Milan succumbed to their first defeat away to Fiorentina at the Franchi as Milan’s Achilles heel in coach Vicenzo Italiano scored another win over Pioli, this time with Fiorentina (last time with Spezia).
But contrary to popular belief Milan actually outplayed Fiorentina in almost all departments except in the goals. So where have Milan gone wrong? Where did Fiorentina get it right? Let’s take a look.
FIORENTINA LINE UP
Fiorentina like Italiano’s Spezia lined up in a 4-3-3. This meant that Fiorentina had 2 extra midfielders in buildup and attack while a single pivot in the center protected the goal.
FIORENTINA’S BUILD UP AND WING PLAY
Fiorentina used Torreira as a single pivot forming a passing triangle at the back. This helped Fiorentina’s full backs push up and pin Milan’s wingers away from where the build up was happening. Since Fiorentina was playing a 3 man midfield Torreira was flanked by Duncan and Bonaventura on either sides. In reality Fiorentina build up using a 2-1-4-3 or at times a 3-4-1-2 with Vlahovic dropping off from his position and acting as a makeshift AM.
Once again owing to their structure of a 3 man midfield it helped Fiorentina to overload the wings and create passing diamonds. Diamonds, unlike triangles gave the man in possession even more options
MILAN’S NARROW FORMATION AND SWITCHES OF PLAY
Milan as usual played a very narrow formation to reduce the playing area press Fiorentina but for Fiorentina they have effective midfielders and functional full backs.
Using the full width of the pitch Fiorentina initiated quick switches of play that turned’s milan of playing a narrow formation into a quick disadvantage as it turned into many attacks for Fiorentina but somehow they weren’t able to convert
THE HIGH PRESS, HIGH LINE AND OFFSIDE TRAP
Italiano like many modern coaches is a forward thinking coach who likes his team to press forward and not give the team on the ball any space. With a functional #10 like Brahim this meant that there would be space between the lines particularly with Fiorentina committing numbers to the high press.
To close the spaces Fiorentina played a high lines and maintained 15-20 meters between their first line of defense and their last line, usually Vlahovic. Give the team very less playing area.
Milan tried to exploit this using Simon Kjaer’s ball playing ability and kicking balls above the lines of defense to a tall Ibrahimovic but Fiorentina played the offside trap very well which is rather a very difficult technique.
FIORENTINA’S 4-3-3 ADVANTAGE AND THE WEAK LINK
Fiorentina committing more men forward had its advantages. For examples it helped in created so many overlapping situation between the winger and the wide midfielder or it helped in overloads of the wide area
The second goal, although it came courtesy of a stunning piece of work from Saponara, was caused by a series of movements. Duncan underlapped Biraghi and pinned Kalulu to the wide areas creating a space between the CB and Kalulu. A poor clearance from Tonali was pounced on by Vlahovic who laid it off from Saponara and Kjaer couldn’t cover the space to shoot.
Gabbia came under a lot of criticism for his performances against Fiorentina, a lot of it justified. Fiorentina (not sure if they were aware if he would play) targeted Gabbia with Vlahovic constantly on his shoulder creating trouble for Gabbia more than once.
The third goal came as a result of Fiorentina’s structure and clever targeting. Initially Fiorentina created an overload in the wide area by having Bonaventura, Duncan and Saponara push on Messias and Florenzi making it a 3v2. While Tonali played on the right side of the double pivot he was out of position in this particular sequence of play. This meant that Kjaer had to go across to even the odds and this put Vlahovic on a 1v1 vs Gabbia. Gabbia couldt match Vlahovic’s pace and power and Vlahovic made it 3-0 for the hosts.
SMART PRESSING
Milan’s first goal came as a result of some smart pressing. To ease the pressure of his Keeper Bonaventura came of his position and received the ball. However this was a trap. Milan had cut off all the passing options of Bonaventura. Ibra covered Venuti, Giroud covered the keeper, Tonali covered Torreira, leao covered Odriozola and Kessie pressed Bona to pressure him to making a quick decision. Rather than risking a long pass with his left foot (weak foot) Bona decided to risk the pass to Venuti and this, as we all know turned out to be a mistake.
THE STATS
The Statistics from Fiorentina Milan however paint a different picture from the Score line. Milan played Fiorentina out of the park and should have by all means won the game but alas Milan wasted their chances
As we can see above xG or expected goals are a metric to quantify the quality of chances created by a team. Milan scored an xG of 2.1 while Fiorentina only had 1.8. Further proof of how Milan were wasteful in front of goal
Milan made 40 progressive passes (passes that are not sideways or backwards) and completed 27 passes in our final third while fiorentina only registed 28 progressive passes and 19 passes in their final third
The only area where Fiorentina seemed to better Milan was in terms of their pressing which kinda seems skewered because Milan, who were chasing the game from the 13th minute pressed relentlessly and attempted more pressure compared to Fiorentina.
The most disturbing analysis is the save % of the keepers. Tatarusanu saved only 20% of the shots on target he faced while Teracciano saved 50% of all shots on target
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