AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli has named an unchanged starting line-up for the third game in a row as his side take on Bologna at San Siro tonight.
It was reported throughout the week that Pioli would not stray from the side that picked up maximum points against Roma and Udinese in the last two rounds.
That has proven to be the case, with Davide Calabria, Simon Kjaer, Matteo Gabbia and Theo Hernandez once again protecting goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
Tijjani Reijnders and Yacine Adli are expected to be the double pivot directing things in the midfield, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek ahead of them in a more advanced role.
Flanking the Englishman will be Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao to the right and left respectively, while Olivier Giroud will lead the line.
The absentees start with the centre-back trio Fikayo Tomori, Pierre Kalulu and Malick Thiaw who will be out for some time, as will Tommaso Pobega and Mattia Caldara.
Ismael Bennacer is back in Italy after Algeria got knocked out of the African Cup of Nations but he will also be out with an adductor problem. Samuel Chukwueze is still there with Nigeria as they topped their group.
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Kjaer, Gabbia, Hernandez; Reijnders, Adli; Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Leao; Giroud.
Bench: Mirante, Sportiello, Simic, Pellegrino, Jimenez, Terracciano, Florenzi, Musah, Zeroli, Chaka Traoré, Okafor, Jovic.
Official Bologna XI (4-2-3-1): Skorupski; Kristiansen, Beukema, Calafiori, De Silvestri; Freuler, Aebischer; Urbanski, Fabbian, Ferguson; Zirkzee.
Bench: Bagnolini, Ravaglia, Ilic, Moro, Orsolini, Karlsson, Corazza, Lykogiannis, Lucumì, Saelemaekers.
Okafor should be getting minutes, maybe he’s not ready to start yet.
Anyway the team has had an easy schedule recently so i expect to see them give 100% effort.
I’d be a little concerned Zirkzee might twist Kjaer inside out. Simic might be a better option
Same thing Pioli did when he managed to win 2 games with Theo at CB and then he thought he was a genius and continued using that same lineup until he was humbled then he moved Theo back to his rightful position. Here we go again, playing old man Kjaer every game cos he’s been managing to win. That man is too old. If he gets injured 5 mins into the game Pioli is still gonna have to play Simic right ? So why not just start the younger guy so he can continue to blossom. This man remains the most clueless coach I’ve ever seen. He has no damn tactics but let the individual players continue to win us games and we will continue to think Pioli is a genius. Smh
Pioli does well against all the coaches that are alleged to succeed him. I expect the same here. Also expect another tactical innovation like against Palladino which would overwhelm them. Motta’s 4231 is more expansive..once we remain more narrows we should be fine. With Juve slipping up, its our time to make ground
Well, we still have 70 min to prove you right.
Ooof. Yea. I believe we can still win this. It has the feel of a heavyweight match for sure and there was some slogging at the end. Pioli pushed RLC up further than normal for the press but Bologna countered it by raising their second (pivots) line. (that about it from an innovation perspective, was thinking he’d put Theo in midfield to make the runs from there). The tactical battle has been fascinating. Also that’s wasn’t a pen but RLC made a great run for the goal. I’d prefer to earn our goals. Scoreline is about right though we could hv more.
Btw, Calafiori can play DM easily. Motta pushes him there anyways when they go 3 ATB.
I have 45 mins left lol 😂
I was 4 minutes away from being a genius 😂😂😂
Oops! Thesame midfield. Is this the best position LC can play?
We need a dm. What’s Moncada doing in this transfer window for crying out loud.
There has been very little in the way of transfers throughout Europe because a lot of players don’t want to be moving mid season. It’s a lot harder to sign some dream player in January.
10 men Juve was held to a 1-1 draw at home. So lets see if we can close the gap a little. I won’t make predictions. Don’t want to jinx anything. Play to win.
Is Bologna the home team, or are we? Getting outplayed by a better tactician…
Confirmed.
That was just unacceptable defending on Bologna goal. Gabbia and Kjaer completely isolated with 3 or 4 bologna players surrounding them!
DM????
Also there has been so many terrible final pass/shots in attack.
Why is it everytime we have the week off the players come back asleep
Wake up ffs!!!!
This is a joke ref – always has been
One of the worst, craziest i have ever seen!!
This ref is crazy!
That was not a penalty.
And why is Giroud taking penalties? He can’t score with his feet!!
Absolutely awful effort
We’ll be lucky to have 10 men on the pitch by the end.
Well I’m glad we missed it, just to equalize a few minutes later with a legitimate goal. But Bologna is playing dirty.
agreed
This Bologna team should be down to 9 men at this point. Not just Motta being red carded. But some of the players too. They are trying to injure our players?
1-1 anyways with Loftus-Cheek equalizing.
Bravo Calabria, fantastic assist
Okay gotta make some substitutions at the break. Some of these players are at risk of being sent off. Lets shuffle things up please!
Giroud with one of the worst penalties I’ve ever seen.
He has 1 goal with his feet in serie A this season from open play!!!
We need a proper striker
I hope we see Okafor/Jovic soon, because our current front 3 can’t score
Maybe he intentionally did that because he didn’t agree with the penalty. LOL
With how many yellows that were handed out, I think it might be a mistake not making a substitution at the break. Come on Pioli.
Leao – usual lacklustre performance – needs to visit the bench for a couple of games to regain focus and motivation – Okafor and Jovic on – get Giroud off too
We need okafor asap.
Leao has literally done zero
Leao should’ve taken it, and how is scoring off the rebound offside?
Two failed pinalty
SMH
Blame Leao all you want. This man out here doing all he can to help us win and our players keep missing penalties for no damn reason. Pulisic is just running around without purpose, if this was Chuk y’all will be screaming for his head. Take Pulisic out and put in Okafor pls Pioli. Please.
Loftuss Cheeekkkkkkkkkk
2-1
I will never bad mouth Loftus-Cheek again! OMG
Uh… let Jovic take the penalties though maybe lol?
What is their keeper doing. My god we are lucky
Bologna choked, but I’ll take it! RLC! Another one of those horrible summer transfers.
I think most of our summer transfers were good. But RLC is… a bit inconsistent to say at best.
god dangit
Terraciano
Pioli sure knows how to bring on new players to have a bad game. He knew nerves were already high in this game and he brought on this kid for his league debut. SMH. Theo keeps being the easiest LB to dribble it’s crazy.
For those who didn’t understand the call, Theo did a double touch. If you touch (shoot) the ball and it comes off the post it cannot be touched by the PK taker again. It needs to be touched first by another player before touching the ball again, if necessary. It’s like taking a pk and the ball touches your boot twice before it reaches the keeper. Same rule, can’t double touch. The kick is voided.
Not a night to remember for Mike between the sticks
What a dog sh1t performance!!
Useless