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AC Milan will be up against Sassuolo later today, hoping to clinch another three points, and there will be some interesting player battles to keep an eye on.
After what has been a very strong season so far, despite some hiccups, Milan will be looking to clinch their first win against a newly-promoted side today. Indeed, they were stopped by Cremonese (loss) and Pisa (draw), so they need to overcome Sassuolo.
Massimiliano Allegri isn’t expected to make many changes to the starting eleven, in fact it seems he will make just one, so it’s rather easy to predict the battles. Sassuolo, meanwhile, have some very good players too despite the absence of Domenico Berardi.
The key battles
Starting with the defensive battles for Milan, Fikayo Tomori will definitely have to be careful with Armand Lauriente. The skilful winger has even been linked with the Rossoneri in the past, and on a good day, he can be very dangerous in the 1v1 situations.
Tomori has done well this season, but if there is something he still needs to improve, it’s how he handles 1v1s. What makes the Englishman so good in many situations, i.e. his aggressiveness, is also what holds him back at times.
In the centre of the defence, Matteo Gabbia is bound to have some good battles with Andrea Pinamonti, who’s tall and strong. The Sassuolo striker likes to get stuck in and having come through the youth ranks at Inter, he knows what facing Milan means.’
Pinamonti’s most recent goal, in the 3-0 win against Atalanta, certainly proved that he doesn’t need much space inside the box to get a shot away. As such, Gabbia will have to stay close to him and make the situation as uncomfortable as possible.
In the middle, it looks like Luka Modric will start after initially being a candidate for some rest. While the two might not always be that close to each other, I expect Nemanja Matic to try to put the Croatian off his game.
Matic, with his size and experience, certainly knows how to make life difficult for players like Modric. On the flip side, the Milan man also knows how to succeed anyway, though he should perhaps expect a bit of a tougher game.
On the left flank, Davide Bartesaghi has had a very positive impact all season and without Rafael Leao, his overlapping runs should be even more important. Sassuolo’s right-back Sebastian Walukiewicz will be tasked with stopping him.
The game against Torino wasn’t Bartesaghi’s best in terms of crossing, so an improvement on that front would be very nice tomorrow. We all know how good his crosses can be, and now he will also have Christian Pulisic to aim at in the box.
Speaking of Pulisic, his movement means he will probably be up against most Sassuolo defenders, but Jay Idzes is one who undoubtedly will be out to stop him. The 25-year-old has even been linked with Milan, so being able to stop Captain America would certainly impress the Rossoneri.
We all saw what the American can do against Torino, with the decisive brace, but today he should be in even better condition. He will team up with Christopher Nkunku up front so hopefully, the Frenchman will also help out a bit.
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