AC Milan's matchday 13 of the Serie A is finally here. In a matter of hours, the Rossoneri resume their league path after the international break. The challenge which lies ahead is indeed a very difficult one. Pioli is set to face his former club Fiorentina who are led by Italian intelligent coach Vincenzo Italiano.
Stefano Pioli has much to settle tonight as he looks to prove himself again versus La Viola as his adventure with the Florence-based club came to halt in a bitter way. The Milan coach has also to prove himself against Vincenzo Italiano who came out victorious in their last meeting 2-0 when Milan faced Spezia away from the San Siro.
Fiorentina are set to lose the services of some important players such as Nikola Milenkovic, Lucas Quarta Martinez, and Matija Nastasic. Midfielders Erick Pulgar and Marco Benassi are also still out due to injuries besides first goalkeeper Bartłomiej Drągowski. They recovered, however, Youssef Maleh who suffered a minor injury during the international break and Nicolas Gonzalez.
As for Milan, the nighmare of absences and injuries is also a great puzzle. In fact, Mike Maignan is still out of the squad list as he is being eased back in the training group gradually. Ante Rebic has also sustained an injury in the ankle and will not be available. Davide Calabria and Samu castillejo are still out and to that list, Fikayo Tomori is also added due to some pain in the hip. The club, however, recovered Theo Hernandez who was left out of the Derby game due to a red card shown to him in the AS Roma match. In addition, Junior Messias is finally back after recovering from injury.
It is clear that both teams have many heavy absences, but that does not mean that there is a lack of quality. In fact, La Viola will be relying heavily on their star Dusan Vlahovic who will definitely be a difficult striker to mark and defend against. Giacomo Bonaventura, former midfielder of the Rossoneri can also be an important weapon for Italiano in this fixture without forgetting the really talented young Italian Gaetano Castrovilli.
Milan also have weapons of their own as Sandro Tonali and Franck Kessié should be counted on from the start while Ismael Bennacer sits on the bench, ready to take his opportunity and try to make a positive impact.
One of Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Olivier Giroud will be able to start as they like to hold the ball up front and participate in the link-up play as well as chance creations, especially the Swede veteran. Both are also very good in the air, so we can expect Rafael Leao and Alexis Saelemaekers to send in some crosses inside the penalty box if an opportunity presents itself.
Theo Hernandez' sprints forward and defensive contributions have been dearly missed in the derby, he finally returns on the left-flank. The former Real Madrid talent comes back from a positive performance with the France national team and is hoping to build on that tonight.
For the midfield battle tonight, we picked out Sandro Tonali and Giacomo Bonaventura. Both are skilled players. The young former Brescia star has been proving himself consistently within the team and he is eager to establish dominance tonight. Bonaventura, 32, on the other hand has also been important in the system of Vincenzo Italiano and is hoping to show his value and worth against his former club. Both have very good visions and can pick out important passes and they also can take set-pieces very well.
Simon Kjaer and Alessio Romagnoli should be paired together tonight as Milan fans hope that both will bring out their best in trying to contain the attacks that will be launched by the other team.
Fiorentina are not a team that likes to sit back and wait for the oponnents to make a mistake. They prefer to try to hold the ball, attack the depth with agility and speed like how Milan do. Pioli also prefers to use the pace of his stars and press high if there is a chance to recover the ball in the opposition's half.
This game tonight promises to be a really complicated and difficult one. Vincenzo Italiano has implemented a strong identity for his team in a short period of time since his arrival. Despite the absences, they still have quality options and solutions all around.
Pioli on the other hand is hoping that his players are all focused and determined as usual in order to bring home a very important win in the Serie A race. The search for point 35 will not be easy tonight, but the team surely does have the tools to do it.
This is the predicted lineup of Fiorentina:
4-3-3: Terracciano; Odriozola, Venuti, Igor Julio, Biraghi; Bonaventura, Torreira, Castrovilli; Callejon, Vlahovic, Saponara.
As for AC Milan, here is the likely formation that Stefano Pioli could use:
