Training got underway this morning on the eve of AC Milan’s final Champions League game against Dinamo Zagreb, at least in the first phase.
As a reminder, Milan’s 1-0 win over Girona last week saw them climb into the top eight positions in the standings for the first time, and by winning in the Croatian capital on Wednesday they would guarantee staying there.
That means direct qualification for the last 16 of the competition without having to go through a two-legged play-off in February, something which would certainly be welcome.
Out on the fields at Milanello, Sergio Conceicao began the session on Tuesday with a long speech to the team before work began.
🗣️ Sergio Conceicao’s speech to the squad ahead of training this morning
✅ Davide Calabria front and centre
— SempreMilanTV (@SempreMilanTV) January 28, 2025
Ruben Loftus-Cheek was absent, as well as Emerson Royal and Alessandro Florenzi who are continuing their long-term recoveries.
Vigilia Dinamo Zagabria #Milan! Assente Loftus-Cheek 🔴⚫️ pic.twitter.com/iV8cscJFct
— Luca Maninetti (@LucaManinetti) January 28, 2025
I hope the line-up for the upcoming match vs Inter will be like this:
Gimenez
Leao-Pulisic-Chukwueze
Reijnders-Musah
Bartesaghi-Pavlovic-Gabbia-Walker
I don’t know if we should include Theo or not. Because I’m really angry watching him play now. I used to see him as good, now he plays like fvck. Actually, I don’t even want to see Leao play against Inter, but there is no player who is as good as him.
Leao is not a one-man show, with the right support in the build up phase he is a killer. But you cannot expect him to play like Pulisic, he just has different set of qualities/strengths, that we don’t utilize enough. It kills me every single match when I see him perfectly positioned for a through ball behind the defense and our MIDs looking left and right for 10 sec before they pass to Emerson, who can’t even cross the ball accurately more than once every 5 matches.
Also, we are not buying a better winger than him anytime soon, even if he decides to go to the EPL (big mistake in my opinion) or Spain (50/50 chance he will get paid or registered on time). We might get frustrated with him here and there, but any team would be lucky to have him.
Leao turns up for big games, it’s the games against bottom teams that he doesn’t
In your lineup Theo would make more sense because Walker can tuck in as a CB when Theo goes forward.
Speeches won’t fix this team’s problems. The attack is way too static and that won’t change until the coach drills it into the squad. Scrimmages with one or two touches only allowed and set pieces should be drilled ad nauseum.
Off the ball movement is what is lacking, attacking the spaces, runs across the box, pulling man markers out of position. Too indecisive in the final 3rd.
Someone said this, “Leao turns up for big games, it’s the games against bottom teams that he doesn’t”.
What if we give Okafor another chance to give us reason to stay like they did with pavlovic last week?