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AC Milan made it three wins on the trot within the Champions League for the primary time since 2007 because of a 3-2 win in opposition to Slovan Bratislava.

Milan dominated the early proceedings and took command when Christian Pulisic gave them a primary half lead after some good work from Tammy Abraham to ship him by way of on objective. But, they conceded moments later and the 2 sides went in stage on the break.

Rafael Leao got here off the bench to revive the benefit for the Rossoneri, then Abraham bought a objective of his personal and appeared lie he had ended the competition, however the hosts responded once more to make it a nervy end even after a pink card.

The tip outcome although was three extra factors that proceed the trail in direction of direct qualification for the final 16 stage, although the identical worrying narratives a few lack of defensive resilience stay.

As we picked out in , the numbers make for attention-grabbing studying after an open contest. Our author has supplied a tactical evaluation of the sport.

Slovan out of possession

The character of the sport was a bit David versus Goliath from the beginning, which made it apparent that the house aspect have been going to play the best way the much less technical groups in Italy did in opposition to greater groups.

Translated: they might put males behind the ball, play a compact defensive construction with zonal marking, inviting the opposition to assault and hoping to counter.

Vladimir Weiss set his group up in a 5-4-1 form, defending the centre of the pitch and barely permitting any assault to move by way of.

Milan’s form

Milan performed a 2-1-4-3 or a 3-4-3 with Youssouf Fofana sitting in entrance of the 2 central defenders. In the meantime, the full-backs have been pushed up both to play as inside forwards or within the wing-back function to stretch Slovan and generate width.

Excessive press

One of many methods to interrupt a deep block group down – particularly one with much less technical skill, no disrespect to Slovan – is to press them excessive up the sphere, even close to to their objective.

The intention of that’s to win the ball again rapidly and catch them when out of practice. Thus, Milan employed a man-oriented marking strategy larger up the sphere.

Transition and relaxation defence

I believe we are able to safely say from the Cagliari and Slovan video games that Milan are largely susceptible from transitions (counter-attacks) from the opposition.

With Milan taking part in a 2-1-4-3 system, it meant Milan’s relaxation defence solely had the two centre-backs to defend. The Rossoneri have been this skinny in numbers on the again and by design too, so Paulo Fonseca must strike a stability by guaranteeing the publicity isn’t so obvious.

It could possibly be strongly argued that Milan want to purchase a defensive midfielder and shift to a 4-3-3 system, or perhaps an inner answer can be to play Ismael Bennacer (if/when he’s match sufficient) in midfield and push Fofana up.

Losing possibilities and fast verticalisation

Breaking down a deep block is a tricky job and this wants extra precision. This was missing as proven under.

Fofana gained the ball and put Samuel Chukwueze on a 1v1 with the opposition centre-back, the 37-year-old Kashia. Nonetheless, he couldn’t captialise on the state of affairs and that whole assault stalled, permitting Bratislava to return to their settled defensive positions.

The breakthrough got here when Milan capitalised on a foul by Slovan and rapidly moved the ball vertically, with Fofana taking part in a by way of ball that discovered Leao’s direct run behind the defence. This swiftness and risk-taking in determination making was what was lacking in the remainder of the sport.

Sport administration

As soon as once more, identical to in our ‘5 issues we realized’ piece, the ultimate assertion has to level the finger at Fonseca for what was some reasonably unusual sport administration.

Milan had simply gone 1-0 up after lastly breaching the low block, and that put some stress again on Slovan as they have been now in a shedding place. But, lower than three minutes later, the hosts went by way of on objective from a Rossoneri nook and equalised.

Fonseca must ditch his idealism in sure conditions and be extra pragmatic and adaptable. The schedule is hard, his group are desperately looking for some defensive confidence and cohesion and we all know Milan can play nicely on the break. Generally sitting on a lead and settling the sport doesn’t harm.