AC Milan travel to Fiorentina on Saturday night for our Serie A showdown, and here’s how Stefano Pioli’s line-up could look for the clash.
The Rossoneri will be looking for a sixth consecutive win across all competitions this weekend, but it’s hoped that the international break hasn’t disrupted that momentum and consistency as we look to finish the season strongly across two fronts.
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Ideally, we’ll have a full squad available to Pioli for as many of those games as possible, but with Simon Kjaer, Pierre Kalulu and Tommaso Pobega unavailable due to injury while Theo Hernandez is suspended, the Milan boss will be forced into changes this weekend.
As per La Gazzetta dello Sport, Milan could make three changes to the side that defeated Verona prior to the break, with Malick Thiaw coming in for Kalulu, while Alessandro Florenzi could fill in at left-back in Hernandez’s absence.
Mike Maignan will start between the posts, while Fikayo Tomori and Davide Calabria will complete the backline.
In midfield, Ismael Bennacer and Tijjani Reijnders are expected to continue to be deployed in the deeper pivot duo in a 4-2-3-1 system, with Rafael Leao, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic tasked with providing quality in the final third and finding a breakthrough against the Viola.
Our third change is tipped to come up front, with Olivier Giroud set to get the nod to lead the line and replace Noah Okafor.
Despite our absentees, we’ll have a strong bench to utilise if necessary, but fundamentally at this stage of the season with what’s at stake, it’s hoped we return home with all three points to take another important step towards achieving our objective of qualifying for the Champions League for next season.
While our positive recent run is reassuring and builds confidence, we have continued to look uninspiring and unconvincing at times, and so although the ultimate target this weekend is to win, it would of course help to add the icing on the cake if we put in a strong performance to go with it and come out of the break with a more convincing display.
