AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli continues to flirt with a rather radical shift in the way that his side line up, a report has revealed.
Calciomercato.com recall how Simon Kjaer returned to the Marassi on Saturday night to start against Sampdoria on the ground where he suffered a knee ligament injury last December. Now he is back, the Dane is in effect a new signing for Milan and the return to top condition gives Pioli more options.
The Rossoneri coach admitted this after the victory against Samp – which featured a red card for Leao that forced him to redesign the team’s set-up during the game – that a three-man defence could be an option moving forward.
It would of course make Milan more unpredictable and could even further enhance the characteristics of some members of the squad from potential wing-backs in Theo Hernandez and Sergino Dest to midfielders like Tommaso Pobega and Yacine Adli who could be more useful in a three.
It is also a solution that seems tailored also to the characteristics of the three centre-backs that Pioli could field at the same time: a player of experience like Kjaer with the athletic and complimentary duo of Pierre Kalulu and Fikayo Tomori, without forgetting Davide Calabria and the newly acquired Malick Thiaw.
Pioli publicly admitted after Saturday’s match that he had wanted to worked during the summer on a three-man defence to give an alternative to the 4-2-3-1 and the unavailability of Leao in the big game against Napoli could be the time to see it in action.
