News The Match

Official: AC Milan vs. Lecce starting XIs – Rossoneri go all-out attack

By Isak Möller -

AC Milan will face Lecce at 15:00 CEST this afternoon and Stefano Pioli has decided to make four changes to the starting XI. Samuel Chukwueze and Christian Pulisic are both playing from start, with the manager going all-out attack. 

The likes of Malick Thiaw and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are unavailable for the game, while Ismael Bennacer has just recovered from the flu, and this has prompted the changes. It will certainly be an attacking-minded Milan side, so it remains to be seen how they will find the balance.

Christian Pulisic starts in the No.10 role for the first time with Milan, allowing Samuel Chukwueze to keep his spot on the right after the positive form as of late. Theo Hernandez is also back from his suspension, which is a huge boost for the Rossoneri.

Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Gabbia, Tomori, Hernandez; Adli, Reijnders; Chukwueze, Pulisic, Leao; Giroud.

Bench: Nava, Sportiello; Bartesaghi, Florenzi, Kjær, Simić, Terracciano; Bennacer, Musah, Zeroli; Jović, Okafor.

Official Lecce XI (4-2-3-1): Falcone; Venuti, Pongračić, Baschirotto, Gallo; Blin, Ramadani; Banda, González, Dorgu; Krstović.

Bench: Brancolini, Samooja; Gendrey, Touba; Berisha, Oudin, Rafia; Almqvist, Piccoli, Pierotti, Sansone.

After winning their last six games, Milan will be looking to make it seven today and you can also check out the pre-match stats for the clash.

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Tags AC Milan Lecce Stefano Pioli

77 Comments

  1. I’m sorry but you wrote Thiaw-Tomori when the picture showed Gabbia-Tomori

    Hope we win this match. Forza Milan.

  3. Very exciting lineup!
    Perhaps we could even see Okafor come on for Giroud and see the 4 together.

    I am a little surprised we don’t have Musah playing instead of Bennacer, to add that bit of physicality in midfield.

    We have a good opportunity to try new things before the transfer market opens. 2nd place is pretty stable

      1. I know. Bennacer had flu, I thought Musah would be a good replacement. Though Adli and Reijnders have done ok together

        1. I don’t think it’s exaggerated. Calabria is irregular. Some great games but some very weak ones with defensive failures, leaving too much space behind him and losing 1 on 1s.

          2. You played too much video games and acting as if great defenders like Cafu, Maldini, or Nesta never lost 1 on 1 and left space behind them at some games. SMH 🤦‍♂️

      1. Ofcourse the opposition should be taken into the equation but we look so much more dynamic with this trident behind giroud. Already said it in july when we had bought em but glad its panning out well today and hopefully it wont be the last time we see this trident.

        1. I love it!
          They don’t know who to track, danger everywhere.
          Add Okafor instead of Giroud and we’d have the kind of pace and skill in attack to terrify good teams

          1. It was definitely great to behold and even though i see okafor more as a left wing i can see what you mean there as he is also a speedy fella.

    3. So far is working but if we played Puli and Chuk from the start then we wouldn’t have RW subs when they tired in the second half.

      1. I was also just kidding a bit ForzaMilan but i agree that we will have to make some changes later on so we doesnt overwork them.

  9. Chuk has been consistently good last 3 games. Puli, great goal, now officially with his best season ever, after this 13th goal (plus 8 assists). And then he almost scored again!

    1. Its great to see Chucky play with confidence.
      He still always comes inside on his left foot. Its very predictable for good defenders

      1. True, that’s the biggest concern regarding Chuk. But he’s been having busts of speed, good dribbling, and good crosses and passes, lately. This would compensate for his attempts to score himself which generally fail, like you said because he always tries to turn left and go center to shot and defenders adapt to that. But when he focuses on assisting his companions, he is good. Chuk often places them in scoring position, when he is playing well like he’s been doing for a few games. I thought he would be a bust, but thankfully, apparently not. He just took a long time to gel.

    1. Yes, our defense has been shaky. Reijnders/Adli is not a good defensive midfield. That increases the pressure on the defense. So what we need to do is outscore Lecce; so far we’re doing it, but with two big defensive scares already; this game could perfectly be 2-2. Of course the concern is what happens against Roma and Inter. We are the opposite of some past seasons: great offense, shaky defense when we used to be solid in defense (when Kessie was with us) and have creative difficulties in offense.

    2. Lecce isn’t completely a bad team. They draw 0-0 with Roma and beat Fio 3-2. So of course they will have some chances against us.

    1. maybe a bit harsh direct red card but hadnt the player also gotten a yellow card previously so the result should be the same that he at least would have gotten his second yellow card ?

  14. 2-0 and a man up at the break. Game over I hope. Time to give significant second half time to bench players.

    1. I’d wait for a third goal before pulling out our starters. See, we almost conceded twice in first half; that early shot with Mike beaten that went just slightly right, and that crossbar hit. We often lose intensity in second half so let’s not get too careless because of the 2-0 lead and a man up; if they score one, the game could get iffy. But yes, if we get a third early in second half, let’s yank out everybody and go with the bench; we have Roma coming up in the Europa League.

      I don’t want any risk of Inter winning the Scudetto against us, in front of our crowd in the upcoming derby. We must keep winning in the league so that they don’t have the mathematical possibility of celebrating their Scudetto in a derby for which we are the home crowd. That would be humiliating and intolerable.

  15. Second half subs: Okafor for Leao, Jovic for Giroud, Musah for Reijnders, Zeroli for Pulisic, Terraciano for Calabria.

    1. even though it isnt a s simple as we also need some backups if needed i nevertheless like those suggestions of yours and i for for one would start the second half with jovic so he gets some more minutes. If we can keep the lead or expand it in the next 10-15 minutes i would also give terraciano some minutes.

      1. Yeah I’m not suggesting they all come on at the half or even the same time, but if you wanted to keep one in the pocket then cancel Terraciano for Calabria.

  16. Why does Adli always slow down the game so much? Receive the ball, look around and pass. No need to make 5 touches and kill an action

    1. I do like him but every time people mentions him as a new zidane i wonder what they are talking about. He has some good vision and passing but he lacks the same elegance, speed and movement as i see it, quite frankly he often seems quite sluggish to me and he is also far less fierce.

      1. Indeed he is not a new Zidane. And when I mentioned Pirlo and Jorginho I wasn’t implying that he is a new Pirlo or a new Jorginho; I was just saying that sometimes being slow in the midfield is not really a problem if then you pass well and organize the game well. I think he can be decent and have accurate passing. I think he is not good at defending (we need a real defensive midfielder like Kessie whom we have never adequately replaced). But yes, Adli sometimes is great and has great games. Sometimes he doesn’t. I do agree that the fanbase tends to overrate him. He is a useful bench player, in my opinion, but of all our midfielders, he is one of the weakest, overall. That is not to say he is bad. That is to say that people like RL-C, Reijnders, Bennacer before his injury (he will take a while to go back to his top form), and potentially Musah after some more growing, are all, in my opinion, better players than Adli (or in the case of Musah, have the potential to be). But I don’t mind having Adli in our team, currently. He can have really good games at times, like today with two assists and generally doing well.

        1. Its ok and i also pretty much agree with all of your points here but nevertheless wouldnt mind keeping him.

      2. Yeah. But we mustn’t say these things. Criticism is reserved for calabria and pobega. If Ac Milan fans says Adli is the new Zidane.Adli is the new Zidane

        1. sorry flyingturtle i initially missed your comment. Yeah theres always the usual suspects who are allowed to be bashed like calabria and pobega but even though i like adli there is still a lot of room for improvements. Im old enough to seeing zidane in action and adli is certainly not on his level and probably never will be. Adli does some great passing and has vision but zidane was rather gracious in his movement going forward and at the same time also was somewhat a demolition machine, i simply doesnt think that adli has that in him. Still a pretty good player though.

    2. Haha, you mean the guy who has just provided two great assists? Are you watching the same game we are watching?

      Did you use to blame Pirlo for being slow? Or Jorginho?

      1. The assists happened when lecce def was wide open..he’s good at that, sure. I’m talking about when the def is set, but obviously you people never bother to see that as something that can be approved upon. All that matters is the assist that happened, right?

        And dont bring up players like he is on their lvl..he isn’t.

        2. I wasn’t really implying that he is at Pirlo’s or Jorginho’s level, of course he isn’t. I was just saying, sometimes a slow midfielder can still be highly efficient.

          Now, I do disagree about the assists. If you haven’t noticed, goals are what win games. Any player who maybe suck the whole game but provides two assists or scores twice, has done his part and has highly contributed to the overall result. When a player does that, and does it twice, it is unfair to criticize him.

          Today, in addition to providing two assists, Adli hasn’t sucked. He is having a good game, so your criticism was unwarranted.

          Look, I’m not one of the rabid Adli fans who tend to overrate him. But I will acknowledge him when he has a good game, especially in a game when he had two goal contributions. Criticize him all you want in other game, but not when he helped create two of our three goals.

          1. I never said he sucked, didn’t really criticise him. I just made an observation. He can play fast if he wants to. I wonder why he doesn’t do it more often

    1. I think so too and was waiting for the 3rd goal to get cancelled and a penalty rewarded to lecce instead.

  19. @ForzaMilan : I thoroughly hate videogames. I have never, EVER, EVER played soccer videogames and find them to be a complete waste of my precious time. I enjoy live, real soccer, not an algorithm from a processing chip. I have hobbies that are much more interesting and compelling than playing stupid videogames. Don’t make assumptions about me without knowing me. I have decades of experience as a soccer fan. I’m not a teenager.

    Yes, it is a FACT that Calabria is irregular as a defender, regardless of other great defenders having had their failures, too. The fact that other people can display the same defects, doesn’t magically cancel Calabria’s defects. That argument you made, sorry, is completely STUPID.

    Say, someone commits murder. You then say “he is NOT a murder because such and such has also committed murder.” Haha, how stupid.

    I understand the love for the Captain, our longest serving player, Italian, and a boyhood milanista. I love him too. This doesn’t make me blind to the fact that YES, he INDEED IS irregular as a defensive player.

    He is perfectly capable of great games, but also capable of screwing up badly.

    I think Calabria is a decent RB but with a ceiling. He is most definitely not world class (not that you are saying that he is) like what we have as LB. I would like for Milan to have a RB as good as Theo is as LB, regardless of the good feelings about our milanista, Italian captain. We have nobody as good as Theo for the right, which makes our defense a bit unbalanced. As a matter of fact, when he is not injured, I think Florenzi as old and as injury-prone as he is, has often played better than Calabria, this season.

    1. Yes, I think this assessment is fairly accurate. I also have a lot of esteem for Calarbia, but objectively speaking he’s not a top RB, just good enough. I think after we sort out striker, DM and CB, RB will be the next “upgrade” position. Assuming we don’t lose a major piece that we have to replace first, I think RB will be looked at in the summer of 2025. Of course, we could also have some internal solutions. Jimenez could turn into something, and it is also still early days for Terraciano.

      2. Calabria is decent and has Milan in his heart, which is important.
        He is no Cafu

        But we also have Kalulu, Florenzi, Terraciano, Jiminez etc
        I hope Kalulu gets back in shape and nails down that spot, he will be ideal, especially with Theo bombing forward – we can morph ito a back 3

    1. Just having realistic assessments. You might have noticed that I highly praised Pulisic and Chuk, today. I even praised Adli. I was just acknowledging the obvious and true fact that Calabria is an irregular defender, and not the best solution for the RB position; I love him for other reasons but I do think, for the good of Milan, that we need an upgrade at RB. What’s wrong with acknowledging it?

      1. What are you talking about? Your repetitious criticism of Pioli for “get the ball to Leao” is completely misguided, as we’ve had several prolific forwards this season, with the second best offense in Serie A, and several players adding goals and assists, and yes, including Leao, our best player.

        There is NOTHING wrong with passing the ball to our most creative forward. It would be a huge sin NOT to do it. Why would we isolate and not serve our best forward??? This criticism of yours is so, so misguided, it’s actually mind-boggling that you think like this. What actually do you want to do, not pass the ball to Leao? Why? How would that improve our offense???

        And you say so in a game where Puli and Giroud have also scored, other than Leao?

        Unreal.

          1. Yes, I happen to have decent attention span, and to be verbally articulate and able to think and type fast, and also able to multitask. I’m sorry for you if you don’t have these capacities. But do keep trying hard, I wish for you that you eventually get to be able to conquer your shortcomings. Courage! You can do it if you try hard!

          2. I used to be like that. Then i matured and realised it’s better to do one thing 100% or close to it than 3 things at 30%..

          3. Nah, when I multitask I still stay close to 100%. Sorry for you if you drop to 30%. Like I said, try hard; maybe you can upgrade to 35% if you really put your heart to it.

            So, you matured? Oh my. I wonder what your opinions were, before you “matured”, given what they are now.

          4. Maturing as a person and opinions are not the same.. grow up boomer

            Anyway. You can deceive yourself all you like that you multitask and that you’re good at it. Reality is a bit different..our brain can only do 1 thing at 100%. It’s just anatomy brah and psychology (that’s the deceiving part)

    2. Leao is very athletic. He doesn’t tire very easily. This is an easy, low intensity game so I’m not upset that Leao is still playing. But yes, why not take him out? I would have done it, just because there is no need to have him there at this point and we have Roma coming up.

  23. I think today showed that Puli is very versatile and is very effective at the 10. So when RLC has dips in form (and now competition) Puli is a great option in that position.

    Chuk just needs to maintain his form and that frees Puli to be played anywhere across the front.

    Pulisic and Thuram are arguably the best signings in Serie A this season.

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