GdS: ‘Here is the new Milan’ – why Fonseca’s anti-Inter side is a platform to build

Paulo Fonseca continues to get praise after his bold but successful moves in the derby victory against Inter on Saturday night, with the Italian media even claiming a new Milan is being born.

As this morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes, it took Fonseca six games to find the tactical framework for his Milan side but in light of what happened on Sunday night against Inter he might just have found something worth sticking with.

The turning point against Inter finally came from the defensive phase, which started from the front because the line of four forwards pressed high and didn’t allow the Nerazzurri to play out as Simone Inazghi would like.

Then there were individual performances like that of Matteo Gabbia who played a practically perfect match even beyond the winning goal he scored, limiting Lautaro Martinez. His composure was a nice complement to Fikayo Tomori and it will be hard to keep him out of the team now.

The difference, especially in the second half, was also made by Youssouf Fofana who provided a ‘perfect’ midfield screen and was a dam in front of the back line. This also allowed Tijjani Reijnders to act with greater freedom moving forward, and he could have had multiple assists.

The real tactical turning point, however, was the choice to use two strikers. Tammy Abraham and Alvaro Morata were used side by side and many thought it wouldn’t work but they were the first line of pressure out of possession and when Milan had the ball their movement dragged Inter around.

The mobility of the Englishman and the Spaniard not only created confusion among the Inter lines but also allowed Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao to push on into the spaces that were created. The next step is to become more ruthless, and of course to build on this new platform.