Alphadjo Cisse scored a hat-trick against Salzburg on Thursday, but that burst of form may still not be enough to earn him a start in Milan Vs Atalanta. Ruben Amorim is weighing a setup that could leave the 19-year-old on the bench even after the loudest performance of his brief rise.
The reason is Christian Pulisic. Amorim seems intent on using only one of the attacking midfielders available, then adding an extra midfielder and two attacking wing-backs on the flanks. That shape would make room tighter for Cisse, even with the momentum he picked up on Thursday.
Goncalo Ramos is expected to return to the centre of the attack against Atalanta, and he is also coming off a difficult start to his new life with the Rossoneri. In that sense, the selection is not just about form. It is about how Amorim wants the team to look from the first whistle, with balance in midfield taking priority over stacking the front line.
There is precedent for pairing Ramos and Cisse. They have started together four times already, including in Torino, Venezia, Lazio and Benfica, and Amorim also used them together in a friendly against Manchester United on August 15 in Wroclaw. Milan won 4-2 that day, and both men scored, a display that helped convince people at Milanello to keep Cisse there rather than send him out on loan.
That history cuts against the idea that Cisse has to wait. He is a young star who just put three goals past Salzburg, and the talk around him now includes a potential renewal. But the logic of this match points in another direction, because Pulisic's place in the lineup is still affecting whether Cisse starts at all.
Amorim still has a choice to make, and it is a sharp one. He can reward Cisse's hat-trick and push the attack forward, or he can keep the structure tighter and trust the line that has already carried Ramos and Pulisic into the plan for tonight. Either way, the answer will tell more about Milan's immediate priorities than about Cisse's ceiling.
