This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport has taken a look at some of the tactical indications from the opening round of Serie A.
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The paper (seen below) writes how the market has brought many new faces to Milanello and Stefano Pioli has gone from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3 but with ‘non-canonical principles’.
There isn’t, at least for now, a classic regista. Krunic is playing at the base of the midfield but he is not a playmaker, while Reijnders, Pulisic and Loftus-Cheek are the creative forces, and then Leao and Chukwueze are the dribblers.
In practice, the formation is flexible and the objective is to create superiority in the area in which the ball gravitates in order to be able to get to a shooting action as quickly as possible.
The playmaker, therefore is whoever has the ball at his feet. Reijnders for example didn’t misplace any passes against Bologna, he read the development of the manoeuvre very well and also showed a tendency to make late runs into the box.
The players are given certain tasks and do not necessarily carry them out in their starting position. In the Pioli era, Milan never played a classic passing game, but in the year of the Scudetto win they were ruthless when they won the ball back high up and countered quickly.
Now that concept is translated into a situation of possession. And greater density in a sector can favour the change of play on the weaker side, potentially lethal with fast forwards.
