AC Milan are in need of a win to try and calm the crisis that has besieged the club recently, and Sergio Conceicao has opted for some big changes.
It has been a tough season for Milan, but the last few weeks have seen the club hit a new low. As a result of three consecutive defeats, the team are in ninth place and could miss out on European football entirely, which says everything.
They face a Lecce side that are embroiled in a relegation battle under head coach Marco Giampaolo, so they are scrapping for every point too.
Official starting XIs
The good news from the week is that Alessandro Florenzi returned to training with the rest of the squad, but Ruben Loftus-Cheek remains out. Mike Maignan and Strahinja Pavlovic will be suspended after being sent off during the Lazio game.
Conceicao – who is reportedly under pressure to get a result – has gone with Marco Sportiello in goal, Kyle Walker and Theo Hernandez as the full-backs then Malick Thiaw and Matteo Gabbia as the centre-back pairing.
Warren Bondo gets his first start since joining in the winter window and he will be partnered by Yunus Musah in midfield. Alex Jimenez, Tijjani Reijnders and Christian Pulisic operate behind the striker, Santiago Gimenez.
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Sportiello; Walker, Thiaw, Gabbia, Theo Hernandez; Bondo, Musah; Jimenez, Reijnders, Pulisic; Gimenez.
Bench: Nava, Torriani, Tomori, Florenzi, Bartesaghi, Terracciano, Fofana, Sottil, Joao Felix, Chukwueze, Leao, Abraham, Jovic.
Predicted Lecce XI (4-3-3): Falcone; Guilbert, Baschirotto, Jean, Gallo; Coulibaly, Berisha, Helgason; Pierotti, Krstović, Morente.
Bench: Früchtl, Samooja; Gaspar, Sala, Tiago Gabriel, Veiga; Kaba, Pierret, Rafia, Ramadani; Banda, Burnete, Karlsson, N’Dri, Rebic.
Mad man foolish people nonsense line up
Francis, hmm… Language.
Keep throwing crap against a wall and see what sticks…..
Tiji-Bondo-Fofana trio in 4-3-3 would have made more sense.
Musah and Jimenez are extra imo… Also any of Chukwueze/Sottil/Felix on the wing would have been more realistic…
I was expecting his favourite 4-3-3 with Chuks and Sottil on the wings as well.
Why not try Felix or Sotil on the wing, we have already seen what Jimenez can do.
Musah again !!!! Theo again…..what do these clowns have to do to be dropped ?? and Jimenez, played so badly the past 2 matches and still starts over Sottil ??!@ lost for words……
The bench could easily beat the starting XI, 11v11.
Musah is this man’s new Krunic. WTF. Jimenez over Chuk that just tried to salvage 1 point for him last game tells you everything you need to know about his tactics and strategy. Terrible coach. On the other hand, I watched Fonseca continue to win with a team he joined mid season and watch as his players made him emotional during their last game in Europa which they won 3-1 away. Players that are willing to play for a coach with good tactics and fights for his team. Y’all still think Fonseca was the problem ? That man would have had us still playing in the champs league but we went for this Clownceicao guy. SMH.
Tammy should start over Giminez. Giminez is totally reliant on service from others, which he gets none of. Tammy can create for himself and others.
Gimenez already has more goals than Tammy and he’s been here all of a month. 🤣
Not even close dude. Know what you are talking about before you comment.
Tammy has 8 goals and 3 assists in limited playing time in all competitions. If you look at production per minutes played he probably leads the team.
So turns out you’re right about totals. I guess I felt that Tammy had less because I can’t remember the last time he scored! That said, 4 of those goals are in the coppa Italia and super cup. 2 goals in 22 serie a games and 2 goals in 9 CL games. 8 goals in 32 games total. That tells it’s own story. Gimenez has 3 in 8 games total. Extrapolate an average rate for Gimenez at the current rate and it’s 12 goals in 32 games. Also our form as a team since Gimenez arrive has been dismal, while Tammy got most of his minutes earlier in the season when we were playing better. In Tammy’s defense, I do note most of his minutes are off the bench. I still start Gimenez over Tammy.
Musah starts every game, we lose every game. The cycle continues
Give.Reinjders.A.Rest
Musah….
Damn, offside. Would have been a great start
Brutal defending by Gabbia there. Close the man down! That’s why he doesn’t start.
But not Reijnders with another bad pass that led to their counter. No.
Or Sportiello that got beaten near post and from a shot 300 yards out smh
There is no near post when the player is in the middle of the pitch.
😂 😂😂😂 that just makes it even worst doesn’t it
Kris was on the right side of the pen box, just watch the replay and gave a good night. It was a straight line drive to the near post. Bad positioning by the keeper but blame Gabbia…still waiting on what u have to say about Deers and Jiminez
I love how you can never just admit you were wrong about anything. The player was almost directly in the center of the pitch when he shot. It was a great shot. Maignan would not have stopped it either.
Reijnders made a bad pass but it was all the way near the Lecce’s box. That shouldn’t lead to a goal. The fact is Gabbia should have closed that man down but he didnt, instead giving him a clean shot on goal. Oh that’s right, I forgot , can’t criticize Italian players on here. My bad.
Haha, and Jimenez just cost another goal. When will this coach learn? It’s almost as if he is begging for the sack.
That was poor by Sportiello from that distance. I blame him but I also dont. Individually he’s out of position but overall he’s rusty af. All other clubs apart from Roma has a backup keeper with proper minutes (hundreds) under their belt. We have Mike hogging all the minutes, so when we finally need to play the backup, he not even game sharp.
Would have preferred Torriani start as at least he’ll get some XP
I would also have preferred Torriani, but this coach has no view to the future, despite the league season being virtually over, because he has no future at the club.
Bondo seems quite good on the ball
There’s always Gabbia when you need him.
Oh ffs…
I think this coach hate us…
Lecce are playing us out of the park. You would think they are the bigger team. We are a mess.
The game needs Leao. All Lecce has to do is close down Puli and our offense is shuts down.
Don’t even know why he was dropped to begin with as he’s has basically been the offensive influence ethe last few games while Puli recovered 🤷♂️
Leao is not playing because he’s the type of player who is caught laughing and joking on the bench while his team is on course for the fourth defeat in a row. That’s why. We need serious professionals, not clowns who joke while their 7 time CL winning club is mid-table and who stand on the other side of the field during a water break because they didn’t like the coaches instructions to help in defense, which bring us to…he doesn’t do a d@mn thing defensively. That’s why he’s on the bench and should be sold in the summer. Don’t care how fast he is, which is rendered useless when teams lownblock anyway.
Well said!
I don’t like to pit Leao and Puli because I love them both. And moreso when they play together. Irs what we were missing for a long time. One draws space for the other and vice versa. Right now…in this game…our offense is ran through Puli only and that’s easy to deal with from Lecce’s standpoint. With Leao on the field it will become problematic for the defence. Leao defending? According to Ancelotti himself…if I have Ronaldo why would I have him tracking back? Play players to their strengths. It’s what both Fonseca and Sarge are poor at. Trying to make a thoroughbred into a mule. Heaven forbid he cracks a smile.
Btw Puli hasn’t had a goal contribution in a month, Leao has taken up the slack (4 GC) as he should but he’s the one that got benched somehow. That’s why I said it didn’t make sense
We’re not even playing THAT badly. It was one blunder and then a period of uncertainty because the guys are down. Otherwise it’s been all us.
Not to bad, just the whole situation is very bad. Bondo look like a decent holding midfielder, atleast we have one on the field. Hopefully fofana replaces musa and we have two.
I’ve been impressed by this Bondo kid. He’s a nice holding midfielder and would have thrived under Fonseca tactics.
Btw, what are we even playing here ? Like the commentator asked, what exactly is the coach’s tactics cos it seems we don’t know what to do with the ball half of the time we spend on the pitch. This is pathetic.
They don’t know what to do with the ball and there’s no distribution or supply from the midfield because there are no passers in this team. Reijnders, Musah and Bondo are all a bunch of ball carriers and runners but when they need to create something, there’s no supply, no vision. Nothing. They know how to run with the ball at their feet and shoot. No supply and no creativity from. Them.
2-0. We simply have no midfield. None. No defensive midfielders screening the defensive line.
True.
For a few seasons.
And getting worse every season.
So bad. Zero midfield.
We roll out with the same formation every game and play the same bums every game.
Milan will sell Santi Gimenez aka Piatek 2.0 in 1-2 years for maximum 12-15 milions 😆😆
How is possible Leece found a better striker than Milan found in the all last 15 years ? 😆😆
Basically all clubs around the world at any level and leagues found better strikers than Milan in the last 15 years 😆😆
All these porkchops need to leave starting with conceicao. This is disgraceful.
The midfield is the problem form me, taking out bondo and leaving Raijnders and Musah in cm is a big mistake, both of them wanders of and leaves massive holes. Lecce is cutting through us like a hotknife in butter. I’m losing patience with Serigo, he have a great charcter but relying on Musah is gonna be the end of him
Sottil RB?!
So Sarge made good subs and finally had the team scoring with balance to make to 2-2 and then proceeds to undo all of that by taking our only Right Back off??? What in the actual efffff ????
We’re literally playing right now with no RB 🤦♂️ and no balance
Oh my bad 3-2 Sarge is a genius 🤣🤣🤣🤣
But also good luck to his future. This HAS to be his last game for sure…
Still, Sottil at RB, why. Like a fish out of water
Wow 3-2. With Sottil as RB haha wtf.
I know Leao has his faults and his body language drives me crazy, but he’s the only one on this squad who can create
3-2. Thank the gods we’ve pulled this win out of our @as, but it’s the same old problems Leao comes on and does make an impact, but as the commentators said “why can’t he do this every week?”. Then we’ve also conceded two goals. Conceicao’s sides CAN NOT KEEP a clean sheet. It’s insane. At least this win, if we hold on, should be a big morale boost.
Well that’s an unfair comparison no? No player in the world comes on every week and scores or assists. No one. In the last 5 games prior to this one he’s had 4 goal contributions, Pulisic zero. Yet he still gets called out by media somehow and not Pulisic. Again I like both of them, but Leao gets treated unfairly.
I had given up but happy for the comeback despite the ugly game.