It might not feel like AC Milan have much of a problem scoring goals, but the underlying numbers show a worrying trend regarding their attacking play.
During Stefano Pioli’s tenure as head coach, a repeated theme has been that Milan do not possess the quality and/or creativity required to break down deep blocks, and instead they are too reliant on transition play.
There have been other concerns too, such as the over-reliance on the left wing duo of Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao, though the arrivals of Christian Pulisic and Samuel Chukwueze seemed to ease those worries.
Despite the fact Milan are the second-top scorers in Serie A and they have only been kept out five times in 27 games across all competitions, there is still the persistent notion that Milan struggle with regular, open play attacks.
The figures from DataMB seem to affirm this. Milan rank 102 out of 132 teams in the ‘top seven’ leagues for positional attacks (an open play attack that is not a counter-attack) this season.
On the other hand, only three teams have more counter-attacks than the Rossoneri. This shows that Pioli’s side do indeed still rely very heavily on transition play and trying to generate numerical superiority, rather than having the patient, quality build-up play to break teams down.
I rest my case. Somebody or something just said it better than I would have. Our play in the final 3rd is atrocious…period. And in that small little piece of data lies the problem. We just don’t have the ability to make the right choices when in attack,let alone dealing with deep lying defenses…
Not only that. But when we do score we choose to slow down the game and sit back instead pf goin in for the kill. Literaly how atalanta scored there first goal yesterday. Milan tried to slow it dwn and wait for halftime instead of continuing to play hard and continue to press atalanta
Very interesting stats, that says a lot about Pioliball.
I’ve been saying this for years. They don’t have the movement off the ball or the passing ability to break down teams.
We have all watch this problem go on for years now. At least when Kessie was still around our counter-attacks were clean and we were air tight when we sat back. No longer the case. They won the Scudetto because of this very important player. Now he has been gone for two seasons and they have not replaced him properly. RLC and Musah? Give me a break lol.
Piolismo.
Lack of creative players and overuse of players such as the one who’s leaving.