AC Milan face Atalanta in a crucial Serie A clash on Sunday night, and here’s how Sergio Conceicao’s starting line-up for the encounter could look.
The Rossoneri can ill-afford any further slip-ups between now and the end of the season, as we look to close the gap on our rivals in the battle to qualify for the Champions League.
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With an eight-point gap to bridge currently and just six games remaining, Conceicao will be fully aware of the need to win out from this point onwards, but it promises to be a difficult assignment this weekend with Atalanta ending their own poor form last time out and solidifying their spot in the top four.
The Milan boss will also have to consider the second leg of our Coppa Italia semi-final with Inter next week as we look to keep our hopes of winning further silverware alive, but ultimately the full focus will be on Atalanta for now and getting the desired outcome.
As per MilanNews, preparations at Milanello for the encounter appear to indicate that the Rossoneri are going to stick with the same personnel and system from our impressive 4-0 win over Udinese last weekend, while there’s the important boost of seeing both Mike Maignan and Santiago Gimenez return to group training on Friday.
It’s hoped that Maignan at least will be sufficiently recovered to start, while Gimenez will be a key option to have back on the bench to make an impact if needed.
La Gazzetta dello Sport have gone with one change from that potential line-up, with Marco Sportiello tipped to get the nod in between the posts, seemingly based on the assumption that although he’s back in group training, Maignan may not be quite ready yet to start.
Further, they suggest that it could be a close call between Luka Jovic and Tammy Abraham in terms of who leads the line for Milan, but it looks like it will be a 3-4-3 formation again, with Matteo Gabbia, Fikayo Tomori and Strahinja Pavlovic forming our back-three, with Alex Jimenez, Youssouf Fofana, Tijjani Reinjders and Theo Hernandez making up our midfield, with the wide duo operating as wing-backs.
That leaves Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao supporting our frontman on the flanks, with Kyle Walker, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Emerson Royal remaining sidelined by injury.
It will be fascinating to see if the same approach works as effectively for Milan this weekend against top opposition, as a positive result is imperative to continuing to build momentum in our pursuit of Champions League qualification.
