Yunus Musah is the man that Stefano Pioli has chosen to potentially provide a tactical surprise for the second leg of the Europa League quarter-finals against Roma tonight, a report claims.
La Gazzetta dello Sport writes how Pioli started Musah in all the Champions League away games and in the two Europa League away games against Rennes and Slavia Praha, and he will repeat the move this evening.
Musah will play in the middle of the field alongside Tijjani Reijnders or Ismael Bennacer, with the Dutchman currently the favourite to partner him in the midfield double pivot at present.
The third man in midfield will be Ruben Loftus-Cheek, an atypical attacking midfielder throughout 2024 so far and a player who needs to respond after a couple of less successful outings.
Milan thus change starters and, in part, their shape. Musah brings aggression and resourcefulness, with his accelerations on the ball, even at the risk of lowering the technical ability in the middle of the pitch.
Essentially, it seems as though Pioli has opted for a more dynamic presence in front of the defence, one capable of causing problems with his ball progression through dribbling, with Reijnders the man who can pick the lock with his passing.
And who’s going to dictate the tempo? Gabbia and Tomori? It’s going to be another disastrous SOS formation with this Forrest Gump running lenghts.
I think in the first leg we even saw 4-0-6 at times.
Musah plays box to box. The Adli-Bennacer pairing get caught out of position time after time. Like Gump, Musah loves to run past people.
Bennacer form has been bad since returning from injury and he’s not the same player who Pioli should be relying on.
He has done nothing to warrant him starting ahead of any of our midfielders. Not sure why Pioli seems to think that he should play.
If Bennacer starts the Milan will lose the midfield and probably lose the match.
It should be Reinjders and Adli in the midfield.
Yet Thiaw gets a pass right? Two faced fans.
Musah is the key because he drives with the ball,it will open the spaces.roma are going to be defensive
Only way we control the game in midfield is if we play Adli in there. he can dictate the tempo and see spaces – We saw this when he came on in the first leg. I trust him much more than Musah or Bennacer
Adli together with Reindjers is back business. Two players who like taking many touches. Reindjers is notorious with delaying progression of the ball because he always want to take too many touches
As for me I DONT see Loftus as a 10. Play pulisic as 10 and chukwueze as right wing, Easy!
Musah is physical but his final passes have been inconsistent. I’m guessing Reijnders is going to dictate the pace and drive the ball forward while Musah cleans up.
But I would have really wanted to see RLC dropping deeper, next to the Flying Dutchman and have Puli play the 10.
Guess Pioli is so confident in this he’ll hang his job on it 🙂
Great idea