Stefano Pioli has already chosen the starting line-up he will use against Bologna tomorrow night, but he has weapons ready to come off the bench and make an impact.
As reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below), Pioli chose the XI at the beginning of the summer and he will not change for tomorrow’s season opener at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara against Bologna.
The time will come when Samuel Chukwueze will start, while Yunus Musah will be suspended because the red card he received in his last game for Valencia carries over.
Mike Maignan will be in goal with Davide Calabria, Malick Thiaw, Fikayo Tomori and Theo Hernandez the back four. Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Rade Krunic, and Tijjani Reijnders will be the midfield trio, in addition to the Pulisic-Giroud-Leao attacking trident.
Calabria is back after his muscle problem and this will send Pierre Kalulu to the bench, while Simon Kjaer is only an alternative at the moment.
Noah Okafor will come on in the second half, almost certainly as a centre-forward. Pioli is trying him in that position and what filters from Milanello are excellent reports. Okafor – a second striker by nature – is showing he has the qualities to be a No.9.
Kalulu is better than Calabria and he is young and can develop and improve himself, I think he should be in the XI.
Calabria is our captain and marked out Serie A’s best player out of the game 4 times last season but apparently that’s not good enough……
There’s a lot of matches and it’s impossible we will have same starting eleven in all matches. So Kalulu will get his chance.
Just let the coach pick his player.
They have both been inconsistent… not sure how you make your comparisons.
Pioli knows best
I can understand Colombo leaving on loan to play regularly and develop , it’s crucial he gets as much game time as possible but buying a CF right now will just put Okafor and Romero on the road to failure at the club.
Leao , Giroud, Chuk will probably start backed up by Pulisic, Oka and Romero, with Chaka Traore making rare appearances here and there. Bringing in another striker will limit some players for sure.
Okafor has vastly different qualities than Giroud. Ibra and Giroud were more similar and so they could keep their formation and tactics the same when they made changes. But if Giroud is replaced by Okafor, then the team will have to have the awareness to change their delivery for the striker. Origi might make an appearance as a sub in order to showcase his value while the Mercato winds down.