AC Milan secured their spot in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia in convincing fashion as they beat Sassuolo 6-1 at San Siro.
Paulo Fonseca made eight changes to the starting line-up from the team that beat Empoli, giving a chance to some of the reserve players but also maintaining a core including Youssouf Fofana, Tijjani Reijnders and Rafael Leao.
In the end it was more than enough against the Serie B table-toppers, who were eight unbeaten prior. Samuel Chukwueze got a first-half brace while Tijjani Reijnders and Rafael Leao scored too as part of a ruthless spell of four goals in 11 minutes.
Davide Calabria and Tammy Abraham joined the party early in the second to turn it into a real thumping. The result is that Milan will play Roma or Sampdoria in the quarter-finals, and below is a tactical analysis from our writer Rohit Rajeev.
Sassuolo out of possession
Before we dive into Milan’s principles, we should take about Sassuolo’s structure given that a lot of fans were surprised at how they attempted to play.
Sassuolo played a 4-4-2 off the ball and pressed using a man-marking formation. They tried to press Milan high often, creating gaps in between the lines. The space was there to exploit, which Milan did as we will explain next.
Milan’s 3-2-5/2-3-5
Milan yet again played their 2-3-5/3-2-5 as we highlighted in the Empoli game. The main principle – the positional play style of play – was evidently seen with the players maintaining very short distances between each other, occupying a space and interchanging very fluidly.
Below are four instances that we noticed positional shifts, from Reijnders playing as a pseudo centre-back to a left forward, while Terracciano too had an interesting free role.
What are the benefits of this? Here is a demonstration of how it works when you have the ball (Reijnders missed the final pass in this case).
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) December 4, 2024
Below is a demonstration of how it works when Milan lose the ball, i.e. the ability to counter-press.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) December 4, 2024
One part of this system was to have a passing diamond/rectangle in the centre as seen many times during Fonseca’s spell with Lille.
Another benefit is that when there is a central overload (when Milan push more players into the centre) it forces the opposition to come narrow, especially those who man-mark. This opens up space in the wide areas which was the catalyst for Chukwueze’s goal.
Individual quality shines
The passing between Leao and Abraham – where the Portuguese snuck the ball between three players and the Englishman anticipated the pass coming from his team-mate – was borderline telepathic.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s no look pass (which became an assist for Leao) was also a stroke of genius. His body orientation fooled the Sassuolo defence and they did not see/track Leao make the run, which interestingly was that of a second striker.
Terracciano, who isn’t naturally left-footed, played as an inverted full-back whenever he ventured higher up the pitch allowing Leao to stay in this natural left wing position.
