Brought this over here to discuss

I think giving Lapadula another chance is a good decision by Montella, especially since Bacca will barely have any time to train or even rest from a long trip

As for the Sosa news, I don't get why Montella doesn't just shift Kucka centrally. Using an attacking mid as a regista really isn't the best thing to do

But I certainly prefer him than pushing Locatelli over the deep end in this mess

Probable Xl v Chievo (4-3-3)
Donnarumma; Abate, Paletta, Romagnoli, De Sciglio; Kucka, Locatelli, Bonaventura; Suso, Bacca, Niang.
#Mediaset

There are lots of news saying that Sosa and Lapadula will play instead of Locatelli and Bacca so lets see. Especially knowing that: Bacca is at Milanello and is working separately from the rest of the team. [Sky Italia]

Bertolacci hasn't recovered from his injury and is receiving treatment in Rome. Antonelli could return for the game vs Pescara [Mediaset].

I almost forgot that we have Bertolacci as our player. I was really curious to see him at his best, but all these injuries, such a shame.

Gianluca Rocchi will be the referee for Chievo - Milan.

Abate has basically been making on average a mistake per game... Really would prefer Calabria if he's fit

Montella has decided to give Bacca a rest ahead of Milan-Juve. Lapadula will start from the first minute instead. #GdS

I think Abate is still by miles the better player and games like this are the chance to regain stability and confidence.

Sure, but he's been struggling terribly for form this season and he's been making a lot of errors which have lead to points being lost.

And I'd really like to see us giving Calabria a real shot, he's got talent in spades, and he plays with the confidence of an established player.


So Inter lost and Napoli lost to Roma, winning would put us joint 2nd with Roma. So it's absolutely crucial to get the 3 points here so we go in against Juve with a cushion of sorts and losing points against them won't really hurt us as much.

Locatelli starting in the centre, hope this goes well for him

And why did we even bring in Sosa? Galliani planning 101

Any stream?

Check here http://cricfree.net/

Bonaventura, Niang and Suso have been missing throughout the first half

GOAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

What a goal

Great goal, working first half. Midfield started slow but worked their way in. Suso and Niang being completely cut off/useless should be solved for second half.

Lapadula looks like a very dirty player, yes?

Honestly don't know much about Lapadula as we've barely seen him. Frustration has to come into play when he's running around with absolutely no one able to supply him with any sort of service.

Bonaventua was bad as well.

Also, the fact Niang struggles to control the ball most of the time is really annoying. He's just so clumsy!

NIANGGGGG

Nice touch with the Monto shirt there.

Is Monto dead of what? What happened?

Lucky goal. Now if all goes well, we can hold off Chievo and wait for counter space.

Nah, just a really bad injury

Great effort from Lapadula there.

Finally seeing some swagger from this team. And not just laying down and capitulating

BACCA 3-1

The saying goes 'first half is for the players while the second half is for the manager'. All the players put on a splendid display. Mistakes can happen, but its the team spirit and synchronization of the team that made it possible to shoot to 2nd place tonight.

The team played with attitude, risky from Montella, but it worked. I liked how after an attack becomes too stagnant, they pass the ball along the left side back to the keeper, as if stretching Chievo thin, and spring a new attack from right/center. Also a high defensive line contributed to Chievo falling into that trap consistently.

That said, Kuca put in a solid display! Think the team overall could build on this display, a young team left over after the Berlusconi dynasty, imagine they do a Leicester

^^

I saw that. But wouldn't it just be quicker to pass to Locatelli who'd then switch play to the other wing. I wanted to see him do more of that as a regista. But he played more as a DM yesterday.

Great win for us! I'm seeing slowly where Montella is heading with this. The plays that we are seeing are much less "rusty" than before. I'm still convinced that we need to buy the same elements to make that jump in quality, but I'm loving what I'm seeing at the moment. We're playing like a real team, and I like the defensive solidarity that we are starting to show.

Honestly, I think a DM in that position would be fine given that we are playing with two wingers, one striker and Bonaventura who also likes to attack a lot. A DM in that position a la Van Bommel would be more than fine with me.

I personally don't think there is room for a DM like Ambro, Van Bommel and Rino in today's football. You simply can't have a 1 dimensional player in your midfield as that is a weakness. Today the DM is basically obsolete and teams mostly rely on box-to-box mids for physicality and everyone has to be capable of winning the ball back and defending, not just one player.

As for Locatelli, he certainly showed maturity in terms of staying calm, but he also showed his timidity and inexperience in crucial moments, he wasn't comfortable enough to really spray passes around and mostly limited himself to the simple pass. Most likely because he was worried about messing up. I honestly don't know how he'll cope against Juve though, they're a completely different ball game to Chievo.

I guess I would still say that I'd prefer Sosa or even Poli to start ahead of him against Juve

Yeah, I would totally not throw him in against Juve.

Btw. anyone noticed Montella's styling? I think it's the first time he had a blazer without the club crest. Is this because of our transition from D-G to Diesel?

Yes. The club crest is there. It's just not too visible. It's a far more casual look to appeal to the 'youthful fanbase'.

The crest was there? In form of a pin, yes? Ahhh, very disappointing. And a bit silly.

I missed the game, so I watched it last night.

I think that until Kucka cracked the result Chievo was doing much better than us. Our pass distribution was poor and if Niang is not there to make some runs and dribbles for us then we would be screwed - just like we were against Sassuolo till he came in.

We are still a team that base on counter attacking which bothers me because I think we should take the stand against teams with less quality and hold the ball a little more.

I noticed that when we start the game, we tend to play with a 3-4-3 formation, which is nice considering that De Sciglio is not helping that much in the front and we have both Bonaventura and Niang who are doing a good job in the left. This would work even better if Abate had better games and connected better with Suso.

We should really work on our passing and possesion and also play a wider games with more crossings, since all the crosses that we made produced good scoring chances. We are doing well in counter attacking which might come handy against Juventus.

From what I have seen even though he didnt play much, Sosa doesnt offer as much as we think. At least with Locatelli we know that we will win some headers and also we can make a difficult job for the opposide side to make thake game in the middle. In my opinion we could have used Bertolacci in this situations, since I think that Kucka should play in the middle where he could offer defensive and offensive advantages while Bertolacci could help with his passing - even though he still didnt prove he can do it in our team.

Juventus topic?

Probable Xl vs. Juve (4-3-3)
Donnarumma; Abate, Paletta, Romagnoli, De Sciglio; Kucka, Locatelli, Bonaventura; Suso, Bacca, Niang.
[Sky]

Yeah, there's a crest but it's small, I don't think it's a pin though

And yeah, Diesel have given the team a more casual look. The good thing here though is that Diesel appeal to a larger demographic, mostly because they're aimed towards more age groups but also because they're not as expensive as D&G.


I agree on most of this

Regarding Sosa, I agree that he wasn't impressive when he came on against Cheivo, but I think that mostly has to do with the fact that he's barely had any playing time this season, so he's bound to be rusty


Will do

Thank you