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Reports: Milan’s probable XI for Verona – six changes and a new formation

By Isak Möller -

AC Milan will face Hellas Verona at the San Siro tomorrow afternoon and Stefano Piol is expected to make six changes to the starting XI. He’s also set to change the formation for the Rossoneri. 

Milan have been using the 4-3-3 formation at the start of this season but Pioli is now set to deploy a 3-4-3 instead, as per Gazzetta Dello Sport and Sky Italia. Furthermore, he will make six changes to the XI compared to the Newcastle game.

Marco Sportiello and Simon Kjaer are the new faces in defence, while Yunus Musah and Alessandro Florenzi will be the wing-backs further up. Rade Krunic will keep his spot in the middle and will team up with Tijjani Reijnders.

Furthermore, Christian Pulisic will get his spot back on the right flank after getting benched last time out. There could even end up being seven changes as Noak Okafor is still in the running for a spot, battling it out with Olivier Giroud.

Probable Milan XI (3-4-3): Sportiello; Thiaw, Kjaer, Tomori; Musah, Krunic, Reijnders, Florenzi; Pulisic, Giroud (Okafor), Leao.

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Tags AC Milan Hellas Verona Stefano Pioli

50 Comments

    1. If this lineup comes out to be true, we will all know how Okafor and Jovic will be treated in the future. Maybe it could be because pioli wants to play his trusted attack trio for this must win game, but man, this lack of trust is insane.

      1. Lovic literally said he isnt full fit yet in his press conference 2 days ago and Okafor can come on once Giroud wears down their defense and their backline slows down to use his speed and break their lines if Giroud starts. Giroud won’t play anywhere more than 65 minutes. They also nedd help in the box to defend aerial threats because Verona’s striker is one of the best in the league, even the world in the air. This line up and formation is strategically chosen to counter our opponent’s strength.

        1. Yeah I just checked mb. I think he might start against Cagliari which is quite easily the weakest team in the league. By Verona’s striker are you talking about Milan Duric? If so then you need to watch more games, lol, because he is a$$. I like the lineup but it would have been nice if the position of Florenzi and Musah was reversed. Florenzi could be an asset on the right with his crossing.

    1. Pioli doesn’t know what he’s doing
      He is lost and Milan will be lost just like he didn’t know how to prepare for Inter game and the Newcastle game as well

      It’s going to be a long season For Pioli’s Milan!

  5. What is this?!? Pioli is proving to be more of a bum each week. And of course his lover boy is right in the middle.

    What happened to 4-2-3-1?

  6. After one bad game, he panics and disbands formation he got players for and worked on whole summer. That was fast.

    Why don’t he just go back to 4231.

    1. First part of your comment is accurate. The second one contradicts the first, since we don’t have the players for 4-2-3-1, since we barely have one good DM. But back to that first part, Pioli is clueless.

      2. I know we don’t, I wrote under other article, we do don’t have proper midfielders to finish 433 and we as well don’t have proprr midfielders for 4231. But if he wants a change of formation (which id imo totally unecessary, except for maybe playing system), then best would be to revert to known 4231.

        Krunic and RLC/Musah can hold the mid with Leao-Reijnders-Pulisic behind Giroud/Okafor. That’s quite balanced. Reijnders can give cover in defensive phase.

    2. You are on point…It shows he is clueless. He buys players without a proper analysis of where they are best fit. Imagine paying such amount for Chukwueze and cosign him on the bench to rotten. Pioli has lost fans confidence. He should go. Nothing he will do at this point that can thril me. How can a supposedly world class coach lost 5 derbies to Inter ?????

  8. i knew it was the best joke when they said we dont buy a Theo deputy. we have Davide Bartesaghi on that spot. Again when Theo is not on we will see Florenzi or Calabria making a full of themself

  9. This must be a joke. Hes been doing 4-3-3 the whole pre-season, signed players for that formation exclusively and after the derby loss and a really good game vs Newcastle where all that was missing was a goal, he change formation again? Four years now and he still searching?

    1. The formation test is not for teams like Newcastle or some low block teams in Serie A.
      The Champions League is an elite football competition and the weak get roasted.

      Newcastle is the weakest in the group and we cannot use them as our standard. Remember we still have a PSG to play and also Borussia Dortmond, who can easily overload the midfield by a formation change or deployment of technical players.

      Remember Dortmond played a 3-5-2 against PSG, if it were against Milan, it would have been a walk through.

      We need a possession based formation, especially against the big teams.
      But, my fear is Pioli acts as if he has no basic knowledge of football tactics most of the time.

  10. There’s no reason this CAN’T work, but it seems like an unnecessary change for the sake of change. I don’t really get it. Hopefully the game goes well.

  11. So Pioli is going to change formations, play players out of position or positions they never played in before, but he is still going to roll out 37 years old Giroud out there every 3 days.

  12. Jesus the constnt hate and pessimism on this site is ridiculous. I for one am interested in seeing how this formation plays out. Everyone here just has a fantasy of us losing and sacking Pioli. Just enjoy the game!

    1. It’s not even about that. Pioli starting Giroud over Okafor is the problem. Why did we even buy Romero, Okafor, Pollegrino and kept Adli when Pioli is not even use them.

      1. The match isn’t started yet and you already claim it’s a bad move?

        Kid, you shouldn’t be here. Go play with your mom crystal ball, tarrot cards, or something.

  15. If this is true what is he thinking? All pre season he was using a 4 3 3 and if your going to change formation the most sense is going back to the 4 2 3 1.

    Reijders musah(krunic)
    Chukwueze pulisic leao
    Giroud(okafor or Jovic)

    We played with the 4 2 3 1 for 4 seasons and now we’re going to test a new formation out that they’ve never used against Verona?

    1. Forget 4-2-3-1. If we were going to use that the summer transfers should gave reflected that formation. They did not. They were meant for a 4-3-3. We would have needed to get two playmakers and a real defensive midfielder instead of Musah, RLC and Reijnders (maybe RLC could cut it as a playmaker). So it would be stupid to play all these players put of position like we did with CDK, who is not playing better because he was always a second striker meant to play in a two striker formation (3-4-1-2, 4-4-2, 5-3-2, etc.). But yeah, the point is that Pioli is losing it.

  16. Giroud needs to be there as does rafeol leao .
    Come on let’s put a few goals past Verona .
    Come on Olivier…2 goals for you tomorrow..
    You can rest in the next game ,but not tomorrow.
    I am fed up with some of you negative fans .
    We can challenge for the scuddeto..
    I trust in pioli our manager and in our team .
    I believe in AC Milan ,don’t you ?

  17. What me I’m saying is this Pioli don’t cause for us trouble please,I’m begging u Pioli don’t land Acmilan into trouble we don’t need 3-4-3 revert to our old formation you can see all of us love Acmilan were begging you anything that virtually all the fans don’t support don’t do it because Acmilan fans don’t love please Pioli we are now begging don’t disgrace Acmilan for us you have disgrace Acmilan for us against intermilan I told you at comment beginning of season that 4-3-3 is not our formation you stupidly insisted now we are now humiliated by inter and can’t get a goal with Newcastle let me remind you Pioli were in the group of death don’t humilate us against Dortmund don’t use your choice formation and put us in disgrace better go back to our preferred formation 4-2-3-1 before you regret coaching Acmilan for your useless idea I have said my own

  18. This looks like they are trying counter the 3 4 2 1 Verona play.

    They want to high press, crowd the midfield and be able to make quick passea to break their 9 player block. It isn’t as dumb as everyone is claiming. Makes sense. Why assign 4 defenders when they play 1 forward and two players supporting? We have better chances of connecting our build up play and have more options to threaten their block.

    1. Rudolph is clearly going to be running overloads and shift wherever there are openings in the middle. Musah will help keep their players under constant pressure and offer a physical presence, Krunic will sit back. Florenzi can switch flanks with Pulisic to break marking coverage in transition to cause confusion because Pulls can play both flanks. This will help them mop the floor with Verona. Their best player is their striker who is one of the best in the air, so you want to suffocate the service before they can get in our half, win set pieces and get him on the end of good chances

  19. Pioli is looking for numbers in defense while keeping the wingers in the lineup (otherwise we just wasted 48m plus Leao’s new salary). This is his struggle. He wants a 5 man defense and a 3 man forward line. Let’s see if the genius can pull it off with this 3-4-3 that surely becomes a 5-2-3 or 5-4-1 in defense. It might work against Verona, but watch a good team slaughter us. Either way, playing and a different formation every week is sure to cause confusion and the commensurate drop in quality. Pioli will be gone in November.

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