Despite the loss to Lazio on Sunday night, Massimiliano Allegri remains strong in his convictions about how AC Milan should line up.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) report this morning, the defeat at the Stadio Olimpico and the question marks over the co-existence of Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic in a front two has not erased Allegri’s confidence.
The coach is too experienced to raze the tactical castle built since last summer. On Saturday against Torino, the Rossoneri will use their usual 3-5-2 formation, but above all, they will need to adopt a different approach than Sunday.
This is the key point the former Juventus coach has emphasised in his first two days at Milanello since the game. During the match, as happened at the Olimpico, there may be a shift to a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, but no risky moves from the start.
Rabiot’s return
In the capital, the possibility of getting to five points behind Inter held Mike Maignan and his team-mates back, who made mistakes in passing and spacing out the ball. The unity when out of possession, which has always been a strong point for Milan, was suddenly lost.
Zaccagni and Isaksen exploited it well, and Daniel Maldini even had some joy playing as a striker. The poor first half must not be repeated against Torino, and the return of Rabiot – suspended at the Olimpico – will provide a helping hand.
With the Frenchman on the pitch, the average points per game is 2.35, but without him, it plummets to 1.44. This enormous figure demonstrates how crucial his presence in both phases of play is, and exactly why Allegri wanted him so badly.
Davide Bartesaghi is also expected to the starting line-up on the left in place of Pervis Estupinan. It’s possible that Youssouf Fofana will have another chance, especially since with Rabiot on the pitch, he can move back.
Up front, the doubt lies in attack. Despite their lacklustre performance and the argument in Rome, Leao and Pulisic are still expected to start. The reconciliation reached on Tuesday at Milanello confirms that peace has returned between the two.
While Leao regretted his overly aggressive reaction to his team-mate’s missed passes and the coach’s substitution, the American also understood that he could have tried to played a through ball to send the Portuguese away.
Leao made the right moves, but he wasn’t ‘rewarded’ with the right service. If one of the two were to be left out to make room for Christopher Nkunku, Pulisic is more likely to be the starting XI, but Max is banking on Rafa and Chris’s desire to bounce back.
Leao made the right moves?
Yep. It’s always the rest who fail the team. Always. Never Leao. Not even Watergate last season. It was the others.
What a ridiculous article. Leao made all the right moves? Behaving like a child, disrespecting your coach and your teammate must be all the right moves. Because he didn’t get the ball passed to him every time he thought he should? What a joke. Who are these Leao bootlickers that are writing this nonsense?
Should someone now make a video of every run that Pulisic made where someone didn’t pass him the ball.. Did he behave like a spoilt child?
Now we get to see the entire team force-feeding Leao the ball this match so he doesn’t throw a tantrum.
Leao should be on the bench for this match. The team would perform so much better. Just like when he was out at the beginning of the season. But Allegri doesn’t have the balls.
100%
Leão + Pulisic as the front two: Albert Einstein has defined stupidity as repeating the same error while expecting a different result. Enough said.
Not only Leão + Pulisic is a mistake as it hasn’t worked and possibly never will, which was made worse by the public dissent (benching Leão would send a powerful disciplinary message), but I also would like to see Athekame starting over Alexis; I think that the former has amply deserved a start and is way more effective in supporting the offense than Alexis. We need goals and with Athekame as the right wing back, we’ll have more of an offensive threat. I’m less optimistic regarding Füllkrug than many posters here; given the absolutely rotten form exhibited by Leão, and despite Nkunku being also irregular, I’d like to see what a front two of Nkunku and Pulisic would do against Torino, with a possible substitution of Füllkrug for Nkunku at game end. Bench Leão. Give Athekame an opportunity.
I wouldn’t mind seeing that happen. But we all know the starters in every position already.
It’s the same Allegri I learned to hate the last time he was in charge. He’s so goddamn stubborn and would rather die than try something new.