Hakan Calhanoglu and Lucas Biglia will reportedly miss Milan’s match against Real Betis

It appears that AC Milan won’t have a full squad to choose from when they take on Real Betis in the Europa League later this week.

It’s being reported that Lucas Biglia, who was injured during the Derby della Madonnina yesterday, and Hakan Calhanoglu will both miss Thursday’s Europa League match against Spanish side Betis at the San Siro.

Gennaro Gattuso has used the Europa League matches to rotate and rest some key members of the team already this season, so rotation for the upcoming matches wasn’t out of the question anyway. Calhanoglu didn’t start the match against Olympiacos and Dudelange, coming on as a substitute in both matches, and Lucas Biglia was an unused sub against Dudelange.

Tiémoué Bakayoko would be the obvious choice to step in for Biglia, while Samu Castillejo coming in for Calhanoglu would make sense if Suso isn’t rested for the Betis match. If Suso is rested, then Fabio Borini (ugh) or even Alen Halilovic could make an appearance. Diego Laxalt has also spent time playing on the wing, so if he doesn’t play at left-back for Ricardo Rodriguez, he’s another option to fill in.

Whatever happens, however, don’t expect to see a change in formation. Gattuso appears to have settled on a 4-3-3 and appears to be unwilling to change it, no matter if the personnel is available to “fit” in the formation or not. The only time that the club has varied in tactics was perhaps the final few minutes of the match against Inter, as Patrick Cutrone shifted to playing alongside Gonzalo Higuain with Giacomo Bonaventura moving out wide in a 4-4-2, but it would be surprising to see Gattuso start a match with anything other than a 4-3-3 formation.