The Rossoneri will sleep at Milanello on Saturday, while the Nerazzurri will be free to return home, then return to Appiano on Sunday morning. And Chivu has given the team a rest 72 hours before the derby.

The two worlds are close – Milanello and Appiano are separated by just 20 kilometers – but they belong to different galaxies. Yes, of course, Milan and Inter are planning a new stadium together, but otherwise they are traveling on different paths. In their transfer market choices, in the Italian quota in the squad (and especially on the field), in the overall management of their respective ownerships. Even their playing systems are profoundly different, despite both theoretically using a 3-5-2 formation. So it’s no surprise that there are also substantial differences in their approach to the derby. That’s because Milan and Inter’s week, or rather the training program drawn up by Allegri and Chivu, was decidedly different. And the fact that Inter were involved in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final last Tuesday is only part of the explanation.

Let’s start with the Nerazzurri because they are the extraordinary ones. Note: extraordinary in the strictest sense of the word, i.e., out of the ordinary. Why? Simple: Chivu gave the team Thursday off, three days before the derby. Of course, with the Coppa Italia on Tuesday evening, there wasn’t much choice, but giving the team time off 72 hours before such a delicate match has a certain effect. Not so much because the players will go wild in some kind of bacchanal (Leao’s “everyone home this week” is a message that we imagine they will put into practice in Appiano as well, not just in Milanello), but because of the tactical preparation for the match. In other words, the Nerazzurri will only have two “real” training sessions in preparation for the derby: one on Friday and one on Saturday. Strange? Only to a certain extent, considering Chivu’s management throughout the season. What stood out in particular was the day off granted by the coach on the eve of the home match against Lecce in mid-January. Players resting the day before a league match: as far as we can remember, a decision without precedent. Chivu had decided to give his players a few hours off because he had seen that they were a little mentally tired, also because Lecce were playing on Wednesday and the Nerazzurri had faced Napoli on Sunday evening. And it was against the Campania side that the coach had made another unusual decision: before the first leg at the Maradona, scheduled for Saturday, the day off was Thursday. This was also an unusual choice, on the eve of such a delicate match, with the aim of restoring his players’ physical resources.

Football of the past—  Then there is the issue of training camps. Quite simply, they do not exist at Inter. This season, there has only been one, at the beginning of December, before the home game against Como. On other occasions (excluding away games, of course, which start the day before), the players have always been able to sleep at home and then report to Appiano on the morning of the game. The team is obviously very happy with this arrangement, and so is Chivu: he firmly believes that pre-match retreats belong to the football of the past, that they are basically wasted time, taken away from the players’ loved ones and interests. So, once again, the team will be given Saturday off after training and will return to Appiano on Sunday morning for the final training session and preparation for the derby.

tradition max—  Milan is much more consistent in this regard. Let’s say that Allegri is a traditionalist. Even when the team plays at home, the players sleep at Milanello the night before. This will also be the case this time, as is customary. On Saturday, the eve of the match, the team will train in the afternoon and then stay in Carnago, ready for the final warm-up on Sunday morning. During the week, as always happens when there are no commitments, Allegri also held a double session (on Wednesday), divided between the gym in the morning and the field in the afternoon. More generally, Allegri considers Milanello one of the greatest bonding agents for a group coming off a season where, among other problems, a sense of belonging had been lost. Max has therefore (re)placed Milanello at the center of the Rossoneri world. It is a second home to be enjoyed to the fullest, with clear and rather strict rules, all based on team spirit and the collegial sharing of spaces. Allegri’s only “oddity” this season occurred in the long run-up to the match against Bologna on February 3, when the two days off granted by Max were not consecutive but separate: one on Monday and the other on Friday.