During the pre-season friendly between Milan and Modena last night, which the former won 5-0, we saw a glimpse of a new tactical solution for the Rossoneri. Stefano Pioli seemingly tested a three-man backline.
Matteo Gabbia, who is a centre-back, was fielded as the right-back once again but this time out, he actually stayed back a lot more. As highlighted by MilanNews, we saw glimpses of a three-man defence and it worked very well.
Gabbia, along with Fikayo Tomori and Alessio Romagnoli, were the centre-backs while Theo Hernandez and Alexis Saelemaekers acted on the flanks. This paid off in the attacking phase, with several beautiful give and goes, as well as good moves.
Rade Krunic and Brahim Diaz were the attacking midfielders in what perhaps can be described as a 3-4-2-1. The Spaniard was given a lot of space and made the decisions in attack, while the Bosnian focused more on the defensive tasks.
Rafael Leao was the man up front and overall, this new solution seemed to work very well. In the past, a three-man defence hasn’t been used much by the Rossoneri, but now Pioli actually has the right players to field one.
In addition to the three aforementioned centre-backs, he also has Pierre Kalulu and Simon Kjaer at his disposal. It might not be the best for every game, but it will be interesting to see if it can give them an advantage in some of next season’s clashes.
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