What worked and what didn’t in Fonseca’s debut: Tactical analysis of AC Milan 2-2 Torino | OneFootball

AC Milan and Torino played out an entertaining first game of the Serie A season on Saturday night, with three second-half goals eventually producing a 2-2 draw including a late fightback.

After impressing in preseason friendlies against Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona out in the United States – winning all three in the process – there was a lot of anticipation for the opener under Paulo Fonseca.

Out in the USA, the Rossoneri had shown some very positive things from a tactical standpoint with a clear style centred around possession-based domination of games and high pressing off the ball. Yet, as the famous Mike Tyson quote goes, ‘everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face’.

Indeed, Milan were punched in the face twice and going into the final 10 minutes they looked like limping to a rather embarrassing defeat after Malick Thiaw’s first-half own-goal and Duvan Zapata’s unmarked header.

Nonetheless, the substitutes came on and made the difference. Theo Hernandez and Tijjani Reijnders injected life, with Alvaro Morata got a debut goal and Noah Okafor netted a 95th-minute equaliser to steal the spotlight.

After a chaotic curtain-raiser at San Siro, our writer Rohit Rajeev has picked out some interesting tactical points from the game, one which saw a rather strange starting line-up named.

Set-ups and positives

Milan in possession used a 3-2-5 system with Saelemaekers tucking in as the inside forward while Rafael Leao stayed wide. On the right, Samuel Chukwueze came inside and Christian Pulisic stayed wider. Torino meanwhile tried to press Milan to the sides, keeping a very intricate structure.

One of the better aspects was how Milan broke out of the press using Mike Maignan. One of the team’s main issues last season was playing out of the back and this has largely improved under Fonseca. Milan tend to suck the press towards one side and then use Maignan’s ball-playing skill to switch play.

One of the ideas used to break down a three-man (or five-man) defence is to find space between the centre-back and the wing-back. Milan exploited this channel using passing manoeuvres, such as in the instance below where the space was clear for Pulisic but he couldn’t take the ball in stride.

Milan overloaded the midfield areas with extra men to pass out of mid blocks from the opposition, and this mostly came in the form of the centre-forward Luka Jovic dropping deeper off the ball.

Out of possession work

We saw some zonal pressing from Milan, which was a direct contrast to Stefano Pioli who preferred man-marking all over the pitch, welcoming 1v1 battles for his players and often allowing a lot of space in behind. A 4-4-2/4-2-4 shape off the ball was often seen vs. Torino.

Then there was the double pivot, which allowed Milan to expand. If and when the Rossoneri wanted to go all-out attack, the midfield tandem stayed back to allow the full-backs to go forward. This allowed them to counter press as well as protect the centre of the pitch.

Areas to improve

Jovic’s performance has come in for some criticism, and it is easy to see why he got little joy. By dropping deep to act as a ‘false nine’ it creates a big vacuum of space ahead and there is no player to hold up the ball. Sometimes Leao took that spot to try lead the line, but hold-up play is not his forte.

In a particular scenario where a cross was made, nobody from Milan took the risk and attacked the near post and thus the ball was cleared away quite easily.

It was remarked several times last season that – when needing a goal under Pioli the team would simply spam crosses to try and create something from nothing, and there were times on Saturday where that was repeated with little quality service forthcoming.

In addition to that, on the defenisve end the double pivot was extremely shaky. For example in the situation below Ismael Bennacer did not cover the path of the pass from Ilic to Zapata. Once the latter received the ball it created a 2v1 situation for Calabria which resulted in Torino’s first chance.

This was done a lot by Torino who used their wing-backs quite effectively, presumably under Paolo Vanoli’s instructions. This is why Fonseca spoke about improving the pressing, not just in terms of the amount but also the quality and intensity.

Set pieces

We end the analysis by taking a look at two corners: a defensive one that didn’t go well and an attacking one that did.

Firstly, there is the set piece from Torino’s left where Milan use a line of players plus a mix of zonal and man-marking. Somehow in the man-marking assignment, Bennacer is left having to pick up the much taller and much more aerially competent Zapata.

It is to nobody’s surprise that he was unable to stop his run to the near post, allowing the Colombian to get a free header that forced Maignan to make a reflex save with his legs. The assignments for player marking need to be better handled.

Up at the other end, the Rossoneri did show some more creativity compared to last season. Having picked up on the fact that the Granata were also using a mix of zone and man, Milan used near post blockers and back post runners to scatter the markers.

The delivery to the waiting attackers at the far stick from Bennacer was pinpoint, and only a clearance off the line stopped Thiaw scoring what would have been a well-worked routine.