The AC Milan squad are back in training and preparing for the game against Venezia on Saturday night, one that everyone hopes will bring the first win of the season.
La Gazzetta dello Sport talks about how it will be a ‘British Milan’ that takes the field in four days, starting with the new arrival Tammy Abraham leading the line. He arrived from Roma and made his debut for the club in Rome, getting an assist after just a few moments against Lazio.
Alongside Fikayo Tomori and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, he can represent the strength of an all-English backbone. The great thing is that the trio began their journey together at Chelsea’s Cobham academy, graduating up to the senior team.
They met again in Milan nine years after winning the UEFA Youth League – the youth version of the Champions League – which was the launch pad for their careers and the starting point for the journey into the world of the greats.
After the dress rehearsal against Lazio, Fonseca will most likely use Abraham, Loftus-Cheek and Tomori from the first minute against Venezia. The latter two are the only outfield players to have played all 270 minutes of the season so far and appear to be pillars for the coach.
Abraham was strongly desired by Fonseca and arrived right at the end of the window, and he should start while waiting for Alvaro Morata to fully recover. Tomori will have to provide defensive stability together Pavlovic, Loftus-Cheek will have to provide muscle and goals, while Abraham wants goals and to stay fit.
The 2024-25 season will also be a turning point for the three in terms of their national team. The summer news is that, after the European Championship in Germany, England are now coached by Lee Carsley, a European champion with the Under 21s.
Tammy, Ruben and Fikayo now have extra motivation to find form. Tomori has not worn the England shirt since November last year, Loftus-Cheek was called up for the last time in 2018 and Abraham had his last chance in June 2022.
The start of the golden English trio age. (Sarcastic)
Seems like RLC would be useful only as a mezzala in 4-3-3 where he would have to cover more ground. He simply isn’t good enough as an attacking midfielder. Sure, he has a good shot from time to time, but he doesn’t even use it as often as he should. Instead he would crash into a defender and fall on the ground or simply walk the field without a specific role. His best games were at the beginning of last season. Then came the PSG home game where he outperformed and Pioli suddenly decided that the guy is born to be an AM. This needs to be fixed, because sometimes it feels like we’re playing with 10.
As for Tammy – he entered the last game with great spirit, provided an assist and almost scored the winner at the end. It’s curious to see whether he will be as productive when playing from the first minute against more compact defensive block. We know how that goes when it comes to Jovic and/or Okafor.
I wonder why we have the chance to sign some good/proven coaches and all we could get is MR FONSECA!😭🤦
Our scouting departments are clueless 😭.
Look at that Brighton coach, how we ended up with rubbish coaches and players is beyond my imagination.
I hope Milan can return to the glorious days 🥲.
“Then came the PSG home game where he outperformed and Pioli suddenly decided that the guy is born to be an AM. This needs to be fixed, because sometimes it feels like we’re playing with 10.”
This was a curse is disguise. I think this game fooled many on how good RLC can be as an AM (and comparisons with Gullit started to appear).
Against PSG we relied mostly on counterrattacks and at some point after securing the 2-1 lead, we were packed behind. We didn’t use our usual press and high block and we maintained the shape of the formation overall.
That means that a player like Loftus-Cheek was mostly tasked of winning the ball from PSG’s midfield and prepare to launch a counter. This was his bread and butter since he can physically bully other players and carry the ball as far away as possible (he is pretty good at that). This configuration also meant that PSG players were out of place since they were disspossed while in our half and passing options for Loftus-Cheek became easier.
In a possession type game, Loftus-Cheek is further ahead on the pitch, has to work extra-harder to find line-breaking passes (since the opposition’s defense is more compact), and has to press+track back a lot of ground when we lose the ball (since he is so close to the opposition’s box). The only good thing here is him being close to the goal and being able to score.
I think we should seriously consider switching to a sit & counter type of game, regardless of a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1.
Reinjders should be the 10, not RLC. Wake up Fonseca.
I still think Milan should play a 433 formation but given Reinjders more freedom across the pitch to move forward.
RLC is not good in a double pivot he’s not good as a number 10. The same for Musah as well. So it’s just useless playing 4231 and I just don’t get why Fonseca is insisting to use this formation.
Musah and RLC would flourish as mezzalas in a 433 and they would play more to their strengths instead of trying to adapt to an unfamiliar position.
If Fonseca can’t see that then he has no business coaching at this level.
“Musah and RLC would flourish as mezzalas in a 433 and they would play more to their strengths instead of trying to adapt to an unfamiliar position.”
This but Fofana instead of Musah. I don’t think Musah is going to flourish anywhere.
Fonseca I can see that your a big fool and I can also see that your the second Pioli of Milan for Christ sake Loftus cheek is not an attacking midfielder he can’t even play in that position Acmilan has not won any match please if your tired of coaching Acmilan please just quit because Acmilan can’t lose a match because of Loftus cheek and tomori Abraham is Good use Rejnder or Chaka Traore for attacking midfield Mr Fonseca