Milan played Udinese on late night Friday in a game they could have extended the lead over Inter but once again Milan could not capitalize on their opportunity and drew 1-1 against Bogey team Udinese. Here a few thoughts that follow from the game
SAME OLD SITUATION, NO ANSWER
Milan’s nemesis, the deep block or as layman says “park the bus” is back. When Milan fans question why do Milan crumble against smaller teams it is because smaller teams have a different mentality to the bigger sides. You can see how Udinese are sitting in a assymetric 5-3-2 with little or no space for Milan’s attackers.
When we face teams say Inter that play a 3-5-2 like Udinese, Inter play to win, not satisfied with a draw. This means in the course of play spaces will open up especially in the second half when the team is tired. But for a bottom table team like Udinese or Salernitana even a draw is precious making their managers wanting to stay back and defend more and rely on set pieces or individual pieces of brilliance. Milan still need to find a way past this.
MILAN’S LACK OF INTENSITY
What made Pioli’s Milan standout from the previous Milan and other teams in Serie A (except maybe Gasperini’s Atalanta) was the intensity with which they pressed and played. Milan closed down the space, won the ball and launched quick counters. But then this came at a cost of huge injuries and Milan were in a crisis. Up until Milan’s match against Lazio, it seemed Milan’s intensity was back especially after an energizing derby victory against Inter but the last 3 games have been extremely worrisome. With each game Milan cover less ground and allow more space and time to the opponent. As you can see against Udinese Milan only covered 103km, a very low total considering how we covered 110km easily.
POOR PASSING
When you are progressing through a deep block like that of Udinese’s the most important step is to always move the ball quickly and accurately. Milan were making so many mis-passes like the one shown here which helped Udinese to gain control of the ball and kill our attack.
LEAO FREE ROLE
Unlike last season, Leao has become the go to man for Milan this season. This means that Pioli has given him the license to roam. With Milan’s midfield completely devoid of ball progression and creativity, Leao took it upon himself to come down to midfield and take the ball and beat defenders to create space.
TARGETING TOMORI
Ever since coming back from Injury, Tomori has been a frail figure of himself. Especially he has been beaten a lot in the air by attackers. Udinese tried it in the early stages where Molina crossed the ball. Deulofeu cleverly drags away Romagnoli who is a better defender of crosses than Tomori and this put Tomori on a 1v1 with Beto. Beto hit the target but it was straight at the keeper.
STATS
For a team that relied a lot on crossing last season it is surprising how Milan barely crossed the ball despite Milan having a competitive #9 other than Zlatan. Giroud barely got any service all game and his frustration showed.
A majorly worrying factor for Pioli and his coaching staff would be Milan’s Expected Goals (xG). Milan’s xG was only 0.7 while Udinese had an xG of 1. It showed how poor we were at creating chances.
The Milan Blog 