AC Milan will show up to face Parma as a remodelled version of the side that drew with Torino one week ago, but Paulo Fonseca’s message goes beyond the change in personnel.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) talks about a ‘brand new Milan’ which stems from a number of different alterations to the starting line-up, both in terms of players coming in and in position changes.
Starting with the new faces, Strahinja Pavlovic is expected to take Malick Thiaw’s spot, Theo Hernandez will come in at left-back, Yunus Musah is tipped to start in the double pivot and Noah Okafor will be the one who fills in for Alvaro Morata.
Tijjani Reijnders will also come into the side with Ismael Bennacer dropping out, while Ruben Loftus-Cheek will move forward to the attacking midfielder role and Samuel Chukwueze is destined to start on the bench.
Beyond the numbers and the players, though, there is more that Fonseca wants to see. It is the style and the attitude – which have other indicators of measurement – that will have to be different compared to last week.
“We cannot allow ourselves to leave the build-up to the other teams. We must be consistent: I repeat, we must not leave the game to the opponents. In Parma we will have to be more aggressive,” he said.
The new head coach was clearly not happy with the passive nature of his side’s performance against the Granata and he wants them to put it right starting with the game tonight.
Can’t wait for Calabria to sit at the bench.
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