Week 15: Bologna – Milan

Week 14 was a somewhat dominating performance at Parma, the statistics tell such a story. Possession in the upper 60 percentile and shots on goal very lopsided. However, it took a near last minute ‘in the right place’ goal for Theo Hernandez to save Milan. The finish was very well but the ball rebounded or deflected to Frenchman’s feet. The 1-0 win was an improvement but it needs to happen more often and the goal drought has to stop.

Piatek has three goals and Theo has three goals. This is not a winning formula. Piatek’s form has been so poor and erratic that the talk of him leaving in January has increased. Ibra may arrive and give everybody on the team a kick. It is indeed that bad that a 38 year old is a remedy. Ibra is no ordinary 38 year old of course.

Not that coach after coach care to change much. Leao may not be a great alternative but he struggles to get minutes eventhough the Polish striker is at best off form. The same issue goes for Suso. Samu doesn’t seem likely to get many minutes. In the same vein Kessie started at Parma and got 71 minutes while Krunic was on the bench. All these defy explanation. Even more so when Pioli is not the first to insist on such a lineup.

The Rest of the midfield and front three will likely remain the same as Bonaventura, Bennacer and Calhanoglu are preferred to Biglia, Paqueta and Rebic. The same goes for the back four. Conti has shown flashes of good form and will line up with Musacchio, Romagnoli and Hernandez. Donnarumma was not busy at all at Parma and continues to be number one.

Bologna are of course coached by Sinisa Mihajlovic. The Serbian was diagnosed with leukemia and has been in and out of the hospital since the summer. His team sit one point and one place behind Milan. The hosts will be missing Gary Medel through suspension and Roberto Soriano through injury.

Follow the match as it happens, on the forum.