AC Milan face a hectic fixture schedule after the international break, and it will test the new depth at Stefano Pioli’s disposal.
The Rossoneri play five games in 14 days from September 16, and it starts with a crunch showdown against Inter before our Champions League campaign gets underway as we host Newcastle Utd.
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It promises to be a challenging fortnight as we try to build on an impressive start to the season having won three in three in Serie A thus far, and it’s hoped that the break hasn’t disrupted our rhythm and momentum.
With such a testing schedule though comes the need to rotate, whether that is due to injuries or the necessity to rest players to keep them fresh and help avoid setbacks.
After a busy summer transfer market in which we signed 10 new first-team players while allowing a whole host of dispensable individuals to leave, Pioli and the club hierarchy will hope that they’ve struck the perfect balance and have the options available to be competitive on multiple fronts.
The Milan boss has benefitted from consistency so far having named an unchanged side in all three league outings, but given the volume of games coming up and quick turnarounds in between, he will have to start rotating and leaning on others to step up.
Milan changes expected in testing schedule
There will of course be one enforced change next weekend given Fikayo Tomori’s suspension after his red card against Roma, and so one of Pierre Kalulu or Simon Kjaer will have to fill that void and ensure we maintain our impressive start defensively to the campaign.
Meanwhile, Olivier Giroud picked up a knock while on international duty with France this week, and while the 36-year-old downplayed the severity of the issue, as per MilanNews, it remains to be seen if he’ll need treatment and is at risk of missing the clash with Inter.
While the hope is that we’ll be able to go full strength against Inter and Newcastle, perhaps encounters with Verona and Cagliari that follow will give Pioli some flexibility to make changes, albeit without showing a lack of respect towards those sides and allowing complacency to set in as we could absolutely end up slipping up.
However, whether it’s Noah Okafor, Samuel Chukwueze, Luka Jovic or Yunus Musah, they will get opportunities to impress in the coming weeks and they must deliver.
Not only will that allow Pioli to merely rest the likes of Giroud and Rafael Leao, but he’ll do so confidently, knowing that those at his disposal on the bench can step forward and make the difference when needed.
Milan have big ambitions this season as the quality in the squad dictates that we should be challenging for trophies. While a top-four finish and a run to the Champions League semi-finals last season were important achievements and progression, it ultimately masked a lot of problems that surfaced in our performances and results, particularly in the second half of the season.
The club have moved to address those concerns by making significant changes to the squad, with over nine players offloaded and several loan stints coming to a conclusion without a permanent transfer materialising. In turn, that has hopefully left us with a more talented and competitive group, but we’ll start to get answers in the next two weeks as to whether they’re potentially capable of providing all-important solutions.
