Why do a tough tackle in training ffs. No need. Muntari has always been stupid, but this is an incident caked in mild malevolence too.

This

This.

Rami will be examined today (Monday) in order to determine the extent of his thigh injury.

source: milanello/twitter

We can't catch a break. Finally we have a consistent duo in defense, and one of them gets injured.

Second time this season. Alex and Zaps were just fine v Lazio and Pippo changed it. Now Mexes and Rami look not bad and one gets injured.

When will Alex return?

Inzaghi said Abate, Alex and MDS will return after the break.

That's reassuring. But Roma could be a big blow without our standard fullback. Gervinho against Bonera or Armero isn't very pleasant.

Does it really matter? We have 1% chance of getting any points from that game.

Yes, it matters. I think our chances are much better. We're not facing Bayern München for Christ sake!

We'll see. I said before the Genoa game that the maximum no. of points we can get from these three games was 2-3. I still stand by it.

Now you made me laugh out loud my friend! This is called (in my profession) "use and abuse of history".

You said the maximum is 2 points and not 3, and also predicted us to either draw or lose to Napoli. So, it went down the hill

Oh my, forgive me for saying 2-3 points instead of just 3. That's such a huge difference!

You also said we can win against Genoa, whereas I said it's a very tricky game. How did that go?

It is true that Roma and Juve are streets ahead of the rest of the league, but if Samp can get a point off Juve, we can get one or more off Roma.

Before Napoli I had zero hope of a draw in that match, but a pretty convincing win has given me a little hope.

In 90 minutes anything can happen, and remember Juve themselves only beat us 1-0 thanks to a late goal.

Don't write us off just yet.

Mexes out for a month. Rami and Abate unlikely to recover for Sunday. Armero suspended. Our only defenders available are Alex, Zapata, MDS and Bonera.

Fudge.

Zaccardo? Albertazzi? Also out? Not that it would change much, but it still would give Pippo some options.

They can barely be considered options.

At this point, they are options.

Bonera/Abate aside that's our best defence anyway.

Bonera will be LB and MDS RB, with Zaps and Alex central. I've no concerns over that, because, weirdly, Bonera's best display this season was as LB. As long as he doesn't do anything stupid...

Agree with X, Zac is dross and Albertazzi shouldn't be at Milan. Should be a squad player for a Serie B side.

I remember football-italia.net reporting that the initial injury might not be as expected. They started the expected return time to be around 10 days. Hopefully, that's true!

Again, since we're reduced to a few defenders, they count as bench options. It's either them or kids.

I think our best defence by far would have to be DS, Alex, Mexes, Abate

Also, Bonera can't be played at LB becase he's almost as diabolical there as he is at CB

Bonera injured today, but Abate and Rami seem recovered.

Source: Mediaset

Yes, seems our defence is suddenly one of our best options: Abate, Alex, Rami & MDS.

Unfortunately Muntari & Poli will be the midfield alongside either Monto or De Jong. Or is one of them suspended.

Up front has it as SES, Menez and Bona.

PS what's happening tomorrow? Sassuolo is Tuesday.

I'm almost sure De Jong is suspended!

I meant Tuesday. Force of habit.



Yep.

Essien, Monto and Poli would be ok. Not quite sure what Muntari's hold over Pippo is. Would hope he doesn't start.

Bonera out for a month, De Jong will miss the next match.

I really don't care at this point. One player doesn't make a difference. Until we have a decent coach, with these players there's no other way but down.

Breaking news that SES is out for the season. Two months to be exact but could be longer. Metatarsals are bad injuries.

Hasn't he already had this injury?

This guy can't catch a break. Spends last season injured. Comes back in the first game looking fairly good, gets injured again, loses his place in the team when he comes back out of form. It's looking like a Pato situation at this point

Be it form or injuries, this one just isn't working out.

I do really wish to see SES under a proper manager and staying healthy for a long period of time, that's the only thing that I believe can get him out of this slump.

I don't think we'll sell him anyway, he's worth far less than what we paid for him and considering there was talk of 30m+ offers coming our way after his break through season, I can't really see us selling him for the 10m he's only probably worth now.

We have nothing to lose by waiting him out a bit more.

However this recent injury will just continue to set him back even more

Abate out for two weeks.

Yup, muscle injury on his leg I believe. Zaccardo will stay at RB for 14 days. He'll be our right back in Turin.

In all honesty he DID have a decent match yesterday, but that was the worst Parma team they've ever had, with Cassano launching legal action and no fucker being paid.

Montolivo out for 2 weeks, De Jong for 3-4 weeks.

Source: Gazzetta

Great, no De Jong for a month. We'll have to see Essien or Muntari as anchor now.

Nah, it'll be Poli. Pippo seems to have wiped his hands of both Essien and Muntari.

With both Monto and NDJ out, I don't see how one of Muntari or Essien won't be used.

I'd love to have MvG in there.

Poli sitting, Bona & MvG partnering.

I'd rather MvG was sitting (if by sitting you mean playing as anchor ), he has the credentials.

I think Danny is correct here.

Pippo has recently been using MvG as the sub when he's taking off one of the mids, I can only hope this means that he's finally given up on the notion of Essien or Muntari ever being useful to the team

I believe he has. And X, meant my old 'golden trinity' idea of Poli sitting/DM, MvG as the CM and Bona as the AM.

Meant to be De Jong as sitter/DM but obviously in this system Poli slips into that well enough.

Not got the same 'destroying' powers but he will not stop working in that slot. Used to see Poli as an AM in his Samp days, that's what I thought he was, but he just isn't. He does have some craft on the ball but his best attributes are harrying oppositions players Gattuso style and stopping them. He's a downgrade on De Jong but far better than Essien or Muntari at their worst, which is more often than not these days.

Bonaventura and Van Ginkel injured. Difficult to recover for Samp. Our only available mids are De Jong and Poli.

Link

Our medical staff at their best again.