Como – Milan Serie A Week 16

The match was originally scheduled to play in Perth, Australia. The opposition to move a domestic league game abroad was strong and a similar idea had been floating around and set in motion in Spain. In the end however, the trip was cancelled amid so called Asian confederation demands and other politics.

Milan dropped points against a lowly team again. Fiorentina may or may not deserve to be in a relegation spot but Milan have not approached such games well in a long time. A mostly poor Milan only managed to salvage a draw courtesy of a late Nkunku goal. The recently dubbed flop scored in his third Serie A goal since late December.

The team remains in flux with players going in and out of the injured list. Luckily recent injuries have turned out to be short terms ones. Pavlovic will miss this match after getting nine stitches but has apparently escaped concussion after his head injury against Fiorentina. Fullkrug was reported to have a broken toe and was in danger after of missing weeks but that was later changed to day to day. The German could be back at the weekend or next week.

Of course this limits Allegri’s options. For now, unless the 3-5-2 changes, the only defensive option is De Winter. Athekame and Odogu are not starters yet. This also means Saelemaekers is playing to the point of exhaustion. The Belgian will start for now. Fofana is preferred beside the right wing back. Modric, Rabiot and Bartesghi should complete the first choice midfield. Leao and Pulisic are the likeliest to start together with only Nkunku the available option on the bench.

Como have been the hype team of the Serie A the last two seasons and Cesc Fabregas has brought his team to the forefront with good football. The Djarum Group ownership have supported the Spanish coach with a near €200 million in net transfer spend in the last 2 seasons. It remains to be seen if a Serie A team playing in a less than 13000 capacity stadium can sustain such a pace. The answer is likely a No but time will tell.

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