Milan will look to make it four consecutive wins across all competitions when we travel to face Brescia on Friday night.
The Rossoneri have now gone four games unbeaten, scoring eight goals and conceding just two in that run as we’ve shown the roots of a potential turnaround in our season.
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It’s imperative that we keep going now though to continue to cut the gap to fourth spot, with Roma still 10 points ahead with 20 games played.
While there are arguments in favour of Stefano Pioli avoiding making changes and sticking with a winning side, question marks were perhaps raised in the win over Udinese last time out over three positions in particular.
Kjaer to keep his place?
Mateo Musacchio continued to work away from the rest of the group on Tuesday, as per MilanNews.it, and so it remains to be seen whether or not he’ll be in contention to return this weekend.
While Simon Kjaer impressed against SPAL in the Coppa Italia in his debut, there were moments in the win over Udinese where his weaknesses were exposed, namely his lack of pace.
Coupled with Alessio Romagnoli next to him, we’ll potentially be vulnerable to balls in behind with that pairing, and while Musacchio has been prone to making mistakes ever since he joined, his mobility is often a key attribute which sees him complement our club captain well at times.
Matteo Gabbia is an option, but it seems unlikely that Pioli will go with him instead of Kjaer if Musacchio is still ruled out.
Krunic putting pressure on Kessie
Particularly in a 4-4-2 system, Franck Kessie’s energy, physicality and work-rate should seemingly be a stand-out factor in our improved form as he has to give us a foothold in the game.
However, that hasn’t been the case for the most part as he has struggled to have a significant influence on recent games and is not contributing enough in the heart of the midfield to add a solid balance alongside Ismael Bennacer.
Rade Krunic hasn’t exactly set the world alight when he’s come in for Kessie, but he’s done a decent job and coupled with the technical quality that he can also add in that area of the pitch, it remains to be seen whether or not Pioli is tempted to change it.
Calhanoglu or Rebic in, Bonaventura out?
For all the positive things that Giacomo Bonaventura offers us, based on last weekend, it could be argued that he’s going to struggle playing out wide on the left in a 4-4-2 formation.
He wasn’t as effective going forward and looked to be struggling with the workload from a defensive perspective, and so he could be under pressure to keep his place in the line-up this time round.
As noted in the report above, Hakan Calhanoglu is also still working away from the group as he recovers from an injury blow, and so if he’s passed fit, Pioli may well decide to go back to the tried and tested.
However, after his match-winning impact against Udinese, Ante Rebic has perhaps now put his name in the hat for a possible start against Brescia, as although it may need a slight tinker to the tactical set-up, the Croatian international could play out on the left and do a job defensively too.
Milan have got impressive results from shoring things up on that flank to allow Theo Hernandez to bomb forward at every available opportunity. It’s hard to see Bonaventura allowing him to do that on a consistent basis without leaving us vulnerable at the back, and so that could be the most likely change on Friday night.