Week 14: Milan – Frosinone

A limping and in crisis Milan face Frosinone trying to maintain or improve the distance between them Inter, the league leaders. The win against PSG in October revived some Champions League and form hopes but it has been followed by indifferent to poor form with the 3-1 loss to Dortmund adding to Pioli’s job security woes. Perhaps the biggest reason for this fall has been the growing number of injuries. Milan enter this week 14 match with all of the following missing. Sportiello, Kalulu, Kjaer, Caldara, Pellegrino , Leao , Okafor and Thiaw are all out short or long term. The latter limped off during the aforementioned Dortmund loss and forced Pioli into using Krunic as a center back.

There has been some thought that Krunic will retain the defense spot for the match against Frosinone but giving a chance to a defensive prospect Jan-Carlo Simic seems more sane. The 18 year primavera star might indeed get the chance with Tomori on his side. Calabria and Theo will complete the back four. Musa, Reijnder, Loftus-Cheek will play in the middle with the possibility of reverting to a 4-2-3-1. That has Pulisic, Chukwueze and Loftus-Cheek as the three. Giroud’s continuing suspension means Jovic is the only center forward option. The Serbian has been tagged a flop so far. At least this flop is coming at a relatively low cost.

Players’ forms have been worrying and the results have disappointed. To add to this a new Maldini interview has just been released. Speaking to the Repubblica newspaper the Milan legend has questioned RedBird and criticized many of their decisions before and after effectively firing him alongside Ricky Massara. Fan and public opinion has once again shifted against Gerry Cardinale and only a big turnaround will turn it around again. It might be with a new coach.

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