Podcast: In the Trenches

Serie A is underway, and Milan qualified for the group stages of the Europa League. With some exciting wins, fans were excited, but now with a massive loss to Lazio in the league, there are a lot of doubts flying. So I think we can say officially that Milan are in the trenches.

Those are some beautiful trenches

When the framework of a rebuilding starts to take shape, you need someone who has been in the trenches. So obviously, I asked Christian to join for this convo. You can follow him on Twitter @CLumia and also check out his new Serie A account, @Calcio_Bros. This time we talked about:

• News of the Week: Suso sizzles, transparency, Liedholm prize, Ambrosini talks captaincy

• Matches: a quick recap of games

• Mercato Report: who came and left

• Europa League: our group stage draw and matches

• International Break: a brief recap of players who played

• Sports Marketing Course: a journey to Italy

• Coming up: upcoming Europa League and Serie A matches

Download this Episode

Thanks again to Christian for the great convo and relaying his travel adventures. Definitely follow him on @CLumia and also his brand new Serie A account @Calcio_Bros.

Europa League FK Austria Wien-AC Milan Mini-Preview: React

Like a children’s television show, Milan have a word of the week: react. Montella asked the team to react after Sunday’s loss to Lazio. The fans have decided to react in their own way. And Montella has chosen this opportunity to react by throwing out the system everyone knows and try his favorite system that he doesn’t have the players for. I will be curious to see how so much reacting will impact the final score.

Austria Wien players reacting to the Lazio-Milan score

With nearly 6,000 of their most devout fans, Austria Wien played to a 2-2 draw with RZ Pellets WAC on Saturday. For that draw, coach Thorsten Fink lined up Hadzikic; Westermann, Klein, Marschinko, Mohammed, Holzhauser, Tajouri-Shradi, Prokop, Pires, Lee, and Friesenbichler. It appears that he’s got some longterm injuries in Almer, Venuto, Grünwald, and Demaku.

Montella has decided to react (read: push the panic button) by changing tactics. With Conti injured, he’s also leaving Rodriguez and Borini behind to rest. This means that the only two players truly capable of playing wingback in a 3-5-2 are not even going to be there. So first he sandbags our chances for success by lining up Borini & Montolivo together on Sunday. Then he sandbags the 3-5-2 by using it without any viable wingbacks. But he expects the team to improve mentally. None of this makes any sense, and I for one am grateful that the game is at 10am my time, since I will be at work and won’t have to watch Montella “react.”

The match will be interesting. Austria Wien have home fan advantage and an extra day’s rest. Milan have… ummm… I don’t really honestly know if Milan have any kind of advantage this time. I guess we have to sit back and wait to see how they react.

Our next match is

the Europa League

Austria Wien vs. AC Milan

Thursday, September 14 • 19:00 CEST (1pm EDT)

This match will be shown LIVE on some Fox Sports channels on TV

and ESPN3 and WatchESPN on your devices in the U.S.

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