With the 2020/21 season set to culminate on Sunday, Milan, after an electric start to the season have one more matchday to save their season and it is a daunting trip to their bogey team, Atalanta in Bergamo.
Milan fans need no mentioning of the score the last time Milan went to Bergamo Illicic bagging a brace. Milan are however in a desperate need of a win against Atalanta.
Milan don’t need to look back far to see when their last win came at Bergamo. They defeated Atalanta 3-1 in 2019 thanks to a brace from Milan’s in-form striker Piatek and a long distance shot from Hakan cancelling out Remo Freuler’s open.
Mid-week Juve pushed Atalanta to a 2-1 loss in the Coppa Italia final with Atalanta yet again missing out on silverware in another brilliant yet underwhelming season.
Here are some Tactical Similarities used by Gattuso and Pirlo to defeat Atalanta
CEDE POSESSION
Atalanta are a team that enjoys lion’s share possession and has the physical and technical qualities to knock it around an opposition defense, even parked buses that any team that tries to win the ball back with pressing they can get steam rolled
Pirlo and Gattuso however were content with Letting Atalanta keep the ball and knock it horizontally.
In the 2019 match Gattuso’s Milan had 41% possession while Pirlo’s Juve had 43% on Wednesday.
4-5-1 AND AN AVERAGE LINE
Of course, owing to the difference in technical and physical quality Pirlo’s Juve was better than Rino’s Milan and hence were able to play a higher line than what Rino did.
But compared to Juve’s regular standards they played a deeper line than before as shown in the graphic below and did not commit numbers forward. If Cuardado ventured forward on the right, bentancur and Mckennie stayed behind to prevent Atalanta’s lightning quick counters.
When Milan played against Atalanta they played a much deeper line and rarely ventured forward especially after taking the lead.
Both teams in terms of defensive structure played a narrow 4-5-1 that at times looked like a 4-4-1-1 keeping only one player forward with a second striker playing off the number 9. For Juventus it was Cristiano while for Milan it was Piatek.
PREVENTING WIDE OVERLOADS
One main feature of Atalanta was to numerically create advantages towards the wide areas of the pitch. For example whenever the ball was hoisted forwards Duvan Zapata would peel off towards the left and he would be joined by Gosens, Pessina and De Roon or Palomino. Creating this advantage would mean more passing combinations for Atalanta to exploit and therefore be lethal.
Pirlo countered this with their narrow 4-5-1 structure as explained before. They had their wide players drop in while the full back, the concerned CB and one player of the Double Pivot making it a 4v4 or a 5v4 not allowing Atalanta ot build on the flanks.
For Gattuso it was more of the same with Alessio, Rodriguez,Paqueta, Hakan and at times bakayoko creating a 5v3 or a 4v3 to prevent the numerical advantage.
NOT PLAYING OUT FROM THE BACK
One big feature of Milan’s loss in January was how Atalanta would press Milan whenever Milan had a Goal Kick or a free kick in their defensive 3rd. Atalanta would press Milan and Milan would lose the ball.
Both Gattuso and Pirlo who otherwise preferred to play out from the back preferred a more direct approach choosing to kick it out to Cristiano (Piatek in Milan’s case).
The one time Juve played out from the back, they paid for it with Atalanta’s equalizer from malinovskyi.
DIRECT, VERTICAL FOOTBALL AND COUNTER-ATTACK
Atalanta are a high press side and hence they play a very high line to facilitate their press. This leaves a lot of space behind the defense for the opposition to exploit.
Liverpool with Klopp used Salah and Mane exploited this feature and subjected Atalanta to a 5-0 loss.
Juventus chose the similar route chose to counter through Kulusevski and Chiesa which gave them their first goal. Cuardado made a clearance which was a vertical ball to Ronaldo and it caught out Atalanta and Juve countered before Atalanta could get men behind.
Milan in 2019 didn’t have the quick players it had today so therefore it had to rely on vertical balls or diagonal balls from Hakan or Rodriguez and it was one such ball that led to the ball.
WHAT I THINK MILAN SHOULD DO
Of course while Milan’s on paper formation will be a 4-2-3-1 I believe we should defend in a 4-4-1-1 formation with Rebic behind Leao and Hakan acting as a Left Midfielder.
Milan should patiently wait for Atalanta to break down and tire them out by not giving space and looking for any opportunity to counter attack.
Theo and Calabria should be act as defensive full-backs unless there is an oppurtuity to counter attack.
In terms of marking Leao or Rebic should play close to De Roon and Toloi as they are prone to easily losing their man and would be helpful in counter-attacks.
It would have been ideal for Milan to have Mandzukic playing as the #9 but since Mandzukic isn’t fit enough Leao would have the duty of holding the ball up.
A key duel will be between Kjaer and Zapata. A player even De Ligt cannot handle Kjaer’s experience and physical trait will come to the fore which makes it extra important for Saelemaekers and Calabria to prevent Atalanta creating numerical advantage on Milan’s right flank.
Of Course defending deep and relying on counter attacks cannot stop an individual piece of brilliance like Malinovskyi hitting it from distance but that’s when Milan needs its goalkeeper Donnarumma to perform one last time if he is not extending his contract
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