AC Milan were involved in a rollercoaster of a game against Lazio on Saturday night as both teams led at the Stadio Olimpico but had to settle for a 2-2 draw.
Milan took the lead in the first half through Strahinja Pavlovic, who rose highest at the near post to power in a Christian Pulisic corner and net his first goal for the club in the process since arriving from Red Bull Salzburg.
However, the hosts turned the game on its head in just a few second half minutes and Nuno Tavares set up both goals from the left side. The first cut-back was fired in by Taty Castellanos, while the second was buried by Boulaye Dia.
Rafael Leao would eventually be the saviour for the Rossoneri, linking up with Tammy Abraham and Theo Hernandez to fire in a low shot and give a debut assist to the English striker. The end result, though, is that Milan are without a win in their first three games.
Our writer Rohit Rajeev provides a tactical look at the game from the capital, more specifically yet another defensive collapse that put the result in jeopardy.
For the first goal Youssouf Fofana was marking Dia and Fikayo Tomori was marking Tavares. In the sequence of play leading to the goal, Tavares out paces Tomori and Dia makes a run on Fofana’s blindside and he misses it. Both combine to score.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) September 2, 2024
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Although people put a lot of blame on Emerson Royal, there is more than one Milan player culpable in this situation as Tavares made an unmarked run which got him ahead of the Brazilian.
Samuel Chukwueze didn’t do much to block the pass or follow Nuno while Tomori did nothing about the space behind Royal.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) September 2, 2024
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It is useful to rewind the clock back a little and make a comparison. When Milan were coached by Stefano Pioli they used a man-oriented pressing system which is a very common and even favoured system among Italian coaches.
In this system, even though it had a basic structure a lot of it was defined by where the opposition players ran. The consequence is that the players would follow.
Under Fonseca, Milan use a zonal marking system where they cover spaces and not players. Any player who enters their zone is pressed pro-actively, otherwise the Rossoneri player stands firm.
One of the critical rules of zonal marking is the cohesion and short spaces, something Ariggo Sacchi has heavily emphasised time and time again. There has to be compactness vertically and horizontally.
Just a few seconds before the second goal you can see the space behind Emerson and how Tomori is no covering that space which gives away a 2v1.
It is also a problem that was mentioned under areas to improve in the preseason game against Barcelona, because the Catalan sound picked out that particular weakness and exploited it in transition.
If you look below at how Shakhtar Donetsk (white) are defending vs Roma (red) you can see how compact they are and they give no space even to pass the ball.
It might not have been during a big point in the match, but the instance below remains significant because of how it reinforces the importances of the team being synchronised. More specifically, Fonseca’s setup requires all 10 outfield players to move together for the press to work.
As you can see, Provedel launches a goal kick and Tijjani Reijnders was unaware that Pavlovic was behind him. He gets a touch and it goes behind Pavlovic, and if there was a Lazio player somewhere near that space then Tomori would have been in trouble.
Reijnders had no idea where his team-mate was and Pavlovic didn’t know Reijnders was attempting to head it. This is an unspoken yet important part in football: understanding between team-mates.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) September 2, 2024
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What should Fonseca do? It feels like the biggest challenge Milan are facing is in the transition of moving from a man-oriented pressing side to a zonal marking team, and it will need time to perfect. The problem is that the patience players and fans will have is not infinite.
Zonal marking is something a lot of coaches like Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Maurizio Sarri use, so it is important that Milan learn to do it under Fonseca because a coaching change might bring someone who wishes to do the same.
Great piece.
Pretty detailed breakdown.
Zonal marking is very very difficult to master, most coaches favour the mark men not spaces mantra. Our defence certainly isn’t going to learn it this quick. As the article references, Sacchi was all about a maximum of 25m between defence and attack, tight spaces and the lines move together. On Saturday, Reijnders was deep and Fofana was next to Ruben…all 11 need to put in a shift. Many of Van Basten’s goals he created for himself through pressing the defence.
Great article by the way Rohit 👍🏻
Klopp, Tuchel and Sarri available?
or maybe DeZerbi, Allegri, Pioli?
nope they are expensive, expensive is stupidity,
so Abate it is (jeri’s logic)
yes. on Nuno’s play Chukwueze should have sprinted full speed
No one is commenting on this article, because there is no one to criticize 🤣🤣. Always Milan, Inter and Juventus fans comment.
You need clever guys with sense of anticipation,sense of space and rithm and awarness to master zonal marking.Franco should learn them smth.Having tomori in a system that doesnt do heavy pressing is useless as he has no sense of anticipation and 0 selfawarness.
You need italians for that.
“Transition from man_oriented to zonal ….” that is the problem. I heard you right.
Then, with time on practice and attitude under Fonseca we’ll get it right. I believe in this milan.
we got pre-season and three games already but they’re still struggling with playing accordingly. are they training enough? zonal marking not something new in this world…
Pavlovic, Fofana and Emerson joined Milan a week before the season started.
Maignan, Theo, Reijnders, Pulisic, Okafor and Leao missed most of the summer because of Euro and Copa America games.
Only Terracciano, RLC and Chukwueze were there during all of pre season.
Agree – terrific analysis. When you ask your backs to press up the field, you put pressure on your center backs and #6 to hold down the fort when a fast winger on the other side gets downfield.
Pavlovic – whose header was lovely – was exposed badly on both goals (not Royal). He was beaten by the goal-scorer to the crease. He’s slow to react and adjustments will have to be made to protect him – most likely the wings won’t be able to press as aggressively.
Hey journalism 👏
“More specifically, Fonseca’s setup requires all 10 outfield players to move together for the press to work.”
And here lies to problem. The superstars don’t feel like moving/working with the “normal” players. These tactics requires teamwork. If everyone is not on board, it will fail. Period.
They weren’t even on the pitch. If you mean Leao and Theo.
I mean anyone who isn’t ready to do their part in the collective.
All of the goals come from an attempted offside trap. noone mentions that. The defender closes to the ball sets the line. They are just failing at offside traps. Everygoal the defender looks to the linesman but its not offside.
It wasn’t ment to be a offside trap even though it might look like ..Fonseca tries to implement a style of play that involves a high pressing with a very short team.The problem is when the players do not attempt this pressing all togheter in the same time and leave spaces to be exploited.To reach that cohesion needs time but most important willingness and awarness from ALL the players.
I did keep Fonseca. And change the target for the season. At least a top 3 will be good for Milan. We currently losing ground to compete for the scudetto. It’s the players that need to adapt to the coaches ideas asap. Management knew all about the changes in system so the should stand by the coach. And Paolo should also stick with a familiar 11 to make his work fluid.