A game like the derby takes a lot out of players especially after a dramatic win, and it is possible that Paulo Fonseca could make some changes for Friday’s game against Lecce.
As MilanNews reports, after the thrilling last-gasp victory against Inter in the derby, Milan return to the field on Friday evening at San Siro against Lecce in a 20:45 CEST kick-off, a game in which Fonseca’s side will be called upon to win again and do so convincingly.
However, there will also be an eye on the subsequent commitments because the Rossoneri play on Tuesday away against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League and the following weekend they face Fiorentina before the international break, again away from home.
Precisely for these reasons, and also because Fonseca fielded played the same team against Liverpool and Inter, it is possible that he will do a bit of a rotating. Considering that Matteo Gabbia is now considered a starter on a par with Fikayo Tomori and Strahinja Pavlovic, changes in defence are expected.
However, there could also be some alterations in the midfield: in particular, Yunus Musah is a candidate for a starting shirt. The American has remained on the bench in both of the last two games and could give Youssouf Fofana or Tijjani Reijnders a rest.
Don’t like this. We need consistency now and to build. The core has to stay the same. Mike, Gabbia, Theo, Tomori, Reijnders, Pulisic and Tammy
This so where we can drop points.
Agreed.
Why is football the only sport where players can’t play more than once a week!
Because in ice hockey the best players play for only 25 minutes per match and in american football even less than that. In basketball the matches last for 48 minutes and the players don’t play full minutes.
Last time I checked football matches last 90 minutes and most of the players will have (or get) to play the full minutes.
In short: different kind of stress in other sports.
Show me a(nother) sport where the players run for 10-12 km in every match and play 2-3 times per week. 🙂
i agree to most of your points, but what about tennis? in a grand slam they run 2+ hours from left to right every second day
@asdf: the court is wayyyy smaller in tennis and they don’t exactly sprint, it’s mearly 10m bursts. Also they have more pauses.
Different kind of stress. You think they get 10-12 km during a match? Hardly. Maybe 1/10 of that.
Rugby? Tennis?
Why do you feel the need to make so many excuses?
See above for tennis.
How many games per season per player in rugby ?
And again, how many injuries big clubs are dealing with each season ? If you think that despite injuries, players should be made to play 70 games per season, I don’t know what to say.
Who’s making excuses here? You’re desperately trying to find a sport that fits your narrative but can’t. Do they play 3-4 rugby matches each week? No, they don’t.
Because football is among the few sports where players are expected to sprint and change directions (very impactful on the joints) over such long distances (few sports have fields as big) for such a long duration.
Plus just take a look on the rate of injuries, you can’t make this stuff up.
Nah.
I reckon football is the one sport that has been completely destroyed by the transfer market and over-saturation…
COMPLETELY DESTROYED!!! Why do you even bother with it then?????? 😀 😀 😀 😀
Partially I agree. But if we keep running the same starting lineup we risk burning them out and dipping their form.
Pioli rotated poorly, infrequently and whole-sale when he did and it spectacularly back fired. Every Time.
If Fonseca rotates more frequently the benefit is that the players will be more used to playing alongside each other and would slot in more efficiently in rotations.
I’m not sure Musah can replace either Fofana or Reijnders.
He doesn’t have the creativity, passing range (his is non-existant) and vision that Reijnders posses.
Fofana had a rough start this season and has yet to justify the summer sage built around him, but has shown to be more composed, better defensively and more responsible positionally than Musah.
I guess Musah has the advantage of possessing greater strength and speed and doesn’t let go of the ball easily.
As for Pavlovic, my man if you got the ball either pass it back safely to the goalkeeper of kick it forward as far as you can.
Ideally we should try to seal a win as soon as possible and then sub some players. But you can never be too prudent even against Lecce.
Erm you know my views of Reijnders….
I’d give Musah a go to see if he can do better.
Morata remains our best midfielder.
It would probably take Reijnders to score a hattrick and give 5 assists in a single game for you to consider him slightly above average.
You just decided that you don’t like him and whatever he does will never be enough.
Hattrick? Try scoring a hattrick in 4 consecutive games and giving 7 assists each and he’d still wouldn’t be impressed. The hate is strong in this one.
I’m pretty consistent with my views about players:
– it takes a lot for me to criticise a Milan player so I don’t criticise players lightly and I do not hold any personal grudges against our own players and only want them to reach their potential at Milan;
– the thing I hate the most is when players go to a new club and reach their potential and there’s every chance Reijnders could do just that because he’s clearly talented;
– the things that get me offside are players who take too many touches;
– all I want from Reijnders is for him to actually take control of midfield, actually demand the ball, show some strength and not be pushed off the ball by Turkish scum in the Derby, not slow down our attacks with unnecessary touches, and to be the player everyone says he is.
Goals and assists are important as well. I note RLC scored 10 last season and there seems to be general consensus around here that he’s Enemy No 2 (after Calabria or Leao depending on one’s sensibilities and preferences).
Reijnders was unplayable in the derby. How you don’t realize yet praise Calabria’s caliber is why it’s hard to take your criticism seriously.
MH’s metrics for success are goals and assists only. He can’t seem to grasp any contribution not resulting in those two.
Except for Krunic and Calabria where direct goal contributions and flashy highlights don’t seem to matter all of a sudden.
It’s almost as if that’s not my matrix’ at all.
In fact it’s the lack of other contribution that is my main criticism of Reijnders.
It’s like we’re talking different languages!
Morata bossed the midfield in the derby, Reijnders got pushed off the ball on at least two occasions, and was generally not available for passes.
Krunic and Calabria are exactly the sort of players I admire because they do the things that Reijnders doesn’t.
From RB Calabria gets more involved in the midfield than Calabria. He’s not afraid of demanding the ball. When he gets it he moves it quickly.
Apart from his defensive ability (which Reijnders hasn’t shown any yet), his contributions to the transition and attacks are greater.
Also I praised Emerson in the Derby, a signing I was against.
I want to be proven wrong about Reijnders but he needs to do better if he’s to plug the massive hole in our midfield.
Imagine bashing TJ and swallow the whole BBC of Leao hahaha
You’re not sure? Why the hesitation? I’d say we all (except MH) are 100% sure he CANNOT replace either of them.
I still don’t think we’ve found the right balance in midfield but Morata is a good find.
Rotation is not the problem. Every club rotates. The problem is replacing capable men with clowns. Look at Musah’s face which scream “I lack intelligence”…