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| The only thing they have to fear is... stats and media noise. They can do this. |
Torino currently have 14 points in the league, putting them down somewhere in 14th or so coming into this match., with three wins, five draws, and five losses. Their last match was a 2-1 loss a week ago to 15th place Lecce, in which even a penalty gifted them in stoppage time was saved (probably because it was taken by the on-loan-from-Inter Asllani, though.) So they are very beatable. For that match, Baroni lined up a 3-5-2 with: Franco Israel; Tamèze, Maripán, Saúl Coco; Marcus Pedersen, Casadei, Asllani, Gineitis, Niels Nkounkou; Ché Adams, and Nikola Vlašić. Baroni will be without Perr Schuurs due to injury, and both Ismajli and Giovanni Simeone are unlikely to feature, although will be late fitness decisions for this match.
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| Friends and teammates for Croatia, Vlašić and Modrić will find themselves on opposing teams on Monday. |
Allegri, as previously mentioned, took a day off when VAR reviewed a non-handball call last week. Is he a Referee Primadonna? Or a Raging Referee Diva? Either way, Landucci will be missing Santi Gimenez, Athekame, and Fofana to injury. Pulisic is still in doubt do to a fever, but the latest reports say that he has traveled to Turin and will be a very last minute fitness call to make the bench. Loftus-Cheek is expected to cover for Fofana, despite Jashari's strong performance on Thursday and Ricci's many good performances of late. Gabbia, Modrić, and Bartesaghi should all definitely return after Allegri gave them time off on Thursday, thankfully. With such few options, I would hope that Nkunku gets another start as well.
Those who read here regularly may note that I have not jumped on the Allegri Worship Train yet, despite the fact that a win in Turin could put us back at the top of the table. There are many, many reasons for me not to trust him, and Thursday's abrupt Coppa Italia exit did not help to build any trust with me. Just the fact that we are in early December and this is his fourth match he is missing, after getting two straight red cards so far here at Milan says a lot about how much he has not changed. He speaks of improvement, of discipline, and yet he himself has not grown or set an example of this.
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| For Rabiot, playing Torino is different. Let's hope it is epic for him. |
At least, having spent so much time at Juventus, Allegri is actually taking this trip to the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino seriously. For him, this has been a Derby match many times, and he has not lost any of those matches in over ten years. For Rabiot, too, he will likely recall many fierce Derby della Mole matches, and maybe that fire will help burn the fear out of the hearts that the media's useless statistics have sown. Because Milan literally have twice as many points as Torino, and came into the weekend top of the table. There is no reason they should not also leave at the top, either, save fear. So, all they need to do is get in, get the win, and go home.
This post inspired by the music of Baby Lasagna's "Biggie Boom Boom"