Massimiliano Allegri is one of Italian football’s greatest ever strategists, and he has demonstrated it with AC Milan this season.
The accusations levelled against Allegri are familiar by now. He is pragmatic, he is tactically rigid and at times he is negative. Yet, one thing that cannot be argued with is that he often produces results through his tactical intuitions, like on Sunday when he beat the Inter machine for the second time.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the 3-5-2 that Milan have been using almost exclusively this season is the build-up shape. In football formations are often an over-simplification, because the shapes and numbers shift according to game situations.
To understand Milan’s progression structures, Rohit Rajeev has examined how Milan built up against different opponents, from Inter to the likes of Roma and Bologna. Each game presented a different pressing scheme, revealing how Milan adapt their build-up to the opposition.
What is the significance?
Why is build-up structure important? After all, it is usually the point where possession is in the least dangerous area for the opposition. Well, it actually reveals a lot about how a team and a coach intend to play.
A build-up structure is the deliberate positional framework a team uses to progress the ball from their defensive third into more advanced areas. It is ‘phase one’ in a lot of attacks, and reveals the habits that have been worked on during training.
When done right (and Allegri is a master at it), it can manipulate the opposition’s press by having players drop in or push up to drag a man with them. Essentially, the build-up phase is where traps are laid to try and force the other team out of their plans.
It also often sees the goalkeeper involved as the ’11th man’, and as we know Mike Maignan is very good with the ball at his feet. In addition, the right profiles in midfield and defence (think Luka Modric and Koni De Winter) can demonstrate their line-breaking passing.
In short, the build-up structure sets the tone. It is the opening move in the chess match, which Calcio often descends into given the cagey and tactical nature of games.
The derby
Against Inter, Koni De Winter remained the fixed member of Milan’s back line, while Strahinja Pavlović and Fikayo Tomori alternated as the second centre-back stepping forward during build-up.
This rotation created slight positional shifts in the first line, which helped stretch Inter’s central pressing structure under Chivu.
By varying which defender advanced, Milan were able to disrupt Inter’s central overloads and create better passing lanes through the first phase of build-up.
When Inter settled into a mid-block, Milan adjusted their build-up by having either Luka Modrić or Adrien Rabiot drop into the back line to form a temporary back three.
This deeper positioning helped stabilise circulation and encouraged Inter’s midfield line to step forward. At the same time, Christian Pulisic, Rafael Leão and occasionally Alexis Saelemaekers held advanced positions to pin Inter’s defensive line in place.
By preventing the back line from squeezing up, Milan were able to maintain and exploit the space that emerged between Inter’s midfield and defensive lines.
Other opponents
When facing teams such as Roma, Atalanta and Bologna that pressed aggressively higher up the pitch, Allegri introduced a different build-up solution by inverting MatteoGabbia from centre-back into midfield.
Gabbia would step into the space between the opposition’s first and second lines of pressure, positioning himself as an additional passing option.
This movement created a numerical overload in the central corridor and helped Milan bypass the initial press more effectively.
Question remains, Yes agreed and I love the fact that we beat all the big boys, but how come we have no tactics to demolish weak opponents were we dropped significant points at home?
Maybe Allegri should tell the team first half go out and have fun, enjoy the game… Don’t really know but when I watch our team against bottom of the table we look stale, no ideas, no identity, no desire. Just a team put together in the last minute.
Against Inter we looked solid and it was joy to watch. Even though I still like the way Fabregas does it. Maybe we get Paz this year and cash out on one or two players he would replace, and next season then Fabregas as well now that we have somewhat of foundation
Allegri’s uses the same tactics against either bottom teams or big teams and that’s where his mistake is since: weak/low level teams =/= big teams.
Big teams want to win, so when they play them, they press us, they set their block higher, try to to keep the ball all of which create gaps that we can exploit during transitions. In both derbys, we scored goals from transitions when inter’s defenders and midfielders were positionned too high.
Mid table and bottom table teams don’t give you that. They’re perfectly content to get 1 point especially when playing in San Siro. So they do to us similar tactics that we do to other teams: sit low, compact block and wait for opportunities to present themselves. The difference is, they’re even more effective as the more time goes by without us scoring a goal, the better for them. In addition to that they gain confidence, while our own players become frustrated and more likely to commit mistakes.
I also suspect that our players are generally more focused and less inclined to make individual mistakes when playing against big teams.
Nico Paz is likely to go back to Real Madrid from what I got.
I am not defending Allegri here but we have actually created a good bunch of good goal scoring situations against smaller teams that defend in a low block.
Problems arise when Leao, Pulisic and Nkunku fail to take advantage of those situations. Wasting those opportunities to score, run behind, feint and control the ball in tight spaces has been a bit of a trend in those games.
I think Milan lacks a striker who is not specialized in counterattacks but is an all-round threat. Leao, Nkunku and Pulisic are basically the same player, a half-left-winger. Füllkrug is the only pure central number nine and he is not in the best shape at the moment.
We also need more creativity and determination from our midfielders like Fofana, Ricci and Jashari.