AC Milan will face Torino in the Coppa Italia last 16 for the third time in four years tonight, and Stefano Pioli is expected to change systems for the game.
According to this morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (as seen below), Milan should line up with a three-man defence consisting of Pierre Kalulu, Matteo Gabbia and Fikayo Tomori ahead of Ciprian Tatarusanu.
The wing-backs are expected to be Alexis Saelemaekers on the right and Sergino Dest on the left, with a midfield trio of Tommaso Pobega, Sandro Tonali and Aster Vranckx.
In attack, Brahim Diaz should be the central attacking midfielder operating behind Charles De Ketelaere, who is hoping to get his first goal for the club since arriving.
The likes of Olivier Giroud, Rafael Leao, Theo Hernandez and Ismael Bennacer are all on hand to come off the bench if needed.
Probable Milan XI (3-5-1-1): Tatarusanu; Kalulu, Gabbia, Tomori; Saelemaekers, Vranckx, Tonali, Pobega, Dest; Diaz; De Ketelaere.
Probable Torino XI (3-4-2-1): Milinkovic-Savic; Djidji, Schuurs, Buongiorno; Singo, Lukic, Ricci, Vojvoda; Miranchuk, Vlasic; Sanabria.
It is good to rest main players. Pioli should done that during first half of the season no matter of results. We would have worst results but not so many injured players. Owners need to think about squad possibility and bring better players.
Why not Saele on the left as he has played their many times too and Dest goes to right side as he was just awful against PSV on the left?
*their=there. God damn autocorrect.
Yeah Dest doesn’t give me any confidence in any position. Why not give Bozzolan some minutes at LB? These CI games are a perfect opportunity for younger players. I endorse CDK at ST, but I also hope Lazetic is the first option off the bench for him, not Giroud. Let the lads get some minutes and see what they can do in a relatively low pressure game. If Bozzolan has a great game he can stay with the first team as Theo’s backup until Ballo-Toure returns (or even after for that matter). That’s how you start integrating. Look at how many kids Juventus has played this season to good effect.
Curius to see what will be Tonali’s role in this. He was playing very high up against Roma, and when Bennacer was subbed off we completely lost control of the midfield. He needs to take more of a deep playmaker role this time than his usual b2b.
I don’t see how this team possibly wins or even scores a goal. I think this is Pioli showing management how weak of a team they have given him. The strangest thing is how Adli can’t even get a minute even when we are playing our B team. But evrey time Milan plays a friendly, Adli is always one of the best players. Very puzzling why Pioli hates him.
Yep. Didn’t even come close to scoring against a 10-men Torino. Even with one man down Torino was a far better and more dangerous team and deserved the win.
And regarding Adli… Milan showed once again they have no one on the pitch with creativity. Adli seems to be the only one who can give unpredictable passes that could open up defenses. Sure, he can’t defend and is slow as a turtle, but how does that differ from CDK?