We just can't stop with the injuries..

There is the Coppa Italia, this Tuesday? Wow...who will we play?

I think the fact that we were written off and that we play without fans in the stands is what actually helps us immensely.

It's the most common fallacy used by the football supporter to justify a player not delivering.

It has some merit - Hakan took well over two seasons to start impressing us, while at Rangers we've had a player only just realise his potential after literally five years.

But it's a balancing act of will this player deliver, or is he at the wrong club.

Unfortunately a lot of fans don't seem to want to delve into the reasons he's not delivering - and just go into the classic 'give him time' line.

I don't disagree, but it's also the same for every other club right now.

Torino.

Pretty sure Saelemaekers along with Bennacer will recover for Cagliari. Rebic all depends on how fast he becomes Covid negative again, but I'm hopeful till Monday.

Didn't see anything re Saelemakers. Fingers crossed. Can't wait to have him back as well. He's not an amazing player but he's very important to this team. Samu works hard but he's just not as effective going forward.

Doubtful Rebic will test negative by next weekend.

+1

I believe playing without fans helped us quite a bit in the post-COVID stretch of games. However, (1) the team has built confidence game after game, and (2) our fans are more likely to be supportive of our team now than a year ago. So I do not expect a drop in performance after fans are allowed back in the stadium.

Not convinced that been written off helped us much. It is not as if teams we played did not take us seriously.

Plus I think people put too much emphasis on the post-Covid restart. We had been gradually improving under Pioli since after the diabolical display against Atalanta. That's when Pioli switched to the 4-4-2 IIRC which then turned into the 4-2-3-1 we use today. I distinctly remember the first game against Juve in the Coppa, we played so well in that one and then got f'd over by a ref decision and lost Theo, Zlatan and someone else to suspension for the return

Leao - the YC hurt and was completely unjustified (have been reading comments on other forums, and only die-hard Inter fans will justify it). OTOH, I would rather he sit out Cagliari than Atalanta, so perhaps it is better this way. I think he can be a great player for us, but he still needs to adjust to the CF role (and he is not as effective on the wings, IMHO).

Tonali - disappointing so far, but let's not give up on him yet. I believe he has it in him. That said, if he fails to improve by the end of the season, I hope we will not exercise the option to buy him. Better drop money on an expensive one-year loan than spend the money.

Diaz - the consensus is that he has been one of the best players on the field, so it looks like I am in the minority. My problem is I see him struggle when under pressure, more than other players. As I see it, it all depends on how much RM asks for him. I think he can be a good rotation player for us, but not a starter.

Samu - he tries real hard, but just does not have it in him. He struggles even more than Diaz when under pressure, and he adds very little to the attack phase.

So, tomorrow there are (at most) 6 points to be gained by 4 of our top challengers. Let's hope that Sassuolo beat Rube, and Roma either ties or wins.

Then we have Cagliari. They can be a tough team to play and we still have many players missing, but we should be able to handle them.

The real test will be Atalanta. They have been doing very well in recent games. I think we can win it with our full team, but is will not be easy.

Meanwhile we have coppa and EL. I hope we use the primavera against Toro (maybe play Leao as well, since he is going to be sitting out the next game anyway). I really could care less about coppa right now.

EL I still care about. Unfortunately, the game with Red Star happens right before the Atalanta game. So we may want to rest some of our key players and take a chance in EL.

Agree re Leao. I complain about him, but really, he's probably our most talented young player atm. His potential is sky high, it's just a matter of if he can properly apply himself to realise the potential we can all see

Tonali just needs time, I think he's in his head too much and tries too hard with the passing. He just needs to not let the fact that he's playing for Milan get to him and relax a bit. I think he'll come good in time.

Re Diaz, I think his only really big flaw is his decision making, he tends to over dribble rather than go for the pass. If he manages to cut that out he's golden. I'd take him off of Madrid in an instant. Also, one other important factor of his game is that he works his @ss off as well. He was a nightmare for the Toro midfield, him and Samu's work is the reason why they barely crossed the halfway line in that first half

As for Samu. I like him, but next summer our main focus should be on signing a RW to complete the trio behind the striker. And Samu should be sold along with some other players. He could still get us a decent penny. but he's just not at the level we need. How I wish we'd have rolled the dice on Chiesa last summer. He'd have been the perfect player for that position

I think the COVID break allowed Pioli to get the team more comfortable with the 4-2-3-1. The lack of fans in the post COVID games allowed the team to build confidence (our fans have been very hard on our players). But I believe we are past the phase where we benefit from lack of fans. The team is much stronger now (mentally speaking), the fans more likely to be positive.

I was on the fence. However, the way he played against us ... yup, we should have gone for him. He is young, so he is only going to get better.

Actually, the EL games are in-between the derby in mid-February. Whereas the match with Atalanta is on 23 January.

Thanks for the correction. Similar problem but further out.

NonEvoluto - "Voi ridete e scherzate, ma senza tecnologia questa gara sarebbe finita uno a uno per colpa di questo personaggio. Non avrebbe dato il rigore a nostro favore, lo avrebbe concesso al Toro nell'azione dell'infortunio di #Tonali. L'ammonizione a #Leao ? la chiusura di un cerchio..."

"You may joke about this, but without VAR tech this game would have ended 1-1 thanks to the referee. He would have not given the PK in our favor and would have given one to Toro when Tonali got injured. The YC to Leao just closes the circle"

Yup

YES!!

Roma equalise!!

The ref was terrible yesterday, but what's new? They're all been terrible all season, and not just in our games

Roma-Inter finishes 2-2. Excellent result for us

Next week it's Lazio-Roma, Inter-Juve while we have Cagliari, so it could be a bonus round for us as long as we don't misstep against Cagliari. Hopefully we'll have Ibra and Bennacer both back. Rebic and Krunic will be on the 13th day since testing positive let's cross our fingers they might recover by then

WTF. Shameful from Gazzetta.

Yeah, great result for us. Assuming another draw for Inter and a win for us, we'd go potentially +5.

I don't speak Italian but that appears to be a Roma-based sports paper claiming we won via VAR.

What's shameful about that? Or am I missing something?

Gazzetta dello Sport is the most important sports newspaper in Italy. It cannot pass the message that we won thanks to VAR. It's an absurd claim to make. Especially if you read the article inside, the way it phrased certain passages, like "VAR took away one penalty from Torino". Say what? It was a blatant foul of the Torino player, nothing was taken away.

If there was one team that was penalised last night from the officiating, it was us us with the absurd number of yellow cards.

Anyway, I just realised that Torino's president, Urbano Cairo, is the main shareholder, president and CEO of the group that owns Gazzetta dello Sport. So it all makes sense.

+9 on Juve as well in that scenario

I hear Cairo owns them.

Yep, as I mentioned above.

In all fairness, though, we have received A LOT of penalties in our favour this season. Just look at the stats:



Realizzati meaning scored. Now, I'm not saying they were all gifted. Most were legitimate. But it is rather peculiar how much we've had compared to the rest.

We play attacking football rest dont

Indeed. Almost all of them (arguably, all) were justified. And, if anything, refs have been against us. Look at the last game.

Good result with Roma-Milan. Now ... forza Sassuolo !!!

The YC to Bentancur looked more like a RC to me, but ...

... and Djabala deserves an academy awards nomination

All of the penaltieswe were given were legit. The only soft one was the one against Roma, which was mostly given to cancel the ridiculous one given to Roma. Tuttosport, actually had a rundown of all the calls and basically called them all right, even the one against Roma. That's Tuttosport, the Juve paper

Plus I saw some stat recently that we have one of the highest number of touches in the penalty area in all the league, thus making the number of pens received understandable. As the more touches you have in the box, the more likely a tackle is made inside the box

Shouldn't have been playing the first place as he deserved a 2nd yellow against us

... and now a RC against Sassuolo. Great !

It was a nasty tackle.

Agreed.

Sassuolo equalize. This team is really good.

Aaand they lose.

Juve... Always with the help

Disappointing. However, next week it is 3 points between Inter and Juve. Another tied game would be great.

Most importantly is that we win.

We have Atalanta right after, so this would give us a cushion if we drop points there

Indeed.

Brahim and Tonali recovered for the Coppa match.

I don't think we'll see heavy rotation. Cagliari is on Monday so the players will have time to recover.

Don't expect Ibra to start and he shouldn't. Save him for the league

Heavy rotation? We're already playing with our subs.

If only we could forfeit this stupid game. I just hope we won't take any special risks and play all our subs. Colombo and Maldini starting I hope.

Yup. Best thing to do is play the Primavera. Great opportunity for them ...

Probable lineup vs. Torino according to Sky:

Tatarusanu; Kalulu, Musacchio, Romagnoli, Dalot; Tonali, Calabria; Castillejo, Brahim, Hauge; Leao
@milaneye

This is in line with what I expected. BTW, Maldini is out because of a suspension (form his primavera days).