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.
