Yesterday’s 4-1 defeat against Liverpool was the second of the friendly matches scheduled for the Dubai winter retreat, and it confirmed some fears from before both games.
As reported La Gazzetta dello Sport (via MilanNews) this morning, Liverpool and Arsenal appeared sharper than Milan in the two matches in the United Arab Emirates which shouldn’t actually surprise anyone.
The English clubs will resume competitive action before Christmas and the Premier League teams, as well as having more complete squads, can rely on already on being in match rhythm or near to it at least.
The same cannot be said for Milan who have been back in training for a couple of weeks and who will only return to playing competitive matches on January 4th. Pioli also had a long list of players unavailable due to workload management, injury recovery or World Cup involvement.
Origi missed the match against his former team yesterday due to muscle soreness. Tomori, De Ketelaere, Kjaer and others were rested so as not to overwork them, while Brahim Diaz, Messias, Calabria, Florenzi, Ibrahimovic, Maignan, Giroud, Leao, Theo Hernandez and Ballo-Toure were among the absentees, which is a large part of the team’s spine.
