AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli has made one change to the team that drew with Atalanta on Sunday and it is in the defensive department.
Pioli has elected to name a defence of Alessandro Florenzi, Simon Kjaer, Matteo Gabbia and Theo Hernandez in front of the goalkeeper Mike Maignan, with Theo passing a late fitness test and Kjaer seeing off competition from Malick Thiaw.
Yacine Adli and Ismael Bennacer will once again be the midfield double pivot after impressing against Atalanta last Sunday, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek operating ahead of them. Christian Pulisic will be the right winger, while Rafael Leao is on the opposite flank and Olivier Giroud leads the line.
In terms of options off the bench, captain Davide Calabria is joined by Thiaw, Pierre Kalulu and Fikayo Tomori to ensure there are plenty of experienced defenders who can come on.
Tijjani Reijnders and Yunus Musah could come in to bolster the midfield, while Samuel Chukwueze and Noah Okafor are on hand to provide fresh legs in attack. Luka Jovic is suspended.
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Florenzi, Kjaer, Gabbia, Hernandez; Bennacer, Adli; Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Leao; Giroud.
Bench: Sportiello, Mirante, Thiaw, Kalulu, Calabria, Tomori, Jimenez, Terracciano, Musah, Reijnders, Okafor, Chukwueze.
Official Lazio XI (4-3-3): Provedel; Marusic, Gila, Romagnoli, Pellegrini; Guendouzi, Vecino, Luis Alberto; F. Anderson, Castellanos, Zaccagni.
Bench: Mandas, Renzetti, Casale, Hysaj, Ruggeri, Kamada, Andrè Anderson, Lazzari, Cataldi, Pedro, Immobile, Isaksen.
Atalanta lineup. Okay. Kjaer’s presence makes me nervous. Interesting that Reijnders is on the bench again.
I think the coach has decided that Bennacer, even not in his best, is a better choice than Reijnders.
Pioli said Reijnders just got child hence the time off.
Huh. Kjaer gets the start over Thiaw, after Thiaw bounced back very well against Atalanta. Interesting.
Thats a bit strange to be starting Kjaer, given Thiaw has some minutes now and did well last game.
Also will have to gradually reintegrate Tomori and Kalulu.
Why do we need another CB?
I’d prefer to see Reijnders play in a 433 than RLC (he’ll probably score).
It’s a strong lineup with lots of options on the bench, so the day’s of excuses like new players or injuries are over.
Time to perform
Why? I know RLC is inconsistent, but he does score. Reijnders has hardly scored. The logic isn’t sound. Are you suggesting that Reijnders will score simply because he’s playing further ahead? I feel like he gets plenty of opportunities.
I meant RLC will probably score.
He does get goals but I think it is more important for the team to find a good shape and playing style, which will be more important in the long run than having someone in the team who gets the odd goal but contributes little else. That’s Giroud’s job lol!
Time to crack some laziale skulls 😀
Hopefully a convincing victory.
Good to see Adli and Bennacer paired again. They are our best midfield tandem right now.
Relax guys. It’ll be a Walk in the park
We already lost the midfield battle..now this blunder
Florenzi is having bad game so far. Potential half-time sub candidate.
Flotenzi shouldn’t be allowed anywhere a free kick on goal – it’s sad that he represents our best option
What is this garbage?
We’re getting out coached. Not surprised.
I’ve no idea. Nobody has ballz to play. They just pass it around in def. Sad
Pioli should sub reijnders for adli on half time.
This kind of match with high pressure and high tempo really doesn’t suit adli.
He’s tend to make mistake and blunder under pressure
Looks like this might be a 1-0 game, for one team or the other.
What did I just watch? Sometimes I have to wonder what the hell they do in training. That was absolute circus of a first half
Can we like finish for today and come back tomorrow to play second half? They obviously ate something nasty and got poisoned or something cause this is the worst piece of football I ever saw.
They ate Pioli’s tactics and game plan.
We need something in midfield either Reijnders or Musah or both.
RLC has the mentality of a striker, walks around waiting for the ball and makes little effort to win it back, id sub him off
Seeing the 5-0-5 within 30 seconds of the restart, lol. This dude never learns!
The nortorious S0S formation
LOL, nice one.
😀 a little bit ealier iwhen he got his first yelow card i was about to ask if anybody knew if pellegrino would get an extra punishment if he got an extra one as he would already be banned for the next match due to his first yellow card 😀
What a gift we just got!
Thanks Pellegrino!
Not sure how many chances Giroud needs – bang average
I was frustrated but now I’m laughing, what a circus!!!
Also surely we could have scored against 9 men, or even 8
That wasn’t supposed to be a reply
Pioli going for the 4-0-6 now!
The thing is we don’t NEED to win this game, but now Pioli risks losing it wish such an unbalanced team.
I think milan would draw this game (play is unconvincing) but the Lazio red card invalidates any ‘excuse’ from Pioli fanboys.
Lazio looking more like winning it tbh
This is one ugly sh1tty game
How’s that leao goal an offside?
Did anyone catch a replay of the disallowed goal?
They didn’t show it where I’m watching
Yea Leao’s cheekbone was offside apparently. At least that’s what I told myself
LOL just subs both centerbacks, who don’t have the rhythm of the game and are not at full match fitness, when we’re chasing the game. I’ve never seen that before.
Did pioli just change both centre halves?
My word that is very high risk
I’m done. 81st minute he takes off both our central defenders for what?????? For us to keep the draw against 10 men team I just can’t man and anyone who defends Pioli can crawl back to the hole he crawled out from!!!!
I think Pioli knows he’s done and he’s just taking the p!ss.
Ridiculous.
Meanwhile Chukwueze can keep getting rustier and rustier on the bench to ensure he won’t be sharp when we need him.
To reintroduce long term STARTING cb’s into a controlled environment. Oh and were up how many players? I’m losing track.
Honestly.
not enough dai dai dai
Wtf? Tomori who’s been out for months and Calamity Thiaw with 10 min left??????
Did he just change the starting CBs???
Hmmmmm we need a goal. Send that memo to him ASAP 🤦♂️
Well, at least Atalanta and Bologna are playing each other…
Okafor be like i gotta score
GIROUD should not play 90mins. He doesn’t add anything to this team.
The top assistant of the league doesn’t add anything?
Sigh
Check who the top scorer on our team is again… ooops.
Never before seen a coaching needing to score and subbing in 2 CBs
Reintroduction of long term absentees in a controlled game with numerical superiority to replace players on a yellow.
What do you not get about that?
Oh my god Lazio moaning again.
Now’s the time to bring in Musah for Giroud and restore the balance
We have used all 5 subs. This is why you don’t sub BOTH CBs.
Okafor my boy.
Immobile could have had 2 goals, playing with 10 men.
Thank god for Okafor
Fuuuuuck . Ref totally lost the game
😀 3 red cards for lazio players in one game hahahaha
This is comedy gold!!! 😂😂😂😂
Ref has gone off the rails officialy
But in all seriousness this refereeing is shocking.
If this was reversed I’d be tearing my hair out.
Wtf am I seeing here 😂😂😂
Should have made a bet on red cards
Ref is a joke. 3 red cards?! WTF. The first red was justified but the last two was weird af.
It’s nice we won but this is really an ugly match.
Marusic must have said some next level sh*t to the ref. The card was for the comments.
Gendouzi retaliation card kind of questionable. Usually a yellow.
Yes we won, I’m happy about that but we did a lot of nothing!!!!!!!! I don’t know how Pioli supporters justify this terrible type of tactics we play. Smh
Yup.
Just side to side and hopefully somebody beats his man.
In the current set up, cheek and ben are playing in a postion where they become almost irrelevant, while adli shines. Especially ben can’t utilize his strengths in that postion. Again, back at the beginning of the season. Almost all our central midfielders have the same characteristics.
Grinding win, but its a much needed win. 3 reds wth. Ugly match, stop and go and too many mistakes. 3 points are 3 points.
Choppy, often interrupted game, lots of mistakes; we didn’t play well but we did show a fighting spirit and resolve. Ugly win but I’ll take it! Puli, L-C, Adli did well; the others not so much. Nice that Okafor finally got us ahead. The offside on Rafa’s goal was microcopic; it’s the kind of thing that wouldn’t have been called before the VAR era. Sometimes I think VAR is ruining the sport.
Dear God in Heaven. That was UGLY AF. Happy we scraped out a win here because we have done much until Lazio started losing players.