Analysing Juventus vs Milan

Milan went to Turin on Sunday evening to take on Juventus after a loss at Anfield. While Milan were at the top of the table in Serie A Juve were in unfamiliar terrirtory: The relegation Zone. Allegri played down the importance stating the pressure is on Milan to continue their good form but he knew that even his job was under scrutiny after 1 point in 3 games. Here are a few key points from the game

1. Intensity on the field

While Milan were coming back from a very intense battle with Liverpool in a game that involved 2 teams that love to press, Juve had an easier run out against Malmo with Allegri having all of his south American stars back in action. The intensity in the first half clearly showed how tired Milan was as Juve were clearly covering more distance. Even the strikers were tracking back and helping out in defense before going forward for every counter attack. However Juve paid the price for over-exerting and not extending the lead in the first half when they got tired legs and eventually Milan capitalized. If you look at the Athletics data we can clearly see how Juve players covered more distance than Milan players did.

• Packing the center

Once Juve took the lead, Allegri decided to go the safe route and protect their lead instead of being open at the back and giving a route back to a very in-form Milan team. They did this by committing numbers in defense and by packing the center and playing a deeper line. Here we can see that Juve are maintaining a deeper line with no ball possession and trying to crowd the center out.

Pioli tried to counter this by Leao tucking in and joining Rebic as a second striker and Theo pushing up as a LWB. Milan tried to stretch Juventus by pushing wide as possible but the lack of options in the center for meeting crosses put a stop to Pioli’s plans. Milan need Pellegri and Giroud to come out of injuries quickly.

• Dybala’s free role; Milan’s 3 at the back

Rabiot although played as a LM in a 4-4-2 but he was given quite a free role in attacking cutting in and letting Sandro Overlap on the left while Cuardado stayed wide and allowed Danilo to underlap. This helped Dybala thrive as the no.10 of the team giving him freedom he was used to in previous Allegri systems

Milan played a very strange system where Tomori as the RB in the absence of Calabria and Milan looked like a 3 at the back team in possession with Theo playing as a LWB and Saelemaekers staying deeper as a RWB.

• Verticality of Juventus

The verticality with Juve countered Milan led to a lot of hairy moments for Milan in the first half. Either a quick ball over the top by Bonucci or a string of 2-3 vertical passes on the wing and Juventus would be on par with the last line of defense of Milan.

• Central play

The heat map of Juve shows how much they relied on counter-attacks rather than wing play. With gifted wingers like Kulusevski and Chiesa, it seems Allegri’s system does not exactly suit their style of play and maybe it is time for a tactical re-think for Allegri.

• Pressing from Milan

Just to give an idea as to how tired Milan were here are some stats from the game. Against Lazio, Milan attempted 156 pressures and 28.8% of it was successful. But against Juventus they only attempted 149 and successfully pressed 26.2%. Game management and help from the medical team required for Milan if they are to keep high intensity all season