AC Milan host Cagliari in a Serie A clash on Saturday, and here’s how Sergio Conceicao’s starting line-up could look.
The Rossoneri resume domestic action after the high of lifting the Italian Super Cup earlier this week, and having made such a positive start to Conceicao’s tenure, it’s hoped we can maintain that moving forward and show consistency.
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That starts with a test against Cagliari who arrive desperate for points as they look to fend off the threat of relegation, and so we will have to be at our best to get the desired outcome.
Both Alessandro Florenzi and Samuel Chukwueze are ruled out due to injury, while Emerson Royal misses out due to suspension. Conceicao also confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Ruben Loftus-Cheek will play no part as he suffered a fresh setback having only just made his comeback from a previous issue.
As per MilanNews, Davide Calabria will replace the suspended Emerson at right-back, while Rafael Leao comes in on the left wing instead of Alex Jimenez, having now recovered from his own injury blow.
That’s a huge boost given how influential he is capable of being for Milan, and it restores that balance with Christian Pulisic able to operate on the right side and provide support behind Alvaro Morata.
There is perhaps a decision to make in midfield though, but given La Gazzetta dello Sport have also gone with the same Milan line-up, it appears as though Yunus Musah will get the nod over Ismael Bennacer. They suggest Jimenez has a chance of starting at right-back, while Matteo Gabbia could displace Fikayo Tomori, but ultimately the touted XI below looks most likely to start the encounter at the time of writing.
That in turn sees Mike Maignan, Malick Thiaw, Theo Hernandez, Youssouf Fofana and Tijjani Reijnders complete the side, as we could make just two changes to the line-up that defeated Inter in the Super Cup final on Monday night in Riyadh.
Milan set a new standard in Conceicao’s first two games, as although we perhaps lacked quality and fluidity at times which will come the longer he gets to work with the players, we showed great energy, intensity and determination to overcome our opponents.
That will be the minimum expectation from the Portuguese tactician moving forward, and it’s hoped that we can replicate that level of performance this weekend to continue to build momentum and use our Super Cup triumph as a catalyst to get our campaign going after an underwhelming and inconsistent first half of it.