AC Milan face Roma in Serie A on Sunday night, and here’s how Stefano Pioli’s starting line-up could look for the encounter.
The Rossoneri suffered a fresh setback in midweek as we crashed out of the Coppa Italia, ending what appeared to be a potentially decisive run of form after three consecutive wins across all competitions.
READ MORE: Five key talking points as Milan suffer defeat vs Atalanta in Coppa Italia
In turn, Pioli will be looking for a response from his players once again in what promises to be a difficult clash with Roma, who will be desperate to close the gap on the top four.
The Milan boss has important decisions to make for this one, as we could see a key tactical tweak at the back in particular with options available to him to make changes.
Theo returns to left-back, Adli and Giroud to start?
Mike Maignan will no doubt continue between the posts, while Davide Calabria is expected to get the nod at right-back. However, Pioli will have to decide on his preferred centre-half partnership, with Simon Kjaer and Matteo Gabbia potentially in line to start, thus shifting Theo Hernandez back to his preferred slot at left-back.
However, with Gabbia taking a knock in midweek and the availability of new signing Filippo Terracciano, we could see Theo continue to be deployed in the centre, but ideally that won’t be the case as we’re likely to benefit more from him being in his more natural role.
As seen in the graphic below from La Gazzetta dello Sport though, they’ve gone with the French international in the middle, with Alex Jimenez continuing on the left. We saw some frailties to that set-up against Atalanta, and so time will tell if Pioli feels confident enough in it to go with it again, or perhaps he’ll be forced to do so anyway.
In midfield, both Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tijjani Reijnders are slated to start, but there is a decision to be made on whether it’s Yunus Musah or Yacine Adli who complete the trio.
Adli brings more guile and technical ability to our play if that’s the route Pioli wants to go down, as we’ll ideally dominate possession and control the game while searching for a breakthrough. However, that needs to be weighed up with the industry and energy of Musah and so time will tell which way he goes, as we must impose ourselves in midfield and make it difficult for the Giallorossi.
It should be a familiar look up top though, with Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao supporting Olivier Giroud in the final third, and we’ll hope to see them put in a clinical performance to lead us to three important points.
Noah Okafor is expected back after his spell on the sidelines due to injury which will be a boost for our bench, but it’s likely to be another youthful look on the sidelines given our injury woes.
Predicted AC Milan XI vs Roma: Maignan; Calabria, Kjaer, Gabbia, Theo; Loftus-Cheek, Adli, Reijnders; Pulisic, Giroud, Leao. [via MilanNews]
