UC Sampdoria - AC Milan | Serie A Matchday 25 | Feb, 23rd 2014

Competition: Serie A
Venue: Stadio Comunale Luigi Ferraris (Genova)
Kick off: 15:00 CET
Referee: Daniele Doveri

Recent Form:
Sampdoria: LWWDL
Milan: LWLDW

League Positions:
Sampdoria (12)
Milan (9)

Called up players:Amelia, Gabriel, Abate, Constant, Mexes, Bonera, Rami, Zaccardo, Urby, Zapata, Essien, De Jong, Honda, Kaka, Montolivo, Muntari, Poli, Saponara, Taarabt, Pazzini, Petagna

Milan Notes: Robinho, El Shaarawy, Cristante, and Birsa are still out Balotelli and De Sciglio picked up some minor knocks. Abbiati is suffering from the flu.

Sampdoria Notes: Gastadello and De Silvestri are suspended for Sampdoria-Milan. Maxi Lopez and Gianluca Sansone are still out.

Expected lineup:

Prediction: Sampdoria 0-2 Milan

I'd really like to see Petagna see the field at some point as a reward for his excellent performance in the Viareggio Tournament final.

Sampdoria have been almost as inconsistent as we have this year, however on their day they have the firepower to trouble us and Mihajlović is a very solid tactician. I'm expecting Honda to benefit from the inclusion of Pazzini from the very beginning however it remains evident that more is needed to enable Keisuke to thrive and ideally we will be able to see him shifted into his natural position in the centre during the second half.

Whilst fitness is an important issue for the entire team it is particularly important that Poli is once more given time from the beginning to further improve his match conditioning and give him such continuity in the side which his performances have warranted. I believe that this is a good game in which to give time to Poli in the pivot, against players he is familiar with in a low stakes game against manageable opposition. Having seen what Poli can do in a very flexible midfield position against Atletico it is important that Seedorf also begin to assess Poli's current ability in a more disciplined role so that he can determine how he wants him to develop and grow.

I would like to see Kaka rested for this match and Honda to start at CAM.

Clarence Seedorf is glad old Sampdoria teammate Sinisa Mihajlovic is back as Coach and stood up for Milan’s ‘bad boy’ Mario Balotelli.

“It was my first experience outside of Holland and I am grateful for the year I spent in Genoa,” said Seedorf of his 1995-96 campaign at Marassi.

“I am happy that now Sinisa is back helping this club as a Coach. Samp are a courageous side who start their attacking moves from the back. They have dangerous forwards and others who can push up between the lines. We must have the right focus on their home turf.”

The Rossoneri are fresh from a 1-0 Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid, although they hit the woodwork twice.

“It is only the first leg result and that’s the way we want to look at it. We’ll hold on to the performance when preparing for another important test against a team in good shape tomorrow.

“Our motivation is to improve with every game. We are helping each other out more on the field, finding the right spirit and I’d like us to continue along that path.

“We were a bit unlucky with the goal we conceded against Atletico and could do with being a bit more careful on set plays. Considering the level of the game we were playing on Wednesday, everyone could see the positive things we did. We now hope that the team can show that with more consistency.

“The performance against Atletico gave us great confidence. We know that we’re not out of the woods yet, which makes us aware we must continue to grow and remain concentrated.”

Keisuke Honda was cup-tied and will therefore start tomorrow against Sampdoria, but Mario Balotelli and Mattia De Sciglio are out after picking up injuries.

“You can raise your voices on the foul that De Sciglio was subjected to. There’s no need for me to do it,” shrugged Seedorf when asked if that should’ve been a red card for Emiliano Insua.

France Football claimed Balotelli was in the top 10 of their all-time list of football bad boys, but his Coach is confused.

“I still have to understand where this ‘bad’ is in Balotelli. It’s a shame that such an important paper should write things like this. Mario is a sweet kid and very likeable. He might make the odd mistake, like any other player, but since I’ve been here he has worked with a professional and determined attitude. I’m happy with him.

“Adel Taarabt is a player with great talent and his margin for improvement is enormous. He is only now finding consistency and I hope he can continue working this hard. All the reports we had from those who played with him said he had pure talent, but hadn’t yet been given faith by a club. He’s a diamond in the rough.

“Andrea Poli is an important player. I don’t know if he’ll play tomorrow, as he used up a lot of energy on Wednesday and I have to evaluate the future games too.”

Source: http://www.football-italia.net/45560/seedorf-milan-confident-marassi

Abbiati is suffering from a flu, so Amelia will start tomorrow.

Going to keep this avatar for 1 more day and see how our luck paves out

El Shaarawy wrote:Going to keep this avatar for 1 more day and see how our luck paves out

Luck level: Amelia

"Bonera won't play today as he has influenza. Mexes will most likely replace him in the central defence."

Never thought i'd want Bonera to start for us lol

UPDATE: "Sky reports that Zaccardo is the favorite to replace Bonera in the central defence"

We'll just have to see

Zaccardo was preferred to Mexes before

I feel quite sorry for Mexes, despite his poor form this season. He's a defender who relies a lot on confidence and needs time to play himself into form, time that he hasn't had this year due to persistent injury woes. It is no coincidence that Mexes' best period of form for us came last year when he had his first uninterrupted run in the team which allowed him to put aside the rust of a bad knee injury. In such indifferent form he's hardly a better option than the likes of Bonera, however when playing with confidence his leadership ability and toughness gives another dimension to our backline that we lack with the likes of Zaccardo. It may well be Mexes' time to leave us in the summer, however I hope he is able to put his knee issues behind him so he can at least enjoy regain his confidence as a player. He'll never be a world beater but he's a lot better than he's been able to show this season. Even in his prime, Zaccardo was the very definition of average.

Yeah, I think being benched for Zaccardo is harsh. Mexes is definitely low on confidence, that's obvious. The question is whether Seedorf wants to risk going through that rough patch of confidence-building.

OFFICIAL line-up vs. Sampdoria (4-2-3-1):
Amelia; Abate, Rami, Zaccardo, Constant; Montolivo, Muntari; Honda, Saponara, Taarabt; Pazzini.

Casciavit wrote:OFFICIAL line-up vs. Sampdoria (4-2-3-1):
Amelia; Abate, Rami, Zaccardo, Constant; Montolivo, Muntari; Honda, Saponara, Taarabt; Pazzini.

Very interesting.

1. I hope MDS & Balo's injuries aren't that bad.

2. Muntari over De Jong - Is Seedorf smoking something or just giving NDJ a rest?

3. Who starts as TQ - Saponara or Honda? My bet is on Sapo.

Honda RW ffs

Good first half from us overall, one of our best performances this season. Pazzini has been great, Taraabt and Montilivo have also been really good. A bit disappointed with Saponara and Honda though, they need to get more involved in the second half.

Looks like an easy win in any case though, and an encouraging overall performance from us.

Good performance from us. Taarabt

I hope to see this once El Shaarawy comes back;

------------------Balo---------------

-----SES--------Honda--------Taarabt--

Good win for us. BTW, is there a reason why Seedorf doesn't play Honda as a CAM? He had a decent performance today, but he's isolated and predictable as a winger. He isn't very fast nor strong either.

However, I thought Honda did well today. Especially in the first half where he linked up well with the rest of the team.

Saponara didn't look all that great today, average performance.

I'm really interested how Seedorf will set up the team vs Juve, he should've used today to evaluate Honda at AM imo.

Well, can't put honey back in the comb. Good win today, onwards to Juve.

Casciavit wrote:Good win for us. BTW, is there a reason why Seedorf doesn't play Honda as a CAM? He had a decent performance today, but he's isolated and predictable as a winger. He isn't very fast nor strong either.

However, I thought Honda did well today. Especially in the first half where he linked up well with the rest of the team.

Saponara didn't look all that great today, average performance.

i agree i fully admit now that regardless of honda playing at RW or free role for japan, he should play as AM for Milan. or basically a free role forward who is a forward who has freedom to roam anywhere. its evident that he is so good in spreading passes.

i am not surprised by the pace. he was never ever a pacy player from before. but he is a damn good playmaker and in order to exploit his full talent, he needs to play anywhere in forward role but in RW position. i think he will be alright he needs time.


with saponara, he also needs game. i thought he was ok. he also had a chance to score. he just started playing so , i hope he can get games while kaka rests. or even at some point, when players like taarabt gets enough games we need to protect our key players. so having a backup like saponara is a good thing.

better yet, i think saponara has talent to play in midfield too, so i hope seedorf can be able to slot him some playing time.