Worried about this game. Lazio play 3421 which poses significant problems to our 433
Bonucci and Musacchio have an easy enough job to track Immobile. But the midfield is extremely tricky. Who do Kessie and Calhanoglu press? If the move too far forward and press Parolo/Leiva in the middle, that leaves Biglia alone in the middle with SMS to his left and whoever they play on the left free also. If those two go wide, that's not a problem, the fullbacks can cover, unless their wingbacks are high up, but if they stay inside then it's very tricky. Calhanoglu is going to have a tough game deciding whether to track SMS or push forward.
Up front Kalinic (I hope) will find it very hard alone against their three and even with support from Suso, we won't be able to counterattack very well. Our only hope is long diagonal balls from Biglia/Bonucci trying to find space behind Wallace/Radu on the outside, forcing the three to stretch giving onrushing players space.
We won't be able to control this game. They'll always have us outnumbered 4-3 in the middle and have our attacker closed off from all sides. My hope is that RR and Conti can have some space, maybe forcing their attacking midfielders to stay wide and under control.
If it was up to me i'd play a midfielder instead of Borini (hopefully Bonaventura) and get him to stay in the middle to close down Parolo, letting Calhanoglu worry only about SMS. Maybe we can get Borini to do that, but I have a feeling he's going to just stay wide and run up and down with Basta, something RR could and should do.
To summarize, too many players on our team have to worry about two players and it's going to get confusing. RR, Calhanoglu and Borini need to be very aware of each other and their opponents otherwise it could get very messy.
, Suso, Bonaventura, Calhanoglu, Kessie, Cutrone, Paqueta, Bakayo
