MatchThe opposition lowdown: AC Milan

The Reds' first league-phase fixture takes them to San Siro for an 8pm BST kick-off against Paulo Fonseca's team.

For an in-depth insight on what to expect from I Rossoneri, Liverpoolfc.com spoke to Sempremilan.com editor Oliver Fisher...

Thank you for taking time to chat to us, Oli. Firstly, could you just give us a brief overview of the summer and start to the season for AC Milan…

Just as it has for Liverpool, it has been a summer of big change for Milan as Stefano Pioli left as head coach at the end of last season after nearly five years in charge. The main issue heading into 2024-25 therefore was who would take over from him, and when it looked like Julen Lopetegui - now at West Ham - was close to taking over, the board seemed to go back on their decision amid a volatile fan reaction.

The choice was then made to entrust Paulo Fonseca as the new coach, with the Portuguese having left Lille when his contract ended. This was also met with a mixed reaction as some supporters believed that the appointment should have been a 'bigger' or more glamorous name like Thomas Tuchel, Roberto De Zerbi, Antonio Conte or even Maurizio Sarri.

Nonetheless, Fonseca did and still does seem like a good fit for Milan's project, one geared around playing an attractive and expansive style of play that enhances the qualities of the star players and also helps develop some of the young talent on the books, of which there is plenty.

The signings that arrived were targeted to address gaps in the squad that previously existed. The key addition was France international Youssouf Fofana, who should be an anchoring presence in the midfield, while Alvaro Morata and Tammy Abraham joined to help fill the void after Olivier Giroud's exit.

Emerson Royal arrived from Spurs and Strahinja Pavlovic was signed as a bit of an unknown quantity from Red Bull Salzburg. Both were expected to come in and challenge the existing starters, though both already seem to have a spot in the first-choice XI secured early on.

After a very encouraging pre-season that saw Milan beat Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona in the USA-based Soccer Champions Tour, some speed bumps arrived in the first three games. A 2-2 draw against Torino (which required a late comeback from 2-0 down) was followed by a 2-1 defeat to newly promoted Parma and another 2-2 against Lazio, dialling up the pressure on Fonseca.

Saturday night's 4-0 win over Venezia will seem to outsiders like the perfect tonic for a team in 'early crisis', as the Italian media have put it, however the level of opponent must be taken into account with all due respect to the Venetians. The first goal went in after 90 seconds and was a goalkeeping error, then a ricochet made it 2-0 and two penalties in quick succession killed the contest before half-time.

Nonetheless, it should provide confidence for the group and it also brought a much-needed clean sheet. The challenge will be to build on that on arguably the biggest stage in club football and against a prestigious opponent that the Rossoneri know well as a club, especially because the derby against Inter follows on Sunday.

And who are AC Milan’s key players? Who should Liverpool fans be keeping an eye out for in particular?

The players that most non-Serie A watchers will be aware of are Mike Maignan, Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao. The first two are the starting goalkeeper and left-back for France respectively, while Leao is regarded by many to be one of the best wingers in the world on his day.

Theo and Leao in particular have struck up a remarkable chemistry in their over-five-year stint at the club, to the extent that they are now nicknamed 'Theao' as a double act. They had a rocky start to the season with an incident involving a cooling break in the Lazio game dominating the headlines, but in the Venezia game they both started and looked back to their best.

Another key man will be Christian Pulisic on the right wing, who has found his groove after leaving Chelsea in the 2023 summer window. He got 15 goals and 11 assists last season (all competitions), and so far in 2024-25 he has two goals and two assists in four Serie A games.

Tijjani Reijnders had a very positive European Championship with the Netherlands and now appears to be the starting playmaker under Ronald Koeman, meaning he is someone Liverpool's Dutch contingent will know well. He is often the creative metronome of the Milan team with his vision and creativity but also now his shooting from range.

However, the most important aspect for this Milan team is to keep a sense of balance, something that will be imperative for Fofana and Ruben Loftus-Cheek to provide with their size and physicality.

They will shield a back four in which Pavlovic and Fikayo Tomori - two aggressive centre-backs who like to welcome one-on-one duels - must perform to their best to stop what is undoubtedly a very talented and technical Liverpool attack.

What is the view from Milan ahead of the game with Liverpool?

Milan's record against Premier League sides has been far from positive in recent years despite the momentum that a return to regular Champions League football has brought, and after a rocky start to the season it would be fair to say there is limited optimism.

Fans will remember the group-stage meetings in 2021-22 when Liverpool came from behind at Anfield to win 3-2 and then ran out 2-1 victors at San Siro in a game where the Rossoneri never really showed up. Milan went on to win the title that year yet crashed out bottom of that group.

San Siro will be the biggest weapon, as it often is on European nights, with over 70,000 fans expected to make a cauldron of noise that is hard for even the best European teams to perform in.

The feeling is that this is a very good test early on in Fonseca's tenure, to see if the Venezia result was a flash in the pan or if there really is something positive building. Everything hinges on how Milan defend and if they can neutralise the forwards Arne Slot names, and the first goal feels crucial too.

Regarding the Champions League campaign in general, Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen follow as the other big tests but Milan must really be aiming for four or five wins given the other teams they were drawn against. Getting three points on Tuesday would be a perfect start and a potential launching pad.

Can you give us an insight into Fonseca's preferred style of play? What formation does he usually opt for?

Fonseca has played many different systems during his career as a head coach but seems to have settled on a 4-2-3-1 formation, based on his last job at Lille and what he has been using with Milan so far.

He has spoken quite openly about two key principles that he wants his teams to have: an aggressive but co-ordinated high press, and possession-based domination of games. Admittedly it sounds like trying to achieve perfection and is easier said than done, but the pre-season campaign showed some very promising glimpses.

Fonseca likes both full-backs to get forward and participate in attacks but for there to be balance in doing so (one pushes up, the other drops back). He tends to use a 3+2 build-up, though there have been variations of this, with the wingers coming inside plenty and the attacking midfielder (often Loftus-Cheek) acting as a balancer by dropping back when needed in the non-possession phase.

When not on the ball, Milan have been using zonal marking rather than man-to-man to try to lessen the risk in the open field, given the team let in 69 goals (all competitions) last season under Pioli.

The idea is to win the ball back quickly when not in possession - with the striker expected to lead the press - and then to achieve territorial domination with passing networks and quick movement of the ball to the more dangerous areas.

The issues seen so far involve a lack of chemistry and cohesion due to internationals and new signings arriving late, plus a vulnerability on the counter because of how many bodies can get committed forward.

And lastly, what would your predicted line-up be for the match?

The absentees for this game will be Ismael Bennacer, Alessandro Florenzi and Marco Sportiello, who are all out long term. The big question marks are whether Loftus-Cheek or Reijnders plays more advanced, and whether Morata comes back in for Abraham or not after the Englishman won and scored a penalty in an impressive first start against Venezia.

Predicted Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Emerson Royal, Tomori, Pavlovic, Theo Hernandez; Loftus-Cheek, Fofana; Pulisic, Reijnders, Leao; Morata.