A somewhat dull and torrid experience only 3 months ago, Milan vs Cagliari was a very lively encounter with Milan who couldn’t register a single goal in the previous encounter put 4 past Cagliari in one half of football.
Here are a few tactical points
The Narrow shape and Pressing
One of the key aspects of Pioli’s principles while being off the ball is to press the players on the pitch and reduce their on the ball options and unsettle opposition players. Milan here seemed to use a mix of zonal as well man marking principles when they seemed off the ball would even man mark their opponents
A very important aspect when trying to press the opponents is to keep a deep narrow block which is compact and with very less space between the defensive lines. Sacchi used to profess not more space than 15-20 metres. While Sacchi was an elite coach managing Elite players Milan were compact on their own accord and narrow not extending to the wide areas of the pitch as can be seen in from the post-match stats.
Diaz between the lines
While Diaz was not always the fastest players in terms of sprint speed, he made it up with his tactical awareness aka the ability to see pockets of space and take advantage of the momentary disorganization of the opponents. A key principle of this came into play when Theo Hernandez took out Cagliari’s entire midfield and found Diaz for the third goal.
Milan’s build up play
Cagliari, to gain midfield domination, had a 5 man midfield with their 3 at the back formation. They used it to form a narrow midfield block not allowing Milan to build up through their center. Milan conveniently used Theo or Calabria to build up play or advanced the play through the wings and then cut back to Kjaer or Tomori to use the center of the pitch.
Cagliari goal
Cagliari had a 5 man midfield to stretch and to prevent Milan’s narrow press from overpowering their attack they smartly tried to switch play all game. One such chance was when Joao pedro switched from their right flank to the left to Dalbert and Milan were scrambling to cope with the switch
CONCLUSION
Milan once again seemed to be a much underrated team but unlike their opponents a very strong advantage they have this season is their stability. Players are ageing better and growing in experience and the coaching as well as the medical staff know their players well.
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