Stefano Pioli will be without six of his players for tomorrow’s clash against Genoa at San Siro, despite a couple of returns. With second place to defend, currently five points ahead of Juventus, he will have to make the best of the situation.
Fortunately for the manager, at least compared to the Juventus games, the absences are ‘less notable’ this time out as the defence will return to normal operations. Fikayo Tomori and Theo Hernandez are both back, meaning Alessandro Florenzi can replace Yunus Musah on the right.
Mike Maignan (injury), Davide Calabria (suspension), Simon Kjaer (injury), Yunus Musah (suspension), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (injury) and Luka Jovic (injury) are the ones who will miss out. The Englishman’s absence means the XI will be rather attacking-minded, with Christian Pulisic starting in the No.10 role.
On the other hand, in addition to Tomori and Hernandez, the likes of Pierre Kalulu and Tommaso Pobega are back in the squad. Pioli even stated that they could get some minutes so that is something to be happy about at least.
On a related note, Matteo Gabbia is the only one at risk of suspension but he might not start the game, with Malick Thiaw seemingly ahead for now.
Thiaw ahead of Gabbia for now is my doubt. Sure he played good against Juve, but Gabbia is more consistent and sounds better paired with Tomori.
But hopefully we win and some primavera will play, at least 30 minutes.
With this manager primavera wont play