Napoli – Milan Serie A Week 31

The international break came after the 3-2 win versus Torino. The team had the now regular slow start but improved as the game went on. Milan were eventually headed for an on paper relatively easy win but the refereeing had to take center stage yet again. An incident in the Milan box was waved off by Francesco Fourneau and the game went on up the pitch. More than a few seconds later the ref stopped the match to do the customary VAR discussion. After the exchange he decided to use the on pitch monitor and awarded a penalty to Torino. The VAR concept of clear and obvious errors is clearly long dead. Waving off a foul with a clear view of it should not enter the domain of VAR, pretty much ever. For the ref to decide to use the on pitch monitor after clearly waving the incident off earlier is just as much time wasting as anything the players do. The game is better off with the ref accepting a VAR verdict and not resort to the on pitch monitor for an incident he initially waved off.

The international break itself was of course dominated by the failure of Italy to qualify for the World Cup for the third time running. A lot more can be said about the state of Italian football. A lot of issues affecting Italy at large can be seen in how Milan lacks in player development, Italian ones in particular.

The final stretch of the season starts with Inter six points ahead of Milan. The dim and unlikely scudetto hopes should not be a preoccupation as Napoli are only one point behind and Como not much further away either.

Gabbia is still not fit but the rest of the squad are available, including Loftus-Cheek who has recovered from his fractured jaw injury. Maignan will be in goal with Tomori, De Winter and Pavlovic. All four were among the 13 Milan players involved in international duty. Saelemaekers, Fofana, Modric, Rabiot and Bartesaghi should remain the expected midfield five. Jashari and Ricci’s (lack of) minutes leaves them in the somewhat inexperienced category. Time will tell if this midfield depth is being used as well as possible. Up front Milan is perhaps more of a mystery. Leao and Pulisic have struggled for a good part of the season. At least sometimes due to fitness issues. Neither are true center forwards and a 3-5-2 is obviously not the best fit for the Portuguese and American. Nkunku might get a start and it is indeed possible that Fullkrug might as well. Look for Milan to revert to a 4-3-3 when possible.

Napoli are not the healthiest with Romelu Lukaku, Giovanni Di Lorenzo and the underrated David Neres among the missing.

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