AC Milan will face the red-hot atmosphere of De Kuip tonight, hoping for a positive result in the first leg of their Champions League play-off tie against Feyenoord.
While a lot of the talk about Milan coming into the game has been about the potential use of the ‘Fantastic Four’ or the ‘Fab Four’, it has been very different for Feyenoord.
Firstly one of the four mentioned is the star striker they sold to the Rossoneri, and secondly they sacked their head coach on Monday as they sit fifth in the league and are out of the cup.
The official starting XIs
The bad news for Milan is they have eight unavailable players. Alessandro Florenzi, Emerson Royal and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are injured, Yunus Musah is suspended while Alex Jimenez, Warren Bondo, Riccardo Sottil and Luka Jovic are not in the UCL squad list.
Tijjani Reijnders and Youssouf Fofana because of the lack of midfield depth, and Conceicao has made one change to the defensive with Kyle Walker, Malick Thiaw, Strahinja Pavlovic and Theo Hernandez ahead of Mike Maignan in goal.
The coach has indeed gone for the four forward players all together from minute one with Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao flanking Santiago Gimenez, who makes his return to face Feyenoord after only leaving them nine days ago.
Joao Felix also starts, but it remains to be seen if he will be alongside Gimenez in a 4-4-2 system or in behind the Mexican striker in more of a 4-2-3-1.
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Walker, Tomori, Pavlovic, Theo Hernandez; Fofana, Reijnders; Pulisic, Joao Felix, Leao; Gimenez.
Bench: Sportiello, Torriani, Chukwueze, Tomori, Bartesaghi, Terracciano, Gabbia, Camarda, Abraham.
Official Feyenoord XI (4-3-3): Wellenreuther; Read, Beelen, Hancko, Smal; Milambo, Moder, Timber; Hadji-Moussa, Ueda, Paixao.
Bench: Andreev, Ka, Bueno, Ivanusec, Carranza, Mitchell, ‘T Zand, Osman, Van den Elshout, Giersthove, Redmond.
All out attack !!
Tomori at the starting XI line up and at the bench. This is what we call a double role😂…ppz fix it…who’s gonna play Tomori or Thiaw?
Other sites are saying that Thiaw will play from the start and Tomori will be on the bench.
It’s Thiaw starting.
They haven’t updated this section from from earlier copies of the article.
They make this mistake all the time.
Heavy handed up front. Hope we stay compact and don’t get caught in transition.
How would you line up based on the players available? With no other midfielders there’s really not a viable alternative to this group. Terraciano in midfield wouldn’t be an upgrade in my opinion.
You don’t need to crowbar every attacking player into the starting lineup. Bring them in waves.
Mitigate the attacking tendencies and, FOR EXAMPLE, use Musah as a third mid/RW to help in transition. Then bring Puli in the second half or something like that.
Otherwise it can turn into a 5-0-5 if the front players don’t track back. And we know Reijnders is more attacking than defending.
(I know Musah is suspended. I’m just saying. )
I agree with shaggie96.
What else can they do with the current squad limitations?
They have other depth options to rotate during the match. But only Terracciano (who is really a full back) to rotate midfield.
This was the only option.
It’s OK there is no trusted midfielder on the bench as a alternative to this. Only other thing would be playing with 3 at the back for a more defensive security but personally I’m good with this set up.
Damn!!!! Tomori is both on the field and on the bench
Thiaw is starting. Not Tomori.
do we have a invisible tomori to?
Has Gabbia started any game under Sarge?
Hoping the fab 4 gel quickly, let’s get this win boiz… Forza Milan
On paper this is probably the best team we have fielded since the good old days.
Unfortunately matches are not won on paper.
It is a shame we have no midfielders as this would be a game to play 3 in midfield (Fofana, Benny/Musah, Tiji) and keep Felix in reserve.
Obviously Benny is gone and Musah suspended, RLC offers nothing when he is fit.
I think on any given day this team could beat anyone but as we know our players tend to pick and choose when to perform.
I can’t see us getting too far in CL with ZERO midfield options. Any suspensions, injury, lack of for, tiredness and we have no alternatives. Extra time must be avoided at all costs.
Hopefully we win this 0-3 and make life easy, but hey we know this team are a rollercoaster!
I wouldn’t want to see Terracciano in midfield at any point. He’s more a fullback. Just because they are playing him in the midfield doesn’t make him one when he doesn’t have the comfort and quality to play there. It’s like calling over a fan from the stands throwing him at goal and call him a goalkeeper!
He’s not a fullback either. I don’t even think he’s a footballer. He’s just one of the three worst Milan players in ANY position, together with Origi and Emerson.
He makes me miss Adli and I wasn’t a fan of Adli’s.
If anything thou throw him at fullback than midfield or just don’t play him.
I’m excited and confident of a good game. Forza Milan!!
With that front 4 lineup of ours I hope for a big win but I suspect it will end up as a 2-1 win for us but i expect great intensity and aggression from both teams and for that matter the supporters at De Kuip.
Theo‘s hairdo should help
Leao spoils the first attack! …oh and the second
The Fab Four’s a risk – let’s hope it pays off as Feyenoord like to flood the midfield..
What an awful experiment. I hope we don’t do that again. So unbalanced.
Oh Mike!
This team needs to show some fight!
Never a dull moment with this team, eh? Good grief.
F’ing hell Maignan, well to be fair towards him the ball and grass seems slippery but there really is not excuse here for him. Huge drop.
Shades of Dida… what a howler…
Do we know the game started?
We look like we are playing 10% slower than Feyenoord.
This is some terrible start, they look checked out, Leao is asleep.
They need to show some balls!
Sell Leao, buy Paixao.
Their attitude stinks. They play like it’s a picnic tournament.
Leao needs a rocket! Guy is hopeless
Leap has the football IQ of a 10 year old. Constantly gifting possession like it’s Christmas.
They play like warriors and fight for every centimeter whereas we tries to play more football than the field allows us to do. We need to get up in gear and show more will and directness in our approach.
We are back passing like Pioli has returned. So any time we start toward their half we seem to just shut down at the first resistance.
One thing that really irks me about Felix is his constant complaining as he is basically a walking yellow card from what I have yet seen from him while with us.
The commentators where I’m watching are shocked how bad we are.
Not only is the attitude terrible the skill level has been ZERO
Rafa you are f-cking joking
OMG 1 on 1 with the GK and Leao overruns the ball! JUST LET IT RIP FFS.
Get rid of Theo and Leao this summer
I expect to see Chuk and Tammy for Leao and Gimenez at the half.
Leao moves like a giraffe learning to walk…
Sarge is tearing some new arseh@les at the moment….
Damn these guys can ruin a man’s evening.
I can say we don’t have couch
Leao, leao, leao, how many times have I called you. When will you ever help the team to defend? Did you see Pulisic in our 18 yard box defending? Fofana thinks he is playing Cam, always caught of guard when he should be the first line of protection for the defence. Everything is not working except perhaps pavlovic. No telepathy, no ideas, no nothing
Even Gimenez has been defending – does Leao even know what day it is?..
Why are they not pressuring the goalkeeper to clear the ball when we are losing? So all this Conceicao pressing is just mere words and no actual pressing. Unbelievable
Leao is just bad
They are an embarrasment!
Walker being rosted.
Mike a catastrophy
Leao in la la land
Gimenez annonymus
Felix wasteful
Nobody doing anything bar Pavlovic
I hate how Theo slows down the play. No intensity whatsoever.
our biggest issue is indeed lack of intensity and the fact that we doesn’t play direct enough. We make too many passes when the field doesnt allow it as it looks like a soggy bread and I hope Conseicao has torn our players a new a hole at the break and make them realize that.
Let’s hope for a change of something because it’s definitely not going to plan.
Without Pavlo we’d be behind for more than one goal.
Yeah I think Pavlo is our MOTM at the moment. He’s even been good going forward.
If the attitude is not better I’d bring on Bartesaghi, Chucky, Tammy
desperate times
Why are we wasting corners FFS!!
All they need to do is play keep away for the next 45 min and they will win.
It’s still early days, but did we fire the better coach perhaps?
Too early to tell. Bottom line is that Conceicao is 7-2-2 overall, which is not bad, but we did seem to be better in the CL with Fonseca, and we lost the one game we needed to win to go straight through to the round of 16, so…
I am talking in terms of overall gameplay and the eye test. I am not sure if we looked this bad under fonseca.
OK, but if we look like Messi’s Barcelona and lose every game, is that success? Not sure what you’re trying to say then.
Naah, we can’t win matches with the way we play now. It’s only a matter of time before our luck runs out. We are horrible to watch.
Like I said, Conceicao is 7-2-2. PPM is over 2. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Why Puli taken off? He’s not been the worst player and there’s more chances of him coming up with something than the rest of the lots. Coach is drunk
This is one of the worst performances I have seen by any team!
Their manager is in 2 days ffs
Gimenez looks rather a great deal like Tammy. A striker without service.
I cannot figure out what our plan is to win this game.
Fantastic Four and inshallah was the plan …
This is abysmal
Gimenez probably feeling stupid for leaving Feyenord and joining Milan. Only way he will score is if he goes gets the ball himself and scores – he won’t get any service. No matter who we have as striker, if they don’t get any service, they won’t score.
Indeed – Fofana should stay back – he’s no help at the front – Reijnders is wasted playing deep
I gotta agree with you. Musah, or a player like Bondo were desperately missing tonight.
Got to say, the passing between the back four is childlike…
2 terrible corners from Felix when we need it most.
What a shower of over paid wasters
Kind of makes the idiots always asking the club to “spend more” look dumb. 60M can’t buy hustle and commitment.
I’m not sure why you are singling him out, in case you hadn’t noticed none of the players upfront were effective in this lineup. This is a tactical issue …
Who am I singling out? Bar Pavlovic they were a disgrace, all of them
Felix? LOL!!!
The fantastic four experiment was an absolute disaster. I hope we bury that and only use it when we’re chasing the game …