AC Milan vs. Palermo: Key Issues and Decisions That Will Shape Serie A Match

For the 10th time this season, Silvio Berlusconi made the trip to Milanello. There, he eats lunch with the staff, visits the players and takes pictures and smiles for the camera. Coach Pippo Inzaghi probably takes a few instructions for the game ahead, too.

Berlusconi could demand to see Fernando Torres from the start against Palermo on Sunday. But then, there is also Giampaolo Pazzini and Jeremy Menez who could lead the line, and it is probably Pazzini who deserves a chance to start his first game since May.

Torres is struggling with an ankle problem, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t Football Italia), and Menez has cooled off. The choice seems simple.

Except Berlusconi is always involved, and Torres is the star attraction—the one the president wants to see on the pitch. But he is not performing well enough.

This is the first real test for Inzaghi, and he has to manage his strikers with care. He has already managed to bring together a once-fractured group of players, but comments from Pazzini’s wife suggest that life under Inzaghi is not so calm and unanimous.

Still, Milan are third, where they want to be, even if they are a little fortunate to be there at all. They have dropped points in their past two games, but their rivals (Sampdoria and Udinese) did the same this week, allowing the Rossoneri to creep up the table.

“We need to improve,” Inzaghi told Sky Sport Italia on Wednesday (h/t Football Italia), “but it also has to be said that in the summer nobody thought we’d be in third place at this stage of the season.”

Palermo also come to San Siro with the knowledge that they can take even more points off Milan. The Sicilians have won four and tied two of their past 10 encounters with Milan.

And there will be goals.

A clean sheet is a rarity for Milan. That is not really Christian Abbiati's fault. He is making good saves, which is why he is in net and not Diego Lopez. In defence, there are just massive holes. Inzaghi has used six different centre-back pairings to start Serie A matches, and there could well be more variations. 

This game will be the third in eight days, the first true stretch of action for a club confined to domestic competition. Inzaghi has already rotated the squad plenty, and the midfield will need a change, too.

Sulley Muntari is suspended, and Giacomo Bonaventura could miss the game with a reported head injury, per AC Milan News. Andrea Poli, a ball of energy, and Michael Essien, not so energetic anymore, are the most likely replacements, even if a young player like Marco van Ginkel is fit and ready to go after suffering a minor ankle injury.

Milan desperately need some creativity from their midfielders, and they cannot continue to rely solely on Nigel de Jong. He has done everything for Milan: scoring goals, recovering balls, cleaning up mess after mess. He is overrun sometimes, and Van Ginkel could help with the load.

And maybe with a little more service, the strikers will start to score. Torres is the only striker to claim a goal so far for Milan, and even then, that is just one of Milan’s 18 strikes this season. 

Scoring isn’t really a problem, but there is a lack of balance here. Count Stephan El Shaarawy among the disappointments. He needs to get his first Serie A goal since February 2013. In between that time, Mario Balotelli has come and left.

El Shaarawy recently turned 22, and he has shown bursts of brilliance but without any consistency. He needs something to pick him up and not just a few words with Berlusconi.