AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca has named the starting line-up for the final Soccer Champions Tour game against FC Barcelona, and it remains fairly consistent from the Real Madrid game.
Tonight’s game at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore is the final commitment in the USA for Milan, who will then return to Italy and prepare for the last friendly against Monza at San Siro in the Silvio Berlusconi Trophy (August 13, 21:00 CEST). The season gets underway on Saturday August 17 at 20:45 CEST against Torino.
Fonseca has named Lorenzo Torriani in goal once again with Marco Sportiello injured and Mike Maignan still in Italy, while Fikayo Tomori, Malick Thiaw and Filippo Terracciano are in the back four. Alexis Saelemaekers is in the team and looks like being the right-back.
Yunus Musah and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are in the midfield double pivot allowing Christian Pulisic to play in a more advanced central role, with Samuel Chukwueze on his right and Rafael Leao on the other flank. Luka Jovic has been given the nod to start up front.
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Torriani; Saelemaekers, Tomori, Thiaw, Terracciano; Musah, Loftus-Cheek; Chukwueze, Pulisic, Leao; Jovic.
Bench: Ravyere, Nava, Calabria, Bennacer, Kalulu, Okafor, Zeroli, Jimenez, Liberali, Pobega, Gabbia, Camarda, Cuenca, Adli.
Official Barcelona (4-3-3): Ter Stegen, Álex Valle, Sergi Domínguez, Lenglet, Gerard Martín; Christensen, Casadó, Gündogan; Raphinha, Lewandowski, Pau Víctor.
Bench: Araujo, Balde, Martinez, Torre, G. Fernandez, Darvich, Pena, Bernal, Roque, Junyent, Fort, Kounde, Faye, Aga, T. Fernandez, Olmedo, Cuenca, Kochen.
Saladmacker at LB …?
I think it is indicating he is at RB.
Saelemaekers/Chuk on the right.
Terracciano/Leao on the left.
It’s a strong line up I think.
I’m with others. If Saelesmaekers does well at RB, maybe we should just focus on a DM and striker only.
Welp, he’s horrendous at RB at least for this game.. Comical defending for barca first goal and most of barca Dangerous attack were coming from his flank
yeah LW/RW for Saelemakers. Emerson is guaranteed I guess…
Calabria still is missing something and I don’t know what. Today he was on the field but what did he do?
Although, he’s not as bad as he’s being portrayed, except against very fast wingers his defending is solid. That issue is mostly due to him not putting enough space in-between and getting stuck up the field, which can be fixed with some improvements in decision-making.
Terracciano also didn’t do anything exciting this pre-season…
At least LB side is fine with Theo and Jimenez
No he his playing RB tonight
*morning
if salad did well in that position maybe the rumor of signing new rb will stop
i guess it’s asking too much
Uuhh saelamaekers at right back, ima keep an eye on his perfomace there. And if leao run more or if he still has that attitude like he out for a walk in town.
The management trying to put pressure on Tottenham by playing saelemaekers at RB. “see we are not forced to buy Emerson Royal, give us discount!”
Only joking
Isn’t it nice to have a coach who you can’t predict his starting lineup ? lol.
I’m actually excited for this season.
Hopefully, Saladnaker does well at RB and we abandon that donkey Emerson. I’d rather we take that 15mill and up the Fofana and Samardzic bids by 5 each.
I take that back, don’t need Samardzic with Pulisic at CAM
Looking like a 343
Luka Jovic 1-0. Pulisic with the assist. Perhaps we should stick with Jovic?
Keep Jovic, don’t waste a dime on Abraham and his bum knee.
2.nil
Puli is a wizard !
Goal & assist in 15 mins
Pulisic 2-0. Three minutes later. Watching it on my cellphone lol. We are pretty fluid attacking and seem to be better at taking chances
Great defending Thiaw….
Saladmaker acts like a child. Linesman is not flagging, concentrate on playing and stop waving. Not to mention the mess up with the goal conceded
Not bad first half. Musa worst player for sure. If he cant play in the double pivot role, i don’t know where he can play. Loftus is a bit better in the double pivot then as a AM. Hopfully we see Adli as a AM in the second half, he deserves a chance.
What. Musah did much better than Loftus Cheek. Loftus is not good enough for AM.. the same for pivot. Should be a backup somewhere. I don’t mind where exactly.
We urgently need a decent RB and DM. Salad as RB is horrrible. Thank God we got a CB, the back is porous.
With what we have just seen, i don’t mind Emerson at all. We need 2 DMS actually because i don’t know what Musah is up to but i love his movements though and we are still getting this possesion thing figured out. This season would be exciting.
Forget Chuk. Just put Salad up on the RW and have Leao, Puli and Salad plus striker up top. Chuk will take bench this season lol 😂
The attack has looked decent and salamaekers is definitely not a rb. That goal is from his very poor clearance. We look more confident each game which is good!
Tomori is honestly error prone.
We need one more CB. Tomori needs to sit down on the bench for sometime and not only think but fight for his place.
Pavlovic and Gabbia starters.
Agreed!!
Yep
But we gotta see how Pav fairs as well
The second half tells us that we need a proper DM. We need ball holders. Musah was completely useless in the second half, and Adli was not impressive either. We need midfielders that will not put pressure on our defence.
Torriani my hero. lol. Kid is better than Maignan at penalty kicks. Kid is too confident. He just need to work on his footwork and he’ll be a star.
My fears that I expressed about Fonseca’s system so far was seen in the second half. You put us up against a team who really know how to press , they’ll put us in all kinds of trouble. Maybe it’s just the learning curve, but the coaches need to provide other ways out .
And another thing, I know it’s Fonseca’s style, but the CF is waaayyy too deep. I don’t think Morata is a good fit for that.
Finally, I think 4-3-3 could offer a better chance at assimilating quicker and playing this new system better.