Projected Lineups

Milan: Donnarumma; Abate, Alex, Romagnoli, Antonelli; Honda, Kucka, Montolivo, Bonaventura; Niang, Bacca

Inter: Handanovic; D'Ambrosio, Miranda, Murillo, Telles; Brozovic, Medel, Kondogbia; Eder, Icardi, Ljajic

The derby will derby will always be a big game for us. Currently we are 6th and Inter is 4th A win here would close the gap between us to five points. I am not expecting a win but am remaining hopeful of it. It will be doable if all the players bring their A game. With the game being a derby, there is a chance of some extra drive from our team.

Prediction: Milan 0-1 Inter (Eder)

1 win in last 9 games

It's true Inter are going through a testing period , but it's also true they have been better than us this season too . They have a much better defense , Handanovic has been exceptional and they seem to get results even when struggling at times . Lately not so much , yet we haven't been that much better either . Hardly better in fact , as Sinisterovic said , that's not saying much. We've managed 13 points in the last 8 Serie A matches , while Inter 11 . Neither team has been on top of their game .

We've seen mixed performances in big matches , yet with the team we have , i can't in my right mind be optimistic about our chances , since i already know how we're going to approach this one . We'll try to play like we did against Fiorentina . Thing is Inter don't really hold the ball as much , so it will be more balanced. I also think Inter will be happy to sit a little deeper too at times and allow us some more time with the ball , hoping to get a few good counters in return.

What's our best characteristic as a team , besides being a nice joke ? We have players that can make the difference in Bacca and Jack. What's theirs , besides being less of a joke than us ? They have very good defenders and Handanovic . So let's roughly say our attack is our strong point and defense theirs , at least going by the entirety of the season so far.Both coaches are well known for the importance to detail when preparing for any game and i know it won't be any less this time . Both teams will know how , where and when to strike . Question is , will our attack prevail or will it be their defense that does it ? Going by the book , it's safe to say it will all mostly cancel itself out and so it may very well depend on which team's weaknesses will show more .

In short , i very much suspect this one to be a game about who will get to pinch more salt over the other's wounds .

I think of all the "big" teams in Serie A, Inter is the one I'm most confident against. They're still better than us, but they're not like Napoli or Juve who could absolutely destroy us on their day. On top of that, as you say M99 it is a derby and because of that I think we will step our game up. Anything could happen, but I'm hoping for a narrow win, expecting a draw or a narrow loss.

Also, anyone else want to see Prince instead of Honda? I know he's not a natural RW but at this point I think anyone would be an improvement.

@Dante

Going by the last few derbies, its gonna be a tight affair with most of the chances from both teams coming from poor defending. Neither one of us is truly good enough to dominate the other, its just Inter are more organized and for the most part have better players.

I agree we're a joke and as for sitting back in good matches, I agree completely, I expect it to be another ugly and depressing match as per usual. But a derby being a derby, anything can happen, and with Jack and Bacca playing like they are and Inter playing like they are, I can get bet on us at least getting one goal.

Look who's back.

Milan squad for Inter: Abbiati, Donnarumma, Livieri; Abate, Alex, Antonelli, Calabria, De Sciglio, Romagnoli, Simic, Zapata; Bertolacci, Bonaventura, José Mauri, Kucka, Montolivo, Poli; Bacca, Balotelli, Boateng, Honda, Menez, Niang

No Nocerino, Luiz Adriano, Diego Lopez, Mexes, Ely.

Like i said days ago , i don't expect Boateng to be ready to start and play out the majority of the derby and Mihajlovic confirmed this today . I agree he can do better than Honda there , but when that's like for 30 minutes , it won't do us much good .

He will get what minutes he gets in the 2nd half , unfortunately we can't expect more than that from Boateng right now .

As for the derby , i know anything can happen , so i give equal chances to both teams , 50-50 . I also have no doubt if we can score one , we will surely score one goal . Thing is i find it hard to expect more than that , so if our defense fails ... i don't know , i am not that optimistic about a win . I hope so , but knowing where we are in pain and how we are going to play , it doesn't leave me optimistic .

Of course it will be ugly and depressing to watch for the most part , the real question here is , will we be able to hold on if we take the lead ? That's one point. And a second , as important as the first , if they score first , what then ? Because if we're going to play the same way when behind , we aren't winning this one , not by a long shot .

See , this simple minded brain dead approach to games like Mihajlovic has us play , it doesn't allow me to hope or expect much . One silly mistake , or a deflection in a corner could ruin everything , so maybe Inter isn't as dangerous as Juventus or Napoli , but knowing us , it may as well be the same thing . Don't think Napoli can destroy us either if we do this against them too , we'll probably lose , but won't be another 0-4.

Our only chance is Bacca and Jack to have a great game. Meaning , even if we concede , they must produce a goal more out of their arses like they usually do , this is literally what i think our best chance of winning . We aren't going to outplay Inter and we aren't going to dominate , so unless Bacca and Jack can make the difference , it will most likely end up in a draw , or defeat .

M99 wrote:Look who's back.

Milan squad for Inter: Abbiati, Donnarumma, Livieri; Abate, Alex, Antonelli, Calabria, De Sciglio, Romagnoli, Simic, Zapata; Bertolacci, Bonaventura, José Mauri, Kucka, Montolivo, Poli; Bacca, Balotelli, Boateng, Honda, Menez, Niang

No Nocerino, Luiz Adriano, Diego Lopez, Mexes, Ely.

Menez

Sinisterovic said he's in worse condition that Boateng and Balotelli , though . Hardly surprising . Maybe he can play from 80 minutes and after , that said i wouldn't get my hopes up even for that .

I kinda missed him , never thought i would say this , but yeah

Menez is so cool searching for his fks all the time , we need that swag back on the pitch

Official lineups:

Milan: Donnarumma; Abate, Alex, Romagnoli, Antonelli; Honda, Montolivo, Kucka, Bonaventura; Niang, Bacca

Inter: Handanovic; Santon, Miranda, Murillo, Juan Jesus; Brozovic, Medel; Perisic, Eder, Ljajic; Jovetic

Great save from Donna.

So far we're playing decently. Almost every team this year has pressed us when we're building from the back, usually to great success. Surprisingly Inter are sitting back though which is helping us tremendously.

Kuckaaa close

GOALLLLLLLLLLLLL

ALEXXXXXXX

HONDA

ALEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

loooooooooooooooooooooooooool

nice goal

Berlusconi LMAO

someone pls make that a gif

dead

Donarumma nearly gave me a heart attack there.

Alex with the Flamini special. Score a big goal when you are due for a new contract

Very happy with that half. It wasn't just the goal and the fact we are winning, it's the overall way we played, we were definitely the better team. Great defending that was organized, disciplined, and nearly flawless. Only two clear cut chances I can think of that Inter had. The best pressing I've seen from us in awhile too, I have to give Miha credit because we looked very well drilled out there. Earlier in the season we were always caught with massive gaps in between the lines but that was very good and we won the ball a few times deep in Inter's half.

On the ball like I said we're being helped by Inter sitting back but we're still playing better than normal. Obviously we're still fairly poor in terms of build up play and keeping possession, but we were good enough to create multiple chances from our own good play, as opposed to mistakes from the opponents.

More than anything though I love the energy and commitment from our players. It's obvious Miha got them fired up for the occasion and every player on the pitch was giving 110% for the shirt. Special mention has to go to Kucka for singe handedly tearing through Inter at times.

Our trademark this season seems to be to collapse in the second half every time we play well in the first, so I am worried about that. But so far so good, I'm impressed with this performance.

Kucka is really good. I'm not sure why he isn't a starter week in and week out.

M99 wrote:Alex with the Flamini special. Score a big goal when you are due for a new contract

Cruijf wrote:Very happy with that half. It wasn't just the goal and the fact we are winning, it's the overall way we played, we were definitely the better team. Great defending that was organized, disciplined, and nearly flawless. Only two clear cut chances I can think of that Inter had. The best pressing I've seen from us in awhile too, I have to give Miha credit because we looked very well drilled out there. Earlier in the season we were always caught with massive gaps in between the lines but that was very good and we won the ball a few times deep in Inter's half.

On the ball like I said we're being helped by Inter sitting back but we're still playing better than normal. Obviously we're still fairly poor in terms of build up play and keeping possession, but we were good enough to create multiple chances from our own good play, as opposed to mistakes from the opponents.

More than anything though I love the energy and commitment from our players. It's obvious Miha got them fired up for the occasion and every player on the pitch was giving 110% for the shirt. Special mention has to go to Kucka for singe handedly tearing through Inter at times.

Our trademark this season seems to be to collapse in the second half every time we play well in the first, so I am worried about that. But so far so good, I'm impressed with this performance.

Very good post m8 , i agree with everything except maybe half agree , or half disagree ? , about Inter helping us by sitting back .

This was expected by Inter , they don't often press high and all that . In fact they barely do , they are more conservative and prefer to soak up pressure and attacks in their own terms , which has worked for them.

That may allow us more space and time and comfort to get out of our own half and attack , which is great , but it can also play in their hands by allowing them to counter more often . And tbh i can see why Mancini would do so , thankfully for us our defensive display , intensity and pace of our game put a real halt to all that , hence why we looked so good in the first half. Also because of the lines keeping it together , even when we lose the ball , we reacted very well .

I personally expected that , what i didn't expect was the clutch defensive display and the intensity to last so long . I am impressed and yes , we've been better in the 1st half.

Hopefully we don't suck in the 2nd like the usual , let's hope the derby will be enough motive to keep this going .

This ref is truly awful, we should've had 2 or 3 free kicks in good positions by now

Ffs Donna's gonna give me a heart attack

I can't blame him too much, he is a 16 year old starting in a derby after all, but it still scares the life out of me.

Dante on the pressing point, I know what you mean and I can see Mancini's thinking, its just considering how bad we are on the ball you just know they'd make life very difficult for us if they pressed. You don't even have to be particularly disciplined to press us, that's why almost everyone this season has done it to us

FFS Bacca and Kucka...

This ref should be fired, wtf is this?