AC Milan welcome Parma to San Siro on Sunday evening, hoping to continue their winning ways and pad the gap to fifth place.
Inter are almost running their own race at the moment as they moved 10 points clear, and while Milan can make it a seven-point gap again by beating Parma, Massimiliano Allegri stressed the importance of making it an 11-point gap to fifth in his pre-match press conference.
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In terms of team news, Allegri is expected to make some changes. Davide Bartesaghi should drop into the three-man defence with Ruben Loftus-Cheek in midfield and Pervis Estupinan at left wing-back. Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao should lead the line.
AC Milan vs. Parma: Five key battles
Speaking of those changes in attack, it feels like Milan will go as far as Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic take them. The duo are the joint-top scorers in Serie A with eight goals each, but this would be just their third start together in the league. So, it is a big chance for the Portuguese and the American to prove why Allegri has had so much faith in them as the front two from day one.
Given that they tend to drift a bit to the left and right, it feels as though Leao and Pulisic will come up against Enrico Del Prato and Lautaro Valenti mostly. The 26-year-old Italian and the 27-year-old Argentine play either side of Mariano Triolo, and it is off the shoulder of those two that Milan’s forwards will try make their runs.
On the left flank, there is a big chance for Pervis Estupinan to begin his redemption arc. Having arrived in the summer from Brighton, an injury saw him lose his starting spot to Davide Bartesaghi who impressed in the role, but this evening the two should both start. The Ecuadorian will have to support attacks at the right times, being the spare man on the flank to provide quality service.
His opponent on that flank will be Sascha Britschgi, someone who Zachary Athekame knows well from Swiss youth teams. The 19-year-old has started 17 games for the Ducali so far this season and he has a couple of assists, so can be dangerous going forward. However, it feels obvious that the bulk of his work will be defensive in the 5-3-2.
There could be an audition of sorts for Mateo Pellegrino, who scored against Milan in the reverse fixture. Numerous sources have linked Milan with a move for the 24-year-old Argentine, who has seven goals to his name in Serie A so far and certainly falls into the mould of being a more traditional target man, something that Allegri is purported to want.
Just like in Parma, he will face off against Matteo Gabbia who should be the anchor of the Rossoneri defence. He was rested in midweek, at least for the first half, before then coming on for the injured Strahinja Pavlovic and resuming his role as the middle centre-back.
Finally, Milan will be able to call upon Adrien Rabiot after he served his one-game ban in midweek. The Frenchman is a critical part of Allegri’s plans, as seen through the fact that the Rossoneri are yet to lose a league game since he arrived, and ‘The Duke’ will go back into the left mezzala role.
On the other side, Adrian Bernabe is who Carlos Cuesta has been entrusting with playing the right-sided box-to-box role. He has a couple of goals and an assist in Serie A so far and is another player that Milan have been mentioned as admirers of. Shutting him down would mean cutting out a big part of Parma’s creativity.
