AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli has named a very bold starting line-up for the derby against Inter tonight.
Pioli will field a defensive line consisting of Davide Calabria and Theo Hernandez the full-backs then Matteo Gabbia and Fikayo Tomori the centre-backs in front of the goalkeeper Mike Maignan.
The midfield double pivot should be the intriguing pairing of Yacine Adli and Tijjani Reijnders, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek acting ahead of them as the attacking midfielder.
The bold choices are in attack, with Christian Pulisic diverted to the left wing and Yunus Musah on the right side, with Rafael Leao the centre-forward leading the line.
Ismael Bennacer, Olivier Giroud, Samuel Chukwueze, Noah Okafor and Luka Jovic are among the players who can come off the bench.
There are no surprises for Inter and their 3-5-2 system, with Pavard-Acerbi-Bastoni the three-man defence in front of Sommer, then Darmian, Barella, Calhanoglu, Mkhitaryan and Dimarco across the midfield, and finally Thuram and Lautaro up front.
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Gabbia, Tomori, Theo; Adli, Reijnders; Musah, Loftus-Cheek, Pulisic; Leao.
Bench: Nava, Sportiello; Caldara, Florenzi, Terracciano; Bennacer; Chukwueze, Giroud, Jović, Okafor.
Official Inter XI (3-5-2): Sommer; Pavard, Acerbi, Bastoni; Darmian, Barella, Çalhanoğlu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco; Thuram, Martinez.
Bench: Di Gennaro; Bisseck, Buchanan, Carlos Augusto, Cuadrado, de Vrij, Dumfries; Asllani, Frattesi, Klaassen, Sensi; Arnautović, Sánchez.
Omg. Musah as the right winger and Leao as striker. Why not Leao in his natural position, Okafor as striker and Chuk or Puli on the right? FFS. Oh well. Pioli is just expediting his departure.
Yep, Inter squad’s teeth are chattering right now with this line-up. Pioli is playing for a loss again a la Roma.
Inter is already planning the celebrations. Any chance they are overconfident?
Because he is a moron.
Wow. Pioli is actually going to play Leao as a n9. Let’s see how this works out where Leao has to be in between Acerbi, Pavard and Bastoni instead of vs some little full back on the wing.
Meanwhile, Thiago Motta’s Bologna dismantling De Rossi’s Roma on the road in the 1st half. Bologna playing without one of the their best players Ferguson.
Milan should do everything they can to get Motta. Hijack his negotiations with Juve, offer him more money.
Zirkzee also ballin.
But Motta has top players like Salenaldo and that Zirkzee guy that no one heard of before this season.
Salenaldo and Zirkzee just combined for their 3rd goal.
Beautiful football
According to Boulden, Motta is trash and he will get us relegated. I think he and Zirkzee will both go to Juventus and will challenge for the title in their second season there, if not the first.
If both of them are gone to Juventus, Milan management messed up big time.
They had 4 years of Pioli to know if he is their coach moving forward or not. But instead they waited to see how this season ends.
As the saying goes: things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
Both him and Zirkzee are going to end up at Juventus and we will greatly rue it.
You don’t have to watch Motta dismantling Roma today to believe in his capabilities. He’s been consistently great for a small team. I was convinced since January around when Pioli failed to make the CL group. Some people are just too afraid of changes and only looking at the negative side of it instead of proper balancing. Without changes Pioli who’s done a reasonable job to be fair wouldn’t off started in the first place.
What is going on? Pioli has gone too far… Its like he wants us to lose tonight,why is RAFA striker and musah a winger. This is going to a repeat of 5-1. THIS IS LUDICROUS!
At this point, Pioli is just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks!🤬😡 This is nothing but the signs of a desperate ma’am clinging at straws. What sort of lineup is this!!! Even my grandma will do better!
Lol, playing his best player out of position. Sums up Pioli perfectly.
It better work out nicely because as much as I believe he should be left to work in peace to the end of the season, certain performance here would be unacceptable.
He wants to mimic De Rossi using a tactic he thinks will confuse the opponent.
We all know it won’t work but he thinks he’s a genius who sees things others don’t. Prepare to be trashed…again.
He can’t contain himself from experimenting during huge games…
Pioli shud try leao as CB and maignan as striker
Tonight is going to be fun icl. I mean its a milan Derby and if inter win they win the league and Rafa is striker?? But it will be cool to see him dribbling alot more as a n9 and taking on that role.However musah as a winger is crazy. Piolo is doing the most to ruin Milan.Look at Bologna they beating roma which is something a much stronger side (us) couldnt do jus shows the manager is the real problem.
Anyways,Forza Milan
And the experiment he SHOULD do — playing Leao, Pulisic and Chuk simultaneously — he doesn’t. Why? Because everyone knows he should.
Daft stuff
Playing it safe with Musah operating as a defensive winger. Can already exclude anything extraordinary from this match.
And the happiest people are Inter, who will think the same thing. It’s in the bag.
Pioli is just thinking out of the box!! He want to pull of a daring “tactical” switch…he might as well as go gaga with any formation of his choice, what does it matter now? Musah at RW? Nice. a B2B player on the flanks, and wants to use Leao’s pace to terrorize their CB’s? but can Leao play in confines spaces between 3 CB’s? time will tell. we are only 90mins away from discovering the genius in Pioli!
or NOT.
Wait what?? Oh boy….let’s go team 🥴
Not sure how this gonna turn out ( don’t like Musah at RW not Leao at st but I’m hoping there’s more to that tactic .. like a false 9 by RLC 🤔)
Leao as no9, lets see. It’s not like inter leaves much space in the back, besides the the ball distribution that is an issue from the midfield. I would have likes to see puli as am and chuck on the right. At least puli runs. Really don’t like cheek begind the striker. Yes he has scored but he is not great at creating chances. Baldy throws him there as a disrupter to the defence. We used to see krunic there some times. Need a proper am to create, drop to pick up the ball and create chances.
Bologna is showing us the sort of mentality you need to trash an overrated team like Roma, but we have a genius coach who thinks he’s quality….
Play with courage and pride. We are Milan!!
Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, San Siro, it’s Milan time?
Looking like it. I want to believe anyway haa
Dear God in Heaven looking down upon this. Give us strength and patience to get through this.
Amen.
I am starting to like you more ffs 😢😢
God has more important things to do.
Milan are the Diavoli and owned by Wallstreet grease balls.
I think you may need to direct your prayers in the opposite direction
LMAO 😂😂😂
Sack Pioli respect for him win the league two years ago but to be frank he doesn’t deserve to coach Milan,He can’t and will never get us dream.Pls sack Pioli,if u guys were very bold to sack maldine and massara den sack Pioli now
Okay guys we got this.
Try to concede as few goals as you can.
Meanwhile smartass FURLANI and Cardinale must be eating their own sh*t by watching Motta manhandling and torturing Roma.
Next season Zirkzee and Motta will be rocking in Juve
So is Boulden. He eats it for breakfast.
On todays’s episode of Pioli OUT campaign.
Today is a special episode….it’s a Scudetto derby
Please. Sit. Deep. And. Counter.
Don’t. Press. Inter.
Sincerely,
Common sense.
Common fcking sense indeed smh 🤦♂️
Chuks??? Okafor??
Smh Pioli
Pioli went insane. OK, so if one wants to shake things up and move Pulisic and Leão to different positions, opening a space for someone other than Puli as RW, why in the hell did Pioli place Musah there instead of red-hot Chuk???
Insane. Completely crazy.
By the way, I doubt Rafa will do well a striker.
EVERYBODY except Pioli knows that the attack should be like this:
RW Chuk
CAM Puli
LW Rafa
Striker Okafor
It’s so obvious. The entire world must see this, except for the idiot known as Pioli.
Oh, and I bet he would have started Thiaw instead of red-hot Gabbia, if (thankfully) Thiaw didn’t get disqualified for this game.
The only thing is, if they plan to defend deep then Musah and Puli can defend better than Chuk & Okafor. Then hit on the counter.
Either way we need to keep expectations low tonight unfortunately. A draw would be a God sent.
wow as if milan don’t have a better player to play as right winger.
pioli really lost it huh
I see your point. And yes, let’s hope we get a draw because beating Inter will be hard, but a draw doesn’t allow them to celebrate the Scudetto today in front of our home crowd.
Why do we look more up for this pointless game than a Europa league quarter-final?
THERE ARE ONLY THREE JESUS WHO CAN SAVE MILAN
1. ABATE
2. ZLATKO DALIC
3. LIONEL SCALONI
ABATE IS A UYL FINALIST.
DALIC IS A WORD CUP FINALIST 2018, SEMIFINALIST 2022 AND UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE FINALIST 2023.
SCALONI IS A WORLD CUP WINNER 2022.
THE REST ARE AVIATOR GAMBLERS.
Yeh Abate did really well in the final – kept it to only a 3-0 loss against Olympiacos.
Abate got out coached in a lower level of competition and you want him to take over smh
Win or lose, #PioliOut
Well, we’re losing now.
Who was marking Acerbi?
You can fit a Boeing Jet in the spaces we leave open…
The whole corner I was like why do we look like we only have 3 or 4 players in the box 🤦♂️
Man that was aggravating
Here we go. 3 of our guys marking each other.
Pioli is clueless
Should be 2-0. It’s going to be a long night.
Or maybe a short night…
I feel ashamed that I’m not playing idk how these players will go home if we lose again to this team. And yeah I wouldn’t expect Pioli do some magic but at least I expected this team to grow some balls and play not fight with inter players cuz they play in better .. Idk with this management and the coaches and players who we are linked with I think we should just accept we won’t be the Milan from the 2000s or the early 1990s in the near future. FORZA MILAN and good night my boys
Pioli seems more eager to leave than the fans want him out
It’s too early to be defeatist, 1-0 after 27 mins is hardly game over.
Forza Milan
Fire Pioli at full time in the San Siro, give the fans something to celebrate on this disastrous night.
Ill drink to that.
They’re passing through the middle like it’s nothing. Oh wait, there is nothing there. No freaking midifled. Pioli is rocking his revolutionary SOS formation.
The only physical midfielder we have is playin as AM so I guess it is what it is
This is so predictable, is anybody even surprised? We’re playing without a defensive midfielder, I don’t even know what our headless chicken captain calabria was doing on that goal. It’s men vs boys really, a serie B team would pose bigger threat against Inter than this milan side..
Inter are taking it easy on us.. they are not even trying man it’s like they play their primavera team in the backyard and still bette than us 🥲 … sad man sad
How did thury boi miss that? Bleh
Why are we just firing empty crosses?
Musah doesn’t seem to look whether or not there is anyone to receive his cross before he lobs it into 5 Inter defenders.
Fire Pioli at half time
Fire pioli months ago
We are awful at the back. Giant open spaces for Inter to get into. How they haven’t scored more is a mystery.
No defensive tactics, not defending as a team. Look at how inter defend: one unit. Pioli still hasn’t figured it out.
Also , Leao as a CF does NOT work. FFS.
5 things we learned in the first half:
1. Leao is not a CF
2. Adli is not a DM
3. Tomori is not solid enough
4 RLC is not a starter
5 inter are better at not giving the ball away
Forgot Musah is not a RW.
Inter are so much better, could be 0-3 .
It’s funny, Giroud has been anonymus for a long time in our 4231 system, today he changes system and we have crosses going in and no one there.
Pioli looks like an amateur some times
Idk brother when I used to play crosses like that meant they coach told you to look for the head strong striker or you have no other idea what to do with it so just put it in the box and hope for the best.. Since we have no Giroud up there I think it’s the second and it speaks for it self …
Never seen so many crosses to into the box ….and no Giroud lol. The irony
It’s like I’ve taken crazy pills.
You know, when someone confuses the confuser.
Is somebody understanding this mayhem? Every 5 mins or so I’m trying to work out what formation or who is playing where, it’s really hard
Stupidity within stupidity, if you’re going to put Leao as a 9 (not even god his knows why) why not at least start Chukweze and Pulisic on the wings? Better yet let Leao play as a winger which he is and start Okafor as a 9
We’re leaving open spaces when we press high and don’t get back in defense quickly enough. Yet we keep doing it.
Come on Stefano. Adjust and makes changes for once.
I don’t understand such a high line
Well I don’t know how many times you have to take it up in the butt from Inzzhagi to learn that high line doesn’t work
LOL
🤣🤣🤣
Well if it stays like this ….we might just see the back of Pioli.
I remember someone asking me who i’d rather sell in the he summer and the name I gave was Mike. That’s just poor goalkeeping. I don’t care about his fancy footwork, your first job is to stop shots especially at your near post
What I don’t understand is that when a Milan player is in possession and getting surrounded by opponents his teammates don’t support him until after losing the ball the they start appearing around. Weird.
This is comical at best Giroud replaced TR and now Leao now in his regular position…Pioli is out of this world.
Why do we always look so pensive and timid when we play Inter?
Like we forget how to pass and press
Another disaster class from this idiot baldy! Anyone who still defend him is not a Milan fan smh..yet another defeat from inzaghi ckckck
Why’s Adli coming off and RLC staying on?
At this point with this substitutes I’m sure they player don’t know where they should be playin on the field
Giroud shouldn’t bother going to MLS he should retire.
Musah is absolutely gassed. Why not take homogt, go for broke with Okafor 🤷♂️🤦♂️
Musah is g@ssed, just replace him with Okafor and go for broke
Also get some red cards while we’re at it. Show some passion goddamit
We should try with Gabbia and Tomori as strikes.. this way Gerry can make some more profit 🙂
What a surprise put a winger on the wing and we score.
Let’s keep the pressure on boys we can get a result
Juve is gonna have us next weekend too.
Yes! There ya go. Show some passion! Smack the sh!t of someone!
If we keep the second place at the end of the season it’s going to be a miracle. This team is in a down spiral.. The players were more into fighting Inter players than actually beat them playing.. Firing Pioli today wouldn’t make a difference to our season anymore anyway
Legend Theo
Shame. Shame shame shame.
So bennacer chased Chuk away from taking that corner kick only for him to kick that nonsense. SMH
Really we let the injured guy take the corner…..twice.
I’ll say this. This is worse than the 5-1. 5-1 can happen anytime. You never, never, NEVER, EVER let them win the Scudetto on you turf.
Congrats to Inter on their 18th Scudetto
One of the worst corners I’ve seen in my entire life lol
And he sent Chuk away. There I am thinking yes Chuk…good left foot..on a left sided corner. Then Benny comes in, and I’m like wtf, dude u injured and it showed. I was hoping Pioli would sub Benny out tbh
Benny’s corners have been terrible. Poor placement and height.
Congrats for Inter for their determination throughout the season. Next season must be better for us IF PIOLI GONE.
Ultimate slap in the face… pretty tragic 2nd place finish (if that)
i bet that heir dude loved every second of the game and will party AF our second place. if we get it
What a time to be a Milan fan.
Fire the idiot immediately
try this one on for size. we gotta play juve without theo, tomori and calabria.. 😀
Hopefully without Pioli as well..
I was thinking the same.
Good enough, we may use the squad players now
Leao ,Theo or Maigna , one of them will be sold !
Honest question – What Milan players get into the Inter starting 11?
I can’t think of any
p.s – you have to say who’s place they are taking
We’ve been heading towards this eventuality all season long. 6 losses in a row. Pioli never found an answer. While inter improved and dominated.
The ball is in Gerry’s court to make a statement in the summer with coaching pick and key additions. The coach they pick will tell us a lot about where this club is trying to go. Hopefully even by his metrics this hasn’t acceptable.
Yes indeed. I think we are in danger of fading if the bigger guns leave. It will be vital to convince them there is a worthy project in place