AC Milan will have Zlatan Ibrahimovic back for tonight’s game against Torino as they look to finally record a win against a side that have become a bit of a bogey team.
This evening Milan will take to the field hoping to snap a skid of four defeats in a row and seven games without a win across all competitions, against a Torino team that have already beaten them twice this season.
As Corriere della Sera (via MilanNews) report this morning, Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s return to the squad – after 8 months of not playing due to knee surgery – should provide a psychological boost to a squad that needs one.
The Swede will hardly play more than a few minutes (if any at all) and it would be an incredible story if he were to be decisive in some way, but the value of Ibra’s return to the team is in his charisma and in his leadership, which seem to be lacking in the group in the beginning of 2023.
Pioli’s hope is that Zlatan can have the same impact as when he returned to Milan in 2020, and the player himself admitted that he still feels he is ready to contribute.
Torino are hoping to keep up their trend of being a poisoned chalice for Milan, who played one of the worst games of the first part of the season in the 2-1 defeat in Turin and then failed to beat the Granata in the Coppa Italia even though they had a man advantage from 70 minutes onwards.
Pioli cannot afford to lose a third time and the role of Ibra will immediately be fundamental to awaken something, even Rafael Leao and Olivier Giroud who need to guide from the front.
