AC Milan have not started the season the way they would have liked from a results perspective but also from a defensive point of view, with six goals conceded in three games.
La Gazzetta dello Sport have taken a deeper look into the defensive struggles, starting with the fact that the Expected Goals number from the three games was a combined 5.67, a sign that Milan were not a victim of bad luck but conceded as many as they should have.
The list of culprits is not complex. It is long and begins with Theo Hernandez, Fikayo Tomori, Davide Calabria and Emerson Royal. In what order, everyone is free to decide. However, it is mandatory to extend it to the other departments because the system is failing the Rossoneri.
In the summer, Fonseca asked for changes compared to the past, when defence was a serious problem. He asked for aggression and possession, to be used also for defensive purposes, to manage the pace of the game.
Little or nothing worked and Milan today appears to be a team full of players who, due to their characteristics and mentality, create many problems in the defensive phase. All the midfielders – except Youssouf Fofana – look forward, they are better at attacking than playing without the ball.
The attacking wingers left in the squad, from Samuel Chukwueze to Rafael Leao, with the partial exception of Pulisic, have no defensive application. Thus, the plans fall apart: Milan want to defend compactly but often remains with too many men above the line of the ball.
Fonseca does not want to defend man-to-man and tries to maintain numerical superiority at the back, but often the mechanisms fall apart and the defenders find themselves facing a three vs. three, a four vs. four etc.
The game against Lazio showcased many shortcomings, starting with individual errors. In the first attack of the match for Lazio, Tomori completely got his movement wrong on Castellanos and Dia found him in behind. Dia shot weakly, and Pavlovic recovered on the goal line.
Filippo Terracciano, with Milan ahead 1-0, lost Tchaouna in the area and let him head the ball behind him. Milan were saved only because the header is weak and central.
The goal by Castellanos changed the game. Things fell apart when Fofana did not notice the movement of Dia behind him and at the same time Tomori comes out aggressively to target Nuno Tavares. Pavlovic did not move over to give cover to Tomori and the Englishman completely lost Tavares, twice as fast.
Then we move to Dia’s goal. Chukwueze was taken out of the game by the Nuno Tavares-Zaccagni combination on the wing and Emerson Royal was slow, underestimating the danger. Then, Tomori did not close the only possible passing lane for Dia and Pavlovic was beaten to it. A chain disaster.
With Liverpool and Inter to come, Fonseca will have to work hard and ‘probably make unpopular choices’. The team mentality will have to change, the application will have to grow a lot, and could a player like Matteo Gabbia also be useful?