AC Milan head coach Massimiliano Allegri has named his starting line-up for the game against Udinese, with the formation change confirmed.
The defeat to Napoli on Easter Monday means the Scudetto race is probably over and done with, but Milan must now focus on defending their spot inside the top four. There is a six-point gap to fifth place at present, but that has been trimmed from nine.
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AC Milan vs. Udinese: Official starting XIs
The big story in the lead-up to the game is that Massimiliano Allegri is expected to go with a 4-3-3 formation, which will see a three-man attack used from minute one for the first time. As it turns out, that is exactly what the coach has gone with.
Mike Maignan will have a four-man defence ahead of him consisting of Zachary Athekame, Koni De Winter, Strahinja Pavlovic and Davide Bartesaghi. Samuele Ricci, Luka Modric and Adrien Rabiot are the three in midfield, with Youssouf Fofana not at 100%.
The transition to a three-man attack still means that Alexis Saelemaekers, Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao keep their place. The Belgian and the American will flank the Portuguese, who remains as a striker.
Official Milan XI (4-3-3): Maignan; Athekame, De Winter, Pavlovic, Bartesaghi; Ricci, Modric, Rabiot; Saelemaekers, Leao, Pulisic.
Bench: Pittarella, Terracciano, Tomori, Gabbia, Odogu, Estupinan, Jashari , Fofana, Loftus-Cheek, Nkunku, Gimenez, Fullkrug.
Official Udinese XI (3-5-2): Okoye; Kristensen, Kabasele, Solet; Ehizibue, Ekkelenkamp, Karlstrom, Atta, Kamara; Zaniolo, Davis.
Bench: Nunziante, Sava, Padelli, Zarraga, Gueye, Bertola, Bayo, Buksa, Arizala, Mlacic, Piotrowski, Camara, Miller.
So yet again Leão as a striker huh
That front duo ….. throw enough mud at the wall I suppose…
Classic Allegri…
All this time waiting for the 4-3-3 only for him to play Saelemaekers as RW and Leao as a striker.
I know, right? I’ve never known a coach as stubborn as this one..
I don’t understand this front line. No Prima Punta. None of the front 3 can play as a reference 9, maybe by design?
I am curious to see how the Alexis/Athekame interchange on the flanks will work though. Also maybe that’s why Max brought on Ricci, to stabilize that flank with those two overlapping on attacks.
Curious to see how this plays out …
Erm, are we sure that’s not a 3-5-2 with one of the usual fullbacks as a CB?
Surely we’re not doing 4-3-3 without either Fullkrug, Nkunku or Gimenez when all are fit?
it might be a makeshift… a fluid lineup that will interchange between defending with 3-5-2 and in possession with 4-3-3.
Leao and Puli will be bombarding the left flank, while right flank will be for defensive and boring duties. similar to how Pioli had with Theo and Leao going for the left flank while Alexis/Messias plus Calabria protected counter attacks on right
when Gabbia is fit, DeWinter might take the RB role.
Barte – Pavlovic – Lucumi/Gila* – DeWinter
???* – Tomori – Gabbia – Athekame
Probably not with only 2 CB’s. If Pavlo played LB with Tomori/Koni it would have been.
Allegri the tactical genius. Lmao.
It’s 442 alegri is really coward he wants to defend, Salad will play rwb
Allegri. I rooted for your return but I can’t celebrate it anymore. Really, salamaekers as rw, Leao as striker? Sh*t
Leao shouldn’t play striker but Sales is best at RW Thats where he played last 2 years on loan.
As much as I like Salad he should be on the bench and Pulisic on the right wing…
Yea ideally, but he is a good option in general. Absolute horror pass that lead to the goal though, Thought I think its Pavlovic who is struggling the most today, way out of position and forcing Bartesagi to cover resulting in mistakes
We will win this, I’m excited by the formation change, especially with Modric playing his natural position and Ricci in the middle instead of Fofana.
Ain’t watching though, as I’m at work, will rely on feedback in here to know how this match is going.
Forza Milan.
Leao…man…this yellow card…I truly despise this guy and his arrogance and unprofessional behavior, I want him out of Milan asap
Season collapse incoming…
Saelemaekers with the lazy play again. But fans and their tactical genius of a coach loves players that run around like headless chickens. Bart arriving to defend his position late but fans see one mistake from Estupinan and write him off immediately.
ALL our players have regressed under Allegri and we’re still planning to give him the keys to this team next season? At this point, Allegri fan supporters deserve this nonsense we’re getting.
Yeh I think the only reason to give him any keys next season would be for the team bus and he can drive them from fixture to fixture…
You mean Pavlovic arriving to defend his position late. Guy was jogging back to defence while Barts had to cover for him, leaving space on his flank.
Totally agree on this one, Pavlovic is playing like a ballwinning midfielder leaving massive space behind. But thats the thing about Allegri, he is a manager and not a coach
We play so bad, so pathetic, slow and predictable .
This is embarrassing, Zaniolo is playing like Francesco Totti with all the freedom the defense is giving him.
Saelemakers looks like a liability. In the first 40 min.
Rabio and Modric at both showing they cannot get the ball where we need it to score.
Second half we need to see
– Gimenez for Saelemakers
– Fofana for Modric (there I said it)
At the 60 we will likely still need a goal or two. So I expect Jashari for Rabio (fresh legs)
Leao doesn’t look bad. Indeed he is active going forward and both getting and creating chances. But the lack of a large mean body in the box is problematic
It’s the return of the Saladmaker all we need now is for Junior messias to come on and save the game after his mess
Awful. How slow can we be. Is it tactics or the players are just like that. There is no dynamism from the players. And yet, we are after Goretzka do do what exactly. I am the only one who thinks modric has declined and should not be renewed for next season. Pitiful.
Allegri wants to defend even when playing at home. Wants to play Catanacio with wrong players.
Yup I said it on the last match about Modric. He did amazing for more or less half of the season but the sparks slowly faded away. And Allegri keeps playing him full week in week out doesn’t help either.
I think Alllegri is messing things up by himself….what happened to Tomori , Also why still playing Leao as striker ???????? The attackers should have been Leao and Pulsic at the wings while cheek can be managed in d middle. Nkunku and fulcrug as sub. We were hoping to catch Inter 3 weeks ago but now we find ourselves begging and praying to be among the four…Once we fail once , we just fall like house of cards . This team has no identity. Inter lost some embarrassing matches but yet they still push on and believe in themselves.
I mean, at this point can we just allow Allegri play his boring and defensive games just to finish in top 4 before the sack?
Comon now, we clearly see that Allegri has nothing to offer other than his defensive style.
Please let’s play 5-4-1 for all I care at this point, if it will earn us top 4.
This is so embarrassing at the San Siro and Zaniolo is passing his audition with good grades… at this point, I feel the players are setting him up for the sack.
Bvlshit.
#AllegriOut!
When we hired Allegri, all I saw was Pioli 2.0. A coach that requires one player as a focal point up front and relies on individual brilliance of the players and a veteran player(modric &Rabiot in this case) to look like they’re doing something genius tactically.
Most of saw this nonsense from the beginning of the season and when we called it out, fans said we’re blind cos we were luckily winning games by 1-0 and all. This is embarrassing. At San Siro too. Udinese looks like the best team in the world playing against us. Smh
Now, that’s the 433 y’all desperately want to see. Lol. Allegri has stated over and over again the decision to use 352 was to stabilize the defense. Refering to how many goals we conceded last season. And it’s all clear to see how fragile our defense today.
Moreover if you have CB like Pavlo who often goes forward and attacker like Leao who offers nothing in defense.
At least everyone can keep quiet about the 433 now. We have shitty players. That formation is not for them. Let Allegri continues with his 352 ancient ways. Let’s hope the management would go for a daring coach next season. Inter took a chance with Chivu and that paid off. We need the young coaches with fresh ideas.
It’s not the formation alone, you still have to put the players in their right spot. Lol
Udinese winning us 3-0 and still looking like they want no. 4 is why I hate Allegri ball so damn much. If we were winning them by just 1 goal, we could have parked the bus by now. Ridiculous
From Scudeto contender to top 4 contender. How things can quickly change for Milan .