It has been almost two months since AC Milan last won a league match at San Siro and Sergio Conceicao is determined to set the record straight this weekend.
We have seen how Milan have struggled after Champions League wins throughout the season, so this is another thing that Conceicao will be looking to change, and he is still determining which side will give him the best chance of success.
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As Gazzetta dello Sport write, the biggest news is the return of Christian Pulisic who ‘will be available’ from the get-go. The American was injured against Como, so he will be hoping to return this weekend, and it is more than feasible.
At right-back, the Rossoneri are dealing with the absence of Emerson Royal, so Davide Calabria is likely to be given the nod, especially with Kyle Walker’s move not completed yet.
Additionally, Fikayo Tomori could return to the back line after serving his European suspension against Girona, which saw a defensive partnership of Strahinja Pavlovic and Matteo Gabbia take to the field.
Conceicao is also considering dropping Youssouf Fofana, the Frenchman will miss the Derby della Madonnina with another yellow card, so the Portuguese is considering his options there.
On the bench, Samuel Chukwueze should return, and with Bologna sniffing around, he may hope to earn a move with an impressive cameo. However, he has not featured under Conceicao yet, so he could also attempt to fight for a starting role.
He should start Reijnders and Bennacer in the double pivot with Pulisic infront of them and Leao/Chucky on the wings.
Fofana could really use the rest and is a must to have available against Inter. I rather see Musah play in the central midfield then to risk Fofana
very offensive formation. We dont have the depth but my thoughts are
1. No Fofana – Let the man rest and dont risk a yellow
2. Limit Puli. – Coming back from injury with 2 important games, please ease him into it. Which leads to
3 – Puli and Chuck together means one of them is playing 90m. Not sure if either one has 90 in their legs. Certaintly not Chuck.
Yes, for the love of all things holy, please do not risk Fofana getting suspended for Inter. I think our mid should be Reijnders-Benny-Musah, with Leao and Puli on the wings. We need the right balance and we need to win. Terraciano can come in for Reijnders (who has the most minutes) and Chuk can come in for Puli as the former needs minutes and the latter might still not have 90 min in him yet.
Fofana should rest
I would like to see a 442 from the start.
Mike
Jiminez tomori gabbia theo
Pulisic musah Bennacer Leo
Morata
Abraham
Musah should be groomed as Fofanas backup.
i kinda like this. with Puli and especially Leao in the “midfield” the “negative” is that it leaves the midfield exposed and easily overrun. It may be almost like Leonardo’s famous 4-2-fantasia. Notice i put negative in quotes because even in our 4-2-3-1 set up, it feels as if we leave the 2 pivots alone and our midfield gets overrun anyway.
No Fofana then.
Conceição already blundered our chance of getting rid of Emerson by starting him, so blundering the derby by having Fofana suspended will be too much.
We SHOULD be able to defeat a team of the caliber of Parma without Fofana.
If Fofana rests, couldn’t we try one of the young guys against Parma, like Zeroli?
Start the strongest players, get a sizable lead then take them out in the second half.
Coming on late in the game to try to get a result is harder to do.
This mentality is what gets us in trouble. I think the players share it.
The idea that any time we are not playing a top team it’s going to be easy and we should be up 3-0 at halftime and then rest our starters. Never happens.
And that’s a bad attitude to go into a game with. They beat us the first time we played them this year.
When do we ever have a sizeable lead against anyone?
If a player needs rest then rest him but don’t go into the match expecting that your going to have a sizeable lead and then be able to rest people. That rarely is ever the case.
In some ways I can’t really disagree with you and I know this mentality to start with subs hurt us too often.
But I also think Fofana can use some rest, he’s been playing virtually every minute he can play and you can see how tired he is.
But I guess in the end, beating Parma to then lose to Inter, or lose to Parma to then beat Inter is all the same.
Don’t start tomori