AC Milan will face Newcastle in the final round of the Champions League group stage tomorrow. Both teams are struggling with many injuries, which could make for an even match-up, and everything will be on the line.
The group of death has lived up to its name so far as second place remains reachable for three teams heading into the final round. Borussia Dortmund have already secured their spot in the Round of 16, so the battle will be between Milan, Newcastle and Paris Saint-Germain.
As reported by Sky Italia (via MilanNews), a total of seven Newcastle players will miss out on the game tomorrow: Nick Pope, Sven Botman, Matt Targett, Dan Burn, Elliot Anderson, Jacob Murphy and Sandro Tonali. The latter, a former Milan man, is suspended for his betting activities.
Milan also have a fair amount of absences to deal with: Marco Sportiello, Pierre Kalulu, Simon Kjaer, Malick Thiaw and Marco Pellegrino. The good news is that the likes of Rafael Leao and Noah Okafor will be available for the big clash.
Especially Leao will be an important return, as Milan have struggled on the attacking flanks in recent games. Christian Pulisic has done well, but Samuel Chukwueze has not been able to live up to the expectations.
Newcastle can have any number of players out. The fact that we’re coached by Pioli and that Theo will be playing center back means that we’ll probably not get the result we need.
Very true. If we can see it why can’t Pioli…..🤔
I’m surprised he’s not tried Krunic in goal, yet…..😆
The same Pioli who was in UCL semi-finals six months ago? Who would you field at CB if not Théo, then?
Pioli was a genius after the Frosinone because he fielded Théo at CB and he did great. A week after he’s the worst coach ever because he does the same thing.
Who has said that, Pioli is a genius because he fielded Theo at CB? Most of us knew that it was a matter of time, before his Theo CB experiment fails. The loss to Atalanta, is a further testament to that!
Knowing Pioli, we all know that he would’ve still played Theo, as a CB even if another CB was available.
Yeah the same Pioli, who gifted free Istanbul tickets to Inter six months ago! Against fuc🤬ing Inter not Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.
What? Did you read what you wrote before posting? Why tf would Pioli play Théo at CB if any other CB was available? He never did that. He even played Pellegrino who has been a major liability.
Then your rant about Inter I don’t get it because they were and still are better than us and it’s common knowledge that they are a European top club right now.
You aren’t seeing the bigger picture, I am not talking about another CB like Kjær or Kalulu here. What i meant earlier is that: Pioli would’ve still trusted Theo at CB, even if another CB like Simic or Pellegrino were available, who are CB by trade.
They aren’t any better team than us. It is because we have Pioli as our coach. Remember? He made one of the worst Chelsea side look like Pep’s Barca.
@Milan fan I reply because I like to write and because it’s a good example of Brandolini’s law but honestly we won’t ever agree on that, you have your very own vision.
Pioli already played Pellegrino when he had no choice. That’s a fact. It was horrible. Fact. Then he was ready to play Simic, the kid practiced with the first team. Fact. Obviously the kid wasn’t good enough, since Théo proposed to play CB. It was Théo’s idea at first. Fact. They tried in practice and it was obviously better than Simic the kid. There is no good situation when you have only one CB available.
Then you just generalise with one example haha yeah Chelsea beat us, but how many coaches in activity have won a Serie A championship you think? And how many of them have won a Scudetto just with luck?
You talk about bigger picture, the big picture is that our beloved football club is owned by a Wall Street investment funds with a focus on entertainment and maximizing profits. Jerry is only here until he can build a stadium, therefore increase the value of the club, then resell it. There is no long-term vision on the sporting side. Jerry can say wtf he wants, like I can say that I have the ambition to win the Nobel Prize.
@Bartholomeo well we all are entitled to our opinions. I don’t know what are Red bird’s ambitions, honestly speaking none of us know, since we don’t work at Casa Milan we can only gauge!
If they are passionate about new stadium project then it’s a good news, atleast that will increase our revenues and we will be able to sign world class players and pay players salaries on par with Premier League.
Why are we celebrating a win against Frosinone as if we’ve just beaten Inter? Oh wait, we never beat Inter. Theo didn’t work out so well against Atalanta, did he? For the record, I wanted to see Simic at CB vs. Frosinone, and any other game he is eligible for until we recover actual CBs. Simic will not get better (and thus more useful) on the bench, and as we have seen Theo is a liability at CB against quality opposition. So might as well play Simic. To be completely fair, Pioli has no choice in the CL, since Simic didn’t make the list and doesn’t qualify as homegrown. So you and Pioli can have that one. Also, need to get off this “Pioli in the UCL semi-finals” BS. We played a Tottenham in free fall, and Napoli who we dominated all year (one of the fee we did somehow). The real matchup was against Inter and we limply lost 3-0 in aggregate since grandmaster Pioli has no fvcking clue what to do against a 3-5-2 in a low block. To date, Udinese’s ONLY WIN this season is against us. But again, to be fair to Il Misterisimo, he has no choice but to play Theo in the CL, but the statement is still true: we’re up against it with this manager and with an emergency CB starting.
I really don’t know where this foolish idea of playing a 18 yo Primavera player at centre back, the most difficult position to play, came from, but obviously nobody in the coaching staff thinks it’s a good one, even if their job depends of it. Either Pioli is lucky when he beats Tottenham, or when he dominates Napoli, either he’s bad when we lose. I’m not a big fan of him, but he’s not the one to blame for the ridiculous situation at the club since this summer. Anyway with our budget we’ll find some Pioli’s clone.
Against Newcastle you may be right, but it’s a moot point anyway, like I said, because Simic isn’t on the UCL list. Against Frosinone, why not? If Camarda at 15 can find minutes, surely Simic can. If Theo can play emergency CB, then RLC can play emergency striker. Why give little Camarda time, and not Simic?
Also, I revisited the Napoli QF. And I’m beginning to remember the host of chances Napoli missed, particularly in the return leg at the Maradona. They had 63% possession, 538 passes completed to our 174, 23 total attempts against our 6, and 16 (!) corners to our 1. Quite simply, on another night Napoli could have had three or four goals. So, we got lucky there too.
If Camarda loses the ball, there are ten players to recover. If Camarda misses a shot, that’s fine. If Simic loses the ball, there is just Mike behind him. If Simic misses an intervention, it can be very costly. Centre back is the more difficult position for a rookie. See Pellegrino, he wasn’t ready and it was catastrophic. And he is practicing with the first team contrary to Simic.
I think the problems are after win frosinone with theo at CB position and the one who got ideas first is theo himself to be CB, then there is one or two comment that said “of course its someone ideas and its theo, there is no way that bald id**t have this idea himself”
Later when we lose goal because unbalanced defense after calabria foolish red and adli weak marking, someone with no shame tell its purely pioli fault to make theo a CB
Will have no better ignorant example than this…
I am not sure if any of our past managers apart from maybe Carleto would be able to do any better considering we only have one centre back currently available. He is not at fault for this, nether is Theo, the blame should lie on the management to send Gabbia on loan without a proper backup.
No blame should be on the management for this also, it’s actually ill-luck that’s affecting us. Pellegrino replaced Gabbia, we started the season with 5 CBs
That’s right we had 5 centre backs, which is good. I would say 4,5 since Pellegrino was bad but he wasn’t meant to play. The problem is not there.
Real Madrid fired their team doctor for mishandling the injury of one player, Arda Guler. We have 25 injuries and counting and nothing has been done and nobody from the management even speaks about it. Their role is not to just sit there waiting for good luck.
That’s a solid chunk of Newcastle’s core players. They are for the taking