Yunus Musah has taken up a rather interesting and at times varied role in Paulo Fonseca’s tactical plans, with another intriguing test awaiting tonight.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, Musah played made 13 starts last season, but in the current campaign under Fonseca the starts against Real Madrid, Juventus and Empoli show he has a more prominent role.
Now he plays on the right, an area of the pitch already frequented in his career, especially in Valencia under Gennaro Gattuso. Against Los Blancos, Fonseca prepared the plan around him: Musah on a special mission to limit Vinicius Jr. and help Emerson Royal. It can be argued that it worked.
The first try
Musah played as a fifth defender in the Spanish capital, in a line that from right to left read: Musah-Emerson-Thiaw-Tomori-Hernandez. Milan defended deep in many moments of the game and the American was needed to stop wide overloads.
He stayed back, doubled up on Vinicius and – when the situation allowed – moved up to play on the wing or in the midfield, with Emerson wider. It was an idea that worked for Fonseca, giving him conviction to try it again.
Between September and October the coach used Musah very little, but he always considered him useful to the cause. It was just a case of finding a role for him, though even that has evolved in the starts since.
The follow-ups
The Real Madrid game is a one-of-a-kind so far, because in the matches against Juve and Empoli – his last as a starter in Serie A – Yunus played as an attacking winger, high on the right, in the position that in the summer was assigned to Christian Pulisic or Samuel Chukwueze.
If he dropped back a lot more against Real, his average position was much further up against Empoli, despite the fact Fonseca spoke about him being part of the defensive line again. He was used not only as a balancer but as a disrupter, with an unpredictable position forcing opponents to react.
He is an ideal complement to Rafa Leao, who on the other flank has much more quality and much less predisposition to sacrifice in terms of running off the ball. Thus, Musah could well be ‘an heir to Saelemaekers’, who performed a similar role in his time at the club.
The biggest test
Musah has climbed a couple of hills already, but Atalanta is naturally Mount Everest. He will have to play a very different game than the one in Madrid and it will probably be more difficult.
Atalanta play man to man and the American will often meet Daniele Ruggeri up close: the ideal for him would be to win that duel and give a hand to Emerson Royal, who in turn will have to try halt Ademola Lookman.
It would be a big step for Milan’s season and Musah’s career if tonight were to go well. An American who grew up in Italy and still has a lot to improve, but with a desire to work and do his best for the team.
As a character away from the field not much is heard from him. He has a close relationship especially with Malick Thiaw but leads a very quiet life and lives 20 minutes from Milanello together with his wife, far from the areas most frequented by footballers.
Is Heir to Saelemakers supposed a compliment? Lol 😂
There’s a difference between fielding the Salad in the hopes of getting some offense from that side vs fielding Musah because the right back cannot defend properly.
We miss Salad. He has two feet unlike Chuk.
What I cannot fathom is why we think he is playing RW anyway.
This is what the lineups say
Mike
Em – Th – Ga – Th
Fo – Re
Musah – Pu – Le
mo
In reality in possession we look like
Mike
Em – Th – Ga – TH
Musah – Re – Mo – Fof
Pu – Le
Out of possession We look like
Mike
Em – Th – Ga – TH
Musah – Pu – Re – Fo
Mo – Le
Took me forever to figure out how Puli was positioning against Empoli.
If the opposition goes wide Musah drops on to the back line and Emerson moves inside.
So all this Musah-as-RW seems a great deal like intellectual laziness on the part of the authors of these articles.
Sorry in possession should have been a 4 3 1 2 with Morata the 1.
Not enough coffee this morning.
Aside – I find it interesting that every press outlet still Post one formation for each team when most teams have at least two formations one for in possession and one for out. It seems the game is leaving the press behind.
This has baffled me to no end. Instead of showing how the team lines up in attack and defense. A formation is provided that shows merely how they are lined up for the first 5 seconds of the match…how this is decided upon also seems quite random as you could argue half the time the team was never in that formation. I think coaches are actively putting out formations that are misleading – pep just started calling everything a 433 which gives the least information and the press didn’t know what to do with that…we should really be talking about roles…
Puli dropping back isn’t defensive enough of a presence. He presses but isn’t defensive minded enough. With Musah though there’s definitely more balance.
Yea but that takes away from Puli starting on the RW,no?. I don’t mind Musah playing as an extra mid so he’s a bit further back in the setup. It would give Puli the freedom he needs on the right. I like what Musah did vs Real. He was a mid but also roamed around breaking up plays. I really liked that alot. Not sure why we didn’t use it again
I think you are correct with how we set up out and in possession. However I’d say Morata is the x factor there and his position really varies depending on how much instructions he has for defending. Somtimes I even see a plain 451 to 460 (4-2-4-0 if you will) depending on the opposition (when we’re out of possession).
In possession I believe we play a 2-3 back combination (the 2 CBs and the 3 “mids” being Fofana as the anchor and any two of Deers, Musah, Puli, Or whoever is the “CAM”). It gives us better defensive coverage as opposed to a 3-2 (unintuitively so)…
On a general note, formations usually tells you defensive/default shape. There’s not much detail beyond that really.
On your point with Musah at RW I think sometimes he plays there while on other occasions he’s clearly not and is further back like you said (and which is preferable).
Oh forgot. Yes I like how Salad looked when he came back in the summer. He would have been a good player option for us and may have help us out with the midfield and wing rotations
Both Alexis and Kalulu would have been perfect for the system we play now. And it was not difficult to predict.
Overall Kalulu and Alexis are a much better right flank than Royal-Musah, with the ball and without the ball.
Yup I miss Salatmaker he was a real warrior too. He always played with a lot of heart
This is a nasty headline.
I’m the first to shít on saladmaker but at least he had some technique..
Musah is just a chicken running up and down.
saelemakers – musah would be a great duo on the right side but noooo we bought emerson royal