In a blast past from the past, 2 European heavy weights A.C.Milan and Manchester United faced off in the Europa League Round of 16. Both teams were nursing injuries as Milan had Ibrahimovic, Mandzukic, Theo, Hakan, Bennacer, Rebic all ruled out with prior injuries. The game finished in a 1-1 draw with Milan getting the all-important away goal before the teams meet at the San Siro next Thursday. Here is a tactical analysis of the contest.
LINE-UPS
Both teams lined up in their usual 4-2-3-1 formation with Milan opting for a Double pivot of Meite and Kessie and Ole opting for Matic and Mctominay.
MILAN’S HIGH PRESS
Milan made their intentions very clear right from minute 1 and that is that Milan would press United and try to hit them on the counter as long as United would keep the ball. United, who used a patient build up, were pressed by Milan using cover shadows aka cutting off passing lanes.
United would often have their center-backs placed wide and dean Henderson push up and have matic or mctominay sit back and form passing triangles and play out of the back.
With Pace at the back to recover lose balls or to cover for counter attacks, Tomori and Simon Kjaer would come off their defensive lines and help with the press often leading to Milan creating quick counter which could not be sustained by United but didn’t lead to goals due to poor finishing.
ZONAL MARKING
A very rare aspect was Zonal marking used by Milan to mark Bruno rather than have a player man mark. Pioli instructions were clear, if Bruno was in your zone then cut off the passes to him since Bruno always has this knack of finding spaces and creating havoc.
DIAZ BETWEEN THE LINES
Milan whenever they won the ball back from United would aim to find Diaz would sit between the United lines finding pockets of space and looking to farm it wide or play a vertical pass for Leao.
SPACE BETWEEN MILAN’S LINES
A big disadvantage of Milan’s 4-2-3-1 is that when the double pivot presses forward it creates a gap between the pivot and the back line. Intelligent Mf’s like Bruno can easily find space between the lines. A similar mistake can be seen vs Crvena. It was this sequence of play that led to the free kick which led to a looping ball over the head of Tomori for Amad to score.
UNITED’S GAMEPLAN
Off the ball and deep into their territory United had one of their double pivot (usually Mctominay) drop into the defence to create extra numbers.
On the ball they played a hybrid 2-3-5 which also looked like an assymetric 3-5-2. Greenwood would tuck in as a second striker behind Martial making space for AWB to make overlapping runs.
United enganged in a horizontal press trying to push Milan to the sidelines with AWB, Greenwood and Bruno Fernandes pressing Milan to their wings.
SUBSTITUTIONS AND COUNTER-TACTICS
Later in the game Milan introduced Tonali as a make-shift Regista, and pushed Kessie up to trouble Mctominay and Matic esp Mctominay who was on a yellow card. To counter this, Ole brought in Fred to man mark Tonali and upset his passing rhythm.
CONCLUSION
Milan were certainly the better team on the day and will go to the San Siro feeling they could have taken this game had Kessie’s goal not been wrongly ruled out and if Krunic and Saelemaekers had taken their chance. An away goal means Milan have an advantage, but United away from home have a very good record and Milan at home have not been excellent. With both sides expecting players to return it sets up for a feisty second leg.
The Milan Blog 