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Sergino Dest dropped from Milan’s Champions League squad

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Sergino Dest’s hopes of helping Serie A side Milan advance in the UEFA Champions League took a major hit on Friday.

Dest was dropped from Milan’s UCL Round of 16 squad ahead of the first leg on February 14, UEFA announced Friday as all final rosters were announced. Malick Thiaw takes Dest’s place in Stefano Piolo’s squad for the upcoming two-legged showdown.

In addition, veteran striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and goalkeeper Mike Maignan were also not chosen in the squad.

The 21-year-old arrived in Milan last August on a season-long loan from Barcelona, but has been in-and-out of the squad through the last six months. Dest has made 14 combined appearances for the Bianconeri in all competitions, only totaling 90 minutes or more in three of those outings.

He missed Sunday’s 5-2 league loss to Sassuolo due to a muscular injury.

Dest started all four matches for the U.S. men’s national team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, assisting once in a 1-0 group stage victory over Iran.

Milan sits fifth in Serie A this season, 15 points behind league-leaders Napoli, but only two points behind local rivals Inter Milan for second place. Piolo’s squad will visit Inter Milan on Sunday before hosting Torino ahead of their first leg showdown with Tottenham.

Comments

  1. “I would have no qualms about Dest making a positional change to winger if he can’t get that defensive side of his game progressing more. His attacking abilities and technical skill is off the charts.”

    Agree. Not sure RFB in a 4-3-3 suits his skills best. I’d like to see what he looks like playing wide midfield or winger in a different formation. Maybe at his next destination.

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  2. I wonder with Dest and McKennie out of CL and Pulisic continuing to struggle with injuries and playing time when healthy the US fandom will start to understand where the program is realistically at. On paper the squad looks like Switzerland. Which isn’t horrible it’s just not the world beating squad USMNT Twitter seems to think it is. And (gasp) perhaps Gregg Berhalter is a pretty good coach? Maybe it’s the fandom overrating the players not the coach being “clueless”? Could this be a thing? I’m just spit balling here (and trolling a little)…

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    • our fanbase has overrated players for years, this contingent is no different The proof lies in the fact that “none” of our players are game changers or consistently influential players for their clubs. To get to the level of potentially winning a WC you need that from your national team players, and we’re not there yet. Playing in Champions League year in and out surely helps, but not playing in it doesn’t hurt you in my opinion, and considering we’ve had many of our players play in UCL over the years will always be a feather in the proverbial cap!

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    • Mr Obvious,

      The USMNT is not as good as Switzerland. Switzerland are a fine team. I would have expected them to do as well if not better than the USMNT did with their group.

      You’re asking the wrong question.

      The question is not whether Gregg did a good job overall. He did, all things considered. Pay the man. In my book he met and slightly exceeded expectations.

      That’s a C maybe even a C+. He did exactly what JK and Bob did before him. Advance out of the Group and lose the next game.

      If that’s good enough for you, good enough for 2026 then fine hire the man.

      Answer me this, did Gregg hit it out of the park?
      Did he do an outstanding job that has other countries or big clubs dying to snap him up?
      Does this team, with a few minor adjustments, look ready to get to the semis in 2026?

      Did he earn an A?

      If so, then hire him and let him take the USMNT into the next cycle.

      In my mind if he had done that then the USSF should have announced right after the loss to the Netherlands, that Gregg was their 2026 guy.

      But they didn’t.

      One more thing.

      It’s not just the players. It’s not just the manager. It’s both together.

      The two are inextricably combined.

      But if you are not satisfied with the unit, you change the manager.

      Easier to improve one manager than 26 players. We’re not France or Brazil.

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    • He looked “passable” at the WC? Hmm, it can be argued he was a top 2-3 player for us in Qatar, so we must’ve watched a different tournament lol

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      • Ill take the other side of that arguement. He is not a defender, you need to be able to defend to be a defender.

    • It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if Scally overtook Dest. There needs to be competition for all positions and, even though I am a big fan of Dest, we need a plan B in case Dest gets injured or hits a wall in his career. And if Scally turns out to be better, so be it.

      As for Dest himself, players sometimes go into slumps either through their performance or politics. I am pretty sure he will find a good place to land.

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      • Oh I know. I already rate Scally a bit higher than Dest as a RB. Scally is also becoming more adept in attack as well.

        The days of bombing forward outside backs who can’t defend properly are coming to an end.

        I would have no qualms about Dest making a positional change to winger if he can’t get that defensive side of his game progressing more. His attacking abilities and technical skill is off the charts.

      • Better at what?

        Dest is a talent. I do understand he’s got some issues on the defensive end but the dude can play. I haven’t watched Scally much at all this year but unless he’s progressed a bunch he’s at best the #3 RB in our pool now…if I had a tournament next week I’d pick Gessel ahead of Scally every day of the week and twice on Sundays at the moment. By 2026, when both guys are three years older and Gessel’s on the wrong side of 30 and Scally’s approaching his prime? That might be a different story; Scally’s a better athlete than Gessel is. But durn is Gessel ever a plug-and-play guy, just slot him in and you know he’ll do a great defensive job with usually zero mistakes, and give you some great service into the box on top of that, and his passing and decision-making are just so clean as well. Gessel will likely help us more than a fair bit in Copa America and he’ll be a stalwart the next couple Gold Cups.

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