Stefano Pioli will be without the likes of Olivier Giroud and Rafael Leao against Fiorentina after the break. Therefore, he will have to change the attacking trio and according to a report, he has two options in mind for the game.
Giroud’s two-game suspension was confirmed by the Sporting Judge yesterday and Leao sustained a hamstring injury against Lecce. Both will miss the game against Fiorentina, in other words, and this means some changes need to be made in attack.
According to Tuttosport (via MilanNews), Pioli has the following two options for the attacking trio: Chukwueze-Okafor-Pulisic or Pulisic-Jovic-Okafor. In the latter scenario, Chukwueze could also get the chance ahead of Okafor, with Pulisic moving to the left.
Okafor has scored two goals this season, while Jovic is yet to find the back of the net. Giroud’s absence is thus huge blow for Milan and now is the time for the deputies to step up. Jovic especially, who has been a big disappointment since he arrived on a free transfer in the summer.
After the fiasco against Udinese, a formation change is unlikely and the options mentioned above are Milan’s best bets. It remains to be seen if Leao will be back against Frosinone, but he will certainly miss the next clash.
I like the idea of Pulisic-Okafor-Chukwueze but its doesn’t leave much in reserve to change the match.
I’d start Okafor-Jovic-Chukwueze.
It’s time to s**t or get off the pot when it comes to these 3. Play the rest of the first choice team to give them as solid a structure to work in as possible and see what they can do.
Your idea is to leave Pulisic who has been by far the best out of those 4, and arguably our best forward overall this season on the bench? I certainly hope Pioli has more sense than that.
As I see it, there is a wonderfully self-fulfilling logic. When you refuse to give players opportunity they tend to seize up and not perform to their capacity, when they do get opportunities out of nothing more than necessity, because of the pressure associated with the opportunity.
The other side of the same coin is that if you show the player you actually believe in him he will generally relax enough to perform.
I’d go as far as promising Okafor and Chukwu the next 2 games with the rest of the best team behind them. Given them a platform to work from, not a patch work of other players the coach has no faith in. They are set up for failure.
Leao has broken down and Pulisic has broken down 2 or is it 3 times already? We spent, what is was it, 40 to 45 million for depth on the wing only to break down the starters refusing to play the depth?
We have a squad and we’re not very good at using it. Pioli is clearly creating this rod for his own back. We saw it last season when he played Leao and Giroud in particular into the ground prior to the world cup. By the time he was playing the B team, as part of a massive rotation, those players were a dysfunctional mess and none of them looked to be playing anywhere near the best.
Keeping Pulisic up our sleeve us gives us some quality to bring into a game. Build his minutes back up so he doesn’t break down, again.
I assume that management is sophisticated enough that Pioli can even tell them that he is going to, get approval, test the depth on the caveat that he is not sure what will happen. Buy some time to ride out some bad results.
Leao has pinged a hammy. Given that he is a player that does a lot of explosive running he is automatically now a significantly increased risk of more of the same. Pulisic has battled injury for 2 to 3 years now.
If we lose Leao to another few 3 to 4 week injuries, as things stand, we won’t make the top 4. We didn’t do it last season on points (we did it by default). Napoli will almost certainly bounce back now that Garcia is gone and Mazzari is saying he will just let them play. Roma now has only Smalling and Abraham on its injury list – we’ve not seen what things could look like with Pellegrini, Cristante, Paredes, Sanches, Aouar, Dybala and Lukaku all fit and available. Word is that they are going to try to sign reinforcements in the winter. Atalanta is ironing out the injury-induced kinks it has had – I don’t think it has been able to play Ederson, Koopmeiners, De Roon, Scamacca and Lookman in the same team.
If Pioli is under so much pressure that he doesn’t feel he can give a proper chance to 45m worth of reserve wingers, he should be sacked tomorrow as he will never be develop the squad and the results will suffer (because we’re playing more games than 15 players can manage).
Milan is in desperate need of a win. We are already without Leao and Giroud. Now is not the time to rest our best remaining forward to give a chance to some players that have shown nothing so far. Sorry.
It won’t surprise me if Pioli put Krunic in the front three, and benched Jovic or Okafor. His strategy is beyond our wildest imagination
Lol.. 100000% correct.. Why can Milan sack him right now
I actually like Okafor as CF he scored all his goals from there. He is much less effective as Leao sub. I would go with Puli — Okafor — Chuku and bring Jovic toward the end if Puli need a rest (switch Okafor with Jovic position wise). Nothing complicated really.
This is a great opportunity for the 2nd string to grow. Giroud is old and will need to be replaced and Leao is magic but can’t play every minute of every game. The 2nd string players need to be able to showcase their worth outside of the first string shadows. Pioli needs to get these players more game time. Will that mean early disappointments? Probably. But done well, this can be a net positive at the end of the season.