After an intense January transfer market that saw so many changes in the squad in the final week, Milan are hosting a midweek meet and greet at the San Siro for all the players to get to know one another better. And they've invited Roma, as well, under the guise of a Coppa Italia Quarterfinal match. While we won't see all our new players in our starting lineup, there will still be significant changes to the roster from the team that defeated Sassuolo 6-1 to get here, let alone the team that played on Sunday. With five players having left and five new players coming in, all in less than ten days, the surnames on the backs of the jerseys may not be enough – Conceição may need to pick up some nametags for the front of the jerseys, too. Sure, this is meant to be a football match, but it may feel more like a meet and greet.
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| Plenty of new faces in training. |
Roma qualified for the Quarterfinal by defeating Sampdoria 4-1 back in December. They also made some changes in January, bringing in Gollini (aka Gollorius), Rensch, Salah-Eddine, Nelsson, and Gourna-Douath, the last three all arriving on the last day of the mercato. Leaving during this window were Ryan, Dahl, Hermoso, Le Fee, and Zalewski, who we already faced on Sunday at his new club. All five of his new acquisitions are called up for this match.
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| Ranieri has already been utilizing Rensch, the others will be welcome reinforcements, too. |
On Sunday, Roma defeated Udinese 2-1 away. For that match, Ranieri lined up a 3-5-1-1 with: Svilar; Çelik, Gianluca Mancini, Ndicka; Rensch, Pisilli, Koné, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Angeliño; Baldanzi; and Dovbyk. Ranieri should have all his players healthy for this one, although it remains to be seen if his new player will play, given that they, too, will be having a meet and greet.
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| Santi Giménez attended the Derby and is anxious to get onto the pitch. |
Milan's mercato transformed their squad far more extremely. Most notably, there was the departure of Calabria, the captain, who had been at the club his entire career, coming up through the Milan youth system. With only six months on his contract, the Club sold him to Bologna after not offering him a renewal on is contract. Ironically, he scored a goal in the Coppa Italia match vs. Sassuolo to get us here.
Also of note was the departure of Bennacer, who had been at the club for five and a half years, and he left to go to Marseille on loan with an option. Ibrahimović said that he asked to leave, but it is unclear whether or not that was before Calabria was pushed out. Additionally, Morata, who had only been at the club for six months, left to Galatasaray on loan with an option. Okafor went on loan with an option to Napoli, and Zeroli was loaned to Monza for the duration of the season.
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| Warren Bondo adds some reinforcement for our midfield. |
Milan brought in Kyle Walker on loan from Manchester City, and his debut on Sunday was solid. Santiago Giménez was purchased from Feyenoord, and João Félix was loaned from Chelsea. While Walker is undoubtedly going to start, the other two are more likely to start on the bench, having only trained once or twice with the team. Also incoming was Riccardo Sottil from Fiorentina on loan with option to purchase, and finally central midfielder Warren Bondo from Monza signed through 2029 to provide some depth. Bondo will not feature, as he still has a slight injury sustained at Monza.
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| João Félix hoping to get his career back on track in the red and black. |
In addition to hosting the meet and greet, Conceição is also also still missing Florenzi, Emerson Royal, and Loftus-Cheek to injury. However, Fofana returns from suspension. The media is predicting a 4-3-3 system to start the match, while there is speculation about Conceição transitioning toward his preferred 4-4-2 system in the future, given the players that were brought in. He has shown a lot of tactical flexibility within matches, making impactful changes in order to win matches.
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| Riccardo Sottil can provide some depth on the wing. |
Having won the Supercoppa upon his arrival, certainly, staying in the Coppa Italia and competing for the trophy will be a high priority for Conceição, despite such a busy schedule with league and Champions League matches. That seemed impossible just last week, but with fresh reinforcements, perhaps it could actually become a reality. Or, too many changes combined with not enough time to train between them could lead to another dip in form, it's impossible to know how this squad will react. We will just have to see how things go after the meet and greet.
Serie C Week 26
Reviewed by Elaine
on
3:30 AM
Rating:
