AC Milan have once again been left without Mike Maignan for an extended part of the season, leaving Stefano Pioli with a problem in goal.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (via MilanNews) write that Maignan’s injury continues to keep him out, as he has not played an official match since mid-September due to two muscle problems that have been keeping him out for almost four months.
As Stefano Pioli has also repeated several times, there are no certainties as to when Maignan will be able to return to the field: “We don’t have timescales, I can’t say today whether it will be in 3, 4 or 5 weeks. Mike has all the our support and he is eager to return but he knows that we have to respect the timing because the muscle does not respond as it should. I can’t say by what date we will have him.”
There is no precise target for his return but the goal would be to have him available again for the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Tottenham in mid-February, but it is not excluded that his return could slip further away.
Without Maignan, Ciprian Tatarusanu is guarding the goal. The Romania international has never committed dreadful mistakes, but he has also never given great security either. Despite this, at least in the immediate future, he should still be the starter given that even Antonio Mirante was not able to take advantage of the chances given in the friendlies.
The Rossoneri signed Devis Vasquez, who is giving good signs in the first training sessions, but for the moment he is not yet considered ready to play. We’ll see if the situation will remain this way, or if the hierarchies will change.
I hate reading statements like, “not ready to play.” I’d like to imagine salernitana fielding a defender in goal because Ochoa wasn’t ready to play. How ready do you need to be to play in goal considering that the boy even speaks Italian? Personally I’d like for us to experiment as much till it’s certain that Tata is the best backup we have.
Devis Vasques is the Best to be No 1 to Play Mike Maignan Returns its Ubsurd Realy
I Hate The Wrong Decisions by S Pioli Always Takes.
I Agree with you 100%.
Poalo Maldiini and R Massara Agreed his Pioli Degrading Decesions of waiting Renato Sancez while Refusing to Enzo Fernendez just for 18M
Wehile Enzo Said i Give Acmilan Firat Priority of Waiting 7 Dqys.
Pioli Does not Trust Young Acmilan Players while he wants to invest much more money with same ages.
Doesn’t the youth have a good goalie? like in the past dollarumma was given a chance at young age
Pioli won’t give chances to the Primavera players. Coubis, El Hilali and Traore are better than some of the crap we have on the bench.
My biggest concern on this issue concerns Maignan himself: what the hell is going on with this guy?! The man has been out of the game for practically FIVE months! That for a goalkeeper is equivalent to, I don’t know, two years for a field player!
I used to classify this whole situation as ‘awkward’, but wtf, this is getting utterly insane and ultrabizarre… I ask: is this guy going to play football ever again???
As far as I know based on the last piece of info, he was set to return on january, and now the reports are saying that he will play only BEYOND mid-february… man, this is ridiculous.
Is this a joke? How can a Goalkeeper be injured this much? And muscle injuries? What the hell is he doing ? He’s a goalie. Milan has the worst training staff in professional sports. It’s a joke.
It has nothing to do with the training staff, some players are injury prone.