AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca has named his starting line-up for the game against Venezia tonight, and there are several changes compared to the Lazio match before the break.
Milan will be without defenders Malick Thiaw and Davide Calabria who are out due to an ankle sprain and a knock respectively. Ismael Bennacer, Alessandro Florenzi and Marco Sportiello are long-term absentees.
It was reported by the media during the week that Fonseca would field the ‘fourth version’ of his Milan, and he has named a back four of Emerson Royal, Matteo Gabbia, Strahinja Pavlovic and Theo Hernandez in front of Mike Maignan.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek is expected to be alongside Youssouf Fofana in the midfield double pivot with Tijjani Reijnders playing a more advanced role like he did for the Netherlands over the international break. However, it is possible the Dutchman could be deeper again.
Christian Pulisic is on the right wing and Rafael Leao on the left, with the latter returning after starting the Lazio game from the bench. Tammy Abraham will lead the line, with Alvaro Morata recovering from injury to get a spot on the bench.
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Emerson, Gabbia, Pavlovic, Theo Hernandez; Loftus-Cheek, Fofana; Pulisic, Reijnders, Leao; Abraham.
Bench: Torriani, Raveyre, Terracciano; Bartesaghi , Tomori; Zeroli, Musah; Chukwueze, Okafor, Morata, Jovic.
Official Venezia XI (3-4-2-1): Joronen; Idzes, Svoboda, Schingtienne; Candela, Duncan, Nicolussi Caviglia, Zampano; Oristanio, Busio; Pohjanpalo.
Bench: Bertinato, Grandi, Stanković; Carboni , Sagrado; Andersen, Crnigoj, Doumbia, Ellertsson; El Haddad, Gytkjaer, Yeboah, Raimondo.
I don’t understand starting Pavlo when he played the internationals and Tomori didn’t….
Maybe he’s looking at gabbia and pavlo as the new partnership? Tomori hasn’t so good that he ant be benched.
No matter who starts, no excuse, must win game. Venezia is a bottom table team.
4-0 is the score line, enjoy the game
How do you know
The same formation again. This man may just be worse than Pioli lol
Watch the game first. Tijani is actually in a more advanced role.
i rue the day we got rlc
Amen.
Really hoping for a great game from reijnders here.
Actually let’s have a great team performance because we haven’t seen one of those yet.
Pulisic is going to get injured if Fonseca keeps playing him every match, even after international travel.
Lets show some intent and get a big win today to regain some confidence.
…And Theo scores after 1 and a half minutes.
That’s one strength we haven’t been using for 2 years. Theo overlapping leao.
I wouldn’t say for two years but at least not as consistent as previously but we was also more dependent on those two previously.
Hell yeah, Gabbia 2-0.
Haha 3-0 Pulisic. Looking good
Hahaha this is getting funny, give me a two digit win 😀
4-0 after 28 minutes
Haha GABBIA – who most of us have been wishing would start since the beginning of the season.
It baffles the mind how he isn’t starting every game. He really elevated his game. Not just defensive work either..
Problem is Tomori is the only CB with pace, and you’re going to need pace against teams like Liverpool and Inter. You can get away with 2 slower CBs in games like this tho. Gabbia is for sure a better option than Thiaw.
Pace only matters when you made a mistake..not to mention pavlo is actually very quick for his size. He has plenty of pace
So far so good, but the right side of that defense still makes me tremble. Dimarco is going to have a field day against Royal.
Hopefully Royal turns into Cafu against the big teams like Calabria 😅
I also think there is too much space between out double pivot midfielders and the back 4 when not in possesion. Something Inzaghi is sure to exploit. We could easily be overwhelmed.
Nice to see players enjoying giving up penalties for each other. Something we couldn’t do with Giroud and Ibra always grabbing the ball. lol
We certainly needed a bit of luck and we have gotten a lot!!
Not impressed with our overall play, too many misplaced passes and big holes in the middle of the pitch.
Also if those 2 penalties were awarded against us , I would be furious.
Anyway, hopefully we can rest a few guys and that this will give some confidence
Fonseca is slowly showing he’s just like Pioli. 4-0 up and you couldn’t give Zeroli and Bartesaghi 30-40 mins of play ??? Are our young players ever gonna get a chance ? Bennacer is gonna be out for a while and this should have been an opportunity to give Zeroli some run with the senior team. Smh
Like someone mentioned earlier, we’re lucky in this game and I still don’t like our tactics. We hold onto the ball too much and we’re still building up very slow.
If Bennacer were healthy even Zeroli wouldn’t be given these minutes. Integrating/evaluating the senior players into Fonseca’s tactics is a priority right now.
I found that VAR review to be very strange. Glad to get the Venezia goal chalked off, but it doesn’t make sense. Yellow cards (given or not given) aren’t reviewable, even if it would be a second yellow. So the call should have been either no change (so no foul and good goal) or a red card.
Oh wait, I guess offensive fouls in the lead up to a goal invalidate the goal and then he also decided to give the second yellow?
This
I predicted it to be 4-0, and that was the score