Milan will be depleted in the midfield for a few games in January. Franck Kessié and Ismael Bennacer will participate in the African Cup of Nations. They will miss at least four Serie A fixtures and potentially more. The current COVID-19 regulations mandate a ten-day quarantine for those traveling from Africa. If Ivory Coast and Algeria went far in the competition, they would be at risk also for February’s 2nd Derby with Inter.
Stefano Pioli is studying the internal solutions, La Gazzetta dello Sport informs. Sandro Tonali and Tiemoué Bakayoko are the only pure options remaining. The Frenchman has mostly struggled so far, and he has been replaced at halftime in his lone three starts.
Milan are unlikely to bring in new players to compensate for the emergency in the midfield. They attempted to accelerate the arrival of Yacine Adli, but Bordeaux stonewalled them, Tuttomercatoweb reports. There is no clause in their previous agreement that could facilitate it.
On the other hand, multiple returns from injury will help out the coach. Rafael Leao, Ante Rebic, and Davide Calabria will be back following muscular problems. The availability of the two attackers will permit to field Rade Krunic in front of the defense, where he has already fared well in the past. The fullback has also featured there in a pinch.
The final alternative, if the Milan midfield struggled, would be to switch to a 4-3-3, the newspaper relays. Alessandro Florenzi and Alexis Saelemaekers have some experience as box-to-box, and Krunic is very familiar with the role.