AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca has named his starting line-up for the game against Atalanta at the Gewiss Stadium.
After victories over Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League, Empoli in the league and Sassuolo in the Coppa Italia – having scored 12 goals in the process – Milan have some confidence going into the game in Bergamo.
Despite this, everyone is aware that tonight is much different test. Atalanta have won eight in a row and are second in the league, while they are also scoring goals for fun. Thus, it will be a real litmus test.
Official starting XIs
Paulo Fonseca made eight changes to the line-up for the team that beat Sassuolo, and he has made eight changes again, fully altering the team back to how it was against Empoli.
Emerson Royal, Matteo Gabbia, Malick Thiaw and Theo Hernandez will be the defensive line ahead of Mike Maignan, then Tijjani Reijnders and Youssouf Fofana are the double pivot ahead of them.
Yunus Musah should act on the right as the ‘balancer’ that he has been in recent starts. Christian Pulisic will have a free-roaming role behind the striker which will be Alvaro Morata, and then Rafael Leao completes the attack on the left flank.
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Emerson Royal, Thiaw, Gabbia, Theo Hernandez; Fofana, Reijnders; Musah, Pulisic, Leao; Morata.
Bench: Torriani, Sportiello, Calabria, Tomori, Pavlovic, Terracciano, Loftus-Cheek, Chukwueze, Okafor, Abraham, Camarda.
Official Atalanta XI (3-4-1-2): Carnesecchi; Djimsiti, Hien, Kolasinac; Bellanova, De Roon, Ederson, Ruggeri; Pasalic; De Ketelaere, Lookman.
Bench: Rui Patricio, Rossi, Kossounou, Godfrey, Scalvini, Toloi, Brescianini, Palestra, Samardzic, Sulemana, Zaniolo, Retegui.
Win this and Milan can have chances to reach top 4.
No we don’t. At least not this round
yes and lose it it will be hard to get top 4
If we can win this match and the remaining December matches in Serie A then the scudetto race is far from over for us in my view but whether we actually can manage to do that might be a different matter but we can at least hopefully start with a win tonight.
If we look at the two teams form then a draw wouldn’t really be a too shabby result but but if we actually wanna compete for the scudetto then a win is a must and could get us a long way in the long run with a match in hand against Bologna.
I wont come with a prediction as this can go either way but hopefully we will prevail.
true but napoli can solely focus on seria a while milan still compete in 3 competitions
Sure but I also mentioned them as the probable favorites further down the thread.
Sensible lineup. Need to stay compact and not get drawn out by the false 9s. We can counter well. Fonseca’s time to prove he has what it takes.
we are already out of scudetto normally to win a league atleast in the top 4 leagues you can only lose max 4 games scudetto wont happen top 4 is a possibilty
It’s not likely but far from impossible but we will obviously also be dependent on how other teams fare but as we actually isn’t half way through the season and if we can win those reverse matches then surely the scudetto race isn’t over and as along as it is mathematically possible then we shouldn’t give up so easily but sure we will first have to get back into the top 4 or 5. I will nevertheless say that Napoli probably is the favorite to win it but a lot of things can change in the coming months.
Why Calabria isn’t playing? He was better than Emerson on every aspect
I’m optimistic, and like the lineup. The question is how mussah will function. Most likely he will play a rb to double up on lookman. If we can stop their attack, I believe they we leave enough space for Leao, Power Reijnders, and Pulisic. Let’s go boys!
From my own opinion too Calabria is better than Emerson
We only need to start using 433 to avoid exposing our defenders as we can see that seria is more of defensive Wic affect us wen playing forward that’s y it’s difficult for Milan to win defensive team
do all u can to win this one, a must win 1-2
We have no back up midfielder. Only loftus unless terraciano fills in too. Should have zeroli or another youth there. Or we start playing calabria as dm too…
I think we’re finally seeing the solidification of a preferred starting 11. While I’m not a fan of playing a CM at RW, Fonseca seems to have no choice given how weak we are at RB thanks to management. Fonseca has been called a “yes man”, but playing Musah at CM is not only an expedient move, but also a message that says Royal is not good enough. The bright side is fixing on a first 11. The chopping and changing needs to stop, particularly at CB.
Decent lineup, more of a 433 really. I’d rather see calabria than E.R
Atalanta have a stronger bench/squad so that may play a part as the game wears on.
If Milan turn up and play I think it will be a high scoring game, maybe 3-3
If we don’t it could be painful
Mmm, I see 5 Milan players in a line out of possession. We can try to convince ourselves that Musah being in means a 4-3-3, but no, it’s extra cover for Royal. But this might not matter, as it depends on what we do in transition/with the ball.
Very exciting start to the game.
Can we please just buy Ederson and Bellanova. Leverage the CDK money
CDK. Theo. Ouch.
Theo again. Smh
CDK dominates Theo in the air!
There is a word we have for how theo is this season..best translation would be limp.. he’s limp. Like a pipi limp, ya?
Theo terrible defending, what a surprise here.
Theo zero defence. Theo in more a liability for us than an asset.
It’s time to sell
How can a ‘defender’ not know how to be aware of your surroundings or how to jump ?? Same thing at the game against Cagliari. Smh
Mike has some responsibility as well. If there is a weakness in his game, its coming out for floated crosses. Sometimes he just doesn’t move for catchable/punchable ones.
The ball had pace on it and he had players in front of him
Great game!
I’m glad we have turned up.
2 teams who love to attack 🍿
So Thiaw is ahead of Tomori now in pecking order?
Oh no Puli. We’re going to be so one-sided now. I hope this isn’t a long term issue or we’re screwed…
Anybody wondering the difference between a good winger and a great winger look at Leao’s cross with his left foot.
Chucky can’t do that and tgat is why he is not good enough
Pulisic off for RLC. Good night and good luck ffs
Surely Chucky is the one to bring on.
It was inevitable our overplayed players like Pulisic would get injured
Yep. Might be game over. They’re going to double up on Leao now and lock it down. We need to keep them from scoring further if we hope to take points.
Milan should press a little harder off the ball. This letting them passing the ball around and eventually reaching to the top of our box camping there with dangerous moves is not convincing.
Just what I was thinking – we’re not aggressive enough in the press atm. This is how you beat Atalanta- don’t give them time to play it around as they want
Mike is also sure taking his time releasing the ball when it’s in his feet. We seem a bit fearful. The entire team, except for Leao.
Yep – it looks like we’d be happy with a draw but we should be going all out to win this. Atalanta aren’t freaking invincible.
Besides we’re not able to create as much counter attacking moves of our own with this football
Theo with a wonderpass to Leao on the goal; classic Milan. Let’s go
Makes such a big difference to our defensive phase with Leao dropping back
Fonseca is frustrating.
We have played a good game against very good opposition. Pulisic going off is a huge huge blow.
But please put on Chucky to replace him not RLC, we have been under pressure since he went off and I worry for us in the 2nd half now
He has done a good job with the team tonight but I think that substitution will cost us the game
I think d sub is not bad given that Atalanta is a attacking team. Rlc can provide some muscle that we need right now. At least even if we don’t score, they shouldn’t score us
I would rather that we had moved Morata down there and then inserted Tammy up front.
Theo though is starting to irittate me in regard of basically diving when De Ketelaere scored, he should know that we live in the VAR era by now.
Still a pretty good first half performance from the lads and this one can still be won even though losing Pulisic will make it somewhat more difficult.
Seems like atalanta ha grown more into this game than Milan. If something drastic doesn’t happen for us in the first 10 min after half time we gonna lose imao
In no other team will Theo be allowed to take afree kick. Even Crotone will say no to him taking a free kick for them
I know this game isn’t over yet but… is Royal turning into a defender?
Nope.
😂 he’s playing better than usual recently- put it that way
Nah.. he’s been useless
No he was horrific, almost caused a goal by abandoning Lookman, then did cause a goal by abandoning Lookman
Leao stopped dropping back and is putting us under pressure
Where are our reinforcements?!
Take Royal off please
Royal has learned how to fall around like Morata is frustrating to watch. And Maignan is wasting time since the 55 minute which means we came to play for a draw ? That’s insane.
Mike love wasting time whether holding the ball for extra annoying seconds before pass it out or going down receiving treatment
Why are our players falling around and playing for the whistle ? This is embarrassing and not a winning formula.
What’s our excuse of playing defensively in a match we should try to win ,
Isn’t it ridiculous that ruben comes from the ” more physical ” premier league and gets bodied everytime he’s on the pitch?
Amd he’s a big dude
Omg and we’ve conceded.
Afraid to say that‘s been coming the whole half!
Musah does not know what to do with the ball on his feet but at least he drops back according to some people so he’s better than Chuk. SMH..
At now I’ll see them adding some pressure. The truth tho is that there’s no more time left to play.
Oof. CL qualification is on the line…2025 might be a Year Zero…
Great – we need a goal and bring on Chuck
Man Theo is awful
Very awful.
Who isnt?
Is this Fonseca s last game? This team is clueless, running around like chickens with no heads and that’ on the coach. Why didn’t he make any subs when the team was toothless? Why not play the players from primavera? They can’t do any worse than Theo, Musah, Royal, etc.
It’s a bit ironic how we go for a relatively cheap coach to save money only to lose out on cl and lose money great strategy