Pressing, rest defence and management fault: Tactical analysis of Slovan Bratislava 2-3 AC Milan | OneFootball

AC Milan made it three wins on the trot in the Champions League for the first time since 2007 thanks to a 3-2 win against Slovan Bratislava.

Milan dominated the early proceedings and took command when Christian Pulisic gave them a first half lead after some nice work from Tammy Abraham to send him through on goal. Yet, they conceded moments later and the two sides went in level at the break.

Rafael Leao came off the bench to restore the advantage for the Rossoneri, then Abraham got a goal of his own and looked lie he had ended the contest, but the hosts responded again to make it a nervy finish even after a red card.

The end result though was three more points that continue the path towards direct qualification for the last 16 stage, though the same worrying narratives about a lack of defensive resilience remain.

As we picked out in our post-match stats piece, the numbers make for interesting reading after an open contest. Our writer Rohit Rajeev has provided a tactical analysis of the game.

Slovan out of possession

The nature of the game was a bit David versus Goliath from the start, which made it obvious that the home side were going to play the way the less technical teams in Italy did against bigger teams.

Translated: they would put men behind the ball, play a compact defensive structure with zonal marking, inviting the opposition to attack and hoping to counter.

Vladimir Weiss set his team up in a 5-4-1 shape, protecting the centre of the pitch and barely allowing any attack to pass through.

Milan’s shape

Milan played a 2-1-4-3 or a 3-4-3 with Youssouf Fofana sitting in front of the two central defenders. Meanwhile, the full-backs were pushed up either to play as inside forwards or in the wing-back role to stretch Slovan and generate width.

High press

One of the ways to break a deep block team down – especially one with less technical ability, no disrespect to Slovan – is to press them high up the field, even near to their goal.

The aim of that is to win the ball back quickly and catch them when out of shape. Thus, Milan employed a man-oriented marking approach higher up the field.

Transition and rest defence

I think we can safely say from the Cagliari and Slovan games that Milan are largely vulnerable from transitions (counter-attacks) from the opposition.

With Milan playing a 2-1-4-3 system, it meant Milan’s rest defence only had the 2 centre-backs to defend. The Rossoneri were this thin in numbers at the back and by design too, so Paulo Fonseca needs to strike a balance by ensuring the exposure isn’t so glaring.

It could be strongly argued that Milan need to buy a defensive midfielder and shift to a 4-3-3 system, or maybe an internal solution would be to play Ismael Bennacer (if/when he is fit enough) in midfield and push Fofana up.

Wasting chances and quick verticalisation

Breaking down a deep block is a tough job and this needs more precision. This was lacking as shown below.

Fofana won the ball and put Samuel Chukwueze on a 1v1 with the opposition centre-back, the 37-year-old Kashia. However, he couldn’t captialise on the situation and that entire attack stalled, allowing Bratislava to return to their settled defensive positions.

The breakthrough came when Milan capitalised on a foul by Slovan and quickly moved the ball vertically, with Fofana playing a through ball that found Leao’s direct run behind the defence. This swiftness and risk-taking in decision making was what was missing in the rest of the game.

Game management

Once again, just like in our ‘five things we learned’ piece, the final statement has to point the finger at Fonseca for what was some rather strange game management.

Milan had just gone 1-0 up after finally breaching the low block, and that put some pressure back on Slovan as they were now in a losing position. Yet, less than three minutes later, the hosts went through on goal from a Rossoneri corner and equalised.

Fonseca needs to ditch his idealism in certain situations and be more pragmatic and adaptable. The schedule is tough, his team are desperately searching for some defensive confidence and cohesion and we know Milan can play well on the break. Sometimes sitting on a lead and settling the game doesn’t hurt.