How Milan could line up vs Torino: Bench boost, key Pioli decision

   August 26, 2023
AC Milan host Torino on Saturday night as the Rossoneri look to make it two wins in two to start the new Serie A season.

Stefano Pioli saw his side pick up all three points at Bologna on Monday as we produced a positive performance, particularly when considering the influx of new faces in the team.

READ MORE: Milan make it nine summer signings with more business expected

There were debuts for Tijjani Reijnders, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic, while Noah Okafor and Samuel Chukwueze featured off the bench too as we impressed with our attacking play for the most part.

However, Pioli will need to find the right balance in his new-look side moving forward if we are to compete at the top level this season, as we did look vulnerable at times defensively with our midfield not as in control of the game as desired.

In turn, he’ll be looking for improvements this weekend, and for the benefit of building consistency and momentum, it’s unlikely we’ll see any changes.

Unchanged Milan XI, Musah bench boost

If it isn’t broken, there’s no need to fix it. The expectation is that we’ll see the same Milan XI that started in Bologna on Monday, and so Mike Maignan will be between the posts, with a back-four of Davide Calabria, Malick Thiaw, Fikayo Tomori and Theo Hernandez in front of him.

Loftus-Cheek, Rade Krunic and Reijnders will form the three-man midfield, with Rafael Leao and Pulisic providing support out wide for Olivier Giroud, who will continue to lead the line for us.

With the fixture schedule relatively straight-forward at this time of the season, there is no real need for Pioli to rotate and rest any key players, as the priority is to continue to make a positive start to the campaign.

Milan aren’t in action again until next Friday night when we travel to Roma, and so we should go full strength for this one, provided that there are no late fitness issues which might force Pioli’s hand.

While we’ll hopefully be in a position to give those on the bench a run-out to gain valuable minutes to help with their respective integrations and settling in process, Yunus Musah will also be a welcome addition on the sidelines having missed out earlier in the week due to a suspension he carried over from his previous club.

The Rossoneri also confirmed the signing of Marco Pellegrino this week, and so it will be interesting to see if the 21-year-old is considered ready to come straight into the matchday squad, or if he’ll be gradually integrated as we have no real need to rush him if Pioli doesn’t feel as though he’s quite ready yet.

The Milan boss will ideally be able to give Musah his first experience of Serie A football though if we’re in a commanding position in the latter stages of the encounter, but the starting XI is expected to be the same.

With the focus currently on building understanding and chemistry in this line-up to ensure we’re as efficient and convincing as possible moving forward, it would arguably be the sensible approach for what could be a tricky test.