Milan without Theo and Reijnders vs. Napoli – who Fonseca should play instead | OneFootball

AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca has a couple of tough decisions to make in view of the Napoli game, with two of his most important players out.

It was known that both Theo Hernandez and Tijjani Reijnders would not make the trip to the Stadio Renato dall’Ara to face Bologna as both will serve suspensions, but the postponement of that game means they will be suspended for the Napoli game on Tuesday instead.

For the left-back it is the second of a two-game ban for protests after full-time in the loss to Fiorentina before the break, while the midfielder got a straight red against Udinese for a last-man challenge.

It means that in one fell swoop Fonseca will be without the man who might have been captain for the game leaving a hole at left-back, while Reijnders scored a match-winning brace against Club Brugge and would have liked to keep that going.

Who should replace them

Starting with the easier replacement to predict, it should be Filippo Terracciano who takes the spot of the Frenchman on the left side of the defence. The Italian got the nod against Udinese when Theo served the first game of his ban, and while he wasn’t brilliant he also was not a disaster either.

Moreover, Terracciano gets extra marks for being part of a resilient defensive effort that kept Udinese at bay with a man advantage for over 60 minutes following Reijnders’ red card, so these should be easier circumstances for him to.

In midfield, it feels at the moment as though Ruben Loftus-Cheek is the most likely to start alongside Youssouf Fofana in the midfield pairing, given that in terms of starts and substitute appearances he is currently the first midfield reserve.

The issue is that the Englishman has not been near his best levels so far this season and this has led to calls from fans for him to spend a spell on the sidelines. He has shrugged off an adductor issue though and could be closer to 100% from a condition standpoint.

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The temptations

There are a couple of alternative options for Fonseca to consider at left-back though, starting with the possibility of playing the young Alex Jimenez over Terracciano. He has made nine appearances for Milan Futuro this season with two goals already to his name, though he was sent off recently.

Given that Davide Calabria is now finally back in full training, the other option would be to bring the captain back into the team and play him on the opposite side to usual, something which he has done before.

Regarding who will replace Reijnders, there will almost certainly be the temptation to play Samuel Chukwueze from minute one, moving Christian Pulisic to the centre and thus meaning it is more of a 4-2-3-1 than a 4-4-2.

If that were the case then Yunus Musah might be a better pivot partner to Fofana than Loftus-Cheek. The other combination could be Musah-Fofana deeper with Loftus-Cheek ahead of them and then Pulisic remaining on the right.