There are doubts over who Stefano Pioli will select in the midfield when AC Milan host AS Roma in the Europa League quarter-finals later this week.
As reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport (via Milan News) there are four players that are competing for two places in the midfield with no clear idea yet of who will prevail.
With Ruben Loftus-Cheek now being used each game in a more advanced role as part of a 4-2-3-1 formation, there are four players regularly battling for minutes behind the attackers.
They are Yunus Musah, Yacine Adli, Ismael Bennacer and Tijjani Reijnders. Pioli has been rotating his midfielders regularly this season so the training sessions later this week should give an indication as to which combination he thinks will be best against Roma, a match that Gerry Cardinale will be at.
Out of those four midfielders, Reijnders is the player most likely to start as long as there are no late injuries. There is a straight fight between the other three to join him.
Beyond the midfield, Milan’s starting lineup should be easy to predict. The usual attacking quartet of Olivier Giroud, Christian Pulisic, Rafael Leao and Loftus-Cheek should start, with a back four of Davide Calabria, Theo Hernandez, Matteo Gabbia and then either Simon Kjaer or Malick Thiaw, if the latter recovers.
Fikayo Tomori will be suspended.
Keith Malta….
Can you all see the sweetness in this.
Milan should throw off Pobegba as soon as he is back from injuries.
Get a proper DM and a lethal Striker.
Good competition at the CB CM LW and RW.
Isn’t Tomori suspended for the EL?
IMO, this is the game that Pioli needs to show his worth, not the derby. Since DDR took charge there, they have kept the same pace as us in terms of points.
We should be slightly favorite (60%) but it is very much a coin toss.
Correct.
It will probably be Bennacer för a bit more defensive line up than if Adli were to play. Musah is a big question mark for me. I don’t know his place in this team.
I think Musah is a spot-starter, sub at this point. Keep in mind, he is only 21 years old. Lots of talent, but needs to improve his decision making. I think he’ll be a beast in a couple of years if he can be more effective picking out the right pass.
The problem is that to me it didn’t seem that Bennacer was playing that well even against Lecce (maybe it was the fact that the game was pretty much sealed) and a lot of players had taken the foot off the pedal.
I think that if Bennacer is in good shape, he’ll probably play.
Agree on Musah, seems to have very good physical qualities, almost as if we wanted to groom a new Renato Sanches, but I don’t see him adapting to a 2 player midfield… his best contribution might be as a defensive AM (like Krunic or Kessie), but I hope that’s not the end goal.