AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli will once again rely on once of his experienced men in Simon Kjaer for today’s game against Roma, a report claims.
La Gazzetta dello Sport begin an article on Kjaer by stating that ‘the gladiator returns to the Colosseum and prepares for yet another battle’. Kjaer is ready to lead the Milan defence in Rome at a stadium he knows well from his time with the Giallorossi just over a decade ago.
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The Dane is one of the Rossoneri’s leaders and a pillar of the project, while for Pioli he is the man for the big occasion. We saw this recently against Tottenham and Napoli in the Champions League, games in which he greatly limited the input of Kane, Simeone and Osimhen.
Kjaer is powered by a desire to always be there and help the team, as stated in an interview just over a month with Danish newspaper DR: “I trained continuously for two months and I hadn’t done it for eight years, I’m at the top physically. The match against Tottenham was perhaps my best game since the injury, I haven’t played since then and I’m disappointed.”
After a difficult start to the season, slowed down by his recovery from the injury, for a month or so the defender has returned to occupying a key role in Pioli’s XI and he hopes to continue that against his old team.
Kjaer was a Roma player during the 2011-12 season and left without too many regrets, after 24 appearances between the league and the Coppa Italia (in a season on loan from Wolfsburg).
At the time it was a signing sought after by the former Giallorossi sports director Walter Sabatini, but the feeling was that Kjaer didn’t live up to expectations.
His red card in the derby loss against Lazio is something many still remember, but then on 31 October 2021 he returned to the Olimpico and put in an excellent performance during a 2-1 victory for Milan against Roma.
