Mismatch from minute one then signs of life: Tactical analysis of Napoli 2-1 AC Milan | OneFootball

AC Milan fell to their ninth league defeat of the season at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Sunday night as they lost 2-1 to title challengers Napoli.

As they so often have under Sergio Conceicao, Milan made an awful start to the game, conceding after one minute through Matteo Politano and trailing by two at the break after Romelu Lukaku netted.

The Rossoneri were given the chance to get right back into it from the penalty spot but Santiago Gimenez ended up seeing his effort saved, and Luka Jovic’s late goal was not enough to spark another comeback.

The result means that Milan remain in ninth, and fourth spot is nine points away. Champions League football has almost definitely vanished, with a Coppa Italia semi-final against Inter the only way to try redeem a painful season. Below is Rohit Rajeev‘s tactical analysis of the game in Naples.

A mismatch from minute one

Milan’s system was no match for Napoli’s scheme as individual errors and lack of ideas were costly again Napoli built out from the back where the centre-backs spread wide and this allowed the full-back to adopt wide positions.

Lobotka would drop from the centre into a back three. In this sequence even Anguissa dropped and this caused an overload on the left wing, with Felix left to mark 2v1.

The ball shifts to the left wing and Felix is too slow to cover Di Lorenzo who lobs the ball. Pavlovic – who tries to close down Lukaku – is caught out of position, while Politano makes his run between the out of position and Pavlovic and Theo.

Napoli would overload the wide areas so as to outnumber Milan down the flanks. As we can see below, it is a 5v3 in this situation in Napoli’s favour.

To counteract this, Joao Felix would cut inside and act as a quasi-playmaker to allow for the switch of play.

One way Milan would break the press of Napoli would be to have Pavlovic dribble forward and play forward passes. This forces Napoli to break their man-oriented press and try to stop Pavlovic which causes dysfunction in the press.

The second goal came courtesy of poor team selection. The constant switching of the centre-back pairing has caused chaos between defenders and there is very little cohesion to build. Lukaku just strolls in behind the defensive line, with both CBs expecting that the other will pick him up.

Signs of life

Below is a flowing move from Milan, making space through manoeuvres and movements, ultimately ending with a shot off target from Gimenez. He should have put Leao through or hit the target.

The goal came courtesy of Milan stretching Napoli. The home side were compact and the wide ball to Theo caused issues.

The quick one-two scattered the defenders and the forwards ran into the box to provide a queue waiting for a tap-in.

Issues in attacking areas

Like all Antonio Conte sides, Napoli – after taking a 1-0 lead – sat back into a compact block and asked Milan to break it down.

Milan however were clueless. There were no runs were being made wide to pull markers wide, no runs behind the defence, no runs towards the player on the ball. Just static.

When the Rossoneri did make space by switching the play they do not capitalise the space created. Here we can see the potential for a quick third-man combination with Pavlovic or for Felix to do something special but his first touch is abysmal.

Lastly, a flash back. Back in 2022-23, Leao received the ball just off the left corner of the box and made a direct run, leaving his marker behind and lashing a shot inside the far post in a 4-0 win.

On Sunday night, he just ambled aimlessly towards the defender and rather than either cutting inside or darting to the byline, he went in a straight line and was easily tackled. Leao, like so many others, is playing without a spark.