AC Milan head coach Massimiliano Allegri has one more day of training to decide the team to face Udinese, but he already has some ideas.
Milan are looking to build on back-to-back wins in Serie A against Lecce (0-2) and Bologna (1-0). The defensive record has been particularly pleasing with three clean sheets in four competitive games so far, and numbers suggesting it is the strongest rearguard in Europe so far.
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Of course the sample size is small and the opponents played have not been particularly daunting. However, it certainly provides a positive platform from which to build at least a top four push.
Udinese vs. Milan: Predicted starting XIs
Starting with the known absences: Rafael Leao will be out again with a calf issue, Ardon Jashari is still recovering from a leg fracture and Mike Maignan also picked up a calf problem in the last game, so he will miss out.
La Gazzetta dello Sport expected Allegri to go back to a 3-5-2 after being forced to use a 3-5-1-1 against Bologna. The good news is Strahinja Pavlovic has shaken off a flexor problem and should start alongside Matteo Gabbia and Fikayo Tomori, with Pietro Terracciano in goal.
Alexis Saelemaekers and Pervis Estupinan should be the wing-backs who flank a midfield trio of Youssouf Fofana, Luka Modric and Adrien Rabiot. Santiago Gimenez and Christian Pulisic are tipped to lead the line as the front two.
Predicted Milan XI (3-5-2): Terracciano; Tomori, Gabbia, De Winter; Saelemaekers, Loftus-Cheek, Modric, Rabiot, Estupinan; Gimenez, Pulisic.
Predicted Udinese XI (3-5-2): Sava; Bertola, Kristensen, Solet; Ehizibue, Piotrowski, Karlstrom, Atta, Zemura; Davis, Bravo.
ℹ️ The predicted XIs for #UdineseMilan, according to @Gazzetta_it.
🤔 Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/467NBTWPuR
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I would be so annoyed if I was Ricci. He’s clearly better than Fofana. It’s for everyone to see.
In doing what? It is like every midfielder is the same player. Maybe Allegri is playing him as Fofana fits his tactics better than Ricci? Not because he is a better player?
I think Max would be wise to try to convert Ricci to a B2B. I don’t see him displacing Modric at the 6 but he would be very useful alongside Rabiot on the other side. Looked lively every time he came on …
Allegri doesn’t think so.
Typo alert.
You still have De winter in the predicted line-up. When the article content suggests Pavlovic.
Lol…
I noticed, hope the typed line up is the right one though 😄 Id like to see how De Winter would play with these lads
month and a half before Jashari recovery then 2-3 weeks of slow introduction to the team in final 20 mintutes
Leao and Pavlovic back for Napoli
Mignan currently unknown…
our constant injury issues are still a mystery for me…
Not a surprise for me, last minute, rushed and unprepared, a team will be on nerve and psychologically, that is a recipe for injuries. To think a player who stayed away from his team in the most critical stage of preparation for an entire season to save a couple million , that is amortized over 5 years, is a perfect thought process to these situations that repeatedly happen.
The definition of insanity is doing the same mistakes.
So Athekame is still a complete mystery. Max is waiting for Estuipdyan to get injured to bring AS56 to the left and be forced to use Athekame on the right…
Ricci is clearly not convincing Allegri he is ready to start ahead of Fofana, that much is clear. its up to Ricci to convince. And I’m sure he will get plenty of playing time. Why the rush? We have good group of midfielders to choose from and ALL will play an important role this season…Everyone!