CM: Milan battling defensive crisis – Pioli’s solutions for Juventus with objective to tick off | OneFootball

The feeling is that the Stefano Pioli era at AC Milan is drifting towards its conclusion, but there is still the objective of holding onto second place starting with tomorrow’s game against Juventus.

Calciomercato.com writes that having archived the defeat in the derby on Monday evening (the sixth in a row against Inter), which handed the second star Scudetto to their city rivals, Milan must get back on track starting tomorrow in Turin.

The importance of second

In the minds of the owners and management, there is no longer room for the word ‘failure’. Despite the fact his time is drawing to a close, it remains essential for Pioli to achieve the last two objectives in the season: second place in the league and, with it, Supercoppa Italiana qualification.

In addition to sporting merit, they are objectives to be achieved for marketing, brand issues (presence in the tournament in Saudi Arabia) and for economic purposes.

Second place is worth €16.8m with is €2.4m more than third, as well as influencing the market pool – the share of UEFA prizes distributed to each country’s television market – in the Champions League for next year.

Meanwhile, for the Supercoppa (which Milan can gain access to even in third position in Serie A, given Juve have reached the Coppa Italia final), as many as €16m will be distributed to the four participating clubs: semi-finalists will receive €1.6m, with approximately €5m guaranteed to the losing finalist and approximately €8m to the winner.

It can be deduced that these are two goals that must be reached as soon as possible for Milan who, however, will have to face Juventus without three-quarters of their starting defence.

Another emergency

In the tense finale of the derby on Monday evening, the Rossoneri lost three players ahead of the trip to Turin as captain Davide Calabria was sent off and got a two-game ban, as was Theo Hernandez, then Fikayo Tomori reached five yellow cards.

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That’s not all: added to the absences due to disqualification are the injuries Pierre Kalulu and Simon Kjaer, who continue to train separately and whose conditions must be constantly monitored, with the possibility one or both could make the bench.

Five members of the Milanese rearguard will therefore be out for the match against Juventus. This is nothing new for Pioli, especially after the long-term injuries to Malick Thiaw, Fikayo Tomori and Pierre Kalulu.

The solutions

Pioli will have the following players fit: Matteo Gabbia, Thiaw, Alessandro Florenzi, Filippo Terracciano, Matteo Gabbia and Malick Thiaw. The latter two will almost certainly make up the starting central defensive pairing against the Bianconero, being the only ones available.

The coach’s biggest doubts are about the full-back positions. Florenzi will definitely start but it remains to be seen whether on the right or left. If he replaces Calabria, Terracciano will be diverted to the left as the deputy to Theo.

If, however, the former Roma player plays on the left, Yunus Musah’s flexibility will come into play: the American can be adapted as a right-back, and at the moment this seems to be the most credible hypothesis.

Some young players from the Primavera will have to be called up to fill out the defence such as Davide Bartesaghi and Jan-Carlo Simic. In any case, Pioli’s solutions must be successful: beating Juve is fundamental to add a positive note to a difficult month.