Exploited spaces and the switch to zonal: Tactical analysis of Lazio 2-2 AC Milan

AC Milan were involved in a rollercoaster of a game against Lazio on Saturday night as both teams led at the Stadio Olimpico but had to settle for a 2-2 draw.

Milan took the lead in the first half through Strahinja Pavlovic, who rose highest at the near post to power in a Christian Pulisic corner and net his first goal for the club in the process since arriving from Red Bull Salzburg.

However, the hosts turned the game on its head in just a few second half minutes and Nuno Tavares set up both goals from the left side. The first cut-back was fired in by Taty Castellanos, while the second was buried by Boulaye Dia.

Rafael Leao would eventually be the saviour for the Rossoneri, linking up with Tammy Abraham and Theo Hernandez to fire in a low shot and give a debut assist to the English striker. The end result, though, is that Milan are without a win in their first three games.

Our writer Rohit Rajeev provides a tactical look at the game from the capital, more specifically yet another defensive collapse that put the result in jeopardy.

For the first goal Youssouf Fofana was marking Dia and Fikayo Tomori was marking Tavares. In the sequence of play leading to the goal, Tavares out paces Tomori and Dia makes a run on Fofana’s blindside and he misses it. Both combine to score.

Although people put a lot of blame on Emerson Royal, there is more than one Milan player culpable in this situation as Tavares made an unmarked run which got him ahead of the Brazilian.

Samuel Chukwueze didn’t do much to block the pass or follow Nuno while Tomori did nothing about the space behind Royal.

It is useful to rewind the clock back a little and make a comparison. When Milan were coached by Stefano Pioli they used a man-oriented pressing system which is a very common and even favoured system among Italian coaches.

In this system, even though it had a basic structure a lot of it was defined by where the opposition players ran. The consequence is that the players would follow.

Under Fonseca, Milan use a zonal marking system where they cover spaces and not players. Any player who enters their zone is pressed pro-actively, otherwise the Rossoneri player stands firm.

One of the critical rules of zonal marking is the cohesion and short spaces, something Ariggo Sacchi has heavily emphasised time and time again. There has to be compactness vertically and horizontally.

Just a few seconds before the second goal you can see the space behind Emerson and how Tomori is no covering that space which gives away a 2v1.

It is also a problem that was mentioned under areas to improve in the preseason game against Barcelona, because the Catalan sound picked out that particular weakness and exploited it in transition.

If you look below at how Shakhtar Donetsk (white) are defending vs Roma (red) you can see how compact they are and they give no space even to pass the ball.

What should Fonseca do? It feels like the biggest challenge Milan are facing is in the transition of moving from a man-oriented pressing side to a zonal marking team, and it will need time to perfect. The problem is that the patience players and fans will have is not infinite.

Zonal marking is something a lot of coaches like Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Maurizio Sarri use, so it is important that Milan learn to do it under Fonseca because a coaching change might bring someone who wishes to do the same.