AC Milan are facing a must-win game tonight in front of over 70,000 home fans at San Siro, with newly-promoted Venezia the side that are visiting.
As mentioned, it is of vital important that Milan do not just win this game but that they show enough to build on in view of the fixtures against Liverpool in the Champions League and Inter in the derby next week.
According to what is being reported by this morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below), the head coach Paulo Fonseca will field a back four of Emerson Royal, Matteo Gabbia, Strahinja Pavlovic and Theo Hernandez in front of Mike Maignan.
It will be Ruben Loftus-Cheek alongside Youssouf Fofana in the midfield double pivot as per the paper, with Tijjani Reijnders playing a more advanced role meaning that he has effectively swapped with the Englishman.
Either side of the Netherlands international – who shone over the international break playing as a playmaker – will be Christian Pulisic on the right wing and Rafael Leao on the left. Tammy Abraham will lead the line, with Alvaro Morata recovering from injury to get a spot on the bench.
Predicted Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Emerson, Gabbia, Pavlovic, Theo Hernandez; Loftus-Cheek, Fofana; Pulisic, Reijnders, Leao; Abraham.
Predicted Venezia XI (3-4-2-1): Joronen; Idzes, Svoboda, Schingtienne; Candela, Caviglia, Duncan, Zampano; Oristanio, Busio; Pohjanpalo.
I really hope that they put Tiji at 10 for the match, he’s form is incredible at the moment. He can be vital for us here.
I like this line up. Our double pivot will be strong, strength, tackling, height, carrying the ball forward. Reijnder is very good in long range shooting lately and faster than RLC. I hope RLC can adapt to this DMC/MC position. Fofana should focus on defensive duties and on the left side to cover Theo when going forward and Leao who also a more attacking player.
He (Reijnders) has always been a good player, Milan don’t know how to use him.
Unfortunately some fans thinks he’s not good enough.
Give him to Inter and watch what will happen.
Now we’re talking. And I read somewhere that Calabria is injured, so the only question mark is Gabbia for Tomori; other than that and Morata not fully fit, clearly our best lineup
Our concern on defense are royale and loftus cheat. Hope theo, gabby abd serbian bear can back ’em up
For me the problem is still using a double pivot method instead of a 3 man midfield because RLC is a mezzala and same for musah.
So unless we play 433 and give Reijnders more freedom and have both Fofana and RLC covering both sides I don’t think the 4231 is going to work. I hate this BS double pivot because neither RLC or Fofana are defensive midfielders.
The problem is RLC is far better on the counter, at winning free kicks to relieve pressure, and at making dummy runs into the box.
But Reijnders did well with Holland so let’s see him taking his international form back to Milan.
Holy C*ap! Great take! Where did that come from? you had that in you all along?!
Then let’s use either musah or pulisic around 74th minutes
Y is Musah on the bench ,wen he is obviously playing well ,y is the unroyale guy starting over Calabria ,cos obviously that guy is only faster than a tortoise
IF (big if though!) Fonseca actually plays Reijnders as #10 he proves already to be a more competent coach than Pioli ever was.
just need to ditch the double pivot and field three in the middle with the same setup.
Musah has been much better than fofana and RLC this season especially defensively…would prefer him next to Fofana if they want to push up Reijnders…RLC just doesn’t move well enough on defense…
Same thing every year. Trying to force a CM to play #10 and we had the opportunity of getting Samardic during the summer. A this rate we might field Maignian for the position before winter
Roses loftus cheat hhh that name is hilarious
Musah should also be playing attacking midfield to support rejnder in the second half
We wouldn’t be so lucky as to a common sense lineup here, would we?
All we need is a win without conceding a goal . Other teams are playing way better than us it’s high time we stop conceding silly goals