George Priestman welcomes Luca Bianchin from Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport to preview the AC Milan game.
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00:00This is George Priestman for Liverpool World on a big week in the Champions League as Liverpool
00:05travel to AC Milan on game week one. To get some valuable insight into the game and from the
00:11Italian media, I've enlisted the help of Luca Bianchin from Gazzetto dello Sport and I'm very
00:17pleased to have him on the Tuesday morning ahead of the game on Tuesday evening. First off, how are
00:23you, Luca? Thanks for joining me. Ciao, George. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for inviting me.
00:28I'm fine, thank you. Ready for the two matches, hopefully again Champions League.
00:33It's going to be a good one. You are the AC Milan writer and Milan have had a difficult start to
00:38the season, you'd say. Draws against Torino and Lazio and a loss against Parma, but a great win
00:44of the weekend, 4-0 at home against Venecia. Plenty of goals and key men back in the starting
00:52line-up. So who stood out at the weekend for you and who could be really key in this game
00:58at the San Siro? I would say Tijani Reinders as a number 10. He wasn't probably, for sure,
01:06the best man on the pitch. But, you know, for today's game, he's the key player because AC
01:13Milan started to play him as a number 10 instead of Mediano, as we say, so basically a central
01:20midfielder. And he showed he can play there and he can be useful for the team. He also scored a
01:27couple of goals with the national team, with the Dutch national team in the break. So, you know,
01:34with Tijani Reinders as a number 10, AC Milan can play better football, be a little bit more
01:40balanced. That's something important for this team that conceded so many goals in the first month.
01:47Obviously, Liverpool lost 1-0 at the weekend to Nottingham Forest. It was a shock result
01:52here in England. How was that received in Italy? Because Liverpool had a very strong start to the
01:58season before that. Now this loss just before the game against Milan. How has that been received in
02:03Italy? It's a paradox, but I would say that AC Milan fans are now more worried because they know
02:10that a team like Liverpool needs to react and, you know, will play at full speed from the first
02:17minute just to impress their fans and recover from that loss. So, it's a paradox, but I would say
02:25it's worth it for AC Milan. We know that Liverpool are a great team, you know, a lot of great players.
02:31It's impressive for the Italian level of football to see Cody Hakpo on the bench, to see
02:40David Nunez on the bench. So, there's a difference between the two teams. I think Liverpool are the
02:44best, are a better team at the moment. Of course, AC Milan will play and try to win this game,
02:52also because San Siro is always useful during Champions League nights. The stadium is impressive.
02:58You know, I travelled around Europe for football and I have to say that it's probably the best
03:04stadium in Europe as far as it comes from, you know, the noise, the atmosphere during Champions
03:10League nights. Yeah, I have been to the San Siro and it is absolutely incredible. I would love to
03:18go back one day. But just talking about Milan, who do you look at at Liverpool and who do
03:24Milan fans worry about seeing? Obviously, Mohamed Salah has been great for them at the start of the
03:29season. We know about Alexander-Arnold, who can create something out of absolutely nothing. And,
03:35of course, going the other way, you've got Van Dijk and Canarte and Alisson, who are three of the best
03:40sort of centre-back and goalkeeper combos. Who do you look at and think they are the real key
03:46players for Liverpool? I would say Luis Diaz. You know, you never know in football, but I would pick
03:52Luis Diaz because AC Milan kind of suffers speed from the players on the wings. And if you if you
04:00take a look at the goals AC Milan conceded in August and September, there's always the same
04:05script. There's always a player on the left wing creating chances for another player on the right
04:11wing. So Davide Calabria will be back from the start. AC Milan captain. He started the season
04:17quite badly. Then Emerson Royale, the Brazilian, the newcomer, former Tottenham player,
04:23took his place and started a couple of games. But now I think Calabria will be back. I'm sure
04:27Calabria will be back as far as I know from the information I have. So it will be Calabria
04:33against Luis Diaz. You never know. Calabria played well against Kylian Mbappe last year and against
04:40Quiccio Quarascaglia from Napoli two years ago. So he's used to play against fast players.
04:47But of course, Luis can always create chances. And it's it's something that AC Milan can suffer
04:54quite a lot. Then, of course, all the other players, Mo Salah, of course, the midfielders
05:00that can create chances. AC Milan are a team that can concede quite a lot of chances. You
05:08cited the game against Venezia, played on Saturday. OK, AC Milan won 4-0. But in the first
05:1415, 20 minutes, Venezia created a couple of chances and some of the players were dangerous
05:20for AC Milan. So you never know what can happen in 90 minutes against Liverpool. So I think it
05:26will be it will be a nice game to see also from from an international audience, because I can
05:33expect quite a lot of chances and quite a lot of goals. Expecting goals, I do agree on that one.
05:41Just a really interesting one about the English boys for Milan. I am a Chelsea fan. I report on
05:47Liverpool, but I am a Chelsea fan. And Ruben Loftus-Cheek is a very, very good central
05:53midfielder and could still go on to have a very, very good career, even with the injuries he's had.
05:58I think he looks really strong in Milan so far. So big, so powerful, but great feet as well.
06:05And Tammy Abraham coming into the side this season. He's about as all-round as a striker
06:11gets. He knows where the goal is, has always scored goals, previously scored goals for Roma as well.
06:17And yeah, and Tomori at the back as well. How do the Milan fans receive this
06:23English spine that's kind of started to appear?
06:27No, they're loved. They're loved because Fikaio Tomori won a Scudetto with AC Milan
06:32and Christian Pulisic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Pulisic is American, but he played for Chelsea.
06:39They played a great season in the last 10, 12 months. Tammy Abraham was, you know, was a good
06:49sign in the end of the market. AC Milan had Luka Jovic as a supporting striker, a backup striker
06:56for Alvaro Morata. And, you know, the fans were a little bit perplexed. They thought AC Milan
07:01needed another striker and then Tammy Abraham came. So AC Milan fans are happy to have him here.
07:08As for Ruben Loftus-Cheek, I think Rubens is one of the key players for AC Milan. I understood in
07:14the last month that trust is the most important feature for him. Purely, the former AC Milan coach
07:21was really smart to give him trust. He played from the start, basically every game,
07:27and he played as a trequartista, we say in Italian, like a fake number 10, because he's
07:33structured, he's big, but he played behind the striker. So he could score goals, he could create
07:39chances, he played a wonderful, wonderful game against PSG in Milan. Some other games, of course,
07:46were not so good. But, you know, he gave AC Milan some confidence, he gave AC Milan some goals,
07:55and he played a good season. Now, I think it's difficult for him, because Fonseca tried this
08:00new structure with Tijani Rainders as a number 10, and Loftus-Cheek played a really good game
08:07against Venezia as an holding midfielder. But I know that this is not what he likes to do on the
08:13pitch, so for maybe one week, okay, fine, he's gonna do it. I don't know if he can do it for,
08:21like, six months. Then you have to know that AC Milan has a shortage at midfield, because Ismael
08:27Ben Asser got injured last week, so he will miss the next four months, at least. So AC Milan
08:34basically has four midfielders for three places on the pitch, so they can't rotate a lot, they
08:43need to play a lot of games, and Ismael now is going to play every four days, so not easy, until
08:52the October break. One player who we've loved in England watching over the years, he has had a
08:57little bit of a dip, I'd say, in the last year and a half, two years. Rafa Leal has superstar potential,
09:03but it has gone a little bit quiet for him. He was someone linked to the big move to the Premier
09:09League, we're talking big money, and at his prime, in his peak, I'd have said that money was justified.
09:18He can still affect this game, can't he, at any time? And is he still the player that we think he is?
09:27Yes, for sure. You never know what is going to happen with Rafa. Rafa can be the best player
09:32in the world for like 10 minutes, and then eclipse, and you don't see him for half an hour.
09:40Sometimes it happens, you know. He's not consistent, I always say that if we talk about potential,
09:46he's the best player in Italy. Not the best player at all, but if we talk about potential,
09:52he's the best player in Italy. Chelsea tried to sign him in the past, Barcelona made some calls
09:58in the summer to see if a deal was possible, then nothing happened.
10:03You know, you probably read what happened a couple of weeks ago. Rafa and Theo Hernandez
10:07were benched by coach Fonseca for the game against Lazio. So they entered the pitch in the second
10:14half, Rafa scored the goal, and then during a cooling break, they stayed apart on the other
10:21half of the pitch. And this is something you can do, in my opinion, in a team, because it's
10:27something like disrespect, I don't want to use big words like disrespect, but you know,
10:32it's not a star player like Rafa, a star player like Theo should stay always with the team,
10:39in my opinion. So they came back this week against Venezia, they created the chance to score the
10:46goal in the second minute of the game, so they are back. I always remember what they did,
10:53what Rafa did, especially in a big game against PSG last season. I have this impression that
11:01when Rafa Leal wants to play as a star player, he plays as a star player. The problem is this
11:06happens like a few times in a season, or for 10 minutes in a game, and then no more Rafa superstar.
11:17And so yes, yes, he is the key player for AC Milan tonight, and for every game AC Milan plays,
11:23because he's the best player, one of the best players, at least together with Mike Pena and
11:29Theo Hernandez, and he's the one that can go up and down more easily.
11:35Yeah, superstar potential, and up against Trent Alexander-Arnold, who defensively has been
11:40criticized heavily, especially in England, so that'll be a very interesting battle.
11:45Cannot wait for this game, it is one of Europeans, two elites going against each
11:50other that we just cannot wait to see, this is what the Champions League is all about.
11:54Thank you so much for your time, and enjoy the game tonight, I'm sure it's going to be fantastic,
11:59and hey, may the best team win. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much, cheers.