Malick Thiaw and Fikayo Tomori could be reunited at the centre of AC Milan’s defence on Saturday night for the Serie A clash with Fiorentina.
According to Milan News, the defence could look very different to usual at the Stadio Artemio Franchi with Theo Hernandez suspended and players returning from long-term injuries.
The French left-back is expected to be replaced by Alessandro Florenzi in the back four, whilst fans may get a chance to see Tomori and Thiaw alongside one another. This had become Stefano Pioli’s favoured centre-back partnership before the injuries.
Davide Calabria will take his usual place at right-back, whilst the midfield two are likely to be Tijjani Reijnders and Ismael Bennacer. Reijnders will be buoyed by the goal he scored for the Netherlands during the international break.
The usual attacking quartet of Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Rafael Leao and Olivier Giroud is expected to start the game, which will be an emotional affair considering the passing of Fiorentina director Joe Barone.
It will be the first Milan game since it became clear that Giroud will almost certainly be leaving the club at the end of the season for Los Angeles FC.
Milan predicted lineup vs Fiorentina (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Thiaw, Tomori, Florenzi; Bennacer, Reijnders; Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Leao; Giroud.
Two teams with much better attack than defense. Should be fun for the neutrals, but we need to be careful in the back with them. If Florenzi, Thiaw, and Mike have a good match, we should be fine. Would have liked to see the Tatarachiano kid instead of florenzi, but coach knows best I guess. Also, final random thought – maybe we should start trying RLC as a lone striker?
Tatarachiano!!!
That’s some quality wordsmith, my tummy hurts!
Lol; terracciano is it? New you g Italian versatile talent, whatever his name is
I predict a win if Thiaw behaves.
Haha he’s a wildcard right now isn’t he. So much talent but he is that ‘moment’ in him.
No Gabbia next to Tomori. I’m beginning to think Pioli doesn’t actually want to remain in charge of Milan.
We need Thiaw to get back to form, but yes, Gabbia and Tomori are our best CB pairing right now.
It’s clearly our strongest CB pairing isn’t it: the two compliment each other as well
So sad that all those good work when everyone injured not even count. Thiaw was atrocious post injury, he should start from bench till he can prove himself again.
All those good form of Gabbia, and Pioli just don’t care… smh
Gabbia is good, but not good enough imo. But still he’s the best we have after Tomori. That says more about our squad than about Gabbia unfortunately.
The same would happen under most managers in Serie A and in the top leagues.
Youth players are discriminated against.
I won’t say that. Gabbia has done well but his habit of playing safe all the time and passing Backwards and side ways to the neareat defender is infuriating. A lot of times someone is in midfield with space asking for the ball quickly, but Nope Gabbia would go backwards.
Playing it safe?
He’s a defender!
But what he does do is actually move the ball quickly. And when he does decide to pick a pass he hits his man. He hit a great ball to Leao in the last game.
You simply cannot think this about Gabbia and then be impressed with any of our midfielders who take a lifetime to make decisions and hold onto the ball for far too long.
But that’s what impresses the modern fan. Aimless dribbling into the corner before hitting a panicked clearance. A Musah/Adli/Bennacer/Reijnders special.
It’s also why fans didn’t understand Krunic. He was far too efficient with moving the ball around.
Gabbia has hands down been our best CB this season. The choice should be obvious but he lacks the hype of one of our fancy signings.
Just saw this. Sure the other midfielders make terrible decisions sometimes.. Like Reijnders in the final third (though he has gotten better) but We are talking about Gabbia now, not the other midfielders. Am not discrediting his defending since he came back, am just giving a reason why he could be dropped and that is evident in his game. You can say he plays safe and gave a great pass to Leao the last time but he hesitates most of the time.
And by the way, am not one of the modern fans that talk about shiny signnings. I actually understood why Krunic was being deployed by Pioli.. you need players that can keep things ticking and control the pace..my only issue was that when it was not working, he would not find another solution.
Gabbia has been our best defender, typical moron Pioli.
Thiaw is starting because Pioli thinks he can play a higher line than Gabbia. Anything other than that is a mystery to me.
I am having flash backs of the 2-1 defeat L. Jovic great headed goal. Terracciano saving every shot and Tomori’s clumsy foul. That match was also dedicated to Davide Astori. We need to be very careful this match has a lot significance.
Thiaw to start ahead of Gabbia, even with current form Thiaw should be getting the last 25min of the match. But I guess Pioli has to be Pioli and people wonder why Canada is stalling on signing his first contract 😂. Pioli hates our academy products.
Modern football being modern football.
And every fan who demands endless signings is part of the problem.
When we sack Pioli the next guy will do the same thing.
Because everything is driven by the transfer market. And youth players are merely tokenistic. As close a connection to a club as the ultras or whatever, when the target market is China or wherever.
Honestly they should just disband the youth teams with the big clubs. The success rate of less than 1% of converting youth to senior, and the pathetic revenue raised by sales after loans to death just makes them a waste of time and money.