AC Milan are set to resume their Europa League journey on Thursday night when they take on Stade Rennes at San Siro, fighting for a place in the round of 16.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport (as seen below), Stefano Pioli is going to try and field as strong a team as he can for this knockout round playoff match, the first of two legs.
That means the expected attacking quartet will not be rotated. Olivier Giroud should hold his place, which will be a shame for Luka Jovic who may have expected to start.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek will continue behind him, with Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic on the flanks.
Tijjani Reijnders is available again and he is expected to start in the midfield, potentially with Yunus Musah alongside him. Yacine Adli and Ismael Bennacer are contenders to play in this role too.
It is the defence that may look quite different, thanks to the injuries to Davide Calabria and Simon Kjaer, Calabria will definitely be out, whilst Kjaer is unlikely to start.
That means Alessandro Florenzi is needed on the right, and Theo Hernandez will have to partner Matteo Gabbia in the middle. Filippo Terracciano is set for a first start on the left.
Probable Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Florenzi, Gabbia, Hernandez, Terracciano; Musah, Reijnders; Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Leao; Giroud.
Pioli and the boys could use a statement win. I wonder if Giroud can catch a break for this game – doubt he has the legs for a mid week game after Napoli. We’ll see.
Maybe he should have included Simic in the squad to avoid this. Now we lose the left flank.
It’s a tough choice. Having Gabbia and Simic as a pairing is very risky as Simic is still gaining experience and Gabbia, for all of the good performances lately, is still technically CB5. Pushing Theo to the middle next to Gabbia is the conservative choice, which I actually endorse in this situation. The real concern is Terracciano. Without a proper backup LB we’re left with playing this unproven “Swiss Army knife” in that position. In any case, we are one or two games from having Thiaw back in full effect, so it’s unlikely we’ll see Theo in the middle again after this match, barring another raft of injuries at CB.
Why does this keep coming back? Simic is not eligible for the Europa League. He’s been with the Primavera for less than 2 years and UEFA requires at least 2 years. On this same site, there’s been articles explaining that, and still, some people keep insisting that Pioli should have called him up. He is not on the Europa League list because he can’t be, not because Pioli didn’t want him.
He could have included him over Kalulu who will be out for some time yet
Did you have a brain fart or something? You need to slowly read his post again and understand “NOT ELIGIBLE FOR EUROPA LEAGUE”.
But he is Eligable. Not for the B list because he has not played the 2 years but he could take one of the senior place and considering all the injures we have he made a valid point replacing Simic with one that is out for a few months
I think all it matter is to at least score a goal and not conced goals its better to play safe and try to wait with tomori,thiaw to recover fast
That made me laugh. The simic comments.
Pioli should please start using rejnder tijjani for attacking midfield instead of Loftus cheek then infact Loftus cheek should play defensive midfield with musah then attacking midfield should be rotated match by match either rejnder or benercer will start as an attacking midfield