After a brilliant Derby win on Sunday, Milan host 17th place Lecce at the San Siro on Friday. The same Lecce who played and lost a Coppa Italia match on Tuesday. So Milan are rested and flying high, and Lecce are tired and demoralized after getting knocked out of the Coppa Italia.(Ironically, in doing so, they gave us our Coppa Italia opponents for December.) It should be easy, right? Not for Milan. And to make matters worse, Lecce are bringing an ex with them. Beloved former Milan badboy Ante Rebić returns to the scene of his many crimes in hopes of committing another one: remind Milan of what we lost. So, while this looks like it should be an easy one for Fonseca's men, they need to beware of the return of Rebić.
Hide your women and children, he's coming back to San Siro.
Rebić is another player who lifted the Scudetto with Milan just over two years ago, but was sent away. He had his critics, but was also very popular just for being so damn awesome. He scored 28 goals and 13 assists in all competition during his time at Milan, and rarely were any of them just average. Because he is anything but average. But when he wasn't scoring goals or assisting, he was being badass. But his badass legacy was created by getting carded for saying things or making obvious fouls, with insulting the referee's mother being his peak Rebić moment at Milan. Sure, he was suspended for two matches when we needed him, but it cemented his status forever.
Rebić is every referee's nightmare, but Serra was a nightmare ref.
Rebić joined Luca Gotti's Lecce this summer after his contract at Beşiktaş was terminated, so it is unclear which Ante we will see on Friday. He started and played 65 minutes in Lecce's 2-2 draw with Parma on Saturday, a proverbial cardfest for Lecce with four yellows and a red card each for both Lecce and Parma. Then Gotti played Rebić for the second half of Lecce's 0-2 loss to Sassuolo. For that match, Gotti lined up a 4-2-3-1 with: Früchtl; Pelmard, Guilbert, Gaby Jean, Dorgu; Rafia, Pierret; Oudin, Marchwinski, Banda; and Pierrotti. He is missing Guilbert to suspension for that red card vs. Parma, and also Kaba, Berisha, and Bonifazi to injury.
He'll be wearing new colors this time...
Fonseca had to breathe a huge sigh of relief after the win on Sunday. Certainly, the questions in his prematch Press Conference were entirely different for this match. But I wish that management was still as wary as I am of his credentials and his right to stay on as our manager, because there are still so many red flags for me. As I've previously mentioned, his switch to the two striker system with the 4-4-2 he lined up on Sunday, while similar in tactical concept to his 4-2-3-1, requires both Morata and Abraham to be healthy and start every match. That is already a problem, in just the very next match.
We cannot even have the same starting 11 two matches in a row.
Morata is very unlikely to be available due to a minor injury, and Fonseca made it sound like he did not want to risk him, either. And he has six other players missing for this match: Florenzi, Bennacer, Thiaw, Calabria, and Sportiello (even though he was spotted in training again this week,) as well as Okafor, who apparently has muscle fatigue. Seven players out. This is not an improvement on the injury situation like Fonseca and his team were hired to change.
Fonseca said that either Reijnders or Loftus-Cheek would replace Morata in that role, which changes our entire system and dynamic. He at least finally decided that he likes Tomori and Gabbia as a defensive pairing, which is good news going into our seventh match. Although to be fair, all these changes to his lineups and even his system don't stress me out quite as much this time around, because I give far more credit to the players for their change in mentality leading to the win on Sunday, than to the tweaks he made. All of the comments from the players point to as much, too.
Two misunderstood players.
Speaking of other players, certain fans have given Rafa Leão extra servings of hate this week, despite the fact that he was responsible for three of the team's eight shots on target on Sunday, and played quite well. Apparently to help combat that, Fonseca pointed out that Leão has been doing extra training sessions and focusing on improving his defensive game. Leão also got some positive media during an interview with Kakà this week, who singled him out with praise and specifically said we need to support him because he can help Milan a lot.
This match could go very well for us, but only if Lecce are as tired and demoralized as lower table teams often are after a week like this. However, Milan run the risk of being overconfident, and missing seven players again, tweaking the starting eleven and the tactics yet again raises more questions about their ability to create consistency in performance and results. Also, they might be thinking a little about our Champions League match coming up on Tuesday. But I hope that Milan fans will at least give a proper welcome back to Rebić, even if I'm a bit worried about the plans he has for us. That is the risk we run with the return of Rebić.
This post inspired by the music of The Angels' "My Boyfriend's Back"