We all know the charisma that is Ibrahimoviç. A player that holds himself in the highest esteem, works extra extra hard and demands the same from his teammates. It is no doubt that Ibrahimoviç is the catalyst for the change of our fortunes. But Ibrahimoviç brings much more than just leadership skills. He has brought about a dynamicism, more movement and infact a total change in tactics.
With this write-up let us look at the changes Ibrahimoviç brought into the team from someone like Krystoff Piatek
1. The Height advantage
Ibrahimoviç is 1.95m tall (6ft 5 inches). This against Piatek’s 1.83m (6ft 0 inches). It gives a very big height significance and an aerial threat in the box which make defenders stay on their toes. Very few defenders in Serie A are as tall as Ibrahimoviç is and they cannot cope when crosses are put into the box by our midfielders/wingers.
Check out his headed assist for Hakan against Sampdoria. He used his aerial ability to head the ball into the path of Hakan’s run from deep.
2. Physicality and Hold up play
With his huge frame and super strength, Ibrahimovic is like a wall for the opposition players. When ball is played to him he easily shields the defender behind up and can hold on to the ball till one of Milan’s player had made a run. Piatek did not possess this kind of attribute and hence it restricted Milan’s attacking play
Against Cagilari Ibra holds the defender off to give Leao space
3. Off the ball moevement and Ball playing ability
Now this is the most impeccable attribute of the big Swede. With all of his physical attributes Zlatan Ibrahimoviç is also a top ball playing striker with high in-game intelligence.
Piatek in his stint for Milan often looked to make deep runs by staying on the shoulder of the last defender and wanted balls being fed to him. Once defenders and coaches analysed his game they neutralised him and was isolated.
Ibrahimoviç drops in deep and pulls defenders out of position. And with his superior technique he is able to play quick passes or through balls through the space which results in a clear chance created.
Against Bologna for the third goal Ibrahimovic makes a decoy run on the right wing with Rebic moving in. This confused the Bologna defenders with Danilo running to cover Ibrahimoviç and Denswil covering up the space left by Danilo and to to mark Rebic this left a huge gap between the LCB and the LB. Hakan who had the ball played a horizontal pass to Bennacer who ran into the gap left by the defender and scored.
Another example of Ibra’s play is this chance he created for Hakan. He pushes horizontally and reciveres a pass from Rebic. To cover Ibra, Toloi tries to close him down. Hakan runs into the space left by Toloi and Ibra completed the passing triangle with a swift turn and pass. Hakan was offside though.
Many experts and fans had doubted the ability of the swede at the age of 38. But Ibra being Ibra proved all of his doubters wrong with 11 and 5 assists in all competitions. Never make the mistake of Under-estimating Zlatan again.
The Milan Blog 