With Rafael Leao suspended against Napoli, Stefano Pioli is considering radical Milan changes, including a three-man defence and Charles De Ketelaere as centre-forward.
The Portuguese talent received two yellow cards in this evening’s 2-1 win away to Sampdoria, so he will sit out a one-match ban.
That means missing the Scudetto showdown against Napoli at San Siro next Sunday, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ante Rebic, Alessandro Florenzi and Rade Krunic also out.
Meanwhile, Divock Origi was meant to start today and pulled out due to a muscular issue, so he too is by no means guaranteed to recover in time.
“If Origi had been available today, I would’ve let Leao rest, but having both Origi and Rebic out rather complicates our plans,” said Pioli in his press conference.
“Ante has a lot of pain in his back and can’t move well. Origi has a minor issue, I don’t think he can play on Wednesday, but we hope for Sunday. We have other alternatives, although the only one with similar characteristics to Leao is Rebic.”
When they went down to 10 men against Sampdoria, Milan switched almost to a back three, giving Theo Hernandez the freedom to roam forward at will.
“I had been thinking about a three-man defence since the summer, because we have three strong and aggressive centre-backs who can start moves really well. We’ve got the wingers to make it work too.
“I was going to try it out in pre-season, but didn’t get round to it. We know each other so well, we could try it. I think it’s a system that could give us even more versatility and options.”
Olivier Giroud meanwhile is the only centre-forward available at the moment, but De Ketelaere can take that role, as he has done already last season for Club Brugge.
The 21-year-old Belgian is very tall, 1.92m, and when playing as a centre-forward at Brugge scored 12 goals and provided seven assists in 30 games.
Pioli wants to experiment against Napoli of all teams???
Why not move Theo to leao’s position and put Ballo Toure
Surprise surprise?
There isn’t another way unless he plays fode-toure left wing or salemakers
Coach Pioli have to be force to play 3 man defense yesterday.
Coach Pioli, openly admiting to never trying other options in his 3 years in Milan.
Coach Pioli is the only limiting factor for the current AC Milan.
Pioli is the limiting factor? What an incredibly stupid thing to say.
If Rebic and Origi don’t make it, Saelemaekers will play on the left. I don’t think Pioli will risk a formation change from the start.
3 at the back with Theo and Dest on the wing back positions is fantastic on paper because all those 5 players will be at their absolute best positions, but the 5 in front of them and their movement is the problem.
When we take the lead in matches this could be a serious option though, like yesterday.
De ketelaere played cf on many occasions at brugge so this is a logical choice.
Play Adli as AM then or part of three man mid as point forward player. Also Thiaw and Gabbia could rotate for defense.
Now our team find it difficult to score opponents many goals
I think our coach needs to change tactics and formation as well.
Our formation needs to be changed
Makes sense to me as a solution.
Been brilliant how Pioli has tweaked the formation recently. As last season came to a head, it was clear that Milan‘s only problems were against sides playing a back 3, and at the crucial moment he altered the formation to 4141 with midfielders making runs from deep, worked brilliantly.