Tomorrow marks the eve of AC Milan’s first game of the season, and a report has claimed that Paulo Fonseca still has some selection doubts to resolve.
As Sky report, Friday will be the final training session before Fonseca sends his first competitive line-up out to try and begin the 2024-25 season in the best possible way, and he has some dilemmas that he needs to make decisions on.
The first one is in defence where Fikayo Tomori seems certain of a spot at centre-back, as do Davide Calabria and Theo Hernandez as the full-backs while waiting for Emerson Royal to resolve some final bureaucratic issues.
The question mark is who will partner Tomori and there are three obvious candidates: Malick Thiaw who did so plenty in preseason, Matteo Gabbia who was very reliable in the second half of last season, and the new signing Strahinja Pavlovic.
In midfield, the second doubt is regarding who will be the partner to Tijjani Reijnders, with Ismael Bennacer, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Yunus Musah the options on the table while waiting for Youssouf Fofana’s imminent arrival.
Then there is the trident behind Alvaro Morata, where Alexis Saelemaekers and Samuel Chukwueze seem to be battling for a spot, while it cannot be excluded that Loftus-Cheek plays behind the striker if Pulisic – who has shaken off an ankle knock – is not 100% yet after missing two training sessions.
Based on performances so far in preseason they should start like this:
Maignan
Calabria Tomori Pavlovic Theo
Bennacer Reijnders
Pulisic
Chukwueze Jovic Leao
I assume that too, but swap out Pulisic for RLC as he’s not likely to be 100% in time and no reason to risk him
He full trained with the squad today so I could see him starting on Saturday.
Saelemakers is starting the game
i’m just so concerned how rlc, pulisic, saelemakers, chukwueze, rafa leao, and okafor will all be rotated because as much as people want to praise pulisic for his performances, rlc was almost equally as important last season
Reijnders HAS to play with Benny as he is the only defensive minded mid we have. I don’t trust Musah there yet.
That partnership of musah and reijnders were part of the biggest wins last season. PSG and Newcastle and they really should have won that first dortmund game…I think this style of play fits perfectly for what musah does best. He wins the ball in the middle of the park and creates dangerous counters every game dating back to the end of last season…
I would expect based on the value that management has put on thiaw and musah in the market that they will get a lot of starts. They aren’t refusing to sell them so they can sit and lose value.
I feel better about the D when Gabbia is on the field.
Maignan
Calabria gabbia Pavlovich theo
Bennacer fofana
Chuk, reijnders Leao
Jovic