View from the Opposition: The quickfire scouting report on Fiorentina

How have Fiorentina changed from last year’s team and what are the objectives for this season?

"Lots has changed at the club, starting with the coach, as Stefano Pioli came in to replace Paulo Sousa. The squad has undergone huge changes too – lots of big names have left, while the club has placed its faith in a large number of young players to replace them.

"Federico Bernardeschi, Borja Valero, Nikola Kalinic, Matias Vecino, Josip Ilicic and Gonzalo Rodriguez all departed, with Bruno Gaspar, German Pezzella, Vincent Laurini, Jordan Veretout, Gil Dias and Giovanni Simeone coming in.

"Officially, the club hasn’t set a specific target for the season. Fiorentina don’t have huge ambitions given the sheer volume of change that has happened recently, so they’ll be looking for a positive finish in the league that puts them as close as possible to the Europa League places."

What formation will Pioli go for and how will Fiorentina line-up on Sunday?

"The coach will go with his usual 4-3-3, but it’s a formation that tends to morph into a 4-3-1-2 during the game. The line-up will be influenced by whether or not Cyril Thereau recovers in time and whether Laurini can play. If Laurini is out, the formation may change about, depending on whether Pioli opts to replace him with Gaspar or Pezzella, who usually plays at centre-back.

"If I had to predict the starting eleven, I’d go with Marco Sportiello in goal, a four-man defence of Gaspar and Cristiano Biraghi as full-backs and Pezzella and Davide Astori as centre-halves, a midfield of Milan Badelj in the centre and Marco Benassi and Veretout on other side, and an attacking three of Federico Chiesa, Simeone and Thereau from right to left."

Who is Fiorentina’s key player for the Roma game?

"I’ll go with Federico Chiesa, because as well as being a top-quality player, he’s always very good at popping up between the lines. That might cause some problems for what is a very good Roma defence. If he has a good game, Fiorentina might be able to create space and produce some good passes for Simeone, who is the other really dangerous Viola player."

If you could take away one Roma player, who would it be?

"Assuming he’s going to start, I’d get rid of Stephan El Shaarawy. He’s a quality player and on top of that he’s in amazing form at the moment. He may well cause the Fiorentina defence some problems, because they do struggle with wingers like him who are very mobile, strong technically and capable of getting into the box, supplying assists and going for goal."