AC MILAN v FROSINONE: OPPONENT REVIEW

Restart. AC Milan's aim, after the damaging home defeat against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League, is to regain confidence and put the European disappointment suffered on Tuesday against the Gialloneri behind them. The opportunity to redeem themselves starts with Saturday evening's home clash with Frosinone, kick-off at 20:45 CET. Be aware though, because the obstacle is not one that will be overcome with ease. On the contrary, Di Francesco's side are undoubtedly one of the surprise packages in this season's 2023/24 Serie A, and their performances confirm it: 18 points collected in their opening 13 league fixtures is the earliest they have ever reached this points tally since their 23rd season in the competition (in 2015/16, 19 on that occasion).

Five wins, three draws and five defeats so far for Mazzitelli and teammates, but there is one stat that dampens their record ahead of the trip up north: four of Frosinone's defeats have come on the road (Roma, Bologna, Cagliari and Inter), winning only two points away from home - two draws against Udinese and Salernitana. No other Serie A side this season has done worse (two also for Cagliari and Salernitana). While it may seem like AC Milan's opponents struggle away from home, they do approach every game with great character and tenacity.

SET PIECES AND RECORD MARKSMEN
In this year's league campaign, Roma, Juventus and Frosinone have one common characteristic, the number of different goalscorers: eleven. This is probably one of the trickiest aspects to deal with for those who face Di Francesco's team. There are many attacking options and shooters in his side: 19 Gialloazzurri players have already had at least two attempts on goal in this current Serie A campaign; only Cagliari (20) have more. Furthermore, there are five who have had more than ten shots at goal in this season's Serie A: Reinier (twelve), Enzo Barrenechea (twelve), Abdou Harroui (eleven), Luca Mazzitelli (22) and Luca Garritano (11). In this category, only Juventus (seven) and Cagliari (six) have more. 

Another distinctive characteristic that Frosinone possess regards set-piece goals: only Inter (nine) have scored more this season so far, with four coming from corners, joint top with Juventus, Genoa and Atalanta. Di Francesco's men have many different solutions who, together with AC Milan, occupy two of the highest four positions in terms of scoring percentage: 13.4% for Pioli's Rossoneri, 13% for the Gialloazzurri; only Roma (15%) and Inter are ahead of them (14%).

YOUNG TALENT: SOULÉ, IBRAHIMOVIĆ AND A FORMER YOUTH PLAYER 
Young and in some cases very young. The identity of Di Francesco's Frosinone is built largely by the so-called post-millenials and there is one fact that confirms their importance to the Gialloazzurri: 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 without doubt, 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). The Argentinian is undoubtedly the striker to fear for the Rossoneri backline and to put his importance into context in terms of stats, without his goals Frosinone would have five points less in the table - only Lautaro Martínez and Domenico Berardi (eight) have won more points for their team.

Together with the rising star of Mar de Plata is a 2005-born player: Arijon Ibrahimović, 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). But foreigners are not only significant for Frosinone. In addition to the Argentine and the German, and without forgetting the Brazilian Reinier (already a goal and two assists in the league for the 2002-born former Dortmund midfielder), is also an Italian in defence: Ilario Monterisi. The 21-year-old is fresh from scoring the winning goal against Genoa - an assist from Marco Brescianini, who made his Serie A debut with AC Milan - with 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. Furthermore, should he score, he would become the third player, after Destiny Udogie and Aaron Hickey (both 2002) - in the same position - born from 1/1/2001 onwards to score more than two goals in a single Serie A season.

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