AC Milan face a difficult trip to Napoli on Sunday night as we look to secure an important result in our battle to finish in the top four in Serie A.
Heading into the weekend, the Rossoneri sit in fourth place in the standings, but with Roma just a point adrift and both Atalanta and Juventus looking to close the gap further.
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In turn, there is little room for error between now and the end of the season if we wish to secure a return to the Champions League next year, and the pressure is on Stefano Pioli and the players given our poor form prior to the international break.
It doesn’t get much more difficult than visiting the runaway league leaders, but Milan have to produce a response and performance against Luciano Spalletti’s side this weekend and get ourselves back on track.
Kalulu blow as Calabria comes in, Krunic to start?
There could be up to five changes from the Milan starting line-up against Udinese prior to the break, with two certainly forced on Pioli after injuries suffered by Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Pierre Kalulu while on international duty.
Both have been ruled out, and so that is expected to result in Davide Calabria returning at right-back as we reinstate the 4-2-3-1 system, while Olivier Giroud is the obvious candidate to come in for Ibrahimovic and lead the line for us.
Elsewhere, Simon Kjaer is being tipped to replace Malick Thiaw in the heart of the defence alongside Fikayo Tomori, while Theo Hernandez returns at left-back as the backline will have Sandro Tonali and Ismael Bennacer ahead of them as they look to rediscover their pivotal influence in midfield.
Brahim Diaz, Rade Krunic and Rafael Leao are likely to provide the support behind Giroud in the final third, although Alexis Saelemaekers is perhaps best placed to push Diaz for a starting spot on the right side, with Krunic deployed through the middle.
Although Pioli saw a reaction from his side after the switch to a three-man defence, this system is arguably better suited to the players at his disposal, and it will hopefully allow key individuals to step up and be more effective in their more natural roles.
The priority will be rediscovering our defensive solidity again, and then building on that by showing more quality in our attacking play to cause Napoli problems as we were poor in both phases last time out and need to significantly improve on that against tougher opposition.
Naturally, it’s going to take some performance to come out on top, but these players need to start proving themselves again and lay a foundation down for the rest of the season as we look to finish strong and make a top-four finish comfortable by the end of the campaign.
Predicted AC Milan XI: Maignan, Calabria, Kjaer, Tomori, Theo Hernandez, Tonali, Bennacer, Diaz, Krunic, Leao, Giroud.
