Zlatan Ibrahimović may start on Monday against Sampdoria, with Krzysztof Piątek watching him from the bench.
Zlatan has been in Milano for only a few days and yesterday was his first time training with his new teammates.
However, as reported by Milannews.it and others, Ibrahimović has appeared to be in an excellent physical condition.
Therefore, the possibilities of seeing Ibra on the pitch from the first minute, at the center of Pioli’s 4-3-3 (most likely with Suso and Hakan Çalhanoğlu on his side), are on the rise. Ibra already played this role in the friendly match against Rhodense, scoring a goal and assisting one in the 9-0 win of the club over the regional side.
Should Zlatan start, it would of course leave Krzysztof Piątek on the bench. The Polish striker, who has been incredibly disappointing this season, has one more training session to convince Pioli, as the game against Sampdoria is on Monday at 15:00 CET at Stadio San Siro. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, 56k tickets have already been sold and nearly 60k could arrive to see Ibra’s debut.
Another doubt of Pioli ahead of the game, according to Sky Italia, is between Lucas Paquetá and Franck Kessié. One of them will start with Ismael Bennacer and Jack Bonaventura in midfield.
It’s amazing how easily we forget how good Piatek was last season. Last season he was one of the best strikers in Serie A. Strikers don’t flop overnight. Higuaín was horrible at Milan because of the players around him. When he returned to Juventus he was able to prove to everyone that Milan had issues and it is not a striker problem why we are lacking goals. Piatek’s form has dropped because of some poor decisions by Milan management to hire the wrong coaches and not buy proper wingers or support striker to play alongside him. Our formation is also… Read more »
I agree. Milan should be focusing on bringing in some quality wingers for once if we plan on sticking with 433.
the thing about piatek is, it wouldnt matter how good the wingers are, he’d still suck playing as lone st in 4-3-3 formation because he’s classic #9 not complete st like ibra. even piatek himself said in his interview that he plays better with partner upfront in 2 st formation. hell, even inzaghi himself scored less goals playing as lone st after sheva left. like i said, milan is 2 st club. regarding cavani at psg, actually, he played as lw when ibra was around. he still scored because he’s skillful enough, and also because ibra’s awesome passer. andre silva… Read more »
We could have ibra and a dream signing for nothing, cavanni up front and still struggle!!!
since milan can get him on bosman rule, cavani is very feasible if milan can qf for el next season. but then again, the way things are going, i think atl madrid is much more attractive to him
that’s why i called this coach, this management was dumb… we arenot coach but we can see big problem in there… and now hakan and suso maybe starting eleven, is this coach or dongkey?? still make same mistakes… sorry i must talk like this…
I disagree with you on piatek. He lacks everything a forward needs. The one thing he had going for him was his movement. Last year he moved off the ball more up until about March/April. After that you could see the difference in his movement. He doesn’t have speed, he doesn’t have good ball control or skills. Not strong, no hold up/link up play and is in a goal drought. Piatek was good bc he was new. The reason cutrone had soo much success was bc of his constant movement off the ball and Willingness to help the team besides… Read more »
“He lacks everything a forward needs.” actually, he’s a good header of the ball and he possesses fantastic shot technique and accuracy. his off the ball movements are worse than leao let alone inzaghi or romario but what makes him suck as lone st in 4-3-3 setting, like kalinic and bacca before him, is his lack of passing and link up play skills. that the goalscoring assists rarely come to him dont help either. piatek is a poacher theres reason why france coaches like domenech picked complete st like henry ahead of ultimate classic poacher trezegol in 4-2-3-1 setting, and… Read more »
Agree
@Nathan Graegin…Everything you said Piatek doesn’t have, the same can be said about Filippo Inzaghi but we all know Inzaghi was a good finisher with or without a support striker like Shevchenko. Why was that? Well, that’s because Inzaghi had players like Kaka, Seedorf, Pirlo and I would also include Serginho and Cafu that could supply him with quality passes for him to score. Piatek doesn’t have that kind of “quality” support. How many assist did Çalhanoğlu provide last season or this season? So based on your logic it is clear to me that the problem is NOT Piatek or… Read more »
Again I gotta disagree. Pippo indeed wasn’t skillful but his off the ball movement and goal scoring ability with both feet and headers made him incredible. Piatek is slow!!! That means he needs to be hanging off the last defenders. Yes I do agree he lacks good players around him but if you don’t move at all then you give yourself zero chances to win the ball. He really does lack all of the above but the easiest thing he can do now is just to hang off the back line and beat the offsides trap. That and he needs… Read more »
Piatek played in a 433 formation under Gattuso and he was on his own playing off of long balls without any playmaker or 2nd striker supporting him and he scored a lot of goals and some against big teams. I don’t agree with your analysis on Piatek as it is baseless. Piatek movement is very good but shellfish Suso and Çalhanoğlu are choosing to shoot rather than passing the ball. Giampaolo and Pioli is asking Piatek to do too much with very little support from the midfield. There’s too much distance between Piatek and the midfield. Dropping Paquetá is also… Read more »
actually, piatek’s numbers dropped as soon as he played for milan compared to when he played for genoa. he cant play as lone st in 4-3-3 formation
His numbers dropped because he didn’t play as a lone striker for Genoa. Christian Kouame played alongside Piatek as a support striker. So I don’t get why Milan is forcing him to play in a system that he hasn’t played in successfully. Smh Conti played as a wingback in a 352 formation at Atalanta. Caldara played in a back 3 but Milan insists on playing a back 4. Calhanoglu never played as a winger at Leverkusen. He played as an AM. Leao played as a winger or support striker at Lille but Milan play him as a lone striker. Bennacer… Read more »
Nothing would change with Kessie and Mussachio still in the team
with hakan and suso… they are big problem for milan
i just watched wolves – man utd and im very impressed with wolves’ coach, moutinho and neves. wolves passed the ball well showing much more initiative and creativity and moutinho/neves are exactly what milan need in mf if they want to continue using 4-3-3; solid playmaking cm with vision and fantastic through balls. i said long ago: get one of fabregas, draxler, moutinho, pastore or ozil. regarding solskjaer, his man utd play aimlessly like rino’s milan or dalglish’s liverpool in the past. like i said, just because barca hit the jackpot with guardiola doesnt mean teams should hire their unproven… Read more »
Did u see Adama troure for wolves on right wing? Now that’s what we are missing!!! How come we didn’t sign him. I wonder if they would do straight swap for suso lol.
correctamundo mate. him or saint-maximin would be fantastic as milan winger. wolves could’ve scored many goals had they been sane enough to make themselves available in the box everytime traore or jimenez made great runs on the flanks
If pioli keeps playing hakan, Jessie and suso around ibra, ignoring rebic, krunic and leao, then it becomes clear than this either this management or this coach is being paid to sabotage the image of Ac Milan and everything it stands for… I will be so angry and frustrated if I don’t see a change in that line this half of the season, enough is enough, we have to start playing the right players for crying out loud, get rid of all these over paid and over played players and get quality players (especially wingers)…suso, kessie and hakan around ibra… Read more »
Totally understand your frustration. Rebic is on his way back to Frankfurt though according to the latest rumors. So clearly Rebic is not in Milan’s plans. Yes, our player selection and formation are wrong based on the characteristics of Hakan Calhanoglu and Suso. It’s bizarre at this point the amount of faith shown in those two. Smh However, according to rumors Milan is secretly being bought by billionaire Bernard Arnault and I can’t wait for this deal to go through. He claims that he wants Pep Guardiola or Klopp as coach. Already he wants a top coach which what Milan… Read more »
we have leao and theo for winger and this dongkey maybe choose two clowns (suso and hakan) for his clown squad…
rebic is average and im so glad milan didnt get robbed by paying frankfurt 40m for him. he has the physique but his ball control is very horrible for an attacker. he needs so much space to play because he relies so much on his speed and body balance to dribble his way through opponents defense and italian defenders wont allow it. he could be an enormous success playing for wolves or stoke city but no way he can make it in serie a
If Milan success to recruit Todibo. Then Milan can have formation 433 which is can easily change to 343 by having caldara as centre back and defensive midfielder depend on situation in the field. To get those formation. Milan need to exchange Paqueta with Draxler + Kurzawa. Kurzawa has better defensif skill. Draxler good Winger. Even Draxler can play kaka position. Theo move to midfielder. Theo best position is as midfielder. Do not forget how bale transform from left back to left midfielder/winger. Caldara can be played as centre back and DMC. Caldara has good intercept and agrresivity, and passing.… Read more »
Pioli has some similarity with Allegri. He depends on player performance from previous match, who played well will play again and who play bad will be dropped. It happens to Conti. He also values seniority, that’s why Musa plays ahead than Caldara, Hakan ahead than Leao. He also fair in giving minutes to play for players who deserved. He is a structured coach. But Pioli still has to learn on choosing the right formation and flexibility in an on going match