Youssouf Fofana showed his qualities in AC Milan’s 4-0 win against Udinese on Friday evening, doing what he does best from start to finish: winning back the ball.
After his arrival in the summer, with Milan paying €20m after long negotiations, there have been both positive and negative verdicts of the signing. Ultimately, it has been very difficult to make a proper assessment as the entire team has struggled, while Fofana has also been benched more than expected.
Yesterday, however, everyone saw why Milan pushed for his arrival in the summer and why he could be a very important player. Indeed, in our player ratings – as well as the ones from the newspapers – Fofana was praised for his hard work in midfield, which was decisive for Milan.
A skill that’s difficult to master
If we had to give one good example to show what Fofana does best, it would be Rafael Leao’s opener last night. It might sound a bit strange to use someone else’s goal as an example, but what happened in the build-up is definitely worth highlighting.
Applying pressure on the Udinese defence, Fofana closed down Lorenza Lucca and simply stole the ball, then setting it up perfectly for Leao on the edge of the box. It’s something we have seen before from the Frenchman, the ability to just slide into the opponent’s path and steal the ball.
It looks so simple when he does it, yet it’s one of the most difficult skills to master in football. 8/10, in similar situations, the referee would award a free-kick as the players pressing to win the ball back tend to be very rash. Fofana, on the other hand, keeps himself just on the right side of what is allowed.
People often talk about the absence of Ismael Bennacer and Franck Kessie, who both added so much in the defensive phase for Milan. However, while Fofana admittedly has some work to do in that department, he’s much better than them when it comes to interceptions.
Consistency and right position
The most important thing for Fofana beyond this season will be to have consistency, to play week in and week out to further strengthen his qualities as a No.8/6. That being said, in order for the playing time to be useful, he also has to be used in the right role.
The midfield tandem in a 4-2-3-1 perhaps isn’t right for him, and there can definitely be doubts about having him as the deep-sitting midfielder in a 4-3-3. Yesterday’s 3-4-3 formation, however, seemed to work well for the most part even if he sometimes ended up too high in the press.
Having said all of the above, the point is that Fofana has very obvious qualities, from his ability to win back the ball and his passing. The €20m (plus bonuses) price tag paid last summer can thus certainly be justified and more, but it’s in the hands of the manager.
Then, it must also be said that Fofana himself could do with improving parts of the game, above all the sloppy passing that we have seen sometimes. It’s rather strange as the passing is one of his strengths, but sometimes he just seems to turn off and make a mistake.
Last night’s display against Udinese has at least given us optimism that he could work very well in this Milan, just like many other players ‘redeemed’ themselves in said game.
Everyone seems to be playing better in this formation, so let’s keep running with it till the end of the season. Expect the inter game, because we will get overrun in the midfield if we stick with it
Ffs, everyone is talking like this is some kind of a revelation. Many of us were saying since last season 343 is the way to go with this players. Shocking what can happen when players are used as and where they should be.
Agreed. Looked better in this setup but at times the midfield was still very open and easy to bypass with just a couple of passes.
This system benefits Leao and Theo the most. Since Theo is sh!t at defending anyway and Leao doesn’t have to hug the touch line so much with Theo there.
I was focusing on midfield last night a lot and they’re still leaving big holes behind. I also saw that we were not able to create anything through the middle and played through wings all the time, while Udinese players had no problems combine through the middle. Our guys from defense up looked lost and were not able to make a single useful combination through the middle. But we also had more density in defensive phase with 5 in the back when needed as well as Fofana. That way Reijnders and our front guys were able to roam freely in offensive phase.
Pioli did not use 3-4-3 🤔. We didn’t know that that formation with 5 defenders never proved to be the right one (we kicked out Tottenham 2 years ago)? Last season after losing to Inter, we played 3-4-3 against Verona and played badly. Now all you great experts knew that this was the right formation. During the game, we often played with three stoppers because Wolker was the third stopper and I don’t know why there is so much enthusiasm for the formation. In the scudetto season when Theo would go forward Kessie went in his place. Last night, the whole team simply decided to play and it doesn’t matter what the formation is.
Before we had players who were actually able to hold down our midfield and cover a lot of ground in Kessie, Benny and Tonali hence why 4231 was working and had no need for extra cover. Now with Reijnders there who’s defensively non existent in the midfield there was only Fofana doing the dirty work and even he is not a defensive midfielder. In Monaco he played next to one. With this crop of players who cannot hold down the midfield, we need extra body in defense and as well in the middle to creat that density. It was clear since last season 4231 with this bunch just won’t work. I’ve been vocal about using 343 many many times.
And last season, Pioli with Reijnders used 3-4-3, so it didn’t work. Milan must bring at least 4 players who can play 90 minutes at the top level. Last night’s formation could be interpreted as 4-2-3-1, just move Tomori to RB and Jimenez to RW… What is more compact and what suits Fofana better 😀
He is not a DM. He is a a box to box that should play with a DM and have some freedom to press high and run with the ball.
He remains very inaccurate with his passing, which can be a problem especially with coaches that do positional play.
In Ancelotti’s Milan, who was the DM and who did Pirlo and Gattuso come out box to box??? And did Pirlo play good defense? What does CDM mean to you? Who plays in Inter?
Different formation with different interpretation play from coaches and the ability of the players at hand.
Ancelotti Milan,Gattuso and Ambrosini both does the dirty work and recovers the ball for Pirlo to use and dictates play. Pirlo sitting back in the midfield 3 doesn’t mean he’s doing the DM job, cuz that’s the style of play Ancelotti use due to the ability of the players at his disposal.
A style like that can only work with players like Montolivo and now Locatelli has same style of play in lower quality compared to Pirlo and Montolivo.
In a 4 33 formation where we have a DM that sit back and do all the dirty job and ball recovery is Allegri Milan where we have De Jong or Van Bommel . With these DM the coach interpretation is different in 3 man midfield compared to Ancelotti 3 man midfield
What determines a player to be a DM? You understand what you are writing. Fofana is a defensive midfielder, but he is not a striker. Today, you don’t have many players who are top six, that’s why everyone adapts. This 3-4-3 formation can be 4-2-3-1 just move Tomori to right back and Jimenez to RW. I don’t know what you all got into the formations.