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Official: Inter vs. AC Milan starting XIs – Fonseca makes bold formation change

In addition to changing the formation to a 4-4-2, Paulo Fonseca has made three player changes to the starting XI for AC Milan’s clash against Inter. A bold decision by the Portuguese manager, while Simone Inzaghi has gone for the usual players. 

Fonseca is in desperate need of a win tonight to save his career and while many expected him to continue with his principles, few predicted the formation change. Indeed, with Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao on the flanks in midfield, it is almost a 4-2-4 formation.

Emerson Royal is also replacing the injured Davide Calabria at right-back, while Matteo Gabbia is giving Strahinja Pavlovic some much-needed rest. Other than that, the XI is exactly what you would expect and it’s nice to see that Mike Maignan has fully recovered from the blow he received against Liverpool.

As for Inter, there are absolutely no surprises in the starting XI. Federico Dimarco has made it back in time for the game and starts, while Lautaro Martinez is looking to get off the market this season as he starts next to Marcus Thuram.

Official Milan XI (4-4-2): Maignan; Emerson, Gabbia, Tomori, Theo Hernandez; Pulisic, Fofana, Reijnders, Leao; Morata, Abraham.

Bench: Raveyre, Torriani; Jiménez, Pavlović, Terracciano, Thiaw; Loftus-Cheek, Musah, Zeroli; Chukwueze, Jović, Okafor.

Official Inter XI (3-5-2): Sommer; Pavard, Acerbi, Bastoni; Dumfries, Barella, Calhanoglu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco; Lautaro, Thuram.

Bench: Di Gennaro, J. Martinez; Bisseck, C. Augusto, Darmian, de Vrij, Palacios; Asllani, Frattesi, Zieliński; Arnautović, Correa, Taremi.

Tags AC Milan Inter Paulo Fonseca Simone Inzaghi

87 Comments

    2. The fascination with youth players must stop. Camarda and Liberali are NOT ready to be thrown to the wolves in the Derby della Madonnina, no less!!! That would have been suicide.

      Leave the youth players alone! They need a lot of muscle mass development and time to hon their skills instead of throwing them to be devoured by big grown men in the most important domestic game of the season.

      It’s fine for them to get a few minutes with the first team when a victory has been secured already when playing against bottom feeders. NOT against freaking Internazionale Milano!!!

  6. Well here we go boys – Fonzy’s Last Stand. Let’s see how this works out… and a big shout out to all the Inter fans in the house, hoping we lose. What jerseys you lot wearing tonight? Thuram? Hakan?

  7. This is a bit too bold from the looks of it. Giving up the midfield entirely against inter doesn’t sound like a good idea. Not too mention this is the fifth formation in five games.

    Well, let’s hope for the best …

  10. How is this diffrent from 4231? He’ll just use the same de@d pivots and Morata or Abe as AM, probs both interchanging and ofc the fullbacks up at the inters corner flags.. That is if we even get out of our side and on inter side..

  11. Heart: This will be our turnaround match! We’ll finally be the movie’s protagonist.

    Brain: Wtf are we doing dismantling our mid when we already have that big hole in our defense. This is like watching a movie while knowing hot it’ll end.

    1. Unfortunately I’m prepared to bet that your brain is right and your heart is wrong. Kudos for having a good heart, though.

      Me, I’m not optimistic at all. Of course I’d love to be wrong on this, but I think we’ll lose by 3 goals at least.

  14. A lot of fans here are complaining for the trimmed up midfield and i get it. However, he has tried that 3 men midfield so far and it has been a disaster. This is his last shot might as well go for broke. And honestly, we have no dm and no am, this might be a better option. Our midfield is a joke regardless.

  15. I think Milan will start strong trying to show their worth, maybe even score first. Same as Liverpool match. Let’s just hope they don’t crumble under their weak mentality and medicority as we’re used to seeing for the last two seasons.

  16. I like this. If your job is on the line, do something different. At least this has a chance of working. The midfield three hasn’t been working with the players we have. Forza Milan!

    1. Much brighter start by Milan, though Inter have been asleep, lets see.

      What can you say, Pulisic is heading for Legend status.
      Love his attitude and ability

      1. That wasn’t on him though. Gabbia was beaten by Lautaro so Royal rushes to close him down then the Inter captain passed to the scorer who was of course on Royals end but as I’ve mentioned- his man wasn’t as important to mark as closing down Lautaro at that moment.

  27. Idk what Fonseca meant about we having possession but the only time we have possesion is when we have a goal kick. Emerson Royal would be struggling for minutes even in the Indian super league. Every game we start 15-20 mins full power and then we slowly die in the game – 0 fitness. And if it isn’t for some wonder from Puli or Leao we can’t even beat the midfield of Inter. Shame

    1. I don’t understand why Fonseca doesn’t have them play down the left… That’s our most dangerous side. I DONT GET IT.

      Same thing against Liverpool. Every time Leao gets the ball he passes it back.

      1. It’s kind of hard to give it to the left side when leao doesn’t move. If I was his teammate I’d be losing it on him. He’s static.

    1. Lost count on how many times he decided to do back passes. Well maybe, just maybe, he wanted to save up some fuel for the 2nf half.

      Actually we can hurt this Inter back line with pace and speed. The first 15-20 minutes was awesome when we cleverly keep exchanging wing to fond space.

      1. I honestly think at the moment with the team going through a tough period, starting Okafor and bringing on Leao 2nd half would be a good move

      2. I think so too, even inters goal started from his back pass, Literary begging him to give some effort. Looks a bit better in second half

        Yep, SjF he would probably come on and perform

  31. 424 off the ball. Unbalanced. Dumfries is always open to a pass from the back. Reijnders goes to cover him leaving midfield with just Fofana….

    1. Inter uses a really wide area thats why we often see they do direct long passes to attack that unoccupied spaces. Most of the dangerous situations came from there. We should do something about this one 2nd half or else we’ll concede the same way all over again.

  33. Leao is so lazy it’s unbearable to watch. The only time he wants to play is when he’s given a ball Where’s there’s room to run. He’s leaving reijnders to come out of the midfield to cover that side because he’s anonymous. Theo made a tackle and you’d think leao would track back to cover him…. Nope, let me just stand there. If we’re going to play this formation take leao off, he’s useless.

  34. Idk how the management can be satisfied with this football. If we were Torino I would say it fits us but damn.. Abd that Morata in the midfield experiment is working wonders – we can’t even make 5 straight passes

  37. salamaker would shine with this 442. he will fit better than leao or chuks in this formation, while puli could adapt. leao and chuks tho.. both are limited to advance position only. both can’t drop deeper, either missing the timing or just no bother.

  57. Lmao this is unbelievable. Us Rossoneri fans go through a lot, it’s a roller coaster life but I will enjoy tonight! Have to give it to fonseca he studied inter and changed it up. That was our best game in a very very long time! GABBIA

  58. Bruh idk if inter were very bad or we were very good in the second half but damn it feels so nice to finally shut the kebab up and win against the merdas.. Forza Milan

    1. Inter like always were very good, but there are some vulnerable areas to get into. Like in the ucl, gundogan almost scored the winning goal few days ago.

  60. FINALLY !! Gabbia deserved it,but still what a terrible miss by tammy and okafor smh..MOTM should be pulisic hands down, great solo goal and always works hard

  61. I mean. Inter same wins, draws loses to us now. Both on 8 points. What a start to this season. Torino on top!
    It’s definitely a bit of a pioli scenario with fonseca.one step forward then two steps back. But weve bloody beaten inter!!!! Yas!!!! Its going to be a very interesting scudetto race.

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