Some nightmares never cease to haunt you, and that is how I feel about Lecce's manager, Marco Giampaolo. He created the model for what this management should have done after they hired the wrong manager last summer, which is obviously to sack him in early October and hire a much better manager to right the ship. Ironically, this season, he was hired by Lecce in November to be that better manager for them after Luca Gotti was not working out. For Milan, where pundits have crucified Conceição after a whirlwind 17 matches in just two months, Giampaolo is a reminder that things can get worse.
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| The man has seen an entire season in just two months. |
Giampaolo's Lecce host Milan as they sit in 16th place on the table, with recent form of W-D-D-L-L and only three points above the relegation spot. Their most recent match was a 1-0 loss to Fiorentina a week ago Friday. For that match, the mighty Giampaolo lined up a 4-2-3-1 with: Falcone; Guilbert, Baschirotto, Gaby Jean, Gallo; Lassana Coulibaly, Pierret; Morente, Berisha, Karlsson; and Krstović. Not even is super sub, the beloved former Milan player Ante Rebić, could rescue that match. However, Giampaolo does seem to have nearly a complete squad at least for Saturday evening's match, with only Marchwinski out with his season-ending injury. They are still fighting relegation, despite looking different than the team we defeated 3-0 back in September with our former manager.
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| I may not be able to safely sleep ever again after seeing this image. |
Conceição has already been replaced by a dozen or so different managers in the media, despite having won an actual trophy just two months ago and only having his first full week of training this week. Apparently, inheriting a squad in eighth place and playing as many matches as Pioli did in his first four months in less than half the time, with five transfers in and out, further destabilizing the team, and slipping to ninth place on the table puts you on the chopping block, according to like every Italian newspaper. He even had a personal communications nightmare, with his spokesman resigning on Friday after spreading lies about the Milan manager in the media and "damaging his career."
However, he did finally have a full week with his squad, which will likely look quite different than the one that lost to Lazio on Sunday. That is partially thanks to the fact that both Pavlović and Maignan will be suspended for this match after refereeing controversies in that one. Also missing due to injury will be Emerson Royal and Loftus-Cheek, as well as Florenzi, although he did return triumphantly to group training this week after being out with his long-term injury since the preseason. Also, Bondo could possibly finally get his debut in the Milan shirt... maybe.
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| Just watching the train wreck from the ice cooler. |
There are also indications that Conceição may rest some players, or at least have them start on the bench, due to fitness issues or wanting to give time to other players who perhaps trained better this week. Rather than stir up controversy around his choices, like the toxic Italian media has been trying to do all week, he pointed out in his press conference all the reasons players may or may not be chosen.
Whatever Conceição's choices are, there has been a lot of toxicity around the club from both the media and the fanbase due to disappointing results. And of course, the Curva Sud are ditching the first 15 minutes again, since that was so helpful on Sunday. However, Søren and I addressed this on the most recent Podcast, pointing out many of the reasons to have hope and be optimistic about this manager and this team. And if that does not help you, we will face a reality check on Saturday when we go down that dark, terrifying, traumatic memory of that few months with Giampaolo back in 2019. And we will be confronted with the fact that things can get worse.
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Serie C Week 30
Reviewed by Elaine
on
3:45 AM
Rating:
