This Derby will be he fifth time this calendar year that we face our filthy reptilian cousins, Inter. The first four times did not go well, with our league matchup in February being perhaps the worst Milan game of Pioli's tenure. (Although Milan did win the Derby at this time last season.) Fast forward through one bizarre mercato and a Milan owner that seems to be going through a mental health crisis, and Milan's team looks completely different. Having invested heavily in attacking players and missing two important defenders for this one, it will be important for Milan to stage an all out attack to have any hope of coming away from this one with all three points.
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| A chance for Inter to meet the new look Milan. |
This match is highly anticipated because for the first time in years, both teams from Milano have perfect starts and are at the top the Serie A table coming into this match. The one glaring difference is that Inter have not conceded any goals yet. That includes their last match before the international break, their 4-0 destruction of Fiorentina. For that match, The Other Inzaghi lined up: Sommer; Darmian, de Vrij, Bastoni; Dumfries, Barella, The Turkish Traitor™, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco; Martinez, and Marcus Thuram. As of this writing, The Other Inzaghi has a complete squad available for this match. To make matters worse, this is a "home" Derby for i Biscione, meaning the San Siro will be teeming with mindless, soulless Inter fans.
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| Inter may have changed some players, too, but Milan still have our Derby hero, Giroud. |
Pioli, on the other hand, may be regretting his bosses' shrinking the squad back down in size. The reason it was bigger in the first place was due to our many issues with injuries in recent years. Already on national team duty, Giroud was injured, and both Theo Hernández and Maignan missed days of training as well. Giroud trained with the squad on Thursday, and both Theo and Maignan recovered to play all 90 minutes in France's second match, so all three should be available on Saturday. Which is good, because our backups for Giroud in particular are simply not ready for 90 minutes.
Kalulu, however, is not, as of this writing. He picked up an injury and will miss this one, along with Bennacer, who is obviously out until December or January. Tomori is suspended, after earning two yellow cards against Roma before the break. So Pioli is forced to start Thiaw, who did not play for Germany, and Kjaer, who gratefully was rested for most of the second match for Denmark this week, in the center of defense. He is quite limited on substitutions, as I would guess that based on form, the young Bartesaghi might be most likely to be available to substitute at center back (or left back,) given that Marco Pellegrino is still so new, although Caldara is also an option, I suppose.
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| Let's see if Cardinale has more than one shirt to go with his midlife crisis. |
Cardinale, after being like a deadbeat dad for his first year of ownership, has now suddenly become intensely hands-on in the Club. Like to a scary level. He barely attended three matches all season long last year, now suddenly, he has attended all three matches so far this year and will reportedly be at the Derby on Saturday and the Champions League match on Tuesday. He gave a very long interview this week in which he was very defiant about his financing of the Club, and said a lot of things that are polar opposite of previous interviews, such as in March, when he didn't even know Milan's Champions League history.
He also mentioned that he wanted to be "Berlusconi 2.0." I don't know if he also is ignorant of much of Berlusconi's history as well, but his sudden changes in lifestyle, spending, and positions on the Club and spending make me very concerned for his mental health. Also, which version of Berlusconi will we get in terms of spending on Milan? Because Cardinale is not eligible to run for public office in Italy, and the non-political Berlusconi let this club go to hell. The only good news is that thus far, we have a 100% win record with Crazy Cardinale in the stadium this season, so if his midlife crisis (along with his manic transfer spending) brings us luck, I will take it. Especially in a Derby.
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| Curva Sud with a live action shot of any Inter fan at any given time. |
More is at stake this year than perhaps ever before, with both teams from Milano competing for their second star. Milan actually have won 19 Scudetti, while those scumsucking belly-dwellers Inter, of course, only pretend they have won as many. Their paper Scudetto from 2005-06 is actual proof that they did not win all of their titles on the pitch. They could not win of their own accord, so those pathetic crybabies actually took down all of Serie A to literally hand themselves an illegitimate title and subvert their rivals long enough to rack up a few extra trophies as well. And don't get me started on their current shambolic financial situation, they should not even be able to compete with their nearly €1 billion in debts. For me, the Derby is very personal. I hate Inter so much.
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| The table for 14th Scudetto lying Inter claim to have won. (the Paper Scudetto they awarded themselves in court) |
But on the pitch, this one should at least be more competitive than the other four we played so far this year. Both teams play such attacking football, it will likely come down to who controls the midfield and defends better. Milan have a much more attacking midfield this year who can both maintain and regain possession better, but with missing defenders and an already weakened defense overall, those deplorable, deceptive serpents will likely win that battle. Milan will need to simply not allow them to play their game at all by launching an all out attack for all 90 minutes.
This post inspired by the music of She Wants Revenge's "Tear You Apart"
Reviewed by Elaine
on
4:30 AM
Rating:
