AC Milan boss Massimiliano Allegri has reportedly settled on the team that he will deploy against Lazio in the Coppa Italia tonight.
The cup is not a competition that has been kind to Milan, given they have not lifted is since 2002-03. At the Stadio Olimpico they will face a team that has won the competition four times since that year, and are out to avenge Saturday night’s defeat in the league meeting at San Siro.
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Lazio vs. Milan: Predicted starting XIs
Christian Pulisic returned to training during the week and should be on the bench. Zachary Athekame will remain out for a while longer, while Santiago Gimenez isn’t back from an ankle issue and Youssouf Fofana has sustained a muscle problem so he will be out.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below), Allegri will name Mike Maignan in goal with Fikayo Tomori, Koni De Winter and Strahinja Pavlovic as the three-man defence. Alexis Saelemaekers and Pervis Estupinan will be the wing-backs.
Samuele Ricci and Ardon Jashari will get a chance in the midfield three, where Adrien Rabiot keeps his place. The paper believe that Ruben Loftus-Cheek will operate behind Rafael Leao.
Predicted Milan XI (3-5-2): Maignan; Tomori, De Winter, Pavlovic; Saelemaekers, Ricci, Jashari, Rabiot, Estupinan; Loftus-Cheek, Leao.
Predicted Lazio XI (4-3-3): Mandas; Marusic, Patric, Romagnoli, Tavares; Guendouzi, Vecino, Dele-Bashiru; Isaksen, Castellanos, Noslin.
Ok, Looks like Allegri is not throwing either Jashari or De Winter into the fire. Having that additional midfielder is basically helping out De Winter in his first rodeo replacing Gabbia. I’m ok setting up the kid to succeed, but that puts pressure on Rafa, Saladman and RLC to produce going forward. RLC in theory is good at carrying the ball forward in open space. We shall see. good luck boys. Lazio away is no picnic
Saelemaekers has started every game so far. Anyone concerned that he also needs roation?
Well his only sub is currently injured so I don’t know how that can be helped.
I half wish Milan get bumped out of Coppa Italia. I don’t think of Coppa as an important tournament; it’s just an after thought. Nice if we win it, but who cares?
We need to focus on Serie A in order to get a top 4 UCL spot, and even to get a shot at the Scudetto. This season the race at the top is so crowded that every little advantage counts. We have a short roster, we have a tendency to get injured players as some of our main players are kind of injury-prone, we have some older players, so the fewer games we have to play, the higher our chances at achieving the very needed Serie A success. We MUST return to the Champions League or else we’ll see a short budget and an exodus of essential players.
It’s WAY more important to finish top 4 than to advance in Coppa Italia.
It’s hard to root AGAINST our boys and especially when they play against a nasty club like Lazio. But rationally speaking, maybe it’s best for Milan to get entirely rid of Coppa Italia.
What do you all think?
I see your point, in my view though, match rhythm also influences form, not to mention the boost they are getting going through. If they can keep rotating like Max intends to do, I see no problems with it. If they wouldn’t go through, I would’t care either
In our last scudetto season we also managed to get into the semi finals and that was with CL on the side