Milan, the return of Ibra and Maignan for a top team

Vincenzo D’Angelo, Marco Fallisi, Alessandra Gozzini

December 2nd
– Milan

A little over a month after the resumption of the championship with the pursuit of Napoli (at Arechi against Salernitana on 4 January), Milan resumes work today. And on December 10, he will leave for the retreat in the Arab Emirates in Dubai.

THE PREPARATION

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Stefano Pioli has carefully prepared the work plan for these weeks: in the second part of the season he wants a brilliant team, immediately ready to run up against Napoli. Even during the break, meetings with the staff continued. Work at Milanello will resume today with workloads that will gradually increase after a two-week break (even if the players have never stopped completely). In Dubai, the sessions will be mainly in the morning, with a few days of double training. In the Emirates, there are also two luxury tests three days apart: first against Arsenal, on 13 December, then against Liverpool, on the 16th. everything: Milan will celebrate New Year’s Eve in the evening after playing their last pre-season friendly in the PSV Eindhoven stadium (on the 30th).

THE TACTICS

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In the first months of the season, Pioli proposed a three-man defense quite frequently. Partly because the option had been in the coach’s plans since this summer, but there’s more: injuries have deprived the Calabria coach and Florenzi, starting full-backs on the right wing, while the inclusion of Dest has known more shadows than lights. With the return of the captain (and then of the American, who is playing an excellent World Cup), Milan’s set-up will be able to rediscover the strengths that led to the Scudetto: four-man defense and more choice for rotations between centre-backs, with Kalulu no longer forced to play full-back. Up front, however, the Devil will be increasingly fluid: the alternation between the centre-forward assisted by the trio of attacking midfielders and the “pure” trident, with Diaz wide on the right, has given good results, the coach will continue on this path.

RETURNS

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Yesterday Ibrahimovic warmed up the fans in his own way: he published a photo on his social profiles that shows him as a spectator on the sidelines, accompanied by the phrase “The calm before the storm”. Well, the storm is forecast for January: maybe not on the 4th, when Milan go to Salerno for the first round of A after the break, but not too late. In the meantime Pioli will have embraced Maignan, Calabria and Saelemaekers again. The French goalkeeper has already resumed work at Milanello for a few days and is aiming for pre-season friendlies to get back to work immediately: Tatarusanu has been appreciated, but Magic Mike’s saves have another weight, they bring points like Giroud’s goals . Saelemaekers has also resumed training a few days before today’s meeting, while Calabria has been smiling for a while: he had started running before the stop at A.