It wasn’t the best of friendly games between AC Milan and Rapid Wien on Saturday evening, but at least the fans got a glimpse of Paulo Fonseca’s style. The physical condition made life difficult but there were a few key takeaways.
As highlighted by today’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport (see photo below), the fans got to see a possession-based football, building out from the back and with defensive compactness. Not in massive doses, of course, as the physical condition is not ideal but at least we saw glimpses.
Rapid Wien are further along in their pre-season, with their season starting next week, so there can be different interpretations of the games. The 1-0 goal did show Milan’s qualities, though, and the feeling is that the return of the key players (plus signings) will fuel this style.
First phase of build-up
Based on the game, it’s clear that Milan like to have more possession and build from the back with Fonseca, using the goalkeeper a lot. Marco Sportiello did indeed play a lot of balls, challenging the pressing to create the corridor and numerical superiority.
When Maignan returns, who is very good with his feet, Fonseca will have an extra weapon. With Pioli on the bench, there was more of a search for verticality (with the long balls for Giroud) and for the wingers.
The feeling is that the Portuguese manager, meanwhile, wants a more horizontal game to control the pace and always keep the right distance between the departments. The aim is to concede fewer goals than in 2023-24. When the condition is better, the ball will circulate faster and arrive at the feet of Leao and Pulisic, now on holiday.
The way Milan now build also appears different: Pioli lowered a midfielder between the two centre-backs and moved the two full-backs forward. Fonseca releases only the left wing, brings the right-back closer to the centre-backs and gives the three of them, plus the two midfielders of the 4-2-3-1, the task of building.
In short, there are three of them plus two to start the action. The move seems designed to avoid losing balance and to free up future raids on Theo Hernandez’s left-hand side.
Compactness and pressure
Fonseca spoke of a Milan that will be courageous in recovering the ball, that will hunt for the ball in the opponent’s half of the field. It will happen in the future because yesterday, in Vienna, the physical condition didn’t allow for this properly.
Milan certainly demonstrated that they wanted to be compact: at times they kept their line high, then took a couple of blows and lowered themselves to limit the damage. We saw a formation with fewer full-field one-on-one duels and more attention to occupying spaces.
Attacking movements
The former Roma manager has worked above all on being compact, also because of the lack of attacking stars such as Alvaro Morata, Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao. The first half against Rapid Wien confirmed that there is a lot to do in attack: a single shot (high) by Tommaso Pobega towards the target, while the home team hit the post and created at least two other chances.
Some flashes came with the ball between Mattia Liberali’s feet: the seventeen-year-old played the role of attacking midfielder by varying a lot and trying to make something happen. The difference compared to the technical characteristics of Ruben Loftus-Cheek (completely different in terms of experience, concreteness and sense of insertion) is evident, but Camarda’s “twin” must be followed carefully.
In the second half, we saw something more because, with the whole team changed, Fonseca was able to count on Ismael Bennacer and Alessandro Florenzi in the middle of the pitch, more capable of moving the ball than Pobega and Yacine Adli.
When Youssouf Fofana and Tijjani Reijnders are in the heart of the midfield, things will perhaps work even better thanks to the screen that the Frenchman would guarantee (Monaco still needs to be convinced…) and the quality of the Dutchman.
The duo Saelemaekers (who was named MOTM) and Maldini, who showed dribbling and a desire to attack the depth, must also be praised. In Pioli’s Milan, they had no space and left on loan. One could question whether it’s right to let them leave under Fonseca too…
“As highlighted by today’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport (see photo below), the fans got to see a possession-based football, building out from the back and with defensive compactness”
I saw two of those three things. Guess which one I didn’t see /s.
Seems like more of the same to me. Same formation, same sluggishness with moving the ball and only minor tweaks in approach tbh. Early days though.
The 2+3 is superior defensively than 3+2 even though it’s sounds ironic. But when you think about it you can figure out why. The 2+3 also helps when you have a proper DM or a strong DM/Playmaker type and you build up from the back better. Personally, I’ve never like 3 being back simply due to how easier it is for headers from a lack of knowing who to mark (very few in the past have succeeded) and we have one defender who is not good in the air (Tomori). Anyways didn’t see much to go by but hopefully in the City game we’ll see some more stuff.