Milan-Sassuolo Preview: The Coaches' Curse

Almost ten years ago, in January of 2014, Milan lost 4-3 to Sassuolo, which was the last straw for Allegri. He was the last manager to last nearly as long as Pioli, too. With the failure to qualify for the Champions League Round of 16, and an inability to string together a consistent run of results, there is much speculation that this could be Pioli's last match as well. Despite some unprecedented injuries, as we talked about on the latest podcast, Milan's only hope is that Sassuolo have been underperforming. They also have to play at the San Siro, although that may not help Milan as much, as fans have quickly become disillusioned of late. Will Pioli still be in charge after this match? That is the question on everyone's mind as he faces the coaches' curse.

Will he stay or will he go?

Podcast: Can Milan's Injury Crisis Be Solved?

The catastrophic injury crisis at the club right now is so severe that I actually recorded a podcast about it. And I honestly don't know which of those things is more shocking or distressing. However, I did not take my task lightly, I wanted to talk to someone with some expertise. So I invited David back, who is a lifelong Milan fan, but is also a brilliant physiotherapist by trade. Longtime podcast listeners will remember him well, but will also appreciate his knowledge about this specific conversation as we discuss injuries, Pioli and his staff, current management, the return of Ibrahimović, and more.

Kalulu's injury is very unusual, even more unusual that Pobega's seems to be identical.

Salernitana 2, Milan 2: Underwhelming

After winning two matches in a row away to Newcastle and then against Monza at home, Milan traveled to Salerno on Friday with high hopes, facing the 20th place Salernitana. Pippo Inzaghi's side, however, came to play, and despite taking an early lead, Milan conceded two, had another center back go off with a muscle injury, and had to fight until the bitter end just to grab an equalizer to make it 2-2 and take a point home. Their performance was underwhelming to say the least.

When scoring a 90th minute goal is not enough for a win...

Salernitana-Milan Preview: The One Where We Face Pippo

Friday night Milan face bottom of the table Salernitana, who have won only one match thus far this season. That match was won after they replaced manager Paulo Sousa in October with someone Milan fans know very well: Pippo Inzaghi, the legendary Milan striker who began his coaching career at Milan. Since taking over, he has only managed to secure five points for the team from Campania, and fans are very unhappy with the results. They should be even more unhappy with the club's finances, which are quite poor since Danilo Iervolino took over from Claudio Lotito, despite relatively large investments from the young Italian billionaire. Just this week, it was announced that Walter Sabatini is coming back to the struggling club, just in time for the January transfer window. That, however, will not help them on Friday as Milan invade Salerno with a bit of confidence. Even if Milan fans will likely have a little ambivalent, as this is the one where we face Pippo.

Pippo, at the age of 50, is older than Salernitana's owner.

Milan 3, Monza 0: A Walk in the Park, with Injuries

The day after Milan's 124th Birthday, the team gave fans the perfect gift – one of the most convincing matches they have played since early in the season, for a 3-0 win over Monza. After their win midweek against Newcastle that saw them fall out of the Champions League into the Europa League, and especially with the early time slot, this would have been an easy match to drop points in. After all, Palladino has Monza playing good football, and they certainly created plenty of chances. However, what we could not have foreseen was that Milan would handle the match with such focus and ease, yet lose two more players to injury. In spite of a staggering 29 injuries now so far this season, Milan managed this one like a walk in the park.

They made it all look so easy...

Milan-Monza Preview: The Imposters

Saturday marked Milan's 124th Birthday, and Cardinale and Furlani's pettiness was on full display in the official social media post. Milan fans did not miss the fact that the man who won five of our seven Champions League trophies and seven of our 19 Scudetti on the pitch, as well as our most recent Scudetto as a director had the smallest picture. (The largest picture was reserved for RedBird's newest employee, Ibrahimović, which is just disgusting, even he does not like such blatant brown nosing. And the absurd hot air balloon should not have even been there, but was as big as Maldini's pic.) After failing to wish Daniel Maldini, a currently owned Milan player, a happy birthday on social media, this was too much even for those who had failed to support Maldini when he was shamelessly sacked by these charlatans. Already this week, we saw the team miss the mark in the Champions League and drop down to the Europa League qualifiers. Clearly, our club is run by imposters.

Revising Milan's history since 2022.

Newcastle United FC 1, AC Milan 2: Mutating Milan's DNA

The Champions League group of death saw Dortmund, with an annual wagebill of €127 million, go through at the top of the group. In second place for the Round of 16 was PSG, who have an annual wagebill of €291 million. Milan, with a wagebill of only €86 million annually, managed a 2-1 win over Newcastle, who have an annual wagebill of €98 million. (All wages according to capology.com) In that sense, perhaps Milan overachieved just slightly, being the team with the lowest wagebill in the group. However, Milan's DNA is in the Champions League. For Gerry Cardinale's reference, since he has not really kept up with these things, Milan have never won the Europa League. Considering all he has done this year to remove the Milan from Milan, it definitely seems that this new owner and management are tangibly mutating Milan's DNA.

Not even any recognizable Milan DNA from last year's Champions League run here.

Champions League Group Stage • Newcastle United FC-AC Milan: Doomsday

If Group F is the Group of Death, then Wednesday is Doomsday, at least for one of the clubs in the group. Currently, Milan are in that fourth spot going into the match, based on goal differential. However, anything is still possible - Champions League Round of 16, Europa League, or being knocked out – depending on the results of both games. Neither Milan nor Newcastle are coming into this match with any kind of consistent form, so it may just be a matter of Newcastle parking the bus for 90 minutes to protect their advantage. Since Milan have only scored three goals in the entire competitions this season, it may be a worthwhile bet. And if it works, it would be a very costly result for Milan, losing up to €100 million in revenue compared to last year. Doomsday.

Our match vs. Newcastle at San Siro was the one that got away.

Atalanta 3, Milan 2: Bloody December

Saturday evening, Milan went to Bergamo looking for three points, but came back empty-handed. After two consecutive league wins, Milan lost 3-2 to Atalanta. While at least the five goals were more evenly distributed than the 5-0 Christmas Massacre four years ago, losing to Gasperini's side is also painful. Worse still, a late sending off with Milan's fifth red card of the season directly contributed to the loss, emphasizing the disciplinary issues on top of the loss. What Milan fans were hoping was the turn of the tide turned into the start of a potentially bloody December. 

A loss in the 95th minute on 10 men is a bitter pill to swallow.

Atalanta-Milan Preview: Dichotomy

Milan have a recent history with Atalanta of matches that are either a massive failure or an important success. For some reason, it seems like there are fewer matches in between. For Pioli, the Christmas Massacre of 2019 in Bergamo, when Milan lost 5-0 to Atalanta, was the failure that helped unify his team and fueled his successful run to the Scudetto. While wins like the 2-0 win away in May of 2021 secured our return to the Champions League, and a 2-0 win at San Siro a year later was our penultimate victory when we won our first league title in 11 years. So, which Milan team shows up in Bergamo Saturday evening? Will it be the unified, focused Pioli side that does what it takes to win? Or will they fall apart again, creating yet another disaster in December? Facing Atalanta almost always seems to be a dichotomy between failure and success.

Which Milan and which Pioli will show up against Atalanta?

The Maldini Interview: Truth, Narrative, and Results

Six months ago today, Maldini was suddenly and very callously sacked by Cardinale. Since then, much was spoken about his dismissal, mainly by the media and fans. However, on Friday, an interview with Maldini was published in which the former Technical Director and legendary Milan bandiera and captain set the record straight about what really transpired. That interview demonstrated the growing gap between the truth, the narrative in the media, and the results, which speak for themselves.

When the truth aligns with results, the narrative is just a story.

Milan 3, Frosinone 1: Liberated

Little was talked about this match ahead of time, because there was so much more to talk about after Maldini gave an interview to La Repubblica this week. Some felt it would be a distraction for the players, but actually, it distracted the toxic Italian media from pre-analyzing and destroying the confidence of the squad before they ever stepped onto the pitch. In fact, the media were more silent than usual, having themselves been guilty of hypercriticizing Maldini and speculating and falsely reporting the sequence of events surrounding his departure. This allowed Pioli and the team to focus on the match at hand, and despite missing nine players, they managed a 3-1 win over Di Francesco's Frosinone. Instead of the interview being a distraction for the team, they were liberated.

Free the Jović.

Milan-Frosinone Preview: With Maldini's Blessing

Whatever is happening at the San Siro tomorrow, it is being overshadowed in the news by the interview fans have waited six long months for. Since Maldini and Massara were suddenly sacked on June fifth, we had only heard the gaslighting from Cardinale, Scaroni, and Furlani, who, as it turns out were all architects of or complicit in this plan. But Maldini finally was able to control his emotions enough to speak evenly and tell the truth about everything that happened in an interview for La Repubblica. Some people question his timing, given the difficulties the team is suffering right now. But I think it takes the pressure off the players, it frees them from all the secrets. This interview allows them to face Frosinone tomorrow with Maldini's blessing.

Maldini loves this team more than this management could ever comprehend.