After beating Real Madrid on Tuesday, Paulo Fonseca may rotate his squad slightly to ensure that his team remains at their best.
Rotation has been an area of focus for Fonseca, due to his lack of changes in the early stages of the season, and this was heavily scrutinised with him rotating the least in Europe at one stage. However, there has been a focus to change things more frequently in recent weeks.
It seems this trend will continue this weekend, as Milan face Cagliari, and Corriere dello Sport (via Milan News) are suggesting that Fonseca will look to give some of his key players a rest after a mentally and physically draining game in Spain.
Two players seem most likely at the moment, with Samuel Chukwueze and Tammy Abraham vying for a place within the starting 11. In this case, Alvaro Morata and Christian Pulisic would probably be given a chance to rest after their persistent minutes this season for club and country.
It is noted that the Portuguese head coach is not underestimating his team’s opponents, but would rather ensure they are at their best levels, rather than overloading them. Certainly a positive change from the start of the season.
Abraham does need to find the back of the net and redeem himself from so many failures, missed chances, and the PK fiasco. He was instrumental in defense against Real but not in offense. Cagliari is a team that defends well so I’m a bit apprehensive, including, sitting our current best offensive weapon, Pulisic, against a decent and dangerous team may come back to bite us. But yes, it is true that Morata and Pulisic probably do need a rest.
They can always come on if needed.
Fresher legs more important imo.
Fonseca’s only mistake so far is not trusting Jovic.
TRUE 100%, he should’ve been in the UEFA squad too
How many times do you need to see Jovic start and fail as a lone 9 to understand it’s not his position? I thought we had a big enough sample size under Pioli last season…
Nice this is the correct way to rotate.. 2-3 at a time. Not the absurdness of Padre last year.
Mike
Emerson-Thiaw-Tomori-Theo
Musah -Fofana- Reijnders
Chuku-Tammy-Leao
Musah to stay on the right so defence can shift over allowing Theo to bomb more .
Musah ran his @%% off last game. Pretty sure RLC will get the nod.
Jovic offers more goal threat than TA – I think we should give him a chance
Is jovic back? He’s been injured for ages. Can actually see loftus getting a goal. He’s slowly starting to improve. Surging runs and should’ve scored recently. My prediction with leao and puli scoring in the last game was pants so he’ll probably not score lol. Abraham needs to start producing but we shouldn’t sign him permanently.
RLC keeps showing us game in and game out, that the final product, be it a pass or a shot, is still sorely missing. Not sure what improvement you’ve seen.
Squad rotation is very important (one of the reasons why Pioli’s team was always getting injured and the best players not being able to perform well in all matches). Pioli would start the same XI and play most of them for 75-80 mins. Team selection and non-rotation of squad were his biggest downfalls.
This should give the likes of Chuk, Okafor, Tammy, Jovic, Jimenez, Calabria, Liberali more chances to play and integrate with the regular team and also transition smoothly and make an impact when called in as substitutes/starting XI in other big matches. However, I would be still vary of starting RLC, because he has the ability to disrupt the whole team shape and momentum. He’s a wrong fit in Milan., compared to all other players.
Liberali! Please!
Anyone watch Inter? Arsenal threw one a 17 year old – not at 3-0 up on 85 mins – they brought him on to change the game, and he very nearly did.
It’s time to see what Liberali and Zeroli can do.
This should be an opportunity for Camarda to have his serie a debute. We have fail to believe in our youth players. That’s how we lost Bellanova.
Rotate the guys with heavy minutes and see how the game goes against Cagliari. If they are winning well, then bring on the young kids and give them exposure. If they are losing, then bring on the starters for max impact. Keep the start of the game simple with the expectation of alot of running from your B level players (Okafor, Chuck, Musah etc) and sub them off when fatigue becomes a factor in their play.