AC Milan are currently preparing for their opening game of the season against Torino at San Siro tomorrow night, and for the first time in over four years it will not be Stefano Pioli who names the line-up.
Pioli joined the club in October 2019 after Marco Giampaolo was sacked following a dreadful start to the season and that means he named the last four starting XIs on opening day, but tomorrow it will be Paulo Fonseca’s turn.
As you can see in the featured image, many players have come and gone and if we have also included the predicted team for the game against Torino, to show the alterations from Pioli’s final first-game line-up. To make it the last five, we have even thrown in Giampaolo’s first XI.
2019-20 – Udinese vs. Milan – (4-3-1-2): Donnarumma; Calabria, Musacchio, Romagnoli, Rodriguez; Borini, Calhanoglu, Paqueta; Suso; Castillejo, Piatek.
2020-21 – Milan vs. Bologna – (4-2-3-1): Donnarumma; Calabria, Gabbia, Kjaer, Hernandez; Bennacer, Kessie; Castillejo, Calhanoglu, Rebic; Ibrahimovic.
2021-22 – Sampdoria vs. Milan – (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Kjaer, Tomori, Hernandez; Krunic, Tonali; Saelemaekers, Diaz, Leao; Giroud.
2022-23 – Milan vs. Udinese – (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Kalulu, Tomori,
2023-24 – Bologna vs. Milan – (4-3-3): Maignan; Calabria, Thiaw, Tomori, Theo Hernandez; Loftus-Cheek, Krunic, Reijnders; Pulisic, Giroud, Leao.
2024-25 – Predicted Milan vs. Torino – (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Tomori, Pavlovic, Hernandez; Bennacer, Reijnders; Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Leao; Morata.
At the start of that 19/20 season we were already in serious trouble,
Haha. Its interesting to see that we’ve come a long way as a club!
Yep, some shades of banter left in that squad. By the next season we’d gotten a lot more serious.
From Giampaolo Borini Messias we could only get stronger..
Put some respect on his name. He’s the only constant over the years.
Unless you count Kevin Constant. 🙂
Never forget. Milan legend.
Would be nice not to see Loftus-Cheek in that AM role tho. I will wait to see him under Fonseca but who haven’t already seen enough of his lack of quick thinking and killer passing ability at AM.
Castillejo, Musacchio, Borini… we had more lords than a royal wedding.
According to Maldini’s Heir, if we had just kept that side together they would have won 4 scudettos and a CL by now.
Those first month of Piatek is crazy tho. It’s like Linsanity era 😂😂
2019/20 line-up is one for the nightmares. Maldini really did an amazing job finally transforming Milan from mediocrity to a competing side.
Oh God , 19/20 year was a criminal one.
We’ve come a long way since 19-20 😁 but man some parts of that 20-21 starting XI not gonna lie I’d like back. Fantastic improvement though by the club. Definitely heading in the right direction. We can ofc disagree from time to time about specific purchases but generally it’s Waaaaaayyyyyyyy better than before
When you think back about 19/20 it was not even that long of a time ago. Covid-19 came around the end of that season. Time flies.
And people want to trash Pioli but the guy did not have great squads. 20/21 was probably the best squad he had in the 5 years. Calhanoglu, Kessie and Bennacer in the double pivot. Ibra up top, a strong Kjaer. The squad got weaker after that. They won the scudetto the following season with a weaker squad in my opinion. Calhanoglu left and they didn’t really replace him. Then Kessie left and they didn’t replace him.
But Redbird and management are strengthening the squad a great deal now. I think this year’s squad is the strongest of the past 5 seasons. Let’s go!
The worst period for me as a milan fan was with paleta – poli – bertolacci – cerci – honda on the team. We had a couple good players in Menez and bonaventura mexes but it was a struggle to watch them play.
paletta was good. underrated cb
Chukwueze ?
???
19/20 first giornata, we cannot register a single Shot on Target, thanks to Giampaolo ball
Interesting. Calabria has been the unshakable in the squad for these 5 years
Oh God, I just can say i am proud to be a milanisti that can through 19/20 season