Stefano Pioli made several rather noticeable errors in the tactical approach he deployed during last night’s defeat to Roma, a report has highlighted.
MilanNews write that Milan did not take to the field as a team last night at the Stadil Olimpico in their comeback mission, but rather as 11 individuals who just hoped to create something out of nothing.
There are three situations that in their opinion are most indicative of the shortcomings of the side and they certainly connected to each other. They help to explain what went wrong over the two legs, and what wasn’t fixed.
Musah and Calabria
The big team news of the evening was the use of Yunus Musah from the start, with the American taking the place of Tijjani Reijnders in the midfield double pivot, at least on paper.
De Rossi immediately understood Pioli’s idea, as he revealed just before kick-off: “Today they changed a little something, we expect Musah on the right wing in some circumstances. But we’ll see it now, it’s nice to discover my colleague’s moves.”
No sooner said than done. The American acted mostly on the side area of the pitch and the aim was to pin Spinazzola back and at the same time, also thanks to Davide Calabria’s central position, free Christian Pulisic who at that point would have been without a man following him.
Pioli chose to ‘sacrifice’ the full-back to create superiority in the right half-space, ideally occupied by Pulisic. It was a risky move, but it did have some obvious potential rewards.
What actually happened? Calabria found himself struggling to get involved and to move the ball quickly when he did get in possession, which meant little impact on Spinazzola and thus Pulisic was out of the game.
The left side
Roma’s first goal was closely linked to the situation just explained. The Giallorossi came through the middle of the park, Mancini picked up the ball while being watch by Calabria who was actually in a midfield position, and Musah went wide to track Spinazzola.
The right-back drew Musah and Calabria closer before finding Mancini with a lob, who in turn identified the space left by Calabria and put himself forward. Loftus-Cheek didn’t follow him and here the Rossoneri begin to lose their shape.
Mancini stopped and found Spinazzola, who in the meantime had advanced wide to the left. The full-back, tackled by Musah – who therefore was still positioning himself wide – crossed. The cross was cleared by Calabria, who in the meantime has repositioned himself in the area alongside Tomori.
Mancini easily got rid of Pulisic and found himself in possession while looking at the goal in an advanced but decentralised position. With a simple check, Loftus-Cheek and Musah were also taken out of the game.
Bennacer was left alone and Mancini targeted the Algerian, then finding Pellegrini who in the meantime has managed to break away from the centre-back’s marking by reaching the edge of the area.
Ideally there should have been Loftus-Cheek or Musah there, but there was a void. Giroud tried to pressure but it was too late: Pellegrini shot beautifully and hit the post. On the rebound Calabria and Bennacer did not react and Mancini scored without much opposition.
Pressing fails
Milan are no longer able to apply effective pressure, and this was also repeated in the second goal conceded. If on the first goal Musah and Loftus-Cheek went to Mancini without thinking about what was left behind, on the second goal the opposite happened.
The players are no longer able to recognise the situations in which it is right to press. The move for the Giallorossi’s secong goal began with a recovery of the ball by Pellegrini from Pulisic in midfield and a subsequent pass to Svilar to restart the build-up.
Milan were positioned in a strange way: there was Giroud who pressed alone, with Pulisic who attempted to follow him. Behind them? Nothing.
Although the line of Gabbia and Tomori was almost halfway up the field, there was nobody to back up the pressure from Milan’s No.9. Svilar then served Pellegrini who dropped into space, so Calabria left the defensive line, undecided whether to continue the pressure up to that area of the pitch or not.
Musah went, Pellegrini was therefore alone, and neither Loftus-Cheek (who was watching Paredes) nor Bennacer (who was on Bove) understand that that was the moment to go out to at least try to challenge the opponent.
How were the defenders positioned? Calabria wasn’t there (still in the middle of the field), Tomori had been drawn to the right to watch Dybala, Theo was ready to contain El Shaarawy and Gabbia was therefore left in a one-on-one situation with Lukaku 50 metres from the goal.
Pellegrini sent the ball in behind and Lukaku bumped Gabbia off the ball, and then the centre-back’s poor clearance ends with Dybala whipping in a lovely curling shot to make it 2-0.
It is useless to talk about subsequent errors, such as Theo’s missed slide or Gabbia’s bad clearance, when the greater evil is at the source. Milan chose and continue to choose to adopt an over-aggressive approach at the wrong moments, and a weak one at the worst times too.