AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca has seemingly settled on the team that he will use against Sassuolo in the Coppa Italia tonight.
With a trip to Bergamo to face Atalanta on the horizon on Friday night, the temptation will have been there to make big changes, especially against a side in Serie B.
However, Fonseca admitted in his pre-match interview with Milan TV that he will be taking the Coppa Italia seriously, and that he still regards Sassuolo as a top-flight level side.
La Gazzetta’s predicted line-ups
Fonseca will be without Luka Jovic, Ismael Bennacer and Alessandro Florenzi as all three are recovering from operations. Mike Maignan and Theo Hernandez will both miss the game as the goalkeeper has undergone dental surgery, whereas Theo suffered a bruised foot at the weekend.
According to the paper, Marco Sportiello and Filippo Terracciano will take the places of the French duo. Davide Calabria, Fikayo Tomori and Strahinja Pavlovic should complete the rearguard.
Rather surprisingly there will be no rest given to Youssouf Fofana or Tijjani Reijnders as they remain the midfield engine, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek ahead of them in a more advanced role.
Rafael Leao will get the nod too to lead the attack on the left, with Samuel Chukwueze on the opposite flank and Tammy Abraham up front.
Predicted Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Sportiello; Calabria, Tomori, Pavlovic, Terracciano; Fofana, Reijnders; Chukwueze, Loftus-Cheek, Leao/Okafor; Abraham.
Predicted Sassuolo XI (4-3-3): Moldovan; Toljan, Muharemovic, Odenthal, Pieragnolo; Thorstvedt, Boloca, Obiang; Berardi, Pierini, Lauriente.
Loftus-Cheek as an AM, because why ditch the 4-2-3-1 when you can just force it with a non-AM.
I would have preferred Liberalli, he keeps asking for courage but doesn’t do anything himself…
Let me predict… RLC will not be important in this game as per usual, we have bright and talented CAM, but we still use RLC
No please Loftus cheek is not a player at all we are just managing him Reijnder should play attacking midfield while Abraham should play wing then carmarda will play 9 let’s rest leao to avoid hlm having injury.
It’s time to Camarda, ziroli and liberali
Ideal platform for Camarda and Liberali imo – I can see this going south with nothing learned
Why does Fonseca insist on playing Loftus Cheek over Pulisic? He gets on the pitch and does nothing. Does he not learn a lesson?