A.C.Milan met an old foe in the form of Atalanta in Matchday 2  at the Gewiss stadium taking on their first real challenge for the season. Milan came out of bergamo with a 1-1 draw and here are 3 tactical takeways

1. Gasperini’s unconventional system

Gasperini in Italy was known for his pressing system with Atalanta. Using man oriented pressing and a high intense system he dropped his plot completely and went for a mid to low block system where he would have 10 sometimes 11 men behind the ball to frustrate Milan’s passing rhtymn and it worked really well but at the cost of not having much joy in their attacking phase.

If you look at the average position map from the match we can see how even in the first half Gasperini only had Zapata beyond the half way line while he had 10 other players in defensive positions

• Failure of the false 9

Rebic as a false 9 was a bit of a masterstroke against Udinese but against Atalanta, the wheels did not click into motion. Rebic constantly moving to the wings meant there was no target for him or his team-mates to aim a cross at. Pioli’s move backfired.

• Weak on aerial duels

Atalanta targeted Milan aerially and it was Milan not clearing a cross that led to ball falling to Maehele who squared it to Malinovskyi. In the second half as well Pasalic’s header was tipped over the bar by Maigan after a good cross on the counters.