Now, given our current inability to grind out results even against lesser teams and inconsistency both in the back and front it is a bit difficult to look forward to this game with great anticipation and enthusiasm. That nervousness is becoming a recurrent feeling little by little and I seriously do not like it. I am actually glad I do not have to wait until Sunday to be done with it.

Perhaps a little glimmer of hope is that Fiorentina have been on a downward spiral ever since the tail end of the last season and seem to suffer from similar type of inconsistency. After the winter break, though, they have won Brescia from being two goals down, tied Napoli and also Lecce who have been in furious form recently for a Serie B team.

One of the most interesting aspects of the game involves yet again an ex-Lazio player in the enemy ranks. This time I am obviously not talking about Sinisa Mihaijlovic but Valon Behrami who just signed a contract with Viola and could possibly be on the pitch against us already.

It looks like Reja will revert to 4-2-3-1 for this match. Zarate's suspension will hopefully work to our advantage with Sculli taking his place. According to latest reports he should be fit to play. In the back we are missing Dias. His suspension is a bit of a blow especially as Biava has also had some lapses recently. The ballot is obviously between Diakite and Stendardo and while I will always prefer Stendardo in spite of his poor showing last time around I have to begrudingly admit Diakite was not half bad last time as a starter and should perhaps get the nod.

By winning this we keep our position on the table and still have a good chance at finishing in top 3. I said before the winter break that it looks like we really can compete for the CL spot although it seemed unreal. In spite of our poor success since I have not given up hope on that yet.

Even with Behrami, Fiorentina is a shadow of itself. However, I'm sure the little bastard will be motivated. It'll be interesting to see how he's received by the Olimpico after his public flirtations with le merde. I'd like to see Kozak from the irst minute since Zarate is out. We will see what this team is made of - they need to have a desperate, steely reaction.

Irregardless of their position in the table I expect a tough game. They still have a lot of quality and interestingly, along with Udinese and Milan, currently hold the longest unbeaten sequence in Serie A. Still, if we don't end their part in that sequence on Sunday then we will be slipping down the table soon enough, especially with Milan away on next tuesday night. 

Sculli will start, better than Zarate at the moment I say. The latter never looks like scoring in a month of sundays, so at least we will be spared the ball-hogging mentality for a few rounds at least. Hopefully Hernanes can put in an all star performance and Floccari makes the match and gets some kind of scoring run going. 

Not exactly thrilled about Foggia, but it will be inreresting to watch. I don't expect much from this team, but let's see what happens.

I don't have any less faith in Foggia s I do in Zarate. I'm sure Foggia will be playing his heart out to show that he is worthy of being played .. i hope. So i don't mind this change at all. We've seen enough of floccari and zarate up front anyways, i wouldn't mind seeing kozak and foggia tried as well to see if they can do anything different.

I really wanted to see Sculli in action again. He got a rather lukewarm reception at my quarters but some of you seem to think he actually does strengthen the team. So then, it is a tricky situation with Foggia. He has not been playing with continuity in ages and we should have already sold him last summer. There have been a couple of matches where he has come on and made us look a little sharper and dangerous in the attack but without results to speak of.

Interesting, earlier this week it looked like we were back to 4-2-3-1 but today Reja tried 4-4-2 which would probably look like this tomorrow:

Muslera; Lichsteiner, Diakitè, Biava, Radu; Gonzalez, Brocchi, Ledesma, Mauri; Kozak, Floccari.

There is some talk about Hernanes being tired and Reja considering different tactical options. There is the Milan game on Tuesday after all. He will be with the team tomorrow nonetheless. As will Sculli who is fit enough to sit on the bench at least and Matuzalem who has been fully recovered it seems.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see Reja's decisions tomorrow regarding the formation and lineup.

If playing 4-4-2 means dropping Hernanes I say why not? Hernanes has been in a slump lately so I'm all for giving him some time off. 4-4-2 gives Floccari a chance to work with another striker upfront which will only do us good imo.