Sky journalist Peppe Di Stefano has confirmed that AC Milan will sign a new central defender before the window runs out, while he also praised Stefano Pioli for his choices during the Udinese win.
It was indeed the game of the ‘super subs’ on Saturday night at the Stadio Friuli as Luka Jovic and Noah Okafor came off the bench to score. The former got the equaliser inside the final ten minutes, and the latter netted a 93rd-minute winner.
While certain key players like Samuel Chukwueze and Ismael Bennacer are currently absent – as well as the three main central defenders – it is nice for Pioli to be able to call upon difference makers in the second half.
Peppe Di Stefano gave an update live on Sky regarding the win against Udinese and also the ongoing pursuit of a new central defender, with his comments relayed by MilanNews.
“Credits must be given to Stefano Pioli, as well as to those who came on. In the specific ranking of goals scored by substitutes, the Milan coach is in the lead,” he said.
“They were decisive 9 times with 9 different goals: 3 from Okafor, 3 from Jovic, 1 goal from Pulisic, 1 from the young Traoré and the other from the very young Simic.
“So you see that when the bench gets longer, the group in general especially benefits from it. It is fundamental in a season where they play so many games to have quality alternatives as Milan are beginning to have.”
The journalist went on to address Milan’s pursuit of a new centre-back, confirming that a couple of the targets are currently playing in England.
“Regarding the defender, Milan will sign one. The idea is to take a player with structure [physically] and potential. Buongiorno, the dream, but the Diavolo are struggling to arrive at this solution, which is why the alternatives are Kiwior and Lenglet.
“In 10 days there will be a meeting between the technical and medical staff, because Milan will have to understand who out of Thiaw, Tomori and Kalulu will be included in the UEFA squad list [for the Europa League play-off round].
“If Milan have difficulty in including all three, there will be things to do evaluations regarding the market.”
Thank you to the management for trying to sort out squad depth. Last season we would been able to bring on nobody to try to turn things around.