There are only five days until the 2023-24 Serie A season gets underway for AC Milan as they take to the field against Bologna at the Stadio Renato dall’Ara.
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It has been a hectic summer for Milan which started with the departures of Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara then the sale of Sandro Tonali followed, before a string of eight new signings turned scepticism to enthusiasm.
Milan have been the most active of any Serie A team in the summer window having signed Marco Sportiello, Luka Romero, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Christian Pulisic, Noah Okafor, Samuel Chukwueze, Tijjani Reijnders and Yunus Musah.
This has aroused questions about what formation Stefano Pioli will field heading into that first game next Monday, and some updates came from Peppe Di Stefano during a segment for Sky, with his words relayed by Radio Rossonera.
“There are two souls in this Milan. Those of the last few seasons, very attacking and where you need to have perfect automatisms to support three attacking midfielders and a striker, or have a slightly more balanced formula like the 4-3-3,” he began.
“From what I understand Pioli is working on this last option, from 10 July he also tried the 4-2-3-1 but with the new signings he worked on the three-man midfield and I think that’s the starting point.
“Then in reality it’s a even a false 4-3-3, because more often than not in the friendlies this summer – no less than seven played by Milan – we saw a 4-3-3 that easily became a 4-2-3-1 with Loftus-Cheek behind the striker. He is a bit of a physically strong midfielder like Kessié was, who was decisive.
“Pioli wants to follow that Milan there: two in the middle of the field, in this case Krunic and Reijnders, who is doing very well and is the purchase that in my opinion fits best into this segment of the season, and Pulisic is slightly behind what his expectations were.
“Watch out for Chukwueze, because he’s made an impression in these first 10/15 days at Milanello. He has dribbling in his blood, he runs, shoots, goes at his opponent and we know in Italy how much difference this can make.”
