{"id":137450,"date":"2025-09-06T16:28:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T16:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/137450\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T16:28:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T16:28:11","slug":"predicting-milans-starting-xi-for-bologna-clash-formation-and-nkunku-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/137450\/","title":{"rendered":"Predicting Milan’s starting XI for Bologna clash: formation and Nkunku surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"

The game won\u2019t take place for another week, but we have attempted to predict AC Milan\u2019s starting XI that will face Bologna in the third round of Serie A.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The transfer window has come to an end and Max Allegri now knows which pieces he has to work with to finish the puzzle. Regardless of what we think of the mercato, it will now be up to the manager to create a team with the players at his disposal.<\/p>\n

The biggest boost hasn\u2019t arrived from the mercato, though, as the manager is eagerly awaiting the return of Rafael Leao. Per the latest reports<\/a>, it\u2019s definitely possible for him to be back in time for the Bologna clash, but whether he will start or not is a different question.<\/p>\n

How the XI could look<\/p>\n

So, what about the starting XI for next week? Considering that a few players are out in international duty<\/a>, such as the new signing Adrien Rabiot, it\u2019s slightly easier to predict Allegri\u2019s moves. It would be very surprising to see the French midfielder from start, for example.<\/p>\n

The late arrivals are set to be Pervis Estupinan, Santiago Gimenez and Christian Pulisic. That being said, they can probably be back at Milanello already on Thursday, which would still give them enough time to prepare for the game.<\/p>\n

\"MaxPhoto by Maurizio Lagana\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Milan also don\u2019t have a lot of options as far as the left-back and striker roles are concerned, especially if Leao isn\u2019t 100% ready to start. The biggest question is whether Allegri will continue with the 3-5-2 or switch to a slightly more attacking-minded 3-4-2-1.<\/p>\n

The new signing Christopher Nkunku has impressed in training and the fact he wasn\u2019t called up for France was a boost for Milan. Therefore, a starting spot doesn\u2019t seem unlikely for him, but it hinges on Allegri switching formations and Leao\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n

Predicted Milan XI (3-4-2-1): Maignan; Tomori, Gabbia, Pavlovic; Saelemaekers, Ricci, Modric, Estupinan; Pulisic, Gimenez, Nkunku\/Leao.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The game won\u2019t take place for another week, but we have attempted to predict AC Milan\u2019s starting XI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-137450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}