Yahoo Sports CM: The defensive issues that Milan must resolve and Fonseca’s possible fixes
AC Milan will go into yet another international break in this difficult start to the season with question marks surrounding their defence.
Calciomercato.com have picked out four problems to solve during the break, starting with the worrying signs from yesterday. Zortea’s goal came through static defending less than two minutes in, then Zappa being allowed to score a brace with crosses coming from the other side.
Placing all the responsibility on individual errors would be misleading. Instead, it is important to highlight the difficulty in communications between the two departments (defence and midfield) that led to this fragility that is now common.
For the goal that made it 3-3, when the cross comes in there were Pavoletti, Lapadula and Gaetano for Cagliari against only Pavlovic and Thiaw. Theo, therefore, tightens his position to defend with equal numbers, thus leaving Zappa free to strike. It was avoidable if Okafor had closed down Zappa, but he didn’t speed up.
Milan have now 20 goals this season (including 14 in the league) in 15 games. The Rossoneri are only the seventh-best defence in the league and on seven occasions they have conceded two or more goals.
Milan are the team that, in the last three seasons, has conceded the highest number of goals (10) in the first five minutes of play, underlining how the approach is one of the problems still to be resolved.
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In addition, the Diavolo are among the big teams to allow the highest number of shots on target (3.6 per game), meaning the impression is that Milan are at risk every time the opponents attack. Not only that, but they have conceded nine goals in a very similar way, namely after a left-to-right move.
The frequency of changes and rotations in the defence is high. On only three occasions, from one match to the next, Fonseca chose to confirm the same centre-back pairing. The various choices made by the Portuguese coach did not lead to the much desired solidity of the department.
In five games Gabbia was alongside Tomori, in four games it was Thiaw and Pavlovic, on three occasions it was Tomori with Pavlovic, in two it was the Englishman and Thiaw, while only against Venezia did the coach choose Gabbia-Pavlovic. The result: only four clean sheets so far.
Milan need to work hard every day on their organisation, their chemistry, but also the attitude, concentration and mentality. The team must become more compact with less space between the departments, the individual errors must end, areas being targeted must be strengthened and ideally Fonseca finds a pairing to rely on.
