If the inclusion of Yunus Musah was the surprise move in the second leg against Roma, tonight against Inter it is the possible role of him and Rafael Leao that is raising eyebrows.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Pioli is oriented towards fielding a different Milan tonight. Leao will be at the centre of things quite literally, because he should start as the centre-forward over Oliver Giroud, the man who scored the brace in the 2022 Scudetto derby.
Pioli’s match plan will revolve around different concepts from the usual ones: it will be a Milan that will look less for possession and high aggression, to try to hit Inter on the counter. Leao will move at the centre of the attack with this very task: look for space in behind and try to surprise the opponents with speed.
Behind him there will be Ruben Loftus-Cheek, in the attacking midfield position, Christian Pulisic, moved to the left, and Musah, a right winger whose duties will most likely also support the pair of midfielders in front of the defence, formed by Yacine Adli and Tijjani Reijnders.
During the five derby defeats in 2023 there was the accusation that Inter’s three central defenders – which almost always had Francesco Acerbi as the middle – found it too easy to deal with a rather static Giroud, and thus Pioli is trying a new roll of the dice.
With the match underway, he will be able to draw from a bench full of attackers such as Luka Jovic and Noah Okafor but also Samuel Chukwueze and Giroud. The Nigerian is among the most in-form players in the Rossoneri squad but, barring any last-minute surprises, he will start his second derby on the bench.
Square block. Round holes
to sit back and counter? That’s about the only way to play this Inter.
We can’t defend for shi* tho. So idk.
At least star Chuks on the right with this crazy formation not Musa.
musah can presumably defend better than CHuk (on paper anyway)
At least start Chuks on the right with this crazy formation not Musa.
Please, let Musah and Giroud rest. Okafor can take Giroud’s place. Don’t make us get tired of the game from the start. I have gotten over the Roma loss. A draw or win today will do our morale a lot of good. The fans have endured a lot.
This sounds pretty awful. Leao isn’t meant to play as a striker. He will be totally blocked. What is Pioli thinking?
If this is the case then we will definately have to not play our usual roll around at the back slow game but instead give the bal to Inter and lay low. Will be a hard game. But I guess Pioli has learnt that we can’t play our usual game against Inter because then they punish us on the counters.
Let’s see if this is genious or not
We will understand more during the game but maybe Leao and Pulisic will keep switching positions. So when we are defending puli goes to the left and when we are attacking puli moves to the middle and RLC moves a bit further ahead. But agree Leao is terrible as a striker.
I’m so tired of seeing Giroud do nothing and have dreading this derby.
At least this change excites me again to think that anything can happen.
As much as I’d love to see Chuk out there, I assume Pioli wants a more defensive minded player on the wing.
Plenty of fire power off the bench when required.
Is this Pioli’s equivalent of leaving an an unflushed poo in the toilet on your last day at work? 😀
That made me chuckle! Thanks
Musah play high to pushing Hakan deeper and creating space for RLC & Tijjani. But his defend attribute is not like Kessie. Despite put Leao in Penalty box, why not Okafor. He is a used for that role. Leao best place is at wing.
Musah Right Winger, Maignan AM, Tijjani on GK, Giroud CB… What will happen if everyone plays in their freaking position?
Chuk Norris is in fact in his best form since he joined to us. Why not to play him in his natural position?
The only good thing is this formation is grandpa Giroud is on bench so that we play with 11 vs 11 finally.
Defend and counter. Then bring on Okafor and Chuk to run at tired legs. The only way any of this makes any dense sense.
The main problem all season is that we have no defensive midfielder at all. This can be countered by a winger playing further back. So maybe we will be denser in the midfield.
Pioli adapting his tactics and not just trying to go central and dominate possession high up against a 352?
Things really are dire for him huh
This aside I think this line-up could work to nullify inter a bit.
Because he gets 5 ‘midfielders’ in defensive phase of game play or 451 , also gets fast striker for counterattacks and gets pulisic on his best position LW ,its all about more defensive concept of play but if i lost that many times vs inter as pioli did, i understand him and i would be scared too
I love the changes in positions, guys don’t forget Leo played as a striker with 4-4-2 at Lille. Leo is task for new challenges and let’s see if he will be able to pass the challenges.
Pioli must be REALLY desperate as he has never before tried anything remotely new and exciting. But I guess he just wants to lose in a completely new way.
Fire this bald fck already.
Maybe he’ll pull an ElSha and is used to mark the counter on the left side when Theo and Leao attacks 🤷♂️
The changes he needs to make are Reijnders back on next to Bennacer, Okafor at ST, Pulisic in for RLC as AM and Chuk on the right. But, let’s just move everyone around a bit before a big game. New roles, new positions. What could go wrong? Milan 0 – 3 Inter, Pioli sacked on Tuesday.
I’d fill that lineup but Seems he’s given up on Okafor for some unknown reason
Fingers crossed
It has been confirmed now that Mr. Pioli is not a master planner and clueless as sitting duck, he must fired today or else the top 4 is at risk if the above intel is true as the manager has loss his cool and becomes eccentrically erratic and will gamble his way to victory to make a case for next season which is obviously beyond redemption now.
PS Mr. Pioli pack your bags and luggages after this and see never but wishing you the best.
Glad to see Giroud sitting but you don’t stick to tactics and players just because you are winning some games when it was already known that some other things could work even better, or precisely you won’t win certain matches with those tactics, but then suddenly change after one real test. Team haven’t played close to its true potential even during the good runs. This sudden willingness to change only reminds me of the other derby were he ran to fill in a 532 with Leao as striker and we did do any better. Why not be trying some of these changes earlier and slowly to allow the team to get some grip? No changes are meant only when you’re under pressure -Pioli! Perhaps it’s good to change something going into this match but when a coach has a true identity they don’t make such unusual rapid moves. I don’t like the idea of having Leao up top and Musah on the wing but it’s looking like he’s planning on moving the team faster. I hope we don’t go too defensive tho.
On paper, I like the formation.
I think this might be more stable for the team at the risk that our attacking suffers (Leao finishing is hit or miss… maybe he’ll revert every now and then with Pulisic? ). I think we played a version of this where Leao and Pulisic changed places… Leao was central and Pulisic was on the left (iirc Lecce after the second goal?)…
Overall, it makes sense, Acerbi is very good in headers, and even Giroud would have a hard time getting to the end of a high ball. On the other hand, Acerbi is more vulnerable when there’s space behind him and he has to run back.
Also having Musah as winger, is like having a version of Saele, I guess his role would be to harass Inter players and cover for when a Milan player is out of position.
We won’t be able to send high balls and hope that Giroud can win the header and pass it to a teammate, so definitely different build-up.
When it comes to defending, both Musah and RLC can drop deeper to provide more cover for the 5 man Inter midfield.