AC Milan will face Manchester United in their fourth and final pre-season friendly on Saturday, hoping to clinch their first win with Ruben Amorim.

After the draws against Celtic and Inter, as well as the defeat to Chelsea, Milan are desperate to get their first win of the summer. The season starts next week, taking on Torino away from home, so they could definitely use the confidence.

However, Amorim will be up against his former side, Man Utd. The new head coach Michael Carrick has made it very clear that they will take the game seriously and the feeling is that the English fans want them to beat the Rossoneri too.

Game date: Saturday, August 15

Kick-off time: 16:45 (CEST)

Venue: Wrocław Stadium

Team news

It’s been a roller coaster of a week for AC Milan, to say the least. After a meeting between Amorim and Gerry Cardinale yesterday, the likes of Christopher Nkunku, Youssouf Fofana, David Odogu and Fikayo Tomori were immediately excluded from the squad.

Later in the evening, it was then revealed that Rafael Leao had picked up a muscle problem and thus wouldn’t be available for the game. As if that wasn’t enough, Matteo Gabbia also had to throw in the towel for the trip, following a knock to his ankle in training.

Considering that Santiago Gimenez and Christian Pulisic were already sidelined, this means that Amorim will be without eight players tomorrow. That is quite a lot when you consider that they were already lacking depth in some positions.

In defence, for example, they only have three senior centre-backs despite playing with a three-man backline. For the two attacking midfield positions, there are just two players, perhaps three depending on how you view the midfielders in the squad.

Things could be better for Amorim, no question about it, but he pretty much brought this on himself. The decision to evaluate every single player in pre-season has made things difficult , as there are just two weeks left on the mercato and a lot of business to do.

On top of that, the season opener is just one week away and Milan are yet to win a game under the Portuguese’s guidance, which definitely suggests that tomorrow’s clash is very important. Not just because of his history at the English club.

Milan’s squad and XI

Having said the above, Amorim has called up 21 players for the game and at the time of writing, it’s hard to predict the starting XI. We have done our best, though.

Goalkeepers: Torriani, Pittarella, Bouyer.

Defenders: Gila, Pavlovic, De Winter, Diawara, Vladimirov, Bartesaghi, Estupinan.

Midfielders: Modric, Jashari, Ricci, Musah, Loftus-Cheek, Comotto, Cisse, Saelemaekers, Chukwueze.

Predicted XI (3-4-2-1): Torriani; Terracciano, De Winter, Pavlovic; Saelemaekers, Modric, Ricci, Bartesaghi; Loftus-Cheek, Cisse; Ramos.

The opponents

Man Utd are starting their season next week, just like Milan, but you could definitely argue that their pre-season journey has been a little more serene. The surprising 1-0 defeat to Wrexham was followed up by a 5-0 win against Rosenborg, a 2-1 win against Atletico Madrid, and a 1-1 draw against PSG.

Two days ago, they also faced Leeds United and prevailed 5-4 on penalties after the game ended 1-1 in regular time. Unlike the Rossoneri, as such, they have actually won some games this pre-season!

There’s no doubt about which team is heading into this game with more confidence, especially when you consider the transfer market chaos surrounding the San Siro side.

Anyway, shifting focus back to United, they opted to keep Carrick as their head coach for this season after he did a very good job as a caretaker. They only lost two games after he was appointed in the middle of January, which says a lot.

Some good reinforcements have also been brought in so far this summer, namely Andrey Santos from Chelsea and Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa. The two could be really important for