Stefano Pioli will not be able to copy and paste the line up he used against Paris Saint-Germain for today’s game against Lecce, but he will ask for a lot of the same concepts to be repeated.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) recalls that one year ago, Milan dropped two points against Lecce before leaving for Saudi Arabia, where they were beaten by Inter in the Supercoppa Italiana final. The terrible January 2023, perhaps the worst month in the recent history of a great team, had just begun.
This year there is good news for the Milan fans: the signs are different, Milan still have the Champions League hype and feel strong. The great night on Tuesday will greatly influence Saturday afternoon, but we must understand how.
Stefano Pioli didn’t do a press conference yesterday and on Thursday he gave a day of part-time work to the starters from two days earlier which is not something he does often. Pioli undoubtedly said to his players that having time to reset will be fundamental.
Inter are 6 points away, Juve at +4, so for Milan it is essential to win to try stop that gap from growing bigger or even closing it. In order not to change the spirit from midweek, only one man will be changed by force and that is Samuel Chukwueze coming in.
Christ Pulisic, who came off against PSG late on, is still not well. He remained in Milan like Simon Kjaer and both will not be with their national team for the next 15 days. Considering how much Pulisic paid for a double intercontinental flight in September, that might not be bad news.
The other alteration will be by choice, in midfield. Yunus Musah has run hard in recent games and he will rest at least for the first hour, with Rade Krunic replacing him in the middle.
Does this mean that the 4-2-3-1 will be kept? Yes, probably. Loftus-Cheek will still be an atypical attacking midfielder, with Rafael Leao and Olivier Giroud key men up front and Noah Okafor the first change from the bench.
Against PSG, Loftus-Cheek played like a destroyer but his work rate will have to be managed. He has just returned from a muscle problem, it would probably be best for him to rest too but football runs and no one stops.
Milan already have problems in defence. In addition to Kjaer, Marco Pellegrino and Pierre Kalulu are obviously missing, still out for a long time. Jan-Carlo Simic will therefore be on the bench.
Avoid another Udinese, yet Pioli will start Krunic. Simply unbelievable. We play horrible football with that dude on the pitch, when will it stop. A cone would contribute more to the team success.
@Chris. It’s worse with Pobega on the field. I don’t get why he’s in the team and why he’s playing ahead of Adli.
Pobega is so Slow, awkward, clueless like a headless chicken running around the pitch with no positional awareness whatsoever.
Playing Pobega is like playing a man down. Smh
Actually it’s better with Pobega. That guy can score and at least tries to pass forwards.