The international break is currently underway and this has given Stefano Pioli, as well as his staff, some time to analyse the recent performances. Above all, however, it will give the manager time to decide the left-back dilemma.
Theo Hernandez was booked in the game against Hellas Verona, for doing his usual celebration mind you, and will thus miss the important encounter with Fiorentina. This also means that Pioli will have to decide his replacement pretty soon, ideally before the proper preparations begin.
Milan don’t have an obvious replacement for the Frenchman, as crazy as that sounds for a club this big, but there are two options that Pioli will choose between: Alessandro Florenzi and Filippo Terracciano. Both have played in this position for Milan before.
Seeing as Terracciano arrived in January from Hellas Verona, Florenzi has done it a lot more for the Rossoneri and he will be the choice for most Milan fans. On the other hand, Terracciano has played in that position more than the veteran, just not with the red and black shirt.
Fundamentally, we are talking about two very different players here. Terracciano has a lot of potential, he has a good height and is quite fast as well. He’s very rough around the edges still, though, and is significantly behind Florenzi when it comes to technique.
Florenzi has shown that he can play on the left before, even if he is very right-footed and the defending leaves a lot to be desired. In most cases, he makes up for the unnatural position with his experience and we have seen him deliver some good set-pieces this season as well, which should not be forgotten.
So, what decision should Pioli make? It will depend entirely on the game he wants to play. If it’s Florenzi, one would assume that he will be a lot more defensive, or more responsibility will be placed on Fikayo Tomori to cover the action on the left (perhaps with Florenzi in an inverted role).
With Terracciano, on the other hand, Milan could *almost* keep their style of play and hope that the youngster has a good day. He will not be able to deliver Hernandez’s trademark runs, we all know that, but it will be easier for him to switch between attacking and defending.
The weight of the game cannot be overstated, of course, and this leads us to believe that Florenzi will be given the chance. Terracciano will get his chance eventually if not against Fiorentina, and the reality is that Milan cannot afford to drop points in this clash.
They can, of course, but not if they want to avoid seeing Inter celebrating the Scudetto in the derby. As far as experience vs. potential goes, at least in light of that, it seems pretty obvious that experience will prevail here.
reijnders just scored a great longshot goal against scotland
That sexy mo**er*uc*er!
Love me some Reijnders!
😀
Now an assist as well.
I hope he choosed to play with my country but of course not. He’s too good to choose his Indonesian side
Not that i know much about the indonesian international team but it would have been a bit weird choice and he has also been born in holland so i doubt anything else was ever in the cards to happen.
Great goal.
I can see him going on a scoring spree if he gets into a rhythm. He’s been unlucky with a few shots this season, and he’s still managed to score 3.
Yeah lets hope so but overall he has indeed been doing good for us.
“Decision”. Its plain as day who will start. Florenzi.
Terracciano played as right central midfielder yesterday with Italy U20 against Romania.
Seems he suffers from same problem as Musah. His big motor let’s him cover a lot of ground so he isn’t getting developed in hiss natural position.
I’m not even sure what his natural positions is supposed to be.
I think his best position is RB but yes he has played everywhere. Correct he does have that Musah effect, Musah played as a 6 against Jamaica.
Not really an issue if he can become a utility player he can get more minutes and utility players are priceless.
Stones plays RB, CB and DM for Man City.
Terracciano should first be given some longer comeos or starting in easier matches before just throwing him on at a difficult ground. I remember him having a nice debut performance. He’s already good but Florenzi should start.
“On the other hand, Terracciano has played in that position more than the veteran, just not with the red and black shirt”
to be fair terracciano has played 5 matches as left back whereas florenzi has played 12 matches according to transfermarkt. In the end i dont mind either option but i do nevertheless believe that florenzi offers more guarantees.
why not kalulu? he is faster and stronger than both, maybe not better in term of defending. however nowadays I saw cala also often got caught of position anyway
Kalulu is injured again for a month or something.
Terraciano should’ve came on in the last game to replace hernandez later on. Thats what i thought when hernandez got his card. Yeah we needed to ensure we won the game and it’s good chukeweze scored but pulisic couldve stayed on and looked dangerous. It’ll be florenzi which i dont blame pioli choosing. More experience and useful as a set piece taker. Shame jimenez is out. Calafiori should be bought for that position and can play cb too. Probably can fit in nice as a dm too. Fiorentina will hopefully go out on the attack and we can catch them on the break. Their cbs are quite shakey. Another start for okafor as cf would be great. Can cause alot of trouble for their cbs. Poor pulisic will need to start again hoping he doesn’t come back wrecked more from usa… Tomori will have to keep his head screwed on and not lunge into challenges. Can see why southgate doesnt select him. Too many careless cards. Still great at building the play at the back. Better than the other cbs. Maignan, florenzi, gabbia, tomori, calabria, adli, reijnders, loftus, leao,okafor,pulisic to start. Bennacer has muscle issues. Reijnders will start after that screamer for holland. Also an up and coming lb josh doig scored a screamer for scots under 21s. Still think that was a miss over terraciano.. Can play lb/rb and on the wing. He’ll be the next hickey story in italy. Wonder how bartesaghi is doing too. Looked great preseason. Hes out on loan right.. Still a bit confused why we didnt keep him and got in jiminez in whos less strong. Probably wanted more game time to develop im guessing
There were some media reports that we would loan out bartesaghi but it didnt happen and he is still with the u19 and sometimes on the ac milan bench as well. Doig is probably not attainable currently as he just signed for sassuolo january 20th so my bet would be that sassuolo would demand a sizeable fee to let go of him.
Sorry thats alot of waffle haha