AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca has named the starting line-up that his team will use against Sassuolo in the Coppa Italia, and he has gone for half-rotation.
Friday night’s game against Atalanta in Bergamo is arguably the biggest of the season so far, so the temptation will have been there to make big changes, especially against a team a division lower.
However, Fonseca admitted in his interview on the eve of the tie that he will be taking the Coppa Italia seriously, and that he still regards Sassuolo as a Serie A side given they are flying high.
The official starting line-ups
Mike Maignan and Theo Hernandez will both miss the game as the goalkeeper has undergone dental surgery, whereas Theo suffered a bruised foot at the weekend. Marco Sportiello and Filippo Terracciano take their respective places.
There are three other changes to the back four from the team that beat Empoli 3-0 with Davide Calabria, Fikayo Tomori and Strahinja Pavlovic all coming into the side. Youssouf Fofana and Tijjani Reijnders remain unmoved as the double pivot, however.
There are changes in attack too with Samuel Chukwueze, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tammy Abraham all coming into the side, though Rafael Leao keeps his spot on the left side.
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Sportiello; Calabria, Tomori, Pavlovic, Terracciano; Fofana, Reijnders; Chukwueze, Loftus-Cheek, Leao; Abraham.
Bench: Torriani, Raveyre, Emerson, Gabbia, Thiaw, Jimenez, Musah, Pulisic, Okafor, Morata, Camarda.
Official Sassuolo XI (4-3-3): Satalino; Paz, Odenthal, Muharemović, Pieragnolo; Iannoni, Obiang, Caligara; Volpato, Mulattieri, Antiste.
Bench: Moldovan, A. Russo; Miranda, Missori, Toljan; Boloca, D’Andrea, Ghion, Kumi, Thorstvedt; Berardi, Laurienté, Moro, Pierini, F. Russo.
Fofana Reijnders Leao should be used only for 45 minutes… max.
I mean, there’s no excuse now lol. Absolutely no reason to make them play 2nd half with a 4 nil lead
Was hoping to see Torriani. Would have been the perfect game to get minutes
What joy. 4231 till someone 💀
R u sure we don’t have bartesaghi on the bench?
Over working fofana like crazy, not starting Camarda, probably won’t give torriani a chance, terrible manager
Yea def a bad call being up 4-0 at halftime…
Sassuolo resting a lot of their starters. wondering if that is because they lost hope when it became clear that Fofana,Reijnders,Leao start? that would be the only positive thing about starting them. hope we lead at halftime so we can sub Musah->Fofana, Camarda->Reijnders, Okafor->Leao. without leading i fear that Puli, Morata etc come on then we go to overtime and we can bury any remaining title dreams in Bergamo.
Does anyone know how I can watch coppa italia from Australia?
Have been searching but I can’t find a way.
Previously you could get a crap video on bet365 but they appear to have lost this comp rights
footybite.to
🏴☠️ 🤣
hesgoal or rojadirecta might also be an option.
Yess let’s go boys !!! 😁
Fantastic strike by 🦌
Hope we can score one more and bring on the kids. That would be fantastic. And sub out Deers and Fofs..let them get some rest
Haven’t seen a team layed down for us in a long time. Usually it’s another team. Also while we’re trashing them our D still looks bad, why do we take so many risks there I’ll never know 🤷♂️
To be fair we are playing all backups in defense. First choice defenders have two consecutive clean sheets in the league.
Brings on Pulisic?!?!for fcking why?
And u guys wonder why we can’t believe 100% in what Fonsy is doing
Error Error Error. Logic not found..
I guess it’s a miracle he didn’t start him….
Lets go for double digits!
Anybody else wanna agree that most of our players have improved under Fonseca?? Is this the same Tijj that we all almost got tired of that is scoring and playing well? I know it’s just Sassuolo but you can’t deny we have seen some improvements under Fonseca. Under Pioli, we would be struggling with our long balls but now we are creating from the middle and shooting well. He just needs to fix our defense and we will be good under him. Patience.
No. I don’t agree
Well this is Tijji second year so improvement was expected. However he is doing very well this season. And I’m not even talking about the scoring. His football is overall just better.
Also this is a Sassuolo that’s lying down, I’d take it with a grain of salt. Let’s see what happens vs Atalanta first.
It’s his second season and improvement was expected? remember all the players that never improved under Pioli? CDK was thrown away after just one season even tho he never got enough opportunities under the terrible coach we had.
And if he was kept he would’ve been better second season.
Fonseca has no hand if players appear to be playing better.
Puli was already good and is just continuing his form. Tijji is in hot form, but Fonseca has nothing to do with it. He did manage to break theo tho..
Wow, you truly believe that Fonseca has no hands in the players playing better? you don’t believe that a coach’s style plays a part in that? but you clearly think he broke Theo? lol. Just contradicted yourself there. You have no way to prove that CDK would have improved under Pioli in his second season, Also, if that was the case, the tactical genius (Pioli) wouldn’t have let him leave.
I don’t believe, I know. Fonseca couldn’t improve a glass of water.
It’s not contradicting. Because he never improved anyone. He only broke theo.
As you have no prove that tijji would be hot from regardless who the coach would be atm… it’s his natural evolution, no coach can influence that…
“all the players that never improved under Pioli?” Sure but lots improved under him. Leao, Theo, Bennacer, Kessie, Tonali, Dalot etc all improved under Pioli. Come on now. And that was the core that won the title. Pioli got no fewer than 11 new players last season and had to navigate that nonsense from management and still came second. Fonsy ain’t sniffing 2nd place anytime soon brother.
And yes Tijji is in his prime years. He has a year under his belt, he should be better than last year.
This is Fonsy’s first season and I will remind you at the end of the season of this comment if he makes second place. Pioli ended his first season with us in the 6th place. so to your point, maybe you should give Fonsy the same grace you gave Pioli in his first season right?
Fonseca is starting his first season with stars like Mike, theo, leao, pulisic, Emerson royal morata.
What players did pioli have at the time? Kessie and piatek? Suso? Snake hakan. Rebiče
Sure you can remind me. I’ll be more than happy as it would mean a guaranteed UCL spot. This is why I prefer when ppl comment on the prediction article at the beginning of the season to see how much they trust the decisions of management..it’s far easier to make your ammends mid season. But alas. Do you and did you always believe we were a team that can place second or are you saying this out of emotion?
Btw Pioli took over during the season when we were 12th place, had no preseason prep, still placed 6th, scored the most goals since 2013 and memorably beat Juve 4-2 that season. After that he never placed worse than 4th and got a Scudetto.
Fonsy is just at the beginning of his journey with a superior team. If you want to credit him with Tijji’s improvement, then would you credit him for making RLC, Theo and Tomori worse? You cant have it one way and not the other. He’s not been around long enough imo
Definitely agree.
I think Fofana is allowing Reijnders the freedom he need by doing most of the dirty work
Good. Make it a goal fes. Get 5 more!
From Sassuolo I like C.Volpato very much. We must take this young player. He has a lot of talent and good physique.
Sure Chief Scout.
First 25 minutes very impressive regardless of that we are playing against Serie B team, then I think we started to slack off a bit or at least over do things.
Hopefully we will give a bunch of our players who has played a lot of minutes up until now in the season some rest.
Give Camarda and okafor the second half swap in Musah early on for Fofana.
Either way as things stand wish we had a few more youngsters available as it would be the perfect opportunity to give them a chance to prove themselves.
I know we don’t like Calabria but I have loved seeing him way more than Royal
I’ve always liked Calabria and hope he gets his contract renewed.
Why bring on Pulisic at half time at 4:0?
Just rest him ffs!
Why using all subs by 64 minutes?
And why not Camrada?
I feel Calabria can play DM very well. His movements only if he was a bit faster.
Calabria was a midfielder in his younger years and has even played there for the senior team in a handful of matches.
The DM we don’t deserve but need.
Ill keep him but wasnt really myself saying that he should play there but he is nevertheless a player i would keep, but he has played there and on the right right side of midfield at a younger age.
For me he would still be our starter at rb.
I’d definitely keep him. He’s homegrown and doesn’t mind fighting for his spot. At least it looks that way 2 me. And his salary is still low. Idk if he is asking for a raise or not on that matter. I believe about 0 what I read online about it.
Absolutely and I also have a difficult time believing that his demands would be especially high as he currently earns 2 mil net a year and I expect he would do whatever in his means to stay with us so lets hope that happens. Royal on the other hand earns 4,5 mil a year.
Sassuolo swamped