AC Milan have just seven games left this season, and their fourth-last away match is one at the Stadio Friuli against Udinese.
Given that Milan are ninth in the league and eight points off even the Europa League spot in the league, there is the real possibility that there is no involvement in European competitions at all in the 2025-26 season.
There is the obligation to finish the campaign strongly, with a Coppa Italia semi-final second leg against Inter to come and the mission not to record a worse league finish than 2014-15, the darkest season in recent memory.
How Milan should line-up
Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Emerson Royal remain injury absentees as they continue their recovery from their respective appendix and calf issues. Kyle Walker (elbow fracture) and Santiago Gimenez (sore side) join the treatment room and will not make the trip.
The big doubts concern the right-back position and the midfield pairing, presuming Conceicao goes with a 4-2-3-1. The rest of the defence should be Matteo Gabbia, Malick Thiaw and Theo Hernandez ahead of Mike Maignan.
On the right side of the back four, the most logical choice is to play Alex Jimenez. In truth he hasn’t yet shown consistently that he is the right mould to be a full-back, especially in a physical league like Serie A, but it feels more useful to give him the nod than Filippo Terracciano.
Youssouf Fofana and Warren Bondo should be the double pivot. Fofana has definitely suffered a dip in form in 2025 – understandable given how many minutes he had racked up by the new year – and Bondo has appeared raw at times, though they guarantee the necessary energy and grit.
It also facilitates Tijjani Reijnders playing in a more advanced role, which makes the most sense in terms of having him operate between the lines against a deep and compact team. Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao are almost certain to occupy the wings.
With Gimenez out, Tammy Abraham and Luka Jovic are battling for the striker spot and the nod should go to the Englishman. He has scored in consecutive games, and having Jovic to bring on and partner him if the game dictates is a nice gear-up option.
We want to see more minutes for the players who it would benefit most. For example, Samuel Chukwueze needs to try get in some form, Davide Bartesaghi deserves a look at left-back and Riccardo Sottil should play over Joao Felix.
Predicted Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Jimenez, Gabbia, Thiaw, Theo Hernandez; Bondo, Fofana; Pulisic, Reijnders, Leao; Abraham.
After his shamefull aproach to the last match,theo should stay on bench at least 1 game
Mistakes in defence,toxic behaviour,disrespecting teammates by arguing with oponent while they freely attack next to him,selfish in goalscoring oportunities …
If that wasn’t a reason to bench him i really dont know what to say, and what message they send to his young sub teammates which are waiting for a chance
As much as I agree with u, we still need him to play as much as possible and hope he plays well. Firstly it’s because we need to get the maximum amount of money we can for eg at least 35mil, if we let him sit on the bench his price would just keep dropping unfortunately. I think we should we should play him and should sub him out in like the 60th or 70th min and give bartesaghi more minutes
There’s literally nothing Theo can do that will get him benched by this coach. That’s why he behaves the way he does. Zero consequences. Counting the day until he and this useless coach are gone.
Agree
Ans this is why I like Fonseca…. The man is the right coach for players like him
Reijnders literally never plays well when playing upfront why do newspapers and blog posts keep on pushing this agenda?
I don’t think so much that Rjeinders does badly at CAM. But the midfield behind him typically looks lost when he is not there.
We give up 2 goals and Conceicao brings on another attacker and pushes Rjeinders back to the double pivot.
THEO OUT !!!!!!!!!!!!! Give someone else a look …. Put his LAZY aaasss ON THE BENCH !
Please no more Thiaw on starting lineup. He show us lots of defensive error last 3 games. Back on pavlo-gabbia / tomori-gabbia
Let Jovic play behind Abraham. Tijani and Fofana duobe DM.
The 4-2-3-1’s been banging lately – would be a shame to mess with a winning setup.