A full year after Ibrahimovic’s full debut against Cagliari, Milan go to Sardinia once against a struggling Eusebio Di Francesco side and picked up a 2-0 win in a De ja Vu scorline of the last game. Here is a post-match analysis of the game.
LINE-UPS
Milan lined up in their usual 4-2-3-1 formation albeit a slew of injuries depleting Milan’s bench strength. Dalot came in place of Theo and Diaz retained his place in the XI after Hakan contacted the corona
For Cagliari, they started with a 4-3-2-1 moving away from their back 3 formation under Rolando Maran. EDF went with his favored 4-3-2-1/4-3-3 formation with Niangollan acting as an anchor plus playmaker and Jao Pedro and Gaston Perreiro acting as inside forwards
EARLY PRESSING TACTICS
Cagliari’s basic gamplan was to press in a 4-3-3 structure when Milan try building out from the back. Taking a look at the last few matches it is evident that Milan’s deep lying playmaker is Tonali. Tonali sits back, forms a passing triangle with Kjaer and Alessio and creates passing lanes to either launch attacks or quickly pass back to Kjaer to switch play.
EDF had Simeone cover Tonali, Gaston Perreiro covered Kessie and Jao Pedro covered Calabria. The idea was to induce Milan into a pressing trap whereby they let Dalot get the ball and then Marin, Perreiro and Niangollan would shift to their right and press Milan against the Byline and suffocate them for space.
Milan used various tactics to escape this press such as passing back to Kjaer and switching play out to the wings and fund our attackers against the isolated Cagliari defenders whereas midfielders are still engaged in pressing. Another tactic Milan used is Kessie pushing up and engaging Niangollan while Tonali got closer to Dalot and acted as an outlet to pass.
CAGILARI’S HIGH DEFENSIVE LINE
To maintain Cagliari’s high press, they maintain a high defensive line
Milan tried taking advantage of this with a few long balls from Kjaer and Calabira. One of them resulted in a scuffed pass to Ibra from Samu Castillejo. The other was a goal for Zlatan
BRAHIM DROPPING DEEP AND DALOT’S LINE SPLITTING PASS
With Cagliari pressing Milan through the center, Diaz was getting isolated. To make up for this Diaz would drop into the double pivot and collect the ball and spinning his marker usually Cagliari midfielder Duncan and weave into space to play a pass for Ibra or pass it wide to Castillejo
Often in games some individual brilliance always helps. With Milan playing out from the back, Romagnoli spreads the play to Dalot. Dalot, who uses Ibrahimovic as a point of reference in attack esp for hold up play, makes a line splitting pass which wove through 2 lines of Cagliari players and resulted in Calabria hitting the frame of the goal.
SPACE BETWEEN OUR LINES AND JAO PEDRO
A certain flaw of Milan’s double pivot combined with a pressing tactic is that it creates space between the last defensive line and the midfield line. Jao Pedro was tasked to find the space between the lines and slot himself and make chances for Cagliari.
Cagliari’s best chance came in the same fashion with Tonali and Kessie occupied to keeping Cagliari pinned to their Right wing but Cagliari switched play quite easily and Donna was forced into a save
CAGLIARI’S CHANCE CREATION
Cagliari’s basic idea was to press Milan win the ball back and use a series of inward and outward movement from their inside forwards, midfielders and full backs to either cross the ball in or put the ball into the box. They tried to create overloads and trap Dalot on the left flank. Cagliari tried a series of early balls into the box as service to Simeone as well. Most of their overlapping underlapping run came via their right flank with Gaston Perreiro peeling away to allow Marin to run inside the box. Another chance creation method as I discussed earlier was Jao Pedro’s ability to find space between the lines.
ATTACKING PLAYS
While Milan were pushed were rarely allowed to play through the center, Milan often used Dalot as the outlet to build up hence a lot of Milan’s touches and points of chance creation were from left flank of the field. Milan, especially Ibrahimovic targeted Diego Godin as he is not the quickest on the field and given how Cagliari play a high line he was the weak spot.
However major of Milan’s chances in the final 3rd came via the center of zone.
For Cagliari, as I explained earlier about gaston perreiro they tried to exploit Diogo Dalot and overloaded him on the flanks. You can see below how 42% of chances came via their right flank.
CONCLUSION
With Milan missing 4 starters it was always difficult to Milan to play the brand of attacking football they used to post lockdown last season.However the ability to close down games of Milan has risen and this is a bracing aspect given how in the previous season we were prone to conceding after scoring. As for the penalties, Milan often ask too much from the opposition defenders and they just can’t handle the slick movements of our players.
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