Paulo Fonseca is preparing to name his first starting XI in charge of AC Milan, with the season opener taking place tomorrow. Torino are the opponents and according to a report, the Portuguese manager currently has two battles to settle.
The pre-season has been a positive one for the Rossoneri, winning four out of five games (1D), and there is optimism regarding Fonseca’s ideas. Tomorrow will be hugely important, though, as you want to start the season on the right foot.
According to Daniele Longo, Fonseca has two battles to settle: Matteo Gabbia against Malick Thiaw and Samuel Chukwueze against Alexis Saelemaekers. The Italian is currently ahead 70-30, while the Nigerian is ahead 60-40. The full XI could thus look something like this:
Probable Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Tomori, Gabbia, Hernandez; Bennacer, Loftus-Cheek; Chukwueze, Pulisic, Leao; Morata.
Chukwueze and Saelemaekers have both done very well in pre-season but the feeling is that the Nigerian deserves it more. He also has more of a point to prove, having struggled under Stefano Pioli last season after the €28m (including bonuses) transfer from Villarreal.
The game is scheduled for 20:45 CEST and on a side note, several broadcasters have now bought the rights for Serie A. In the UK, for example, OneFootball has acquired the rights to broadcast the games not on TNT Sports.
But when is fofana landing in Italy? It must be a long flight
Milannews.it says he’s in Italy now. Signing of contract tomorrow at 14:30 local time.
+Medical tomorrow too.
Anticipating already
I don’t know who will play but Saele has proved last season in Bologna that he is much better as a LW than a RW.
The Year of the Salad has come 😁
Gonna be tossin’ the salad all season! 🤣
Wtf bruh 😂😂😂
Milan playing with two midfielders….
Saelemakers deserve to be in the team. We’ll see if he deserves to start matches pretty soon I guess. If Chukwueze plays the same awful way as last season then Alexis will take his place in no time.
It’s a blessing for Fseca to be spoilt for choice. It simply implies a strong bench. Milan is ready for the elite in Europe. Forza!!!
I think these choices should be made based on the player’s suitability for the game plan and the opponent. This is something we never had under Pioli’s predictable system.
In my opinion, Saelemaekers is the better player of the two, but with Toro’s 3 (technically 5) man defense, Chukwueze might help open up spaces.
Then.. if we manage to get a decent lead, we play Saelemaekers whose better at expoliting the spaces created by Torino being forced to push forward.
I dream of the day Milan will have a coach making decisions by first looking at the opponent’s way of play.
Chukwueze is far beyond a bigger talent than Salad plus Chuk has never been showen the trust and consistency as Salad has at Milan and Bologna. All Chukwueze need is consecutive trust and a position in the starting lineup in order to hit a hot streek. If its constantly broken by long breaks and only getting very short playing time its difficult to ever get going. I would imagine even Pulisic and Leao would suffer under such circumstances (which they did). I hope Fonseca is not gonna waste time questioning which one will be the starter between Chuk and Sala. I respect Salemaekers as a viable back up. But common dont get started questioning wether he should be a starter in front of Chukwueze.
I like both Alexis & Chuk, and the competition is great for the team, having said that Salad has more overall qualities then Chuk and I can see him overtaking him in the future.
For me Chuk is excellent but a little one-dimensional whereas Salad is the opposite, a true all-rounder.
Chuk is a little lightweight as well, whilst Salad got much stronger in Bologna physically and is imposing himself wherever he played(except right back). They are both good but different players.