Alessandro Matri completes loan move to Fiorentina

Fiorentina have completed the signing of striker Alessandro Matri on loan until the end of the season. The 29-year-old striker had struggled for first-team football at AC Milan, making just eight Serie A starts and scoring once after arriving at the San Siro from champions Juventus in the summer.

Matri is certainly not a world beater, though this deal makes pretty good sense for both Fiorentina and himself. With first-choice strikers Giuseppe Rossi and Mario Gómez both struggling with injury problems, the viola have been left with no experienced forwards at all; forced into using attacking midfielder Josip Iličić as a false nine of late.

That means the arrival of Matri will come as a big relief for coach Vincenzo Montella, and he'll likely to go straight into their starting 11. Playing in such a creative team could allow him to find his best form again, though he'll struggle to match his Serie A record of 13 goals achieved at Cagliari back in 2009-10.