troost-Ekong, Samir; Behrami; Pussetto, Forfana, Barak, Stryger Larsen; Lasagna, and De Paul. He is missing Pezzella, Teodorczyk and Ingelsson to injuries.

Injuries are the theme of this match for Gattuso, who is so desperate, he called up Montolivo. Which is like giving yourself cancer, as well as giving your opponents a man advantage. But Biglia has a torn calf and will likely be out at least two months. Bonaventura, Calhanoglu and Calabria are both out, as well as Caldara and Strinic with their long term injuries. Kessie is still not one hundred per cent, but he is still called up and expected to start. Conti played 56 minutes with the Primavera on Friday and is called up, but Gattuso spoke of easing him in slowly.

How much damage to Milan can one injury make? Ask Montolivo.

The injuries are pretty bad for so early in the season, and one can’t help but wonder if Gattuso’s trainings have something to do with them. All of the players coming from other teams, as well as the players who came up through Milan, have said that his trainings are really, really difficult physically. We’ve seen before how changing a coach or a trainer impacts the quantity or even type of injury, and unless this is addressed, we stand to lose even more players. We obviously have a difficult playing schedule. But this past month we didn’t have to travel, which should have helped a bit. Imagine traveling and playing every three days? Especially when training-related injuries are often cumulative.

But Gattuso’s trainings aside, we are playing Udinese tomorrow. And we are missing the players we are missing. The question is, will bringing Montolivo along guarantee us dropping points? If he gets to play, will he have his one good game? It’s hard to know which team will want the three points more, but Udinese are basically guaranteed a goal with the way Milan have conceded in every game. It will be up to Milan to score more than we concede once again. But can we do it with so many casualties?

This post inspired by the music of lovelytheband’s “Broken”

Serie A Week 11

Udinese vs. Milan

Sunday, November 4 • 20:30 CET (2:30pm EST)

This match will be shown LIVE on RAI Italia in the U.S.