Matchday 7: Milan - Sassuolo (Sunday, October 2nd - 18:00 CET)

[Mystik]

We welcome our recent bogie team to the San Siro this weekend. The good news is that Berardi may be out through injury, plus they have an away game in the EL tonight so they'll probably be fatigued for the Sunday game.


We haven't been playing badly lately so I would say that we have more than a decent chance of taking the full 3 points from this match. Like someone else mentioned, we're only one point behind third place at the moment so as long as we do our part, we may find ourselves in relatively good shape early on this season.


FORZA MILAN!

[nefremo]

I wasn't too happy with the way we played against Fiorentina, especially in the first half. But I do want to see a continuation of our line up and I hope we keep the same team out for the 3rd week in a row. The only player I would change would be De Sciglio, but Antonelli has been equally as bad if not worse. So I would rather go with the continuity.

A couple of weeks ago I would have thrown Montolivo to the curb when Kucka came back and replaced him with Sosa/Locatelli. But again, the past two weeks have been positive and I wouldn't mess with it too much.

If Sosa does replace Montolivo....I hope we play him as a RCM and bring Kucka in front of the defence. Like I've said previously, we need to stop with this regista obsession. If we had a proper one, ok. But we don't! So just put Kucka in that spot and ask him to play short simple passes. Get the ball over to Jack and Sosa, and sit behind them to cover the space and the defence. We would lose on Kucka's pressing ability further up the field, but honestly that's it. The guy offers nothing more up there and since we suck in pressing high as a team, I would rather have him just protect my defence in a deeper position anyway.

[xudong]

I read that Antonelli is out with injury, and Abate could start as RB with de Sciglio on the left. Doesn't sound too promising, but at least Berardi won't be there to torture them.

By the way, Sassuolo just played today in EL. I really hope that fatigue will become a matter for our Serie A game.

[nefremo]

We should be able to win this game to be honest. Just keep it solid in the back and don't concede stupid goals. From there on, I actually expect us to score at least a goal or two. No Berardi is great obviously because he has scored a ton against us.

As for Abate starting again....in all honesty, Calabria hasn't been great, but he surely hasn't been worse than Abate. At least he is better when going forward (if given the freedom to do so....the last couple of games Montella has kind of limited the fullbacks imo). On top of that, he is obviously still only 19, and if he isn't performing worse than Abate (which he is not), than we have it all to gain by keeping on playing him. I really don't see the reason to put Abate back in there unless of course it's a "politics" thing coming from Montella.

I hope Montella also thinks about Calabria's confidence. He didn't have the best of games last time around and cause that penalty too. Sitting him out now might come is a punishment and the boy may suffer a hit on his confidence.

[xudong]

We really should have won against Udinese as well, which is why you can never know about this Milan team. but of course Donnarumma and the CB duo have been fairly consistent and reliable recently, making me look forward to the game.

About the head-to-head between Milan and Sassuolo in Serie A since 2013 (when Sassuolo first entered Serie A), we have been dominated with a record of 2 wins and 4 losses. We have lost all three away matches, and even at San Siro, we won two and lost one. I can't think of any other stadium where Milan has failed to get even one single Serie A point.

At least this game will be our home game. Personally I look forward to it and hope for a sound victory and a clean sheet, but will happily take any 3 points.

[xudong]

Not sure if anyone has posted this in this thread or elsewhere, but I read that for the first time in Serie A, during the Milan-Sassuolo match the Video Assistant Referees will be used.

I wonder what that will do exactly. Will that cover everything from a foul to offside?

[nefremo]

I believe that it will only be a trial. Meaning, it won't actually affect/overrule any of the decisions on the field. It'll basically be used but nobody will know that it is being used. It is there in an "unofficial" capacity.

As to what it will cover, it's unclear to me too. I remember reading this summer that it will be only used for "game changing" decisions and they will to their best to not stop the game and alter the flow of it. So maybe if there is a penalty appeal, and the ref on the field doesn't call it, the referee that's actually watching the live feed can interfere and let the referee know that there really was a foul...so they can actually bring the play back and make the correct call. On the other hand, I don't know that they'll go against the decision on the field....if for example the referee calls a PK but the video reply shows that it was very questionable. I think the ref on the field still has the upper hand in those situations.

[Mystik]

Ecco i convocati per la settima giornata di campionato in programma domenica alle 18 a San Siro:

PORTIERI: Donnarumma (99), Gabriel (1), Plizzari (35)
DIFENSORI: Abate (20), Calabria (96), De Sciglio (2), Ely (4), Gomez (15), Paletta (29), Romagnoli (13), Vangioni (21)
CENTROCAMPISTI: Bonaventura (5), Honda (10), Kucka (33), Locatelli (73), Montolivo (18), Pasalic (80), Poli (16), Sosa (23)
ATTACCANTI: Bacca (70), Lapadula (9), Luiz Adriano (7), Niang (11), Suso (8)

[xudong]

[Kastriot]

Anyone with a quality stream?