AC Milan face a trip to take on Verona on Sunday with Stefano Pioli facing some key decisions in a busy period in the fixture schedule.
The Rossoneri suffered a disappointing defeat to Chelsea in the Champions League in midweek as we were unable to overcome the contentious blow of losing Fikayo Tomori to a red card in the early stages.
READ MORE: Five key talking points as Milan secure convincing win over Juventus
While the focus will now be on bouncing back from that loss, we must switch our attention to domestic matters and closing the three-point gap to current Serie A leaders Napoli. Having defeated Juventus last time out in the league in what was a convincing performance, it’s hoped that we can build on that in this game and get back to winning ways.
That said, in such a busy period in the schedule, Pioli has big calls to make as to whether he rotates and rests key individuals, or if he ultimately decides to put out the strongest available XI. Fortunately, we’re not in action again until next Saturday and so that should give us an opportunity to rest in midweek if we do indeed go with our best line-up.
Gabbia to continue, chance to rest Giroud?
Since being drafted back into the side, Matteo Gabbia has put in some solid performances and so the smart set-up at this point is arguably to partner him with Tomori in the middle and shift Pierre Kalulu over to the right side again.
With Alessandro Florenzi a long-term absentee and Simon Kjaer, Davide Calabria and Alexis Saelemaekers all still ruled out due to injury, our options are limited in that department and so the above solution appears to be the most reliable for now with Sergino Dest struggling to entirely convince.
Mike Maignan is also still sidelined and so Ciprian Tatarusanu will continue between the posts with Theo Hernandez completing the backline at left-back.
In midfield, it seems sensible to continue with Ismael Bennacer and Sandro Tonali given the slight relief in the schedule for them to rest up during the week, while with Charles De Ketelaere likely out and Zlatan Ibrahimovic still sidelined, we are expecting to see Rafael Leao, Brahim Diaz, Rade Krunic and Olivier Giroud continue in attack.
That said, it could be argued one of Ante Rebic or Divock Origi should now come in and give Giroud a break with the Frenchman having led the line for us constantly in recent weeks, but that’s a big decision to make for Pioli given it changes our set-up in terms of the presence up top who can press and provide more movement off the ball in the final third as opposed to a target man in Giroud.
Tommaso Pobega and Messias Jr will be among those knocking on the door trying to get a chance to come in, but as we hope to get some important players back from injury against Monza next weekend, it makes sense for Pioli to go with as strong a Milan XI as possible for this game to avoid any unwanted slip-ups.
