AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli is expected to entrust captain Davide Calabria in the right-back role for tonight’s game against Bologna, a report claims.
There had been doubts about whether Calabria would come back into the starting line-up given he missed some time in preseason due to a muscle problem, and reports a couple of days ago had Pierre Kalulu in the XI.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below), the back four will be Calabria, Malick Thiaw, Fikayo Tomori and Theo Hernandez ahead of Mike Maignan, with Rade Krunic at the base of a midfield three completed by Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tijjani Reijnders.
Rafael Leao and Olivier Giroud remain two constants of the attacking department from last season, with Christian Pulisic tipped to start on the right. Samuel Chukwueze and Noah Okafor are therefore ready to come off the bench.
Probable Milan XI (4-3-3): Maignan; Calabria, Thiaw, Tomori, Theo Hernandez; Loftus-Cheek, Krunic, Reijnders; Pulisic, Giroud, Leao.
Probable Bologna XI (4-2-3-1): Skorupski; Posch, Beukema, Lucumi, Lykogiannis; Aebischer, Dominguez; Ndoye, Ferguson, Moro; Zirkzee.
AC Milan are currently preparing for their opening clash of the season, scheduled to take on Bologna away from home on Monday evening. As we await that game, it’s a perfect opportunity to take a look at the club’s evolution.
Since Stefano Pioli joined the club in October 2019, a lot certainly has changed. The manager has had three full seasons with the club and the upcoming one will thus be his fourth, as Milan believe consistency brings success.
Pioli has thus been in charge of Milan for three season openers and now is the perfect time to take a look at the starting XIs for those games. As you can see in the featured image, many players have come and gone and if we had included the predicted one for Monday’s clash, that would have been even clearer.
2020/21 – Milan vs. Bologna – (4-2-3-1): Donnarumma; Calabria, Gabbia, Kjaer, Hernandez; Bennacer, Kessie; Castillejo, Calhanoglu, Rebic; Ibrahimovic.
2021/22 – Sampdoria vs. Milan – (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Kjaer, Tomori, Hernandez; Krunic, Tonali; Saelemaekers, Diaz, Leao; Giroud.
2022/23 – Milan vs. Udinese – (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Kalulu, Tomori,
