Week 26: Verona – Milan AKA The Do We Have 11 Healthy Players Match Day
The response type win at Roma turned out to be false dawn, at least for its subsequent match. Milan struggled against a Udinese team that spent a long time parking the bus while remaining solid and compact. Milan did not threaten anywhere near enough and though without players like Ibra and Calhanoglu still missed a lot more quality. A sleep inducing first half produced little and any positive change after half time was limited. It was Udinese who threatened with better chances, one of which was saved off the line by the captain. Romagnoli made a return to the starting line up after sitting at Roma. In end the team got a point under the luckiest of circumatances with a very late Udinese hand ball.
Shortly after the midweek game versus Udinese it was thought that Romagnoli would keep his starting spot but that has now changed with Tomori looking to be back with Kjaer, Calabria and perhaps Hernandez. Late news has Hernandez as a big doubt. The same late news has Tonali as a doubt too. Further up the pitch it is an even deeper crisis. Ibra, Calhanoglu, Rebic and Manduzkic are all still out. The leaves Leao and Emil Roback as the only center forwards available to Pioli for this match at Verona. The former has been among the flops of the last match and indeed recent weeks and the latter is a teenager with zero experience who has been in questionable form for the primavera. This may be the chance for Hauge or perhaps he is not 100% either. The number of unavailable players has reached crisis levels and the starting 11 will make for a chaotic setup. All this likely means that both Castillejo and Saelemaekers get starts. In between them it is a choice between Diaz and Krunic and Pioli may continue baffle many by choosing Krunic.
Verona are in some ways a more solid version of Udinese with a solid defensive set up and a stingy back three. Verona acquired Kevin Lasagna from Udinese in the January window and have Antonin Barak on loan from the the same team. Both will present dangers for Milan.
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