Milan have had some time off since their crushing loss to Inter in the Supercoppa last Wednesday. After two days rest, the squad returned to training, hopefully refreshed both mentally and physically. Now they will travel to Rome to face sixth place Lazio on Tuesday. After four disappointing performances, this will be a tremendous challenge to see if Pioli has managed to help them get their mentality back. Playing a strong team away in such a tough stadium will be a true test of nerves.
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| We need our nerves of steel back |
Maurizio Sarri's Lazio defeated Bologna 1-0 in the Coppa Italia on Thursday. Their last league match was the Sunday prior, when they took out Sassuolo 2-0 at the Mapei Stadium. They are just finding their form in Serie A, which is currently L-L-D-W-W, so we are not exactly meeting them at the ideal time. (With the Coppa win, that is three wins in a row.) For the Bologna match on Thursday, Sarri lined up: Maximiano; Lazzari, Patric, our former Capitano Romagnoli, Hysaj; Sergej Milinković-Savić, Cataldi, Luis Alberto; Pedro, Felipe Anderson, and Zaccagni. He will be missing top scorer Immobile, with Gila's fitness in question as of this writing.
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| Why is Romagnoli wearing that uniform? (This will be our first time facing him at Lazio) |
Pioli got some good news this week as Krunić returned to training, although he will undoubtedly start from the bench against Lazio. Unfortunately, Milan have to have at least five injuries now, it seems to be a law or something. So now it is Theo Hernández who is suffering from muscle fatigue, and he has been left behind at Milanello for this one. Ibrahimović is finally training on the pitch again, but still just personalized training, and there is still no return date. Maignan is finally improving, and it is hoped that he will return in time for our match vs. Tottenham on February 14th. Also still out are Florenzi and Ballo-Touré.
Milan fans will be looking for a reaction after so many poor matches. Any result would probably be acceptable, but a win would be greatly appreciated. Even a respectable performance would be an improvement over what we have seen in the past four matches. We discussed the myriad reasons for the poor form this season on the last podcast, but Milan are running out of time to discover the answers on their own.
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| The Krunić returns. |
This match will have them playing against all odds – playing a team that is more difficult than their results indicate, and playing them away as well, something that Milan have struggled with this year. But most of all, we are playing to demonstrate whether or not we can resuscitate our mentality and level of play. This will be a true test of nerves.
This post inspired by the music of Garbage's "Fix Me Now"
Reviewed by Elaine
on
6:04 PM
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