A shake-up in goal at Monza: Demba Thiam loses his starting spot
On Friday night at the Brianteo, Monza will host a Sassuolo team riding a wave of enthusiasm following its dramatic victory over Juventus. Monza, on the other hand, is still searching for its first win of the season: in their first four matches, they’ve managed only one draw—away at Parma—and suffered three losses. The Biancorossi fans are hoping that the match against the team from Emilia will finally mark a turning point.
To try to achieve this goal, Monza’s head coach, Ivan Juric, will make some adjustments compared to the recent away match in Lecce, which ended in a loss due primarily to avoidable errors in the back line. One major change against Alberto Aquilani’s team—who returns to Monza after narrowly missing promotion with Catanzaro in late May—is that Demba Thiam will give way between the posts to Noel Tornqvist, who arrived on loan from Como at the very last minute of the transfer window.
There’s a backstory to Tornqvist’s move to Monza. The Swedish goalkeeper had pushed for his transfer from Como in the final hours of the transfer window, sparking a harsh public reaction from Cesc Fabregas: “For eight months, I’d seen an incredible person, and in two days, I saw someone else. It was a bad situation, and I’ll say it publicly: he really pushed for his departure, and I didn’t like that.” Como then replaced the 24-year-old with Robert Sanchez, who arrived from Chelsea after the London club had signed Emiliano Martínez.
Juric, for his part, does not seem to fear for his job despite the difficult start to the season. The Croatian coach stated with conviction: “Anything can happen in soccer, but so far our work has been excellent: we’re further along, in terms of our level, than I would have thought at the start of the season.” These words sound like a sign of mutual trust with the club, in a Serie A landscape where managers are being fired with increasing frequency.
Sassuolo, set to take the field at the Brianteo, arrives with morale sky-high. The team from Emilia defeated Juventus 3-2 in a wild match in Reggio Emilia, with Adzic scoring the decisive goal in the 94th minute to nullify Zhegrova’s two-goal performance. This victory confirms the success of Alberto Aquilani’s project; he had already led the team to a 2-2 draw in Bologna the previous matchday, when Dovbyk scored in the 91st minute to deny the Neroverdi a victory they had already tasted. In short, for Monza, there will be no tougher opponent against whom to test their newfound determination.
