In Round 19 of Serie A, the high-flying Milan needed only a point to secure the Winter Champions’ crown as Stefano Pioli’s men took on Atalanta who were looking to extend their unbeaten domestic run to 11 matches.
It turned out to be a strange night for Milan as the 18-time Scudetto winners suffered their second defeat of the season but managed to stay top of the Serie A following Inter’s failed attempt to beat Udinese on the same night. Nevertheless, the Rossoneri have lost for the second time in the new year, which is a potential sign of concern for Pioli’s men in the upcoming weeks.
On the other hand, Atalanta have reduced the gap to seven points and remain in the hunt for the top spots, though more consistency is required from Gian Piero Gasperini’s men. Against Milan, the league’s second-highest scorers looked as sharp as ever, hinting that they might still be a dark horse in this season’s title race.
The following tactical analysis will break down the key playing patterns of both teams, explaining the intricacies of their game approach.
Starting Lineups and Formations
Both managers opted for their tried and trusted formations that were originally different in their set-up. Pioli went for a well-known 4-2-3-1 shape, whereas Gasperini stuck to his fluid and flexible 3-4-1-2 formation.
At the back, Milan were missing their most important and reliable defender this season in Alessio Romagnoli, who was replaced by Pierre Kalulu. Simon Kjaer tucked in alongside the 20-year-old Frenchman, with Davide Calabria and Theo Hernandez keeping their place at full-back positions. The latter has been integral to Milan’s offensive actions in the attacking third, having already provided four assists this season.
In midfield, Sandro Tonali and Franck Kessié formed a double pivot, whilst Soualiho Meité was given a “number 10” role and often operated between the lines, linking the midfield with the attack. Furthermore, the return of Zlatan Ibrahimovic to the starting line-up meant that Rafael Leao was moved to the left-wing, with Samuel Castillejo operating on the right flank. The phenomenal 39-year-old Swede led Milan’s line after scoring twice against Cagliari in the previous round.
On the opposite side, Gasperini switched from a 3-4-2-1 formation against Udinese to a 3-4-1-2 in this game. Starting at the back, Josè Luis Palomino made his way for Berat Djimsiti, with Rafael Toloi and Cristian Romero completing the central defensive partnership. Hans Hateboer and Robin Gosens occupied the wing-back roles, whilst Marten de Roon and Remo Freuler formed the central midfield duet.
Following a fall-out between Gasperini and Papu Gomez, the 23-year-old Italian Matteo Pessina has become a regular starter for Atalanta, playing as an attacking central midfielder just behind the front two of Josip Ilicic and Duvan Zapata.
Milan’s Offensive Strategy: Right Side Overload to Free-Up Hernandez but Ineffective Build-Up Against Atalanta’s Man Marking
Although Milan are still leading the way in the title race, their form has dropped following the turn of the year. Two defeats in the last five matches and a hard-fought penalty shoot-out win against Torino in the Coppa Italia Round-of-16 are a clear indication that Milan no longer wear the invincibility crown. Some of their key performance indicators have seen a drop-off, which goes in line with what we have been witnessing on the pitch.
The Rossoneri have slipped down to 5th place for goals scored (39) and shots per game (14.6), with only 4.63 hitting the target (7th place). Until the new year, Milan’s efficiency in front of goal was one of their standout attributes among the top teams in the Serie A; however, in the last weeks, Pioli’s men have been less effective finding the back of the net and have slipped down to 3rd place behind Inter and Roma. On average, Milan need 7.1 shots to score a goal, whereas both Inter and Roma have sharpened their shooting boots with 6.5 shots for every goal. Against Atalanta, Pioli’s side managed to hit the target only twice from 14 shots they had, recording an incredibly low 14.3% shooting accuracy.
Additionally, although Milan have never had the highest possession stats in the league, the Serie A leaders used to find a way how to get the ball to the final zones of the pitch, including the opposition’s box. Now, Milan are placed only 9th for touches in the attacking third (avg. 160.8) and have slipped down to 5th for touches in the opposition’s penalty area (avg. 27.7). Their inability to progress the ball to the final third zones was a glaring issue for Milan in this game, as they managed only 103 touches in the attacking end of the pitch, 75 fewer compared to Atalanta.
Overall, Milan’s main game plan was to try to manipulate Atalanta’s man-to-man system by often overloading the right flank in order to free up the left-wing where the Rossoneri’s influential attacking left-back Hernandez was present. This tactic worked well to some extent in the opening 20 minutes of the game, but Milan often fell short when trying to enter the final third of the pitch. Furthermore, as the game progressed, the home side were incapable to outmaneuver Atalanta’s man-to-man marking, meaning their build-up play often broke down in the early phases.
The following graphical illustrations show Milan’s tactical approach to the game. As we can see in the first image below, the Rossoneri oriented most of its players on the right side of the pitch in close proximity, which meant most of Atalanta’s midfield and left-sided defense were also orienting themselves towards that side due to their man-marking approach. As a result, the left side of Milan’s attack was underloaded, which left Hernandez acres of space to carry the ball forward.
As we can see, Milan center midfielders stayed relatively deep in their half, whilst the forward line pinned Atalanta’s back line, thus creating space in the center of the field for Hernandez to drive to.
Hernandez continued his run deep into Atalanta’s half, with Rafael Leao and Meité purposefully making their runs away from him in order to create space by dragging the opponents away.
A very similar scenario can be spotted in the illustrations below. Milan are building-up their play down the right side of the pitch, thus attracting an equal number of Atalanta players there as well, which frees up a lot of space in the middle and on the opposite flank.
In this instance, Hernandez was able to carry the ball deep into Atalanta’s half once again, with Rafael Leao making a clever run away from the center, thus opening up the space for Hernandez to drive through the corridor.
The final example is practically identical to the ones showcased above. Here, Milan are once again heavily overloading the right side of the pitch, meaning Atalanta players have to follow them for man-marking reasons. Hernandez is the target man again in this case, receiving the ball totally unmarked on the edge of the halfway line.
As we can see in the graphic below, Milan’s four players pinned Atalanta’s whole back line which allowed Hernandez to burst forward without any pressure.
Milan’s game plan is perfectly illustrated in the following graphs. Most of the Rossoneri’s build-up play took place in the right-sided channels, each corresponding to 55 and 51 touches on the map. It followed with a switch of play to the underloaded left-side of the pitch, with 38% of Milan’s attacking plays occurring down that side in comparison to only 23% down the right flank.
Hernandez was a prominent figure in the game against Atalanta; however, the French left-back severely lacked quality in his final ball delivery which ruined most of the good work Milan and Hernandez himself did in the early phases of the build-up. Although he recorded a remarkable second-highest number of touches in a team (74), Hernandez completed only 72% of his passes (second-lowest) and lost possession 21 times.
Despite the promising opening 20 minutes, Milan began to struggle with their build-up play and were often incapable of bypassing the middle third of the pitch due to Atalanta’s immensely tight and well thought out man-to-man press. We can see one of the examples below as Milan are trying to play out from the back. In this instance, the intention to build the play down the right side remained the same, with space being created on the opposite flank and in the center further up the pitch.
Here, Castillejo receives the ball close to the touchline but is unable to play it forward or switch the play with the diagonal pass due to Atalanta’s incredibly tight man-marking.
A similar case is presented in the images below where Milan are constructing their play down the right flank but are unable to bypass the middle third of the pitch. Atalanta’s tight man-to-man press caged Milan players into their own trap when trying to create space elsewhere by orienting more players in one area of the pitch.
Atalanta’s Attacking and Defensive Organization: Fluid Player Rotations and Man-to-Man Press
Over the last couple of seasons, Atalanta have been renowned for their fluid and incredibly attacking style of play, involving a great deal of movement and player rotations. One of the key facets of Atalanta’s possession-based football is their intention to always drive forward by creating overloads and passing triangles.
All of that was part of Atalanta’s repertoire against Milan, which reminded everyone of us how brilliant this Gasperini’s side can be when at their best. Some of the examples illustrating the fluidity of their play and clever player rotations are presented below. As we can see, Atalanta were incredibly good at positioning their players in the right areas of the pitch, thus creating effective offensive dynamics with quick intricate movements with and without the ball into created space elsewhere.
Consequently, Atalanta were very quick in regrouping themselves in tight spaces that pulled Milan players to the ball side, thus creating even more space in the central areas and the opposite flank.
It allowed the players on the far side to join the attack and arrive into the box in numbers.
A similar example can be spotted below. In this instance, instead of turning around and playing the ball forward, Atalanta’s ball carrier decided to avoid taking risks and safely played it back to one of the defenders.
In this way, Atalanta restarted their build-up play on the opposite side, where they still had enough players to perform passing triangles using pass and move type of drill.
Fluid build-up play and intricate player rotations were only part of Atalanta’s success against Milan. In most instances, a brilliantly executed man-marking approach prevented the Rossoneri from smooth ball progression down the middle, as presented in the images below, which successfully neutralized Milan in the early phases of their build-up.
Shot Map of Both Teams
xG (expected goals): Milan 1.89 – 2.44 Atalanta
Result: Milan 0-3 Atalanta
Conclusion
To sum it up, the scoreline does not do justice for either side, as the game was much tighter than the final score suggests. Milan looked dangerous in the opening 20 minutes, particularly down the left-hand side, but lacked quality in and around the final third. In contrast, Atalanta’s tight man-marking system worked wonders in big parts of the game and in most cases, Milan simply could not live up with their fluid and intricate positional play.