Juventus – Milan Serie A Week 6

Milan leapt to the top of table after overcoming Conte and Napoli at the San Siro. The soon to be replaced San Siro? More on that below. Allegri’s stamp on Milan had become clear before meeting Napoli. A solid midfield and less goals allowed has been set up with a partially enforced 3-5-2 formation. Pulisic has continued his form through several coaches and has become Serie A’s statistical offensive leader of the past two years. He scored against Napoli to continue the form. The American’s goal had come after he had assisted on an early Saelemaekers goal. The referee added an inevitable asterisk to the game showing the red to Estupinan after awarding a penalty to Napoli. The Ecuadorean had been judged to have denied an obvious goal scoring opportunity and therefore double jeopardy was justified. Leao, back from injury, made a sub appearance and did a fine job of keeping Napoli’s players on their toes when they were looking for an equalizer.

The successful formation may have Allegri keeping it alive. With Leao back the components for a 4-3-3 are available, at least on paper. The coach might stick to the 3-5-2 and even keep the struggling Gimenez on as a starter. Pulisic must of course start. Estupinan’s red means Bartesaghi is a likely starter. The young left back will be part of another tough test for this Milan, this time in Turin. Rabiot, Modric, Fofana and Saelemaekers are likely to keep their places but Loftus-Cheek is lurking in the background. It is indeed somewhat surprising that the Englishmen hasn’t been given more minutes.

Tomori left the Napoli game injured but seems to have recovered from an adductor strain. It remains to be seen if he starts or more cautiously De Winter comes in.

The week also featured an important update on the San Siro issue. Milan city council gave initial approval for the sale of the stadium and surrounding land to both Milan and Inter. Barring successful appeals and other bureaucratic obstacles the teams can go ahead with the new stadium project. Most optimistic projection has the teams sharing the new stadium starting in 2031. The key phrase in the preceding sentence is “most optimistic”.

Juventus feature an in form Dusan Vlahovic. The Serbian was apparently not close to Milan in the summer, despite various reports to the contrary.

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