The final friendly of the US Tour is here as Milan takes on Barcelona in Baltimore, Maryland (essentially a Washington, DC suburb for you non-yankees). We covered the Milan-Real match and CB Strahinja Pavlovic arrival in the last post, so for this we’ll just focus on this friendly. One thing to note here is that while Pavlovic has been announced, he’s still in Europe and will train at Milanello once he’s straightened out passports and other legal formalities. Anyway, let’s move on to this match.
While the first friendly of this tour was definitely a don’t-take-anything-too-seriously type of vibe, with the season starting in 11 days, this one feels more like one where we’d like to see a little more crispness and continuing to build on many of the good things we’ve been seeing the last couple of weeks. Pulisic and Musah are nearing two weeks back training with the club and I would expect to see both of them log their most minutes so far this preseason.
There’s been rumors flying around that Fonseca is going to field Pulisic in the hole behind the striker, rumors that have only intensified of late. Rumors surrounding the other American on the squad, Musah, is that Fonseca sees him more as a central midfielder and likes his physicality and ball-carrying. I know Lisi has mentioned here numerous times that he wants to see Musah given a role and not a jack of all trades, so maybe this is where Fonseca sees his skillset best helping out the team. This move also opens up a little more room for Saelemaekers down the right so maybe there really is a place for him on the squad.
Leão returned to the team just before the Real match but he didn’t feature in the match, so expect to see him get a short run tonight, maybe 15-20 minutes at the most. Getting him tuned up but not injured is the goal here so I’m fine with him under a limited time constraint.
Elsewhere on the squad, Calabria logged a decent chunk of minutes last match and I’m hoping we see Kalulu start or get a bulk of the playing time at RB. With Fonseca moving Pulisic to the CAM, pushing RLC into the double-pivot, giving Musah a specified role in the double-pivot, giving the RB spot to Kalulu would be my dream squad selection with those other moves and help me move on that much faster from that Pioli-what’s-his-face-guy (I kid, I kid…love my Papa Pioli).
Finally, for those of you curious, Theo and Reijnders are back to training but are in Milan training with the Futuro. So obviously don’t expect to see them tonight. Aside from Pavlovic, who again should be training within the next day or so, that only leaves Álvaro Morata left to train and he’s expected at Milanello this Saturday (August 10th).
MATCHDAY INFO
LAST FIVE
Milan: WWDLD
Barcelona: WDWWW
FORMATIONS
*Lineups will be posted once available
BARCELONA (4-2-3-1): ter Stegen; Valle, Christensen, Lenglet, Marin; Casado, Gündogan; Victor, Dominguez, Raphinha; Lewandowski
MILAN (4-3-2-1): Torriani; Saelemaekers, Tomori, Thiaw, Terracciano; Musah, Loftus-Cheek; Chukwueze, Pulisic, Leão; Jovic
TIME/LOCATION
TIME: 7:30pm EST/12:30am GMT
PLACE: M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, MD, USA
WHERE TO WATCH:
ESPN+ here in the states. Check your local listings
*Let us know if this needs updating*
WHAT TO WATCH FOR:
I said pretty much everything that I needed to up top. For those wondering, Youssouf Fofana’s pursuit is still up in the air and Emerson Royal has been “imminent” for like 86 days now so maybe he shows up, maybe he doesn’t. I don’t think Milan needs him but I guess we’ll see. Regardless, Gerry and Zlatan seem content to win with relatively minor reinforcements and a coaching/philosophical change this summer. Let’s hope they’re right. But for now, bring on Barcelona.
Forza Milan
gillis