After 4 long years, Milan have defeated Inter Milan in a derby in Seria A (we beat them In Coppa Italia 2 years ago) thanks to goals from Ibrahimovic while Inter got back through Romelu Lukaku. Like the earlier encounter in February, Milan went through 2-0 ahead but unlike the full time result, Milan ran out victors after a courageous performance from the Rossoneri. A tactical battle was expected between Conte and Pioli and here are a few notes from the game
Basic Setup
Milan as usual lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Bennacer and Kessie playing as a double pivot in front of the 4 man defense with Ibrahimovic as the tip of the attack.
Inter lined up in their usual conte style 3 at the back. The midfield alternated between a 4 in the middle to a make-shift trequartista in Barella to Brozovic sitting back as a regista to spread play forcing Barella to take up Brozo’s post. The right wing had the dangerous Hakimi and Inter went full fire with Lautaro and Lukaku in attack.
Central overload forcing Milan to go wide
Inter Milan are usually a compact side which allows no space just like the way Conte always sets it up. They overload the centre and forces the opposition to go wide and then isolate the full backs and then press horizontally and make the full back concede possession. Inter showed their intentions of repeating this tactic to Milan in the early few minutes.
Man marking assignments
Conte prefers a man-marking style to Zonal marking system. Brozovic had Hakan, Barella had Bennacer and Vidal had Kessie. On the flanks, Perisic took on Calabria while D’Ambrosio had to deal with Leao which made Hakimi a free man to go at Theo Hernandez given how Leao lacks defensive workrate and Theo is defensively still suspect.
For Milan Kjaer took on Lautaro and Lukaku was marked by Alessio Romagnoli.
Caught out in transition: How Milan engineered their goals
Inter have been a team that have struggled during transitions. From being priced open by Ribery in their last minute win against Fiorentina to goals conceded against Benevento, Milan and Pioli knew the weakness was swift counter attacks. As mentioned earlier, Inter look to isolate opposition full backs and win the ball back with their high press but in these cases it backfired. After a quick layoff to Hakimi from Lukaku his pass to Barella was expertly intercepted by Bennacer who made a quick horizontal pass to Calabria.
Calabria as soon as he received the ball started an offensive transition which prompted Hakan and Saelemaekers to run in behind Perisic and Vidal and occupy the half spaces caused by the momentary disorganisation. While Perisic and Brozovic took on Calabria, his quick vertical pass released Hakan and it created a 3v2 situation for Milan taking out Vidal, Perisic and Brozo from Inter’s defensive transition.
Hakan once again played a vertical through ball for Ibra releasing him while taking De Vrij out and created a 2v2 situation of Ibra and Leao vs Kolarov and D’Ambrosio which prompted Kolarov to foul Ibrahimovic. Milan made it 1-0 from the penalty spot.
The second goal for Milan also came in an offensive transition. Calabria who dispossessed Perisic made a quick vertical short pass to Saelemaekers who turned Brozovic.
This created a temporary overload on the left wing of Milan and Vidal ran upto Saelemaekers to make up the numbers as well as stop Alexis’ run. He spotted Hakan who was unmarked in the half space left by Vidal in their disorganized moment and passed it to hakan. Hakan, a transformed player whose distribution has been top notch spread play to the left wing to Leao which brought it to a 1v1 against D’Ambrosio. D’Ambrosio who was already struggling against Leao’s pace was sent the wrong way with a feint which prompted De Vrij to come and try take Leao down. This meant Kolarov was full of indecision as to move laterally to cover de Vrij. Ibrahimovic was lurking in behind the LCB and with no full back or wing back tracking back he was free to tap in Leao’s cross. 2-0 to Milan
Inter’s attack and their goal
With 2-0 down Inter had to score goals and make up the deficit. Inter attack very dynamically and do not have a clear pattern of play. Teams which press high (like us) are ounished on the counter by quick passing combinations between Lukaku and Lautaro or quick through balls by Barella. Barella drops of from his advanced position and acts as a passing option for Brozovic or Vidal who bring the ball out from the back. Barella than lays it off or passes to Lukaku who using his superior physical attributes holds off the defender (in this case Alessio) and tries to have passing combination with his strike partner Lautaro or with the player wide which is normally Hakimi who push up to support the striker. If Barella was the instigator of attacks, Lukaku was the center of all of Inter’s attack. No matter how tightly he was marked he would receive the ball draw the defenders and lay it off to lautaro or Hakimi.
Another tactic that Inter used was to switch play quickly after sucking the opposition to a horizontal press. Once again a pass was played to Lukaku who sprayed it to Hakimi and after some passing Barella switched play to the overlapping wide center-back Kolarov who created a 2v1 situation with Calabria. He passed it to Perisic and Perisic crossed it to Lukaku for a tap in.
SECOND HALF
The role of Kessie
Pioli uses a mix of man-marking as well as Zonal marking. Up until the first half Kessie was tasked with keeping Vidal quiet and not let him have a free run. But with Lukaku troubling Alessio and creating a numerical advantage with Hakimi bombing forward, Pioli had to re-think his tactics. He had Bennacer continue his man-marking on Barella while Kessie was tasked with cutting off passing lanes to Lukaku.
Substitutions
Now with Kessie occupying a more defensive position and Theo being overrun on the flanks Pioli needed to protect the lead as Inter were having more momentum towards the end. So Pioli took off Leao keeping one eye for the game against Celtic and introducing Krunic. Krunic was tasked with Vidal and Brozovic (later Barella as brozo was subbed for Eriksen) and reducing Inter’s numeric advantage in the center leaving Kessie as the spare man to mark zonally the right half space which Lukaku was occupying to receive passes.
Hakimi chance
A constant threat from wide areas, Inter always look to utilize their full backs. Against Fiorentina, Lukaku laid off a pass to Alexis Sanchez who farmed the ball wide to the right wing who made a run behind Biraghi and crossed it for Lukaku to tap in. It nearly paid off again when Perisic laid off a ball to Vidal and with Milan’s defense occupying the central area in the box they didn’t spot the run of Hakimi who headed it wide.
Tribute to Calabria and Bennacer
There we talks of Milan needing a new Right back in the summer but management decided to stick with the academy product and he has repaid the faith in abundance. Kept Perisic invisible for large parts of the game, Milan tactfully used Calabria and his quick passing/long ball ability to instigate attack and break the lines.
Now while Kessie gets the plaudits somebody who went about quietly and dropping a top performance was bennacer. Up against an in-form Barella, Bennacer was tasked to mark him and it was quite a feisty duel. Bennacer occupied the right areas, kept a tight rein and made some important clearance
Conclusion
For initial parts of the game it seemed as it Lautaro got the better of Kjaer but the Danish wall kept Lautaro quiet. Eriksen did cause a nuisance occupying space between the lines but did not trouble much. The only constant threat for Milan was Lukaku who summoned all his ability to try and rescue his team from defeat. However Milan stuck firm and reigned victors
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