AC Milan welcome Frosinone to San Siro tonight hoping to bounce back from the midweek loss to Borussia Dortmund, but they face a side who have adapted well to life back in the top flight.
The official website has published an analysis of the opposition, starting with the fact that in the league this season Roma, Juventus and Frosinone have one common characteristic, the number of different goalscorers: 11.
In addition to that 19 Gialloazzurri players have already had at least two attempts on goal in this current Serie A campaign – only Cagliari (20) have more. Five players have had more than ten shots at goal in this season’s Serie A: Reinier (12), Enzo Barrenechea (12), Abdou Harroui (11), Luca Mazzitelli (22) and Luca Garritano (11). In this category, only Juventus (7) and Cagliari (6) have more.
Only Inter (9) have scored more set piece goals that Frosinone this season so far, with four coming from corners, putting them joint-top with Juventus, Genoa and Atalanta.
They are a young side too, given that 63% of goals scored in the league (12/19) were done by players born from 2000 onwards. In this season’s Serie A, this is the highest percentage, but the figure is particularly significant if we extend the record to Europe’s top-five leagues, where (excluding own goals) only Chelsea (67%), Real Madrid (68%), Manchester City (70%) and Rennes (74%) have done better so far.
Speaking of European leagues, among the players to have scored more than five goals this season, only Evan Ferguson (19/10/2004) and Jude Bellingham (29/06/2003) are younger than Matías Soulé (15/04/2003). Without his goals Frosinone would have five points less in the table – only Lautaro Martínez and Domenico Berardi (8) have won more points for their team.
There is a familiar name, or rather surname, to look out for as well: Arijon Ibrahimović (no relation). He is the youngest player with at least one goal and one assist to his name in this year’s Serie A. Only three precede him in Europe’s top-five leagues: Lamine Yamal (2007), Eli Junior Kroupi and Warren Zaïre-Emery (both 2006).
Ilario Monterisi is a 21-year-old defender who is fresh from scoring the winning goal against Genoa – an assist from Marco Brescianini, who made his Serie A debut with Milan. Only Lille’s Yeni Loro (2002) younger than him among counterpart defensive players with more than one goal in Europe’s top-five leagues in the 2023-24 season.
