Palermo-Milan Preview: Pretty in Pink

Playing Palermo can be tricky, especially in their house. I don’t know if it’s because of the island or because of his royal craziness, Zamparini, but I feel like we can never count three points before the final whistle. This time, we’re coming off of that epic Derby win on Sunday, too, so the guys are really going to have to be focused. But if we can play even half that well and stay focused for 90 minutes, I feel like we could leave blushing. Pretty in pink.

Sure, he'll get the playing time at Palermo, but he'll also be pretty in pink

Palermo sit in 14th on the table, with Zamparini having just brought in his sixth coach of the season, Tedesco. Zamparini had done so well for so long at keeping a coach, but he’s fallen off the wagon and hard. On Sunday, they went to Carpi, where our old pal Gilardino put them up in the first half, only to see points dropped as Carpi equalized in the second half. For that 1-1 draw, Tedesco called up Sorrentino; Goldaniga, Lazaar, Gonzalez, Struna; Hiljemark, Chochev, Jajalo; Gilardino, Vazquez, and Quaison. It is also of note that our old pal Cristante was subbed on for Gilardino in the second half. That’s right, the talented kid who couldn’t wait any more for playing time, so went to Benfica, where it didn’t exactly work out for him, and now is at Palermo. Yeah, that guy. For our match, Tedesco will reportedly be missing Posavec, Pezzella, Bolzoni, and Brugman to injury.

Mihajlovic has the same players unavailable as he did on Sunday. Lopez, Ely, Mexes, and Adriano are all out with injuries. It is doubtful Menez will see much time, if any, despite being on the bench on Sunday vs. Inter, as Mihajlovic mentioned it will take a long time to regain match fitness since he has been out so long. His biggest challenge will be to bring the team’s mentality back to earth, but keep it strong enough so those individual errors don’t slip in and hurt us again. Oh, and manage fatigue without sacrificing quality in his starting eleven. But if he can do all that, we’ll be sitting pretty.

A new coach per day keeps the title hopes away

If you ever saw the show Lost, you’ll know what bizarre things can happen from an airplane to an island. So hopefully, Milan don’t get lost this time around. Hopefully they will stay focused and not be distracted if Zamparini fires yet another coach mid-match, and Milan will bring all three points home. That would be the first step to finding that coveted consistency we all want to see. If they can do that, then we’ll leave Palermo to his royal craziness, pretty in pink.

This post inspired by the music of The Psychedelic Furs’ “Pretty in Pink”

Palermo vs. Milan

Wednesday, February 4 • 20:45 CET (2:45pm EST)

This match will NOT be shown LIVE here in the U.S.