Defensive calamity plays into Conte’s hands: Tactical analysis of AC Milan 0-2 Napoli

AC Milan suffered another damaging defeat early in the season as they were beaten 2-0 by the league leaders Napoli on Tuesday night.

Both goals came in the first half for the away team. Romelu Lukaku got the opener with a typical powerful run and finish, before Khvicha Kvaratskhelia doubled the advantage just before the break in a half that Milan otherwise dominated.

Alvaro Morata’s offside goal was the closest that the Rossoneri got to making a game of things as they sat deep and saw out the second half with relative comfort, padding out their lead at the top of the table.

After being linked with potentially hiring him in the summer, Milan have fallen 11 points behind Antonio Conte’s side and although they have a game in hand, the feeling is that the title train has left the station without them. Below is a tactical analysis of the game, from Rohit Rajeev.

Napoli’s in-possession structure and pressing

Napoli started in a 4-3-3 formation but in possession Billy Gilmour would sit between the two centre-backs while the full backs pushed up. A 3-4-2-1 system can be seen with Kvaratskhelia tucking into the centre of the pitch.

Napoli at 0-0 pressed high up the field, which was only for the first few minutes as it turned out. The pressing structure and the execution helped them achieve the first goal.

Milan’s pressing

Milan pressed high up the field with a man-to-man system, as can be seen in the clip below.

Milan would also press high to try and reduce the playing area of the pitch on the wings. Otherwise, the usual 4-2-4 was seen.

Napoli used the third-man runs extensively to break Milan’s pressing patterns.

Milan meanwhile would suck Napoli’s press to one side of the pitch and then switch to the other wing.

Once they took the lead, Conte’s side switched back to a 5-3-2 shape, sitting deep to soak up pressure and ceding possession in the process.

The midfield issues

It’s not a secret that Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Yunus Musah have been a pretty huge disappointments this season after being fairly good last season, but why is that ?

With each passing game it seems more and more obvious that they do not fit this system. While Christian Pulisic and Tijjani Reijnders possess great technical ability, Loftus-Cheek are Musah are good ball carriers and useful for teams that play predominantly on the counter.

The example of RLC dribbling past Di Lorenzo on the counter and almost all the way to the Napoli goal stands out, but there was nobody on the end of his cut-back. The PSG home game last season was probably his best performance, and it was because he had open field to run into.

The situation below was a stand-out too. Morata had to drop into midfield because of a lack of service and act as an attacking midfielder and then switch play because RLC and Musah do not have that positional sense needed.

Early defensive disaster

Milan let in 69 goals across all competitions last season and 49 in Serie A alone, which are far from the numbers of a team that can realistically compete for silverware.

This season things have continued in a similarly worrying fashion as the Rossoneri have let in 11 goals across nine league games. They have conceded at least two goals in six of their 12 matches across all competitions.

We highlighted in a recent feature how the constantly changing defensive combinations is not helping things, and it is time to update the list of the starting defensive units that Fonseca has chosen this season so far:

➤ Torino: Calabria, Tomori, Thiaw, Saelemaekers (2 goals conceded).
➤ Parma: Calabria, Tomori, Pavlovic, Theo (2 goals conceded).
➤ Lazio: Emerson, Tomori, Pavlovic, Terracciano (2 goals conceded).
➤ Venezia: Emerson, Gabbia, Pavlovic, Theo (0 goals conceded).
➤ Liverpool: Calabria, Tomori, Pavlovic, Theo (3 goals conceded).
➤ Inter: Emerson, Gabbia, Tomori, Theo (1 goal conceded).
➤ Lecce: Emerson, Gabbia, Tomori, Theo (0 goals conceded).
➤ Leverkusen: Emerson, Gabbia, Tomori, Theo (1 goal conceded).
➤ Fiorentina: Emerson, Gabbia, Tomori, Theo (2 goals conceded).
➤ Udinese: Emerson, Thiaw, Pavlovic, Terracciano (0 goals conceded).
➤ Club Brugge: Emerson, Gabbia, Tomori, Theo (1 goal conceded).
➤ Napoli: Emerson, Thiaw, Pavlovic, Terracciano (2 goals conceded).

Looking at the first goal, we can see this lack of understanding inside five minutes. When an unprecedented defensive combination is coming up against a good team they need more help than what Maignan gave them with the poor pass out.

However, in two passes and just a few seconds Lukaku (far left of screen) goes from being offside and not affecting play to rather easily opening the scoring. The first error is that nobody cuts out the passing lane to Anguissa and/or applies pressure when he receives the ball.

He is able to turn, scan and sees Lukaku making a run between Thiaw who has stepped up and Pavlovic who is following the run of the Belgian but is far from touch tight and crucially has his body shape the wrong way.

Pavlovic was brought in for his anticipation and above all his physicality, yet he is barged away in the challenge, Lukaku beats Maignan (who was slow off his line) and the entire game was compromised.

Corner analysis

One area that Milan did dominate was in corners as they had five to Napoli’s one. However, they were unable to add to the five set-piece goals they have scored this season.