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
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.
Watch how Juve have numbers in the center of pitch
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.
Milan trying to counteract by having more people in the center
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
Rabiot coming infield to make space for Sandro to make runs
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
Messias’ back story is common knowledge among Milan fans. For somebody who came to Italy with his family seeking financial security to working as a delivery boy to achieving his dream of playing for Milan, Messias’ tale is quite a Cindrealla story.
A non-league player, the Italian rules for registering non-EU plaeyers in lower divisions of Italy (Serie B, Serie C, Serie D) is quite bizzare. Serie B and Serie C teams are not allowed to register Non- EU players. They are only allowed to sign professional contracts when they win Serie D with their team. Junior Messias played with Gozzano in Serie D and won the division which prompted Crotone who was then in Serie B to offer him a professional contract.
PLAYING STYLE
At 179 cm tall, Junior Messias has a very stocky build and is mostly left footed. Messias can be considered more of a ball-carrier and a dribbler rather than a passer.
Playing as a Mezzala or a support striker in a 3-5-2 system, Messias has more attacking instinct than defensive instinct and likes to occupy the wide areas or the right half space and look to lead counter attack.
Messias prefers to dribble with his left foot taking a lot of soft outside touches with his feet. This allows him to keep close control of the ball and not concede possession. He is an excellent dribbler and this makes him an extremely tricky customer in terms of 1v1’s for Serie A teams.
While not being an explosive player in terms of PACE, Messias has an excellent ability to accelerate with the ball at his feet making him all that difficult to dispossess with the ball at his feet.
He always makes himself available to team-mates whenever they are being pressed. He keeps his passing shot unless there is an opportunity to switch play. His deft touches makes it easy to flick balls on all the more catching opponents out by surprise.
However he is not one footed and can play with both his feet while his crossing with his left foot is really good making him the set piece taker of Crotone
And finally as a forward player his positioning and finishing can be considered really good. He is always in station in between 2 defenders in space while on the end of crosses and is a good finisher as it can be seen with his outrageous chipped goal vs Parma.
Where he lacks is in terms of his defensive output. While Crotone as a whole do not press as aggressively as Pioli asks of Milan, Messias whether it is a tactical instruction or he lacks pressing, does not press well when stationed as a mezzala. Often when played as a CM behind Ounas in the 3-5-2 both Ounas and Messias occupy the same spaces. However when played as a second striker, messias presses better unsettling Center-backs with pace.
Messias is also not aerially dominant like Brahim Diaz. With his short stature, Messias can easily get over-powered while competing with tall center backs. This however does not make him shy away from challenges and always looks to open up defences with flicks on position himself in between defenders for unchallenged headers.
STATS
CONCLUSION
Like Messias mentioned in his interview he was sorry for the fans that he did not turn out to be the signing fans expected but what seems to be seen is whether Messias would be a system player rather than the famous signing. A big famous example would be Josip Illicic to Atalanta who was not a big signing but he gave Atalanta a different dimension for their system.
The number certainly seem to suggest Messias can fit into Milan but the big question is can Messias handle that jump in quality and big expectations that come with this move. Make no mistake, this could be a Zero to Hero move from Milan’s leaders.
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.
Zonal pressing in effectMilan’s compactness without the ball (data:Serie A website)
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.
Born on March 17th 2001, Pietro Pellegri is a product of the Genoa youth academy. Son of Genoa Assistant manager and Team manager Marco Pellegri Pietro equaled the record for the youngest player to have played in Serie A at 15 years and 280 days. Pietro took center stage when he opened the scoring for Genoa in Francesco Totti’s last home game at Stadio Olimpico (Roma would win 2-1).
Monaco, in a bid to replace their outgoing superstars in Bakayoko, Mbappe and Bernardo Silva signed Pellegri for 25M in the winter transfer window of January 2018. Pellegri played 22 Games for Monaco scoring 2 Goals and Assisting Once.
Pellegri has been plagued by injuries at Monaco but hopefully that changes at Milan.
PLAYING STYLE
Pellegri stands tall at 6ft2 (188 cm) and has a lean build which suits a very athletic style of play. Pietro Pellegri likes to take long strides which in turn gives him the ability to accelerate very really quickly.
Being pacy it gives Pellegri the pace to be the striker who presses the Center back’s not allowing them to settle. For Monaco Pellegri scored a goal by tracking down passes and unsettling defenders by forcing them to make decisions quickly and making mistakes. From a managers point of view he is ready to work hard and cover the kilometres which gives him the miles.
Something that Lukaku spoke about his time with Conte and Inter that struck was his ability to play with his back to goal. In modern football, even strikers are expected to have ability with their feet to bring other forwards and attacking midfielders into and pulling defenders out of position. With his hold up play Pellegri can help player like Diaz and Leao to make forward runs before finding them.
Against Sampdoria Maignan demonstrated a different ability to play direct balls over the defensive lines, with Pellegri Milan now have someone who can actually use his hold up play and Aerial ability to bring the ball down and control the ball and bring team mates into play. He however needs to be more aerially dominant
Pellegri has a very good first touch and a very soft touch making him to be nimble footed and this helps Milan in terms of a good a striker in a 1 striker system and bringing the best out of other forwards in the system. Given his control it gives Pellegri good ability to be good on 1v1 and take defenders out and beat them which disturbs defensive structure of the team.
Tactically speaking Pellegri can act as perfect foil to playing alongside a no.9 which gives pioli tactical flexibility to play a 2 upfront with Milan now having depth in the striker department.
Where Pellegri lacks is in terms of concentration. Often Pellegrini can be seen making silly errors and mistakes which can be avoided if he concentrated.
STATS
DEAL OR NO DEAL
Saving the worst for the last. Pellegri’s injury history is very worrisome. For someone who has played only 22 games in 3 odd seasons questions need to be asked whether Pellegri can make it big again
A slight positive note for Pellegri is that his ACL is still intact. An injury that recurs (Conti and Zaniolo) ACLs are career ending.
But then again Pellegri is younger than Mbappe, Haaland, Sancho etc etc and has bags of potential. If Pellegri can stay fit he can be a treat. Milan wants to slowly ease Pellegri into the system
A low risk high reward signing, Pellegri is going to be mentored by his idol Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Hopefully he can imbibe a few qualities from the big man and take Milan forward
As evidenced by the stats on Transfermarkt, Florenzi is a player who can play anywhere on the right. He can play as a Mezzala or as a Right Back or as a Right Wing back or even a Right Winger.
Attack
Florenzi is not a player who involves a lot in the buildup play. Even when he played as a RW for Roma under Eusebio Di Francesco, Florenzi was that Right winger who would stay wide but not too close to the touch line.
One of Florenzi’s main job was to engage the fullback/wingback of the opposition and allow the Roma full back to overlap or Underlap.
Florenzi (in black) cuts inside allowing Bruno to overlap (in red)
He has a few deft touches in his pocket which helps his team evade the press but he isn’t the greatest dribbler
In terms of passing Florenzi prefers more of the “keeping it safe approach” rather than going for a cross. He is good for switching the play from one wing to another when the press gets way too horizontal. This is a very ideal trait for Milan to have
Florenzi also has a good cross in his Arsenal and with a proper #9 to aim at. With Giroud/Ibra at Milan this gives Milan a different dimension coming from the right especially if the opposition defend deep
As a right winger Florenzi like to make runs behind a ball playing no.9 while the striker likes to hold up the ball waiting for the midfielders and wingers like to make runs
Notice how when Dzeko (in black) is holding up play, Florenzi makes runs behind the defense (in red)
He is always available as a passing option to his teammates who are getting pressed
In terms of pace and dribbling and taking his man on and beating him, Florenzi lacks that ability to be explosive.
DEFENDING
Florenzi is someone who dosent dive into tackles which is a great trait for a defender. He likes to get close to his marker and put pressure. This makes him less prone to quick turns but gives way to combination play
In terms of press his contribution to cover shadows under Tuchel makes him very used to the pressing system Pioli is trying to enforce at Milan.
Florenzi is tactically aware. He covers the half spaces left by the full backs when playing as a right wing
STATISTICS
DEAL OR NO DEAL
Florenzi comes in with a wealth of experience to one of the youngest teams in Europe. As somebody who can backup to Calabria and Saelemaekers well I think Florenzi is a decent backup for the formula of Loan with option to buy totaling of 5 million
His big downside is that he is injury prone and this has limited his ability especially physical ability. For this I think I can rate this transfer a 6.5/10.
Born on 3rd January 1997, Fode Ballo Toure started out at the PSG academy which reached the UEFA Youth League final but lost to a Chelsea side which had Tomori. Fode Ballo Toure then left Paris St.Germain well knowing that the first team was already stacked beyond opportunities and he was picked up by then Lille coach Marcelo Bielsa. Under Bielsa he stayed for 1.5 seasons and played 47 times before Monaco shelled out 11 Million for his transfer and survive relegation that season.
SCOUTING
Fode Ballo Toure, in one of the most common knowledge to all fols, is extremely pacey. His extremely agile frame and thin legs make it extremely easy for him to take long strides in a short time thus making it easy for him to cover more ground.
The raw pace of Toure
Ballo Toure was originally a wide midfielder who was converted and drilled as an attacking football by ex-Lille Coach Marcelo Bielsa
As a full back who likes to stride forward Toure likes to stride forward and make overlapping runs off of his winger who tucks in to create space
Toure has a good cross and can float in good crosses using both his feet. Given how Milan have invested in 2 big center-forwards crosses can be useful when trying to break down deep blocks
Cross with his right for Gelson to score
In-terms of defending Ballo Toure needs to improve on his concentration and avoid unforced errors.
Silly error for Toure to make
In terms of pressing Ball Toure is extremely agressive and presses the player on the ball sometimes to an extent he fouls the player
Ballo Toure also has decent ball control and is assuring in posession and has very less bad touches
With pace he is able to track back quickly and recover in time to make tackles. This is an important feature for Milan’s left back who are expected to join the attack but expected to join the defense in case a counter breaks out.
In terms of 1v1 defending Ballo Toure needs to improve on it and not slide into challenges and concede space to the attacker.
Toure losing his 1v1 against Lyon’s Bertrand Traore
STATISTICAL COMPARISON
DEAL OR NO DEAL
Milan had been in the market for a back up left back since January 2020 and ever since Ricardo Rodriguez left. While Milan filled the gap last season making Dalot playing 2 positions as left and right back the qualification to Champions League meant that Milan needed reinforcements and quality in depth for these positions. For 4M plus addons Fode Ballo Toure looks like a low cost low risk signing made by Maldini under the watchful eyes of Moncada. Experienced, pacey and having potential Fode Ballo Toure did no have the expected breakthrough at Monaco but hopefully he can do that at Milan and tussle with Theo Hernandez for the starting role
A transfer that was long time coming, Olivier Giroud finally became a Milan player on Saturday. A search that long began to find a backup to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Milan decided to go with Experience and a winning mentality over youth and exuberance.
With Giroud’s transfer being confirmed by Maldini 2 days before it was officially announced Giroud was Milan’s worst kept secret.
Milan signed the player for a transfer fee of 1 Million with a bonus of 1 Million to be paid to Chelsea if Milan make it to the Champions League.
Here is why Milan have recruited Giroud
BACK STORY
Olivier Giroud was born on 30th September 1986 in Chambery France. He started out at French club Grenobles but his breakthrough was achieved with Montipellier when they won the Ligue 1 against all odds of new money bags in town PSG. He was their talisman scoring 21 goals in 36 games
This league win earned him a move to Arsenal. He ended a 9 year trophy drought at Arsenal by winning F.A cup in back to back seasons and a 3rd time in 2017-2018 season. He then responded to the calling of Conte and moved to Chelsea as a backup striker to Morata winning an FA Cup before he became Chelsea’s striker for Cup games and won the Europa League under Sarri. A final feat before making the all imminent move to Milan was winning the elusive Champions League trophy.
At the International stage France needed a #9 to complement their attack. With Benzema banished from the French squad by Didier Deschamps, Giroud stepped in to play a crucial role winning the 2018 World Cup for France
A self- announced Shevchenko fan Giroud always spoke about his passion for Milan and Shevchenko. Now maybe at 35 he will hopefully be able to realize his dream and win a trophy for Milan
WHY MILAN HAVE SIGNED GIROUD: A TACTICAL PROFILE
Milan under Pioli have looked to function as a 4-2-3-1 on paper while alternating between 3-4-2-1 and 2-3-5 on the ball with a #9 upfront acting as a single tip of the attack. When Milan had Ibrahimovic out injured, Milan tried Rafael Leao, Ante Rebic and Samu Castilejo but the results were all the same. While Milan were able to score goals they quite were not able to penetrate their opponents in the same way they could under Ibrahimovic. The biggest Challenge came when Milan had to secure a win against Cagliari at the San Siro to qualify for the Champions League but Milan came against a wall or rather a bus with Cagliari parking the bus and Milan not able to penetrate. Milan tried to plug this gap with Mandzukic but was another profile that was often admitted to the infirmary.
His most significant feature is his ability to hold up the ball. Something Milan missed sorely. When teams play a mid-block to a high press Kjaer or Maignan can punt crosses into the center forward. This plan could not be executed earlier when Ibrahimovic was absent but with Giroud Milan can by-pass lines of press with quick long balls.
Hold up play from Giroud
Giroud is 6ft 3 inches tall and this makes him an aerial threat. Center backs are always aware of his ability to position himself in space and expect his team mate to find him with a pass or cross. This would be particularily useful against teams who like to sit back and allow their opposition to spam crosses into the box
When initially Spaletti and later Pep Guardiola played with a false 9 aka no real striker, it bamboozled center backs who were traditionally used to marking a striker but with time coaches were able to adjust their tactics and teach defenders to negate the movement of the false 9. Milan were semi-successful with this tactic but struggled in the big games. Having Giroud would help Milan have a striker to engage defenders and play off of them. Girould could engage defenders with his hold up play or draw defenders out of positions making pockets of space for the forwards or runners to make runs into.
With tacticians being increasingly obsessed with high line and ball playing ability even strikers are now expected to have the technical ability to play passes and find their team mates with the ball. Lewandowski, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Benzema are all modern forwards who facilitate play for their team mates to score. Giroud can be classified of the same mold. He has deft touches, ability to find team mates and good passing ability.
A distinguishing feature of Milan was its pressing in the first half of the season. It even made its forward Zlatan press the center backs. Giroud who played for Thomas Tuchel also pressed opponents and suits Pioli when he would like to press opponents
The modern center-forward is also expected to be physically able to challenge and engage opposition defenders and midfielders and Giroud has the physical skill to challenge defenders.
Last but not the least he has a knack for the spectacular. From his famous Scorpion kick for his Puskas award winner to his acrobatic finish vs Atletico, Giroud has a wide range of finishes in his arsenal.
STATISTICAL COMPARISON
Numbers are often indicators to performances and here is a comparison between the 2 big men up front for Milan.
DEAL OR NO DEAL
Milan have made a low risk, high reward approach here with Giroud. To begin with Giroud made the jump to Milan well knowing he would be number 2 to Zlatan whenever he can stay fit. This attitude is welcome and shows personal sacrifice for the welfare of the team.
When asked about the Giroud transfer Zlatan welcomed it with open arms. To one of the youngest team in Serie A another experienced campaigner like Giroud can help the team get over mental barriers. Milan missed a player like Zlatan in their matchup against Cagliari and the match lacked a winner like Giroud who had been in such situations before,
Milan did it after 7 long seasons, they qualified to the Champions League, a trophy which has Milan’s name etched into history 7 glorious time each win sweeter than before. With this season considered as a sorts of Milan’s building block to return to the top rung of footballing giants it was important that Milan reach the Champions League for its financial and glory rewards.
Having completed Milan’s financial and Transfer market review in Part-1 of this review, we at SempreMilan open our tools to examine and identify Milan’s performance on the field.
WHAT MILAN GOT RIGHT
TACTICAL IDENTITY
Milan under Pioli as described by Pioli himself were a team that wanted to emulate Bayern Munich and he had his analysts study their style of play and emulate it albeit a base version of Bayern given how Bayern have some of the world’s best player and Milan are a project in evolution. For a large part of 2020 and towards last 3-4 games of the season the identity of Milan played a large part (whenever our players stayed fit) to qualifying for the Champions League. Pioli showed he could adapt to different situation when he threw his systemic principles and turned into defensive system to stifle Atalanta and win the game 2-0. Even when he had to deal with an injury crisis Pioli had the ability to pull a rabbit out of the hat (Verona 2-0, United 1-1).
PRESSING
The Pressing was/is an integral part of our system and Pioli, whenever we had a fully fit squad in their rhytmn, could press their team extremely well and win the ball and turn it into quick counters. A very good example was Milan’s goal against Lille in Milan’s 1-1 draw. Milan executed a perfected Horizontal Press and as soon as Tonali won the ball, released Rebic on the counter. Quite contrary to Bayern and Liverpool, Milan execute a more basic version of the press. Bayern and Liverpool engage in the Gegenpress which is the physical version of the press.
Although Milan’s pressing became extremely non exsistent thanks to their Injury crisis, they picked it up when they had most of their best players back in the last few games.
USE OF FULL BACKS
Theo Hernandez was 3rd choice Left back at Madrid but when he arrived he was top scorer for Milan’s 2020/21 for up until January before Rebic overtook him. Similarly Milan had a creative deficieny on the right wing which was temporarily plugged by Pioli by a resurgent Calabria. Seen as a plus valenza opportunity Calabria was backed by Maldini and he repaid the faith. Pioli often let his full back hunt in pairs especially against the less technical team who preferred to sit back and let the team in possession come on. Against better team the full backs would alternate depending on which flank the attack would be carried out.( Majority the attack was routed through Theo). Rebic would push infield to act as a second striker allowing Theo to overlap him and would bomb into the box or cross the ball into the box. Saelemaekers would do the same on the right, covering for Calabria in case of counter-attacks.
COUNTER-ATTACKS
An area Milan lacked severly in the last few season was counter-attacks. Limited with lack of pace, Milan could not capitalize on the opposition lack of disorganization. However this changed this season with Milan forced to change to a counter-attacking side in early 2021 due to injuries. Milan was able to score goals
WHAT MILAN CAN DO BETTER
INFUSE MORE CREATIVITY
A lack lusture number 10 in a 4-2-3-1 means that Milan suffered from a deficiency in creativity. It came to the fore whenever Milan played against teams who parked the bus and Milan were clueless crossing the ball into the box expecting someone to get on to the end of it. Milan need a more creative presence in the Attacking midfielder role.
RIGHT WING
Milan’s attack is extremely is lopsided. Their idea is to creative a numerical advantage on the left and then use it to create chances. The amount of chance from the right was very limited and this meant Milan was more dependent on the left. Of Course Milan are in the market for a Right Winger but this is one of the most important positions to be addressed.
INJURIES
A situation that derailed Milan’s Scudetto challenge was injuries. With Ibrahimovic and Bennacer missing right about 60% of the season and Tonali and Leao not ready to take over Pioli was left to scrap the bottom of pit for ideas and in one particular game in the Europa League he was forced to field Samu Castillejo as a false 9. Milan and in particular chief medic Osti has to work out a clear introspection as to why these injuries have happened and prevent it in the 2021/22 season.
CONCLUSION
A successful season but one that now has to be built upon. Milan and now in particular Maldini has work to do. Milan seem to have already led the Italian transfer market getting maximum business done signing Maignan and confirming Tonali and Tomori while deals for Diaz and Giroud are set to be completed in the coming weeks. Hopefully Milan are able to iron out their mistakes this season and aim higher than what they achieved this season and prove that this season was no one-off.
With Hakan Calhanoglu having “crossed the Navigli” to the blue half of Milan, the management have a task in hand: Finding the right no.10 for Milan
Described as the “heart of Pioli’s 4-2-3-1 formation” Hakan had a fiery start post lockdown but then had an underwhelming season. With Milan having strong doubts about his contribution to the team Milan tried till the very end to extend Hakans contract but he joined Inter as a backup or replacement to Christian Eriksen.
With Milan now publically in the market for a no.10, media outlets have been raining with names. Sabitzer, Isco, James Rodriguez, Luis Alberto, Ziyech have been repeatedly mentioned by reporters and journalists.
UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF A 10
In the old days the no.10 was handed to the most creative player on the pitch. The Italians called this position the “Trequartista”. The Trequartista was the focal point of the playing behind the strikers but ahead of the Defensive midfielders.
In Carlo Ancelotti’s Milan, we had Kaka playing as the Trequartista. Kaka would play behind Shevchenko and Inzaghi and act as the playmaker and was the main chance creator.
However with tactics constantly changing, players growing fitter and video analysis integrated into the game, managers do not prefer traditional no.10’s whose defensive work rate is not high which create gaps in their defensive shape. This required no.10’s to contribute to the defense to keep the shape of the defense and this slowly eliminated the process of traditional no.10
Here are some of the qualities needed for an ideal no.10 for Milan
ABILITY TO FIND POCKETS OF SPACE
In a system which entirely depends on creating space and restricting space, Milan needs a #10 who can find space between the lines to position himself to receive the ball to create havoc. In a league which is tactical in nature and looks to give as less as space as possible, positioning is an important virtue needed
TECHNIQUE
Technique entails a good first touch to receive the ball and the ability to play passes through balls to break the defensive lines.
Having a first touch is extremely important cause when you are playing deep in opposition half having a bad touch could mean that you either get dispossessed or you cannot capitalize on your opposition’s momentary disorganization.
For passing the ball the player should have the wide range of short and long range passes with the appropriate weight and path to reach the forward and for him to finish.
PRESS RESISTANT
One of the main features of Milan’s loss to Spezia was how Spezia identified Milan’s link to midfield and attack as Hakan Calhanoglu. Italiano then had his midfielder man mark sometimes even double down and press and win the ball back.
Modern no.10’s are expected to be able to beat their marker and usually be good at 1v1’s. Especially when teams park the bus having a creative player who can dribble can be a very useful technique to beat player or draw defenders out of position to create space for forwards to occupy.
VISION
Vision is an important part of chance creation. The ability to see passing movements ahead of other players in the team is a difficult technique and having such a player can open many locked doors against teams that park the bus.
WORKRATE
A reason why Pioli preferred Hakan Calhanoglu or even Rade Krunic was for their workrate. Hakan would shuttle between defense and attack and often got into the top 5 players for distance covered. It helped to keep the defensive integrity of the time but for Hakan it came at the cost of offensive productivity. For Pioli depending on the player signed he would have to innovations to his system to make up for the workrate.
CONCLUSION
The management have made their stance clear. They will not be rushed into making a signing for the no.10 role. Any fan watching Milan regularly can identify it is a crucial role and therefore the management needs to make an educated guess.
Of course it is extremely difficult to find a player who has all the traits but Milan need a player who has technique and ability to beat his marker if they are to mount a challenge for the Champions League spots next season.
They say life comes a full circle and on 23rd of May 2021, a 360 degree turn that began on 22nd December 2019 with a 5-0 drubbing at Bergamo ended with a 2-0 win at Bergamo taking Milan to the Champions League after 7 long years of waiting.
A season that was filled with its ups and downs, Milan fans experienced the roller-coaster of emotions. From the 25 penalty shootout on a rainy night in Portugal to defeating derby rivals Inter, going on an unbeaten 28 game run to almost throwing the bare minimum of Champions League qualification before reviving hopes with the 10-0 win over the Turin clubs this season would have easily got an Imdb 8/10 rating if it was a Netflix series.
But for any champions who wishes to prove that success is no accident, it is always essential that a review of their actions are taken to rectify errors and replicate the correct decisions. For Milan, a fallen giant it is of paramount importance that they scrutinize every avenue related to the club because the margin for error is very small.
With the failed project of the Super League highlighting the disparity of income between the cash-rich English Premier League and Italian Serie A, Milan needed to be careful with their strategy to ensure that they do not fall into financial obscurity. And entwined in a club’s finances are its transfer decisions.
With this review we intend to examine what Milan have done well in the 2020/21 season and what we got wrong in terms of the clubs finances and transfer decisions
WHAT WE GOT RIGHT
A Balanced Market
Milan were under scrutiny from UEFA under FFP regulations and hence had to balance their exits and entries. As per Transfermarkt, Milan made a total purchase of 30.73 Million and sold players worth 47.95M making it a positive net spend of 17.22M. And this came with Milan not suffering with their on-field performances and finished with their highest point tally since 2011/12 season. A job well done indeed by everyone in the management.
Trimming the wage Bill
One of the problems plaguing Milan was that we Milan’s wage to turnover ratio was an undesirable number which meant that the wages were at an unhealthy high and despite high wages Milan were not achieving desired heights and therefore the exercise of trimming the wage bill started since the 2019/20 season. Bonaventura (2M net), Biglia (3M net), Suso (3.5M net), Musacchio (2M), Pepe Reina (3M net), Rodriguez (2.2M) were offloaded and players like Conti (2.2M) were loaned partially offsetting their wages. This reduced Milan’s wage bill to a total of €83.94M
The Loan signing of Tomori
The center-back duo of Romagnoli-Kjaer were strong and Milan were coasting. A failed attempt by Milan to land Simakan in the summer and winter window for a strong 3rd Center Back meant Milan had to turn to a different option. Milan decided to turn their attention to Fikayo Tomori, Cobham’s very own youth product, overlooked by then manager Frank Lampard. Milan took him on a loan after a protracted negotiations and had an option inserted into his contract for 28 Million. Tomori came on as substitute for Kjaer in a Milan Derby and impressed so much that with Alessio’s horror showing against Inter suffering at the hands of an in-form Lukaku, Tomori was preferred Alessio and at the end of the season Milan finished with 5 clean sheets with 2 of them coming against Juventus and Atalanta. Tomori finished the Serie A season with no Yellow cards, and even scored a very crucial goal against Juvenuts in the 3-0 win.
Depth signings with Loans
Milan’s main problem going into the 2020/21 seasons was how thin they were on the roster especially in midfield. And without a Manchester city-esque budget Maldini and co needed to bring in quality signings especially Biglia and Bona leaving on Bosman transfers. In-came Milan with the signings of Brahim Diaz, Diogo Dalot, Sandro Tonali and Soualiho Meite (winter signing) which ensured depth (albeit not with world class quality) but without significant spending. Diaz especially came on for Milan towards the end of the season when Milan were in a tight spot using his low-center of gravity, quick feet and work-rate. Dalot acted as a great cover for both full backs while Meite and Tonali backed up the double-pivot.
Prize money
And of course, saving the best for the last, Milan get an injection of cash with their foray into Europe’s Premier Competition. This added to the uniform TV revenue share, historical club share ranking share and position based extra.
Add this to the 15-20M Milan are set to receive from Europa Group League qualification after it took Milan a 25 penalty shootout to advance into the Europa League Group stages eventually getting knocked out in the Round of 16. Maybe with small sections of fans allowed into the stadium next season Milan have more money into the coffers
WHAT MILAN DIDN’T GET RIGHT
The Striker situation
Milan made quite a splash when they signed Ibrahimovic in 2020 January who was 38 years old at the time but his impact on the team was unfathomable and eventually raised the level of players around him. In the summer Milan had a delicate situation on their hands, they knew that Ibra at 39 was no longer the physical force he once was and therefore an able backup who could play 20-25 games in a season was required but the management put undue faith into Rafael Leao and Rebic to slot in the no.9 role when both of them were more comfortable playing off a striker and dint have the kind of hold up play Zlatan offered. Eventually Zlatan ended up missing 20 games of the 38 in the season and Milan were scrambling to plug holes in the gap
The Mandzukic transfer
To ease the burden off of Zlatan Milan went the bosman route taking Mario Mandzukic on a free after he left Al-Duhail. But the transfer turned out to be a disaster. Mandzukic ended up missing more games than Zlatan in that time period as his injury issues were never-ending and it were as if Milan never had a no.9 to play off of. The January mercato was a very strange one not just for Milan but for Europe thanks to a pandemic affected Economy with only 1 or 2 transfers breaching the 20 Million mark. It is understandable that Milan couldn’t invest but somehow Mandzukic didn’t just work out.
Ignoring the Right Winger situation
Another area that needed Milan to invest was the Right-Wing. Everybody knew that Samu Castillejo and Alexis Saelemaekers wasn’t the explosive creative soul that Milan wanted with Castillejo having one of his worst seasons in his Milan career. While Saelemaekers helped to keep the system functional it was evident against teams who played a low block that Milan needed a creative outlet just like they had on the left. We can blame this on the pandemic affected economy but it was a gaping hole that needed to be filled.
Not finding a solution for Krunic
“A square peg in a round hole” is the most apt description for Krunic. He was a misfit who came on whenever Pioli wanted to close down games. Don’t get me wrong, Krunic bled for the shirt. He covered the most ground whenever he played a full game, never complained whatever role he was given but somehow it makes one wonder whether Krunic is an opportunity missed to raise some cash and have it re-invested for a player that could suit the system.
CONCLUSION
Various sources have reported that Milan are set to close the 2020/21 season with a loss of 95 Million, 100 Million less than what they did from last season. Commercially the good times are about to begin. More Prize money, more sponsors and with exciting projects like Milan Studious and collaboration with RocNation, EA Sports, BMW shows the Milan brand is growing.
Gazidis in his interview to CorSport mentioned the 2021 Summer will be different from the previous ones and Milan have already shown their intentions by signing Mike Maignan and are in advanced negotiations for Diaz, Tonali and Tomori.
For the next edition we will review Milan’s on-field performances and tactics.
The Milan Blog 