AC Milan hosted Liverpool at the San Siro for the 2024-25 Champions League opener. Despite taking the lead earlier on, what followed was sheer domination with the Reds probing that the Ropssoneri are still from from the elite clubs.
Indeed, several things went wrong for Paulo Fonseca’s men and the manager now finds himself in the crosshairs ahead of the derby on Saturday. Below is our tactical analysis of the different playing styles and the issues Milan experienced against Liverpool…
Milan’s first goal
Milan’s first goal came as a result of Liverpool’s high press. With Tsimikas pushing high up it created gaps behind him and this gap was exploited when Mike played a long ball and Calabria’s quick flick-on and Morata’s quick release of the ball meant space opened up for Pulisic.
Liverpool pressing
Liverpool, just like Milan, pressed in a 4-2-4. The pressing trigger was Tomori and whenever the ball was passed to him, Liverpool would swarm him to recover the ball. Gakpo and Salah cut off the passes to the full-backs, while Jota and Szoboszlai pressed the two centre-backs.
Milan’s defensive issues
In turn, Milan’s pressing was horrible. You can see how Van-Dijk slips a ball between Morata and Reijnders so easily.
There is such a wide gap between the two sets of defenders that Alexander-Arnold easily slips a through ball between the defenders.
Lastly, when you play against a top European team like Liverpool, it is essential that you defend well and give them as little space as possible. You can see how Leao does not close Alexander-Arnold down in time and Theo loses Sala. With simple one-touch passes, Salah then almost scores after turning Pavlovic.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) September 19, 2024
Furthermore, the fact that Calabria was getting beaten easily in 1v1a and foot races vs Gakpo wasn’t helping Milan’s defensive cause.
Static all over
Slot gave Liverpool players the freedom to move around in attack to scatter our markers. However, when Liverpool played their tight marking in defence, no Milan player made an effort to move and collect the ball from the centre-backs.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) September 19, 2024
Wastefulness
Coaches like Mourinho and Allegri are clearly the opposite of Pep’s idea of possession. They don’t think possession is important but instead, they focus on what you do with it. Decisiveness is important. Here we can see how Pulisic was through on goal and he didn’t get the pass.
In this sequence, Reijnders played beautifully between the lines but wasted the chances even though Leao and Theo were unmarked.
Liverpool’s first goal
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) September 19, 2024
Liverpool’s second goal
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) September 19, 2024
Lack of effort
Lastly, I’m very disappointed that we went down without a fight. You could see how Liverpool were first to both the first and second balls, while Milan weren’t even trying. Salah clearly outmuscled Theo in the clip below and almost slipped Jota on.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) September 19, 2024
FONSECAOUT!!!!!!! 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🇵🇹🤡
There’s only so much you can blame a coach for but looking at the game it is also clear that the Milan players were a disgrace. Lack of effort and no desire yet they are getting paid millions and playing in a top team.
Only Pulisic, Morata and Abraham showed any desire and effort.
It’s important to hold players accountable BUT When everyone looks this terrible and confused, it’s on the coach. I mean we’re talking basic defending errors, like defending set pieces. Nothing advanced. Fonseca hasn’t even been able to resolve that.
He is by all accounts a genuinely nice human but just out of his depth here and questions have to be asked of whoever thought this was a good idea.
Pressing in a 4-2-4, LOL. Even Pioli didn’t do that.
So basically, everything Fonseca said in his post interview was all true.
“Fonseca criticises Milan for being ‘weak defensively’, making ‘wrong decisions’ and not following plan.”
He isn’t wrong but doesn’t mean he needs to say that publicly, it makes it look like he is trying to shift the blame to the players and avoid accountability.
I wouldn’t care if he beats up Leao or Theo in the locker room, but criticizing your players publicly never brought any good. Sometimes it’s just better to say that nothing worked and that’s it.
But Ibrahimovic brought him in. What is going to happen to the decision maker though?
Exactly. That is also my question. That’s who the real culprits are here.
Just say that you think Milan players are mentally weak.
It’s obvious that any kind of negative comment no matter how true affects them in even more negative way.
I mean Leao aka Twittao, has had more tweets going viral over the last couple of years than goals scored.
Mentally strong people take criticism as a challenge, as a feedback to improve and play better, but not Milan players. Milan players have to be treated with kid gloves.
When he deservingly benched Theo and Leao, people said he is throwing then under the bus.
If he says that players are not following instructions, he is throwing them under the bus.
Say nothing, do nothing, let them be lazy and pretend like most Milan fans pretend, that their players are the best in the world at their positions, and blame everyone else.
And people are calling for Milan to hire a top coach. Ha ha 😂.
What do people think would have happened if Milan hired Conte? He isn’t someone that hold his tongue
18 March 2023.
A furious Antonio Conte says his players are “selfish” and Tottenham “can change the manager but the situation cannot change” in a stinging criticism of the club’s culture.
The Spurs boss said his team “don’t want to help each other” after a 3-3 draw at Southampton on Saturday.
Most Milan players should thank God Milan didn’t hire Conte, because most of them are not built for a coach like him or for any top coach.
This comment was response to @Giga94
A lot of doom and gloom today and fonseca basically already fired reading those articles. End of the day. He still the coach. So much drama for nothing. Generates kliks tho
With all that has been said and done, all the drama around the club, plus those rumors about a beef between him and Zlatan, I don’t see Fonseca being maintained unless we somehow pull a big win against inter on sunday.
It might be better, it might be worse, but we need to brace ourselves for the new coach.
We’ve become a joke club again. Oh dear. Financial stable, mentally unstable
Firstly we don’t have a coach, I have given up on the Leao is world class sh*t, cashout on the dude and Theo, get hungry guys who are willing to fight.
Pair up Gabbia with Pavlovic let’s see. People complain about pace, but without proper positioning pace means nothing, check all the goals we have conceded from open play, Tomori is always nowhere to be found.
RLC is a waste of space and personnel sell him and get Duncan from Venezia to add physicality to the side.
It’s not suppose to be rocket science but I guess it is for this magement.
So, Algeri, or some other guy for one month and than Algeri.