After 21 years, Como are back in Serie A. This time, with minority stakeholders and football legends Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas, too. Fabregas is also coaching the team now, and the involvement of these two in the club has brought celebrities from all over to watch matches. Located on beautiful, scenic Lake Como, the city is a great destination for tourists. Even though Como is just north of Milano, with the beautiful setting and the football royalty, this match will still seem a bit like destination football.
 |
| The team when they found out they got to go to Como on a Tuesday evening. |
Part of the problem with playing in the Supercoppa tournament is having to make up the Serie A matches we missed. This match was actually our Week 19 fixture, so will be our first time meeting Como this season. As for Como, they come into this match battling relegation. While they are 15th on the table, only two points separate all the teams between 13th and 18th place. So every point counts for them. With four wins, seven draws, and eight losses, any result here will boost their chances of survival.
 |
| If he can't play for us, I just hope he doesn't score against us. |
One of those draws happened on Friday, when they were able to come back and grab a point in a 1-1 draw away to Lazio, thanks to a goal from their captain, beloved former Milan youth product Cutrone. Milan fans will remember that Cutrone was cruelly taken from us and sold to Wolverhampton during the summer of 2019, a preference of the legendary Milan manager, Giampaolo. Now, he is captain of his hometown club, Como.
On Friday, Fabregas started a 4-2-3-1 with: Butez; van der Brempt, Dossena, Kempf, Moreno; Da Cunha, Engelhardt; Strefezza, Nico Paz, Fadera; and Cutrone. Fabregas is missing Sergi Roberto to injury. Nico Paz suffered an injury in the Lazio match, but is in the squad called up for Tuesday's match. Como have also added more reinforcements in the transfer window. After adding new goalkeeper Jean Butez from Antwerp, they also signed Assane Diao from Real Betis and Maxence Caqueret from Lyon. All three are called up for our match.
 |
| The first victim of the January transfer window. |
Milan are reportedly chasing washed up Premier League players to reinforce our squad, but no signings yet. Conceição does have some injuries to deal with, though. Florenzi, Chukwueze, Jović, and Loftus-Cheek are all still out injured as of this writing. Okafor has also left to go on loan with option to purchase to RB Leipzig, although I have not yet seen the official announcement from the clubs.
Conceição's favorite, the brilliant Emerson Royal will be available after serving a suspension, I will be curious as to whom he chooses to start at right back. Calabria is by far the strongest defensively, Jiménez is the most exciting offensively, but is still young, and Emerson Royal is a party we bought for €15 million who also sometimes plays some okay football, but not consistently.
 |
| Conceição knows he has work to do. |
The biggest question on everyone's mind is will Conceição recover Milan's winning form. This will be Milan's third match in eight days, and they went from the high of winning the Supercoppa by defeating Inter last Monday to coming back to earth on Saturday after a 1-1 draw to Cagliari at the San Siro. Consistency will likely be the focus, even though the players could easily be distracted in such a beautiful city. These are the factors that potentially make this one destination football.
This post inspired by the music of Muse's "Butterflies & Hurricanes"
Serie C Week 23
Reviewed by Elaine
on
1:30 AM
Rating:
