AC Milan fell to another away defeat on Saturday night as they were beaten 3-1 by Udinese at the Dacia Arena meaning they ended March winless.
The Rossoneri’s poor run of form away from home continued as Pereyra, Beto and Ehizibue all got on the scoresheet to give Udinese a big three points at home and in truth it was a win that they earned having been sharper than Milan and making less mistakes.
Milan’s lack of concentration on the pitch combined with a seemingly questionable mentality has seen them lose to Fiorentina, drop points against Salernitana and now get beaten at the Dacia Arena, making the top four race even more tense. Below is an analysis of the game from the weekend…
Sloppiness is fatal
After the 2-0 win against Atalanta at San Siro it really seemed as though Stefano Pioli – a master at adapting to circumstances – had done it again by troubleshooting the problem in spite of deficiencies in selection to make Milan better.
The switch to 3-5-2 seemed intriguing, providing Milan with a sturdier back line and allowing for innovative elements in attack too, like pushing one of the three centre-backs up to aid in overloads.
However, a performance like the one against Udinese may signal that heading into the international break the Italian is in troubled waters.
This may be one of the least complexed ‘tactical’ observations we have posted but it was extremely salient how poor Milan were in build-up. Wayward passes were a plenty, making it almost impossible for the Rossoneri to construct an attack for basically the opening 35 minutes.
It doesn’t matter if Pioli urged a centre-back to be wide or an extra man in midfield if the ball from Bennacer in his own half doesn’t reach him, meaning Udinese can intercept and counter.
In football, it’s a sign of how the game is going if your defence and midfield is scampering back desperately to get back into position, it means they’re already a step behind and have ground to cover.
With the full-backs pushed up to create space wide and Milan sloppily losing the ball in build-up it leads to the first goal. But even if the full-backs weren’t pushed up it’s just poor from Milan to lose the ball so cheaply in their own half.
Milan insisted on throwing numbers forward whilst having the rest in defence despite the passing really not being up to scratch.
The goal wasn’t a freak occurrence, Udinese could latch onto a loose pass and break on a scant Milan defence. There just weren’t enough players around Brahim to help facilitate the ball or work into a composed move, it was a case of forwards committing to try score but being far apart leaving vast amounts of space at the back for Udinese to exploit.
Lack of action
The game plan from Pioli isn’t one we’re unfamiliar with in terms of five at the back, a wide centre-back pushed up near a wide full-back to aid in possession, but the distances between Milan players both in the half space and wide were far too apart.
Now you have a team well off it, with a central midfielder pushed up, both full-backs either wide or inverted high up the pitch and the centre-back who was meant to provide numerical superiority has quickly turned into a liability because of how poorly positioned the rest of the defence is.
Pioli in this situation when he saw the opening half an hour at least in some way or another should’ve encouraged Milan to take the sting out of the game, take a breath and build up calmly, rather than commit so many men forward leaving them susceptible to Udinese counters.
Ibrahimovic perhaps recognising this started to drop deeper to pick the ball up and drag Udinese defenders with him, but Milan’s attackers are so far away from him when he tries to win a foul the rest defence is exposed again and you’re basically relying on Bennacer to hopefully win the tackle (it doesn’t happen) and Udinese are in again.
Despite this occurring, Pioli might not have been able to plan for the issues in build-up, that isn’t really something you can have a plan B for. There are in-game instructions he could’ve carried out, but often in football a team does the simple things wrong. If a team was always robotically perfect we wouldn’t spend as much time as we do watching and cheering a team on.
Thiaw targeted
Malick Thiaw has been an excellent addition for Pioli, blossoming at just the right time to add needed steel to the defence, but this may have been the first game him and the back three were physically dominated by Beto and Isaac Success.
Milan’s pressing structure went something like Brahim Diaz, Leao, Ibrahimovic and both central midfielders joining in the press. Udinese saw this and just went long to Beto either on the floor or in the air, as normally this would mean Milan have squeezed an opposition into relying on a 1v1 duel with Thiaw which he would normally win, or has been winning of late.
Udinese bypassed the press to go for the direct route, reaching Beto who can then play off the midfielder and spread it wide, bringing a wing back into play. Normally it was Destiny Udogie who had a license to roam freely in Milan’s half on either side stretching the pitch as wide as he could.
Key battle lost
From early on in the game it felt as though Saelemaekers was going to engage Udogie up the pitch which left space in behind without a high chance of him winning the ball or stopping Udogie bombing up field.
Milan’s back five quickly turned into a back four and left them vulnerable as it meant Kalulu as the right-sided centre-back had to come across and cover for Saelemaekers who was dragged out of position, causing Milan to lose their defensive shape.
Saelemaekers would try close down Udogie, Pereyra or another midfielder would create a 2v2 situation or overload to combine with him, dragging Kalulu away from the back three leaving a huge gap between the frenchman and other two Milan centre-backs.
Conclusion
The results are one thing, but there has been a worrying regression in the way Milan have been playing generally since the turn of the month. Errors have crept back in again, the compactness and organisation seems to be exclusive to the Champions League and the attack is toothless.
It leaves an awful lot for Pioli to ponder over the international break as he hopes to come up with yet another antidote to get his team out of a crisis.
