Week 13: Milan – Napoli
The week 12 match at Juventus was a good performance, certainly by recent season standards it was a competitive encounter. Milan even had more shot on goal than the reigning champions. As the game went on a 0-0 tie was very possible, if not a win. Ultimately the game was lost because Juventus can count players of the quality of Douglas Costa and Paulo Dybala from the bench. The latter scored the winner and Milan lost again. In the end Milan went into the international break with an amount of optimism.
During the slow news days of the break most of the talk has concentrated on possible re-enforcements in January. Whether Elliott can spend or not is questionable but the need to generate revenue via Champions League participation remains crucial so a top 4 finish must remain the goal. Ibra may or may not return to Milan. A midfielder such as Luka Modric may too. Realism may ultimately win out and additions may be underwhelming. Time will tell.
Napoli are struggling as well. The players have had a disagreement with the president of the team over training and the team hasn’t won in over a month. Napoli sit in seventh place and need wins almost as much as Milan.
Bennacer and Calhanoglu will miss week 13 because of yellows they received at Juventus so the starting 11 will likely feature Biglia and Rebic or Bonventura. The rest of the 11 should remain the same with Suso and Piatek the other up from three. Piatek showed a few flashes at Juventus and needs to regain his touch quickly. He certainly claims to be ready for it. He was quoted as saying as much. Krunic and Paqueta may start again with Kessie continuing his exile on the bench. Conti and Hernandez look to continue being the full backs. The former actually had a surprisingly good game at Juventus. The middle of the defense will feature Romagnoli with Musacchio as Duarte is apparently carrying a small injury. The central defenders need to be more organized and close down the opposition better than they have done most of the recent weeks.
Follow the match as it happens, on the forum.