Pervis Estupinan is expected to recover for the Roma game, but Davide Bartesaghi will make him fight to win his spot back.
Milan were held to back-to-back draws against Pisa and Atalanta, allowing Napoli to overtake them at the top of the table. Numerous injury absences have significantly hampered a short squad, featuring many young players making their first experience with a major European club.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
On Sunday, Roma arrive at San Siro, buoyed by their strong start in the league. As Calciomercato.com report, Massimiliano Allegri will be without two key players in Adrien Rabiot and Christian Pulisic for the fourth consecutive game. Estupinan, however, is back from a sprained left ankle.
A doubt on the left
Estupinan will return to training with the team tomorrow after nearly two weeks off. The former Brighton wing-back will be available for the game against the Giallorossi, although he’s expected to remain on the bench, at least initially.
Part of this is because Allegri and his staff don’t want to risk anything in an already delicate part o the season, with a string of upcoming fixtures and many players injured or not fully fit. That’s why the battle with Bartesaghi will be open until just hours before the match.
Estupinan’s suspension (he missed Juventus-Milan due to a red card against Napoli) allowed Bartesaghi to steal the show with several good performances, both technically and in terms of maturity at a young age.
The Milan academy graduate boasts very high percentages for both accurate passes (84%) and duels won (54%). The teenager has faced players like Conceiçao, Dodo, Zappacosta and Bellanova already and has not been overawed.
On Tuesday night in the 1-1 draw against Atalanta, another very interesting observation emerged: Bartesaghi was the best Milan player in the game in finding vertical passing lanes that bypassed the opposition’s lines of pressure.
Bartesaghi is benefitting from Allegri’s faith, who wanted to keep him around despite loan requests. The feeling is that he could eventually play as a centre-back in the three-man line. There’s no room for experimentation at this stage, but Bartesaghi’s tactical evolution is a concrete possibility.
Bartesaghi also crosses the ball well. One of the few players I’ve seen who is not afraid to fire one in with power. He can become a very useful asset for the team, and is already useful indeed!
Indeed, his crosses are amazing, if we ony had a big guy like Giroud to do a miracle there… He is only 19, not the the best in defending and not fastest but he can and will improve and be very important for Milan and Italy in next years.
Generally agree, but two of his crosses against Atalanta were actually very poor. I like Bart’s development, but he’s still learning.
Estupinan is much closer to a finished product and has more quality on the ball, so he should start most matches in my opinion.
He is the best crosser of the ball in this current Milan squad. Intact, he had done so well in Estupinia absence. Allegri needs to rotate at least to give Berteseghi sense of relevance.
estupinain is still better and i think is better at passing due to his experience . he and modric work well and he and pavlovich , bart is good but right now we need more attacking chances created and crosses dont work since our strikers are useless and theyre not always directed perfectly.
I’d start Pervis.
Bartesaghi probably isn’t used to playing 3 games in 10 days. Give him time to rest.
I think Estupinan is a better player at this stage of both players’ careers. Estupinan is way more experienced. He started slow which is natural for a player who joins Serie A for the fast time, but then he had several good games before he got injured.
I know that because Bartesaghi is Italian, many of my fellow citizens will favor him over Estupinan, but objectively speaking, the latter is currently the better player. Bartesaghi will grow given that he is still very young, and one day may become better than Estupinan, but that day is not here yet.
This said, I don’t think Estupinan is a world beater, and probably Bartesaghi’s ceiling is higher, but it will take some time for Davide to reach his full potential.
Bartesaghi is already better than Estupinan
I would graduate ptomote Sala in the midfield too, 10-30 minutes if the score is good for us
Bartesaghi está bien por ahora, para llevar a Estupiñán de a poco, por qué improvisar con el cómo central? está De Winter para central…
He’s primarily a full back / LCB and not a left wingback. He’s currently played out of his natural position and is doing well. So in all fairness, it’s Estupinan who needs to win back his starting place.