AC Milan are now just fighting to finish second in the Serie A table and a win over Juventus this weekend would give them an eight-point lead over the Bianconeri.
As has been reported by Sky Sport Italia (via Milan News), a win will not be easy to achieve when you consider how many defensive absentees Stefano Pioli has to deal with.
The late action against Inter on Monday saw both Theo Hernandez and Davide Calabria receive straight red cards, whilst Fikayo Tomori got a yellow card which means he is suspended as well.
Simon Kjaer and Pierre Kalulu both trained separately from the rest of the team at Milanello on Thursday which means that they are unlikely to be fit enough to start against Juventus.
A makeshift back four will have to be created and according to Sky, Pioli was seen experimenting with Yunus Musah at right-back, Matteo Gabbia and Malick Thiaw in the centre, and Alessandro Florenzi on the left.
Filippo Terracciano is in the frame for minutes as he could play on either flank. The midfield two appeared to be Ismael Bennacer and Tijjani Reijnders, with the attacking quartet being the usual Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Rafael Leao and Olivier Giroud.
Milan predicted lineup (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Musah, Gabbia, Thiaw, Florenzi; Bennacer, Reijnders; Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Leao; Giroud.
Im done…CHUKWUEZE!!!!🤬🤬🤬This guy is one of the most inform in the team and what does he get for that,benched🤬👍
Please enough on deploying Musah on the right
Idiotic experiments to continue? Pioli self destructing…
Well, 1. he doesn’t have much choice, TBH; 2. that self-destruction is complete. Roma is 1-1 vs Udinese right now. That leaves them 13 points off of us with 5 games left. If that difference remains the same after next weekend we are guaranteed champions league and the season is effectively over. All we have left is to “hang on” to second place as a “bonus”, which means first and foremost not losing on Sunday. Then beating the remaining small teams and finally not losing against Roma on the last day. Even then, finishing 3rd would mean nothing more than a small loss in income re league standing distribution. So really, if Pioli wants to use Giroud as a CB I don’t care. Season over, Pioli over, I want it to be May 31 so we can start the post-Pioli era already.
Sorry, we don’t even play Roma again. I was seeing a club friendly scheduled for May 31. Season ends on May 26 against relegated Salernitana. Pioli will prove his incompetence when he doesn’t play all of our best primavera players after Juventus. They should be getting tons of minutes during the last four games. I want so see Zeroli, Simic, Bartesaghi, maybe even Camarda.
He has options though. Jimenez/Bartesaghi LB. Terraciano/Flo RB. There’s absolutely no reason to play Musah out of position AGAIN.
Start Bennacer and we LOSE AGAIN !!!!
Please enough on deploying Musah on the right
It is our best formation. Chukwueze could play in situation to put Ruben in midfield.
I would rather bench Bennacer and put Ruben on his spot, with Pulisic as ACM
If he had ballz he’d field a 352 with simic, gabbia thiaw. tera kid on rm, old florenzi on lm, ruben adli reijnders. Okafor and Giroud, i guess, up front.. that would throw juve way ooooooofffffff. And then you still have plenty of T.N.T on the bench that come on in second half and work on them tired juve players..
genius, why arent i a coach?
Why on earth is Giroud still getting starts? He’s already gone. Champions League is wrapped up. Why not try Okafor up there? Or Jovic. Give them a chance to start so we can evaluate for next season. I think Okafor could do well up top.
Love that it’s my first comment of the day and I need to “slow down you are posting too fast.”
Yep, same for seeing the likes of Zeroli, Bartesaghi, Simic, Revayre, Camarda, etc. Maybe not against Juventus, but certainly lots of minutes in the final 4 games. It won’t happen, because even as a lame duck, Pioli won’t do what is sensible.
Agree.
Giroud is done. From here he should only feature from the bench and hopefully not as the first change at 55-60th min.
Even though ive sometimes been critical of pioli i generally has been supportive of him as i generally am in regard of coaches and players at the club but pioli really should get is head out of his butt and stop with those ridiculous experiments playing musah as a i right back. I know this is just a prediction but this is getting tiresome and absolutely frustrating.
Who cares, season is over and there’s nothing to win and you can tell nobody cares anymore. Took the wind right out of my sails after the embarrassment of roma
Not Musah as a RB again!!! Use Terraciano. Give that boy a chance.
Use jovic not giroud.
I am a fan of Musah and I am scratching my head on including him at RB. I’d rather he replace Benny. Play Terra
I’d rather see more of Simic than the Thiaw circus.
I’ve not been a Chuk fan all season as I found him lost in the pitch until the last couple of weeks. Today I cannot figure how he is not starting. And on terms of building value in him why not get him serious minutes to firm up his confidence going into the season?
Puli to 10 for the rest of the season to understand of he is “that guy”.
And my God what does Ok4 have to do to get real minutes? It’s like he changed his name to CDK or something.
So …
Ok4
Leao – Puli – Chuk
TJ – Musah
Flo – Gabbia – Simic – Terra
Mike
B/c ok4 seems to work better with a stroke partner, tactically I move Puli and Leao up/in on the attack in a 4222 on occasion and work the channels hard.
My first sub is RLC for Puli with RLC becoming that second striker frequently and using him as a target man. I also have him drop deep some times to see if he can hold up and link up. He’s not a 10, but if he is a servicable 9.5 then he will combine well with Ok4 and Jovic.
My next subs at 70 are Adli for Musah and Jovic for Leao. Ok4 goes Left and Jovic leads line. We go back tactically to shuffling Ok4, RLC and Jovic around with Chuk and Adli providing service to the box.
80+ min Kamarda and Barts come on for some seasoning
As fans we may not care about 2nd, but the club needs to because there is real money in it. I’m proposing to the above to beat Juve knowing we have Giroud, Benny as alternatives if the plan we show up with doesn’t work.
Time to learn who is worth keeping and why.
My starting lineup against Genoa (definite subs in parens, “/” indicating alternates):
Raveyre
Terraciano/Kalulu-Gabbia-Simic(Nsiala)-Bartesaghi
Bennacer/Adli-Pobega
Zeroli
Chukwueze-Jovic (Camarda)-Leao (Sia)
Sorry, add Musah as an alternate to Pobega.
Musah on the right = bad news for us. We tried the same thing with Kessie when he was young. I don’t know what it is, but this has never worked out for us. Never
How many starts has Chuk had this season?
There can’t have been many when it wasn’t a “mass rotation” game.
Agree 100% with @MyKidPlayedSoccer lineup and likely subs.
Things were have learned that Pioli refuses to accept:
RLC is not an AM. PERIOD. He is the 8 he wears – box to box. So use him there.
Musah shouldn’t play on the wing. He its too box to box. Can be a good Six with time and experience.
Players who score NEED TO PLAY! Field Okafor, Leao, Puli, Chuk. Then bring in Jovic.
Our defense leaks. A lot. But if he hasn’t figured out a different system to play to help the defense then he likely won’t before the season is over.
Frustrated…
Musah is real pitiful. He is being played everywhere on the field. How to have good performance when the only consistency he had is a chameleonic role on the pitch. Musah’s season cannot be rated because of Pioli’s nonsensical deployment. And it is now clear why the club does not accede to Pioli’s request to buy a defender and midfielder in the winter transfer. Cos these new purchases (like Terra) are eventually only there to fill up the empty seats on the traveling bus for the rest of the season. Even if it is painfully obvious, Pioli will still want to squeeze a square peg into a round hole.
Poor Musah got shifted around the whole season; impossible to learn a stable role. It’s almost like Pioli is trying to destroy Musah’s career instead of supporting him in learning and developing one role, likely that of a 6.
Chuk not starting is CRAZY. The guy is on fire and everybody sees it except Pioli.
Giroud starting at this point is a huge JOKE on us, the tifosi. What the hell is Pioli trying to do??? Giroud is gone and he has been a non-factor for the last several games. Going with Giroud at this point is like playing a man down, and he is the striker so how do we win without a striker???
I am attending this game in person at Allianz Stadium in Torino, and I’m now regretting the money I’m spending on the Frecciarossa and the hotel and the tickets for me and my son, because we are certain to lose. And we could actually win if Pioli had scheduled an ideal lineup that the entire world can see but he can’t. So I guess I should ask Pioli to refund me the expenses I’m incurring to watch this game in person. Too late not to go, the stuff I booked is non-refundable.
Why didn’t play Terraciano from the start. This coach really make people temperament
Pioli should try this formation instead…
Maignan; TERRACIANO, CALDARA/SIMIC, Thiaw, Florenzi; ADLI, Reijnders; CHUKWEZE/PULISIC, Loftus-Cheek, OKAFOR; Giroud.
Musah, Gabbia, and LL (Lazy Leao) – out of the formation and Adli instead of Bennacer