Not many would have predicted it at the start of the season, but Paulo Fonseca seems to have discovered a new tactical key in Yunus Musah.
This morning’s edition of Corriere dello Sport (via PianetaMilan) writes how Milan look ‘decidedly more balanced’ when Musah plays on the right, in the role of winger in a 4-2-3-1 system. Or at least on paper.
This season, Milan have been looking for a fundamental component to avoid conceding too many goals. Fonseca never wanted to give up any of his creators and scorers – namely Tijjani Reijnders, Christian Pulisic , Rafael Leão and Álvaro Morata – so he had to try a new solution.
The first time he tried Musah out wide was a daunting occasion: at the Santiago Bernabéu against Real Madrid, and the American seemed to excel in a ‘hybrid position’. He gave a big hand to Youssouf Fofana and Emerson Royal, neutralising Vinicius Jr.
The tactic was not repeated in Cagliari in Serie A nor against Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League and the result was striking: another five goals conceded in just 180 minutes of play. He was used on the right against Juventus and Empoli, and the Rossoneri did not concede once.
Ahead of Friday’s game against Empoli, the approach seems obvious: it will be 4-2-3-1 with Musah on the field ahead of what is a real crash test to see how far the team have come. Tomorrow against Sassuolo, it should be Samuel Chukwueze on the right.
Excels? Not really. Sure, he helps Emerson a lot to survive but excel? Not really. What has he EVER done in the attacking zone? Anyone? Help a bro out. 😀 😀 😀
Passed the ball to Emerson, who crossed it into Pulisic to assist for Morata’s goal against Empoli.
They were putting some sustained pressure on Empoli’s right flank even before the goal arrived.
He’s been solid for 80%-90% of most games.
He’s been quite unfortunate that his mistakes have been punished worse than his teammates though (eg. the Vinicius penalty, which was actually caused by a shitty Theo mis-clearance).
Theo has been directly more involved in our goals conceded/failure to win matches this season, but he has a lot of credit in the tank so fans don’t talk about those (like him being lazy to cut out two goals against Parma’s Dennis Man, his failure to mark out Zapata’s header against Torino, and of course penalty-gate fiasco against Fiorentina, all of which would have given us 8 more points and basically challenging for Scudetto).
Wait what? Great game overall by the team yesterday but I thought he was the worst on the field. Gave the ball away by trying to “out muscle” a player to let the ball roll out on the sideline in a dangerous spot. Thankfully the someone cleared his mess up smh. Excel? Sure ….as in a spreadsheet on the computer, not the field lol 😂..he was ok
Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. It’s just a coincidence that the team has looked it’s best this season when he’s played Musah on the right, and that they have only conceded 1 goal in the 3 games that he’s tried it. That’s not a spreadsheet on a computer, that’s actual results on the pitch. But keep on leaving negative comments on every positive article that is written. All negative all the time.
I was talking about his performance the last game relative to the others. Maybe you’re right he did excel after being pretty much useless since his time at the club. He’s playing right wing, which he’s not btw, but it’s really to cover for Emerson’s terrible defensive abilities (great job management). Let’s call it for what it is. Emerson is so bad defensively it made us have to start Musah 🤣🤣🤣
And since you’re the arbiter of negativity and positivity, did u just miss the part where I said great game overall and he did ok or do u just like being argumentative?
Also, lighten up geez lol 😂
4 -3 -3
is it so hard?
Yeeessss.
I highly doubt it was 4231. Milan looked more like a 343 with Musah and Theo playing as wingbacks or it was a 433.
Please read completely, at least on the paper
Conclusion: Royal is trash. How many top clubs using 4-2-3-1 field a CM at RW? None, because they have proper RBs.
Who cares what other teams do? If it works, it works. And Emerson actually had a very good game and was involved in the first goal. But yeah, let’s keep finding a way to leave negative comments in every article no matter what. The sign of a true fan.
Just need a more reliable RB option so that our RW doesn’t have to be “defensive” enough to help the RB. That’s all.
“A Very Good Game” nowadays seems like a game without any glaring errors for Royal, which is a low bar. Milan need to do better.
Emerson has not been great but he’s a clear upgrade on Calabria.
“but he’s a clear upgrade on Calabria.”
Yeah keep telling yourself that.
Emerson is so unreliable defensively that we had to field Musah to help him in that position and offensively which was supposed to be his strong suit, he has 1 goal and 0 assists during the last 1 season and a half, not quite the contribution isn’t it ? This season I can count on one hand the amounts of crosses he got right. And this average RB (to say the least) costed us 15M€ and took the place of a foreigner. And not only that but both his gross and net salary are way higher than Calabria’s.
Calabria had a least few good games with us (against PSG, against Napoli,…). Emerson so far in his best games was always involved in a goal scored against us. Thank god Empoli was so trash and Musah was there.
Moncada probably saw his files from 2020 or 2021 and thought he’s still playing like that and forgot to actually watch the freaking player.
I don’t understand how anyone can watch Emerson last season or even look at his stats and say with a straight face: “This is the player we’ve been missing”.
Like if you think Calabria, Kalulu and Florenzi are so trash somehow, at least get a good Right-back, not Royal.
I don’t see it that way. At all. Emerson on his best day (so far) is a lateral move.
Should have read your comment first. I thought he was just being belligerent to me as per usual. Instead he’s belligerent to everyone 😂. He has a hard on for Musah for some strange reason and thinks Emerson is a great signing. Holy moly.
Musah has no choice but to excel given what he’s shown so far, that bar is low af.
I think this is more a “new management” can do no wrong take than anything
LOL @ “true fans”. Let’s keep playing with 10.5 men on the field, because we need two to do the job of one.
And the second, but this was against Empoli with Musah holding his hand.
Our biggest problem this season is that the coach don’t have a starting 11 players because every match he will try new set of players and new formation too. He needs to stick to one formation and also have a starting 11 players who will deliver the needed results
Fonseca likely got this idea of how to use Musah from Pochettino, who has played Musah as a de facto wingback with the USMNT, although the lineup is officially announced as a 4-2-3-1 with Musah listed as the right wing.
Musah’s great range and defensive abilities has made a difference, as the USMNT defense is weak and Joe Scalley, the right back, has limited offensive ability and mediocre defensive qualities.
So Scalley stays back and plays like a 3rd CB while Musah ranges up and down the field as a wingback.
Almost exactly like what is happening with Milan and Emerson.
It’s a 3-4-3, no doubt.
Musah’s defensive contributions are MASSIVE. Anybody who doesn’t think so just isn’t paying attention. The guy is capable of shutting down any player on the planet – look how he helped shut down Vinicius in the RM match.
Against Jamaica he cleared the ball off the feet of a Jamaican player AT THE GOAL LINE. in a 1-0 win for the USMNT.
Yeah, MASSIVE.
Now, is Musah great offensively? No, he’s not. He still makes poor choices and mistakes, but he isn’t as terrible as his detractors say. He’s an excellent dribbler and decent passer
My take is that we need a 433 with Musah and give Calabria time to get to 100% because he was just injured, and play him instead of Royal, ASAP.
RB hierarchy should be
Calabria
Terra
Florenzi(When he comes back)
Royal
Kalulu would be first if the management didn’t make a ridiculous move to get rid of Kalulu for Emerson. And again, instead of playing Tomori/Pav against “lower teams” play Gabbia and Thiaw. We can’t leak goals every game because we have 1 awful player and 2 with the same characteristics which creates imbalance,