AC Milan returned to winning ways at San Siro on Saturday night, eventually edging Torino in a five-goal thriller.
The pressure was on Milan to bounce back after their defeat in the capital against Lazio the weekend prior, but Massimiliano Allegri’s side made a poor start to the game. Strahinja Pavlovic took matters into his own hands though, scoring a beauty from 30 yards to open the scoring before Simeone’s leveller.
The Rossoneri took command of the game in the opening exchanges of the second half with Adrien Rabiot and Youssouf Fofana each scoring in quick success. Vlasic’s penalty inside the final 10 minutes halved the deficit, but in the end a 3-2 win was secured.
With Inter drawing against Fiorentina it means the gap is now six points at the top. Meanwhile, Juventus’ draw against Sassuolo has ensured that there is a nine-point cushion on fifth place again, with a top four spot looking all but secured. Oli Fisher has the tactical analysis from Saturday.
Set-ups and shape
Allegri made some changes to the line-up from the team that lost in the capital, with Adrien Rabiot regaining his spot in midfield post-suspension, while Davide Bartesaghi went back in on the left. Rafael Leao missed the game through injury, so Niclas Füllkrug was welcomed back into the side.
In the early stages, we could see a very clear pressing pattern from Milan. Pulisic and Füllkrug would remain close, aiming to pressure Torino’s middle centre-back Ismaijli and force the ball to the wide CBs in their 3+2 build-up.
Milan’s ‘variant’ in the press were the outside midfielders Fofana and Rabiot. When the ball went to the LCB or RCB, the midfielder would jump to trigger a shift over to crowd out that side of the field.
For example, in the case below, Ebosse gets the ball and Fofana sprints out. Modric begins to follow him, while Tomori and Saelemaekers push up the flank to decrease the space available.
The result is that five men get around the ball recipient within seconds, making it (in theory) very hard to play through that particular flank. It also leaves the other half of the field laterally quite vacant. This would cause an issue.
Early exploitation
It is possible that D’Aversa set the trap in this way, because his team invited the ball-side press from Milan and shifted it quickly back to the right side.
From there, Pedersen found himself with plenty of open field to run into 1v1 against Bartesaghi, while the centre-backs were concerned with the movement of Zapata and Simeone.
In the chance above, Pedersen manages to get in behind and just about gets past Bartesaghi. Though it did not lead to a major chance, the blueprint had been set.
Just a couple of minutes later, the Norwegian again has that bit of separation from his man and this time gets to the byline for a cross that is ultimately scrambled clear.
Another area that Torino looked to target was Milan’s confusion in set-piece marking. As the corner comes in, the Rossoneri have six men inside the box that are not picking up anyone in particular, then a crowd of three in front of Maignan to ‘protect’ him from the near-post man.
Nobody takes responsibility for the zone that the ball ends up in, allowing a free header for the Torino man level with the far post and just a few yards out. It was an error in coverage so bad that it felt incredibly lucky not to be punished with a goal.
Füllkrug in isolation
A lot of Milan’s failed approach before the first goal came from their inability to get Füllkrug into the game as someone to play off and to escape Torino’s press.
The German striker often came short to try and meet direct balls towards the halfway line that were either under or over-hit. Pulisic stayed further forward, ready to run onto any flick-ons that just never came.
Füllkrug then began repeatedly step out of the attacking line to drop deep and make himself a ‘wall’ to play off and bring the midfielders into the game. This led to a bit of indecision from Ismaijli about whether to follow him out.
When Füllkrug would drop in, Fofana would often push further up to ensure that Milan were not entirely pushed away from the Torino box. Saelemaekers would stay up on the right as the spare man, pinning Obrador.
Pushing up to get a break
Given how calculated the scene below looks, we are going to presume that Allegri gave an instruction to get more men to commit forward to further push Torino backwards.
In the scene below during the build-up to Pavlovic’s goal, the Rossoneri have four players spread across the line, taking one defender each. The by-product of this is that the midfield also has to drop 10 yards or so, creating a gap between the departments.
From this, as the Torino players slide back into their own box, space on the edge of it emerges. Modric senses this and demands the ball, aware of the pocket that has opened up merely by getting some numbers further up.
Although the goal doesn’t come via conventional means nor directly from a move where the new-found space was exploited, it is a moment of Pavlovic madness that results from the method.
The ball sits up nicely for the Serbian to hit it with power and enough loop to send it crashing in off the bottom of the crossbar. Paleari is slow to react and seems unsighted, but why? His vision is obscured by bodies, ones that wouldn’t have been there is not for the shift in aggression.
Switching off
Speaking of switches, Milan were far from their organised best defensively in the first half. There were some moments of worrying decision-making in transition above all, like below when a cut-back rendered the five defenders inside the box helpless.
Bartesaghi was guilty of acting on instinct and crashing the line to wait for the shot which Pavlovic had in fact covered. So, when the ball rolls to his man Pedersen, the Italian is barely even in the frame. Thankfully, it didn’t result in a goal.
The equaliser can be blamed on a few small factors, such as Pulisic not stepping out quickly enough to challenge the shot from Vlasic, and Maignan generally being unsighted.
However, the culpability is mainly attached to De Winter. The Belgian has Simeone within his grasp at the time of the shot being released, yet he doesn’t really make a decisive move to block the attempt nor does he react to the danger.
The result is that when Maignan tips it onto the post and the ricochet takes the ball away from goal, De Winter’s carelessness gives Simeone a tap-in, the kind that someone like he – as a striker with excellent movement – thrives off scoring.
Early in the second half, the away side continued to have their way with Milan, pushing and pulling them around the field with alarming ease.
In the sequence below, we can see how Zapata has dropped to join Prati between the lines, where a big gap between the Diavolo’s defensive and midfield lines has opened up. Circled in red are Bartesaghi playing centre-back and Rabiot playing wing-back, as they have been sucked over.
Just as the pocket opened up outside the D for Milan before their goal, Obrador is able to easily find Prati in a dangerous central area. Modric – who had gone with his man Ginetis – then has to quickly run out to put pressure on the shot.
Bunkering up
Having equalised from a goal behind, Torino were able to settle back into their more comfortable shape of a five-man defensive line with three across midfield and a narrow front two. This was to try and crowd out the central areas.
Milan made a change at the break that made a big difference: Athekame came on for Tomori in what was originally like-for-like. The Swiss found himself invited to get forward though, with Saelemaekers basically playing as a right-winger and Athekame even inverting at times.
Milan tried the obvious method of breaking down the block: trying to spring a transition by knocking the ball beyond the defensive line and having multiple players chase it.
With this approach, second balls and building pressure through subsequent possession retention were always going to be key, and that was what gave birth to one of the most impressive Milan goals of the season.
As Fofana looks up just off the right corner of the box, he spots Modric in motion making a run towards the 18-yard line. Pulisic – who is stationary – even tells the Frenchman to feed him.
From here, the poetry in motion begins. Firstly, Pulisic sees that the pass has been played and begins a third-man run in behind his man. Secondly, Modric receives the ball in stride and plays the pass. Thirdly, Rabiot switches on to the situation and knows where to be.
The result? An easy tap-in for Rabiot at the far post. It is both beautiful simplicity but also clearly an automated training ground routine that saw Milan cut Torino open.
After the goal went in, Modric could be seen pointing at Fofana, almost as if to confirm it was something worked on. Without that, who knows how frustrating the second half might have been.
There was an interesting sign in terms of mentality, too. Rather than take up positions in a conservative block again, Milan pushed for what would be the killer goal.
Just as Fofana receives the pass from Athekame before taking three touches and scoring, it can be seen that there are five Milan players inside the Torino box. The instruction was obviously not to sit back, but in fact the opposite.
The data
The story of the game can sometimes be told by the possession numbers in each quarter, and this is no different. Torino began well on top but Milan grew into the game and during their most dominant spells had close to 80% of the ball. That old ‘possession-based domination’ Fonseca-ism springs to mind.
Looking at the average positions (ignoring the players circled in red and yellow), it can be seen how Milan basically did use a 4-3-3 system. Tomori, De Winter, Pavlovic and Bartesaghi were the line of four, with a compact midfield three, then Saelemaekers and Pulisic either side of Füllkrug.
Finally, while Torino might have had more shots and shots on target plus a higher Expected Goals number, Milan’s domination in territory is seen through the field tilt, having a higher average defensive line and generating double the high turnovers compared to vice-versa.
They also had more deep entries, showing how important it really was to get numbers on the front line and ask questions of Torino rather than accept having to aerially bombard a five-man rearguard.
Thanks Ollie
Thank you mate!