AC Milan vs Empoli | Serie A Matchday 2 | August 29 2015

Referee: Piero Giacomelli
Stadium: San Siro
Time: 20:45 CET
Form: L
Current position in Table: 19th

Mihajlovic's quote of the week: “The fans are important, as [Vujadin] Boskov said, a match without fans is like a woman without breasts.''

Milan squad for Empoli: Abbiati, Donnarumma, Diego Lopez; Abate, Alex, Antonelli, Calabria, De Sciglio, Romagnoli, Zapata, Zaccardo; Bertolacci, Bonaventura, De Jong, Kucka, Nocerino, Montolivo, Poli, Suso; Bacca, Cerci, Honda, Luiz Adriano, Balotelli.

Expected lineup:
Lopez; MDS, Zapata, Romagnoli, Antonelli; Bonaventura, NDJ, Bertolacci; Honda; Luiz Adriano, Bacca

Prediction: Milan 2-0 Empoli

quote of the week

Mihajlovic's quote of the week: “The fans are important, as [Vujadin] Boskov said, a match without fans is like a woman without breasts.''

Great quote or shot at Breast Cancer survivors?

I haven't yet watched Empoli since Sarri's departure however if Giampaolo has continued to build this side along the same principles then they have the capacity to trouble us. A side that turns defence into attack very quickly and capable of both building slowly or taking advantage of a high line. Saponara in particular really grew in the second half of last season and did a superb job in creating chances. He was also a goal threat, though this was more due to the abundance of opportunities presented than his finishing ability, which is relatively poor.

There are no excuses for us not to win this game however. We have a responsibility to make the San Siro feared again. Sides should be coming to Milan intimidated not energised and up for a fight. That starts with being aggressive from the get go. Last season we let Empoli take the initiative and impose their game and it gave them confidence from the first moment. We need to upset their game plan and knock them off their stride early. Be aggressive, keep them penned in, starve them of chances and hopefully take an early lead.

I'd like to see Balotelli make an appearance from the bench as well, it's something that can excite the home fans and start to create greater enthusiasm. It would also be ideal if his first minutes back at Milan didn't come in the derby next week. Sinisa's spoken of the potential of using him as an attacking midfielder behind Bacca and Adriano however I imagine that's an option to be explored only when we're trailing, so hopefully it won't be necessary to employ such a tactic.

If we win: "the market is closed, this team is capable of winning scudetto"

If we lose: *signs Perotti, Galloppa and Coda*

We should win this
Any result that isn't a win is not accepted

Official lineups:

Milan: Diego Lopez; De Sciglio, Zapata, Romagnoli, Antonelli; Bertolacci, De Jong, Nocerino; Suso; Bacca, Luiz Adriano

Empoli: Skorupski; Zambelli, Tonelli, Beard, Mario Rui; Zielinski, Diousse, Cross; Saponara; Pucciarelli, Maccarone

Nocerino

BACCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Maccarone backheel to Saponara who slots it

You can't make this up

Bertolacci casually passing it to their forward

We need a Balo dive in the box imo

What a shit midfielder Bertolacci is

Mexes not on the bench, camera shows him sitting on the stands, hint of things to come?

They are such a well oiled machine, its been one well worked attacked to another for them, while we've been relying on hoofs from our fullbacks.

Kucka on for Nocerino

bonaventura on for suso

You can tell this is gonna end 1-1

LUIZADRIANOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

2-1

Jack has been amazing, looked lethal since coming on

Poli for Bertolt

How on earth did we pay 20M for Bertolacci?

Undeserved win for us. Empoli looked the better side.

Oh, well, three points are three points.

Bertolacci's valuation was based on his performances for Genoa last season, where he was a very different player than how he has been playing for us. We are two weeks into the season right now. It takes time for players to settle in and familiarize themselves with a new system. Hopefully he can find the same form again. If not, then bad transfers happen as well, I wouldn't blame Galliani for that, there's always the chance that a player might nor fit into a system, but it's way too soon to be saying that anyway.


On a brighter note, can we talk about what a fking steal Luiz Adriano was!

Mihajlovic: "We didn't deserve to win. Nothing has changed since last year."
Mihajlovic: "We only won thanks to our two great strikers."

Say it like you see it Sinisa

milan has been buying players not based on pure natural talent with technical attributes or a quality of a midfield but players who have done well against them, and one season wonder.

galliani fails to see why those players are bad, if someone were to score 2 goals against us tomorrow because we have bad defense, galliani probably think that player is good enough to player for us.


and everytime we have to buy from genoa!!

seriously i would have fired galliani by now if it was upto me, no offense galliani shouldnt even be selecting players.

we have no technical director!!! we have been listening to what agents say or what genoa president says!