Baiting the press and remaining compact: Tactical analysis of Inter 1-2 AC Milan

After six derby defeats in a row, AC Milan finally tasted victory against Inter on Sunday night at San Siro as Matteo Gabbia became the hero for the red half of the city.

Paulo Fonseca made the bold decision to change formation and load up with a four-man front line, something that certainly drew a mixed reaction from the fanbase who pondered whether it was the right move against an Inter side who can move in transition at pace.

Milan took the lead less than 10 minutes in when Christian Pulisic’s direct run took him between four opposing defenders and he beat Yann Sommer with a poke, but then Federico Dimarco responded with a powerful low shot.

Nonetheless, the boyhood Milanista Gabbia stepped up and headed in a winner inside the dying minutes to give the Rossoneri the three points their performance had more than deserved. Rohit Rajeev has the tactical analysis…

In possession

One of the most interesting aspects of the game was when Milan had hold of the ball and Inter (obviously) did not. Inter off the ball played a 5-3-2 while they were pressing quite aggressively in the wide areas.

On the ball, Alvaro Morata – who was expected to form a front two with Tammy Abraham – would drop between the lines and act as a No.8 type player, quite like how Tijjani Reijnders and Ruben Loftus-Cheek played versus Venezia.

Milan meanwhile seemed to be expecting Inter’s aggressive press in the wider areas as they sucked the numbers towards one flank and switched the play to the more unoccupied side.

Milan’s midfielders showed some real intelligence, like how Reijnders moved out of Hakan Calhanoglu’s cover shadow to exploit the temporary space thanks to Inter trying to overload the Milan right flank.

As soon as Inter lost the ball they launched an aggressive counter-press but Youssouf Fofana used quick feet to dodge them and move the ball forward, which meant that the Rossoneri broke a line of press and had a more open field ahead.

In the lead up to the free kick for the second goal Loftus-Cheek bent his run superbly. With Dimarco and Carlos Augusto man marking Samuel Chukwueze and Emerson Royal there was acres of space for RLC to run into which meant Dimarco had to foul him.

Milan would also overload between the lines after baiting the press

One thing that was obvious on Tuesday night was how static Milan were against Liverpool, but when Fofana saw Inter press Rafael Leao he made the run which helped break the press. This kind of movement was something that wasn’t seen against Liverpool and it added to the overall predictability.

Out of possession

Milan kept their 4-2-4 shape off the ball but what changed was how compact they were horizontally and vertically. True to Arrigo Sacchi’s principles, where he insisted that his team kept the distance between the defensive and attacking lines close to 15 metres.

Inter’s positional rotations were extremely good with different variations. Their positional changes – unlike those of Pep Guardiola or Roberto De Zerbi – were based mostly on where space appeared that they could exploit. In essence, it was more improvised than structured disorder.

Inter got their goal with quick movements. Before Milan settled into their 4-2-4, Nicolo Barella’s cross-field to Dimarco caught the Rossoneri off guard.

With Lautaro winning his 1v1 against Gabbia, Emerson tried to close down Lautaro instead of sticking to Dimarco and it gave the Argentine an easy feed.

Inter also made quick short passes before Milan defenders could move into defensive possession. To counter this, in Milan’s 4-2-4 the front four shut down the three centre-backs who were trying to build from the back.

Milan played a zonal marking system and the entire idea was to shut down the space and reduce the playing area in the pitch and win the small battles, not allowing Calhanoglu or Mkhitaryan to overload between the lines

Conclusion

Stefano Pioli searched for the best part of two years to find the right formula to neutralise Inter’s strengths and amplify Milan’s, but his record and the performances in the derbies just seemed to get worse.

Fonseca’s formation change appeared to many to be a desperate last throw of the dice with his job potentially on the line, but it was actually a well thought plan to be unpredictable in possession and cause problems out of possession.

What remains to be seen is if this system with wide midfielders and two centre-forwards will provide something to build further on or if it was a very specific approach to counter Inter.

What this also mustn’t be is a false dawn, so now the pressure is on to repeat the performance and result against Lecce on Friday night.