Sergio Conceicao has decided to make a couple of changes to the starting XI for his first league game with AC Milan, as a report states, taking on Cagliari this evening.
The manager couldn’t have asked for a better start, beating Juventus and Inter to lift the Supercoppa Italiana trophy within a week of getting hired. However, the situation in the league remains dire and a win is needed against Cagliari tonight.
As reported by Gazzetta dello Sport (see photo below), Conceicao will make a few changes. Emerson Royal is suspended and will sit this one out, expected to be replaced by captain Davide Calabria rather than Alex Jimenez. Rafael Leao will also be back from start, which is great to see.
Predicted Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Tomori, Thiaw, Theo; Fofana, Musah; Pulisic, Reijnders, Leao; Morata.
Predicted Cagliari XI (4-2-3-1): Caprile; Zappa, Palomino, Luperto, Obert; Adopo, Makoumbou; Zortea, Gaetano, Augello; Piccoli.
The only battles that the newspapers have listed are Calabria vs. Jimenez (70-30%) and Fikayo Tomori vs. Matteo Gabbia (70-30%). It should also be noted that Ruben Loftus-Cheek has sustained a new injury, so he will miss the game.
Overall, it’s a very strong XI and Conceicao can also rely on the likes of Jimenez, Ismael Bennacer and Tammy Abraham off the bench if the game requires some changes.
Where is Gabbia ??
Tomori can fxck off back to the bench, love Conceicao but benching Gabbia is super disappointing
Seriously, i don’t see one reason why he is playing Tomori over Gabbia in his current form. I love Tomori btw, but that doesn’t mean i overlook obvious. He is making stupid mistakes while defending. Although he is faster than Gabbia on foot but super slow to react. And ontop of Theo’s horrible defending on left. God save us. Hopefully he comes to his senses by half time.
Tomori – Thiaw. Beats Juventus. Beats Inter, Wins SuperCoppa.
Thiaw-Gabbia. Draws Juventus. Draws Roma. Draws Genoa. Loses against Atalanta. 9 points out of 18 in the last 6 League matches.
I wonder why…..
he’s not match-fit yet, dummy.
Is Gabbia injured or sick ?
I don’t really understand why Conceição is still insisting on Tomori. In the game vs Inter Tomori was one of the worst players on the field.
I get that Conceição likes aggressive and fast defenders but Tomori isn’t much better in those department than Gabbia and the Italian is currently much better than the English in pretty much everything else.
Tomori’s last two appearances were wins. Haven’t been the case with super Thiaw-Gabbia partnership. People should chill.
Yeah, because, you know, form can be judged from two games. We also conceded 3 goals in those two games. In the 6 games prior to the supercup games when were were starting Gabbia-Thiaw we had FOUR clean sheets. We have the 5th least goals conceded in Serie A. Our defense is actually good this year, unlike many previous seasons. Let’s see if Keystone Cops Ficayo can help us keep a clean sheet today against relegation fighting Cagliari.
Tomori – Thiaw. Beats Juventus. Beats Inter, Wins SuperCoppa.
Thiaw-Gabbia. Draws Juventus. Draws Roma. Draws Genoa. Loses against Atalanta. 9 points out of 18 in the last 6 League matches.
I wonder why…..
Red herring argument. How many did we score against Roma, Genoa and Juventus in the league and how many did we score in the supercoppa? I didn’t realize “Tomori-Thiaw” are also in charge of scoring goals. Gabbia-Thiaw has four clean sheets out of the last six games in the league. Defense wins championships, not outscoring the opposition.