AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca has named his starting line-up for the game against Genoa, and he has opted to give starts to two teenagers.
The headlines in the build-up to the game have been dominated by the fact Fonseca went on a bit of a rant about the attitude of the team after the narrow win over Red Star at home.
It led to reports stating that he was going to mix up the team a bit, something that the absences of Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Yunus Musah have also contributed to.
Official starting line-ups
The four-man defence is Emerson Royal, Matteo Gabbia, Malick Thiaw and Alex Jimenez ahead of Mike Maignan, with Theo Hernandez therefore dropping to the bench.
Tijjani Reijnders and Youssouf Fofana are in the midfield double pivot once again, with Samuel Chukwueze, Mattia Liberali and Rafael Leao the attacking trident behind Tammy Abraham.
It is a big opportunity for Jimenez and Liberali, who have spent pretty much the entire season with Milan Futuro to this point. Alvaro Morata and Noah Okafor are on the bench having recovered.
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Emerson Royal, Gabbia, Thiaw, Jimenez; Fofana, Reijnders; Chukwueze, Liberali, Leao; Abraham.
Bench: Sportiello, Torriani, Calabria, Morata, Okafor, Theo Hernnadez, Tomori, Pavlovic, Bartesaghi, Terracciano, Vos, Camarda.
Official Genoa XI (3-5-1-1): Leali; Vogliacco, Bani, Vasquez; Zanoli, Frendrup, Badelj, Thorsby, Martin; Miretti; Pinamonti.
Bench: Sommariva, Gollini, Bohinen, Vitinha, Pereiro, Norton-Cuffy, Sabelli, Maracndalli, Ankeye, Matturro, Balotelli, Accornero, Melegoni, Masini.
No bench players @Oliver Fisher?
Would love to see the futuro perform well.
Forza Milan, let’s get the 3 points
Mario Baloteli at Genoa ???
Yup, I had noticed that previously but he joined them in late October so he hasn’t played much for them yet.
Why does fonsesca love thiaw so much
I wish the young lads the best and hopefully they do well.
However this seems more like Fonseca venting his anger than giving youth a chance.
These young players should be nurtured, start by giving them minutes at the end of games. Throwing them in on a night like tonight and expecting them to perform is unfair.
Thats very poor player management. Also Jimenez is a right back!
Can’t understand why the coach doesn’t play Pavlovic at LB, it would do him good. After that Bartesaghi is more ready and a natural LB.
Vos is the only midfield alternative on the bench
This may be Fonsecas night that makes or breaks him
This guy’s a genius 🤣
Man said to play pavlovic at lb😭🙏. Might as well have no lb rather than play pavlovic
Pavlovic is a senior pro not a youth player for starters.
He has played on the left of a back 3 many times and has the pace to break forward.
He needs opportunities to improve his game and at left back he is less of a liability than CB.
It seems a very logical solution.
Thanks for the feedback, i look forward to reading your insights
i dont know what they’re smoking
but playing pavlovic as lb actually makes sense
he’s fast despite his size
just like stam used to play as rb too
it probably will hinder the attack from left side but the defense will also probably more solid
hopefully liberali and jiminez shine
It will probably be Mike, due to seniority, but I hope Gabbia gets the armband.
Since bologna won fiora and leapfrog us this is a must win game now. It was a must win before but now it’s very must win.
Ultra must win.
It should be an interesting match to watch with the youngsters included. Hopefully they will do well and we will get a victory. It would be nice if Vos also can get a chance today.
Don’t like two futuro players as starters. One already is more than enough. An arrogant formation by Fonseca, who seems to be more interested in proving his point than winning. I hope his gamble pays off.
We can’t complain about this. Theo needs to get his acts together. We are Milan and everyone playing for us must have a heart for the team. Theo feels indispensable and I think it is right for the coach to let him know he has to wake up.
Liberali hopefully pulls well from what we saw at preseason. No caps, I don’t want us to lose him We lost Daniel.
I really hope for a reaction in the is game and I hope that liberali will play a great game. Forza milan!
2-1 for Milan
Leo and Reji to score for Milan with Liberali and Chuk assist and for Genoa
Hope Balotelli’s score today 😂
3-1.
Emerson royal hattrick
0-0.
These jerseys are great.
I wish they had an option to buy every jersey without the shirt sponsors.
Maybe a jersey with allegri for you
Ha ha 😂.
Struck a nerve i see.
I would never walk around with another person name on my back. But will get you one with Benitez on the back.
Funny how days after reports that Liberali might leave he’s in the starting lineup… hope he does well – it’s going to be an interesting evening…
Wow, fonseca went full crazy.
Let’s hope it will still be enough…
Oh Emerson, why couldn’t you cross that after a nice ball by Liberali?
How is he still starting ffs?
Absolutely useless player
Dude needs 3 touches to control the ball.
He’s so useless.
Worst player we have on the team by far
All i want is Kalulu back. We didn’t need or ask for any money to be spent on RB.
He is one of the worst football players i have ever seen.
I would play Tomori, Terraciano, Jimenez, Musah, anyone over him
P. S Chucky is another car crash
It was a no brainer. Keep kalulu and play him rb. Use the cash for a midfielder.
But nope.
Chuku just can’t get into rhythm. He’s got some skillz but it’s so random when they surface.. usually he just doesn’t do anything.
Emerson is so bad, he needs to retire.
Is it mediocrity we are celebrating tonight?
So so ordinary and void of ideas
At least Jimenez and Liberali have started reasonably well
Morata to come on for Liberali.
Oh, it’s for Tammy. Hmm…
Idk why he did that..Abe had literally 0 traffic to work with.
Liberali on the other hand , well that was a penalty, let’s be honest.
What exactly has emerson done bad this game? People are just finding ways to hate him more. He ain’t the best rb but he’s been better than Calabria which isn’t saying much. As I write this he almost scored.
You’re drunk as fvck if you think Emerson is better than Calabria.
Starting to smell like a 1-0 Genoa win. The kind where we have 60% possession and like 15 shots for nothing, and then make one mistake in the 85th minute and concede a goal.
SuperMario to be the culprit too.
Come on camarda. Steal the show!
Perhaps we could bring on Theo for Emerson, play Jimenez at RB? Might give us some cutting edge
I guess Okafor is the other option to bring on, perhaps for Liberali or Chucky
Feels like we shouldn’t have made this the 125 anniversary game…should’ve got Milan legends out there for a kickabout instead of sitting in the stands studying their phones and made this a regular league game.
Think if you gave fonseca wc players in every position his approach still wouldn’t work.
Dull, uninspiring game
Can we get f-cking Emerson and Chucky off the pitch!!!!!
Theo and Okafor on the bench, what are we doing!!!!
This manager is f-cking blind!!
And he failed his first dribble…
Give him a minute, the guy gets no play time.
Chucky failed at everything as he always does
Theo is not coming on dude. His benching is a statement, he’ll remain there all game, or else the manager loses what he was hoping to accomplish with that.
Really, this game is just plain mediocrity.
I was hoping for some real transformation, but…
Anyway, I just watched 15mins of the game and there is nothing interesting to see more.
Uuggghh. Morata should have scored twice already. Waiting for that Genoa sucker punch…
Is Okafor drunk?
Fonseca is the drunk one. Abe off morata on.
Wtf
And Thiaw.. fk it I think the whole team’s sozzled
Genoa free kick. Here it comes!
Pretty flat performance.
Really.
Disgraceful.
Well, we didn’t lose…
What a f-cking embarrassed this team is to the club tonight
See ya in Friday. I’m out
Positives today
-Jimenez
-…………………………………….
Better performance than Red Star for the last 15 mins (what I saw) but a worse result. Morata needs to stop trying to go for the top corner. Just hit it low from than range.