Milan -Verona Serie A Week 17

Milan had a few extra days off as the Supercoppa semi final elimination in Saudi Arabia left a weekend open that would have been the potential final. The news cycle therefore switched to the upcoming mercato with West Ham giving permission to Milan to take on Niclas Füllkrug for a medical and a signature. The German forward leaves a seemingly desperate English team and joins Milan to become a new number 9. Serie A is set to allow the German to be registered immediately and be available to Allegri for the January 2nd match at Cagliari. The way the squad was built last summer, intentionally reducing the squad size to barebones depth, has left Milan needing player with a very questionable track record of no goals in the English Premier League. At least the player arrives on a loan with a reported cheap option with some reports claiming it to be only €5 million. He and Nkunku were joint Bundesliga top goalscorers in the 2022-2023 Bundesliga season.

This week 17 match will of course not feature the 32 year old German and it will almost certainly not feature Leao either. The Portuguese has not fully recovered. Allegri has little choice but to use Pulisic and Nkunku up front. The two players have had a markedly different Milan career so far of course. In the middle Saelemaekers, Loftus-Cheek, Modric, Rabiot and Bartesaghi remain the more likely starters. Ricci, Fofana and Jashari provide better bench options than elsewhere on the pitch. Gabbia remains out and De Winter, who did not exactly shine versus Napoli in the Supercoppa defeat and was subbed out, will play with Tomori and Pavlovic. Maignan is of course in goal.

Verona are hovering in the relegation zone, never a good sign for a Milan team with a not so great record in early afternoon matches.

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