This season, AC Milan have regularly failed to beat the ‘smaller’ teams in Serie A, and this has resulted in the Scudetto battle becoming more interesting.
In an ideal world, Milan would have a lead at the top of the league and it certainly would have been possible with wins against some of the lesser sides in the division. However, they have regularly faltered.
It started in the first game, with the loss to Cremonese, but the fact that they have since failed to win a game against the promoted sides says a lot.
Milan against the smaller teams
With two losses in their last four games, there may be fears about a lull in form and with key players absent, the real strength of the squad will be shown. Nevertheless, Allegri’s side sit strong in the division, and the hopes of a Scudetto are not dead in the water.
This afternoon, during his press conference, he tried to diagnose these problems.
“Beating smaller teams isn’t easy at this stage of the championship. To win, you have to perform well in both phases, especially against smaller teams when you have much more possession of the ball, and that’s against us. We hope to get the three points tomorrow.
“Football isn’t explained, it’s played. We have 32 points; we need to get back to defending as a team: do everything we can to create problems for the opponent. We’ve conceded goals too easily. We need to get back to being tougher on the defensive end.”
I see the issue as 2 folds:
1- Sometimes Allegri gives too much respect to small teams (like we say from the 60th minute onward against Sassuolo), allowing them more buildup and more possession than they normally have and thus more chances. Small teams aren’t as “stressed” as big teams when playing against us, so sometimes their players gain confidence and have a clear mind when attacking.
2- Our players aren’t as focused, as sharp and perhaps overconfident agains these teams, when leads to frustration when we’re not winning and thus bad decision making, wasted chances,…
I think the former is easier to correct than the latter and thus maybe we should demand that Allegri stops parking the bus too often against low level teams (although I don’t see that happening).
Once Leao is back it would make more sense to switch to 3-4-3 against smaller teams. Milan only know how to play on the wings when the opposing team is playing defensive. They very slow in moving the ball against bigger teams he can stick to his 3-5-2 and sit deep as it has been effective.
Translation: park the bus harder.