Massimiliano Allegri Tactics At AC Milan 2025/2026: New Era, Old Master – Tactical Analysis

Massimiliano Allegri has been officially appointed as AC Milan’s new head coach following last weeks negotiations.

I Rossoneri started their summer reconstruction phase to try to fix what went wrong last season by hiring Igli Tare as the sporting director.

This was an attempt to avoid the mistakes made last season in terms of decision-making, whether concerning head coach appointments or player assessments and choices.

As soon as he got hired, Tare started working concretely on the head coach dilemma.

After analysing the available footballing market, the choice was made for Allegri.

In fact, Allegri is an experienced head coach who knows Milan very well, having coached the team from 2010 to 2014.

During his tenure, he won the 18th Serie A title for Milan in 2010/2011, in addition to winning the Supercoppa Italiana in 2011.

Therefore, no one can deny that Allegris period at Milan was positive, even though the seasons that followed were more complicated and did not share the success of the first one.

This was mainly due to the teams financial issues, which led to the sale of prominent players such as Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimović, and their inability to replace them with quality players.

Despite succeeding during his second season at Milan in battling until the last rounds for the Serie A title against Juventus, the end of the 2011/2012 season marked the end of a cycle for numerous Milan legends at that time.

This greatly impacted the team and prevented them from competing seriously for the Serie A title or the UEFA Champions League during the coming seasons.

In the 2012/2013 season, Allegri helped Milan improve from 16th place in the Serie A standings initially to clinching a third-place finish at the end of the season, which was crucial for qualifying for the playoff round of the 2013/2014 UEFA Champions League.

Overall, Allegri’s first spell at AC Milan was successful, especially in the first two years.

This leads us to question whether his second spell would be as successful as his first one.

He arrives after a season in which AC Milan finished eighth in the league with 63 points.

This tactical analysis article will present Allegri’s footballing ideas and principles, explaining how these ideas and tactics can suit Milan’s players and style of play.

The analysis will also explore the transfer market needs that Allegri would benefit from to build a stronger squad than last season.

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Massimiliano Allegri Tactics & Principles

To begin, we should stress that the choice of Allegri received a lot of criticism from some.

This, however, does not mean that Allegri is a bad head coach.

On the contrary, Allegri has been criticised by many who adhere to different footballing principles, and these opponents are not necessarily wrong.

Football has never been about right or wrong, as it is not only based on data or mathematics but also on tactics, form, mental and psychological management, team chemistry, intelligence, creativity, and more.

That’s why, whether one likes Allegri’s coaching approach and footballing principles or not, its fundamental to respect them, as nothing in football is constant.

In other words, no playing systems or tactics allow you to win forever.

There are tactical and ideological trends in football that can work for certain teams and with specific head coaches at a particular time, but not necessarily for others.

There are many examples: Arrigo Sacchi’s AC Milan, José Mourinho’s Inter Milan, Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, and recently Hansi Flick’s Barcelona.

At the same time, we cannot say that Allegri is a failing manager simply because he is a winner.

He proved his ability to win titles on numerous occasions with Milan and Juventus.

Allegri believes in a realistic and somewhat simplistic style of football, relying on players’ individual talent, intelligence, and movement instead of predetermined combinations, especially when it comes to attacking tactics.

On Italian television, he stated that he appreciates the creativity of certain players, especially those who have the skills and dribbling abilities needed to surpass anyone.

In the context of the current Milan squad, Allegri has already stated that he likes Rafael Leão a lot and considers him one of the best players in the world, particularly in terms of dribbling rates and winning offensive duels.

It will be interesting to see how Leão develops under Allegris management, as Allegri is also known for imposing discipline on and off the pitch.

The discipline that Allegri will add to this team will be crucial, especially for Leão, who needs some behavioural adjustments and guidance on the pitch.

Allegri will definitely work with Leão on improving movement when the team doesnt have the ball and defending more effectively when the team loses possession.

Some Milan players tendency to be indifferent whenever the team loses possession of the ball should be addressed before next season.

Allegri is the type of manager who focuses a lot on such details, as he knows that these details are the factors that determine the results of games.

Defensively, Allegri has been one of the best in Italy in terms of conceding the fewest goals per season, thanks to his teams typically strong defensive performances, both as a unit and in a very disciplined manner.

Under Allegris management, teams tend to defend using all possible means, including utilising strikers to defend on the wings when necessary and when they have sufficient players to do so.

The examples are many, and the most notable one to apply this role in an Allegri team was Mario Mandžukić.

Applying this method to the Milan team would be greatly appreciated, as the team conceded a high number of goals last season and struggled to finish the first half without conceding.

Therefore, the first step to performing better next season would be to address the issues that went wrong in Milan’s defence.

Allegri Defensive Values & What To Fix In The Milan Defence

In this regard, Allegri has previously proven himself to be intelligent enough not to rebuild everything from scratch but rather to utilise what is available at his disposal with a few adjustments that help improve the team’s defensive performances.

We saw this during his first spell at Juventus when he found Antonio Conte’s famous 3-5-2 formation.

Allegri was adaptable enough to maintain that same formation throughout his first season with the team while adjusting it to suit his tactical needs.

He only started changing it to his preferred 4-3-3 formation and 4-4-2 formation during the following season.

In the current Milan context, Allegri is expected to maintain the successful 3-4-3 formation that Sérgio Conceição established in the latter part of this season while also experimenting with and possibly adapting it to a 3-5-2 formation at times to suit his philosophy.

He knows that he has the time needed to apply this change and let the team get accustomed to it.

In the defensive phase, Allegri tends to play with a compact defensive line, forcing opponents to attack from the wings rather than the middle, as he intensifies his players’ presence in a condensed area.

Instructing the wing-backs to retreat to the defensive line and block any penetration attempts is fundamental to Allegri’s defensive system, as he usually avoids defending with only four players.

In order to be much more secure from a defensive perspective, Allegri’s midfielders always follow the ball and use zonal marking to create numerical superiority against the opponent, even when these midfielders would lean towards the right or the left wing.

Occupying Spaces Inside The First Third

That said, playing with three midfielders suits Allegri better than using two.

He prefers to have two midfielders cover on the wing as soon as the opponents progress from that specific side and leave one midfielder ready to intervene on the other side.

Therefore, the notion of moving as a cohesive defensive unit that always follows the ball is essential for Allegri to be as secure as possible in defence and prevent any penetration attempts from the middle.

Switching To The 5-4-1 Formation When Defending

In addition to this strict defensive organisation, Allegri is known for switching his formation when defending to form a 5-4-1 formation when out of possession.

This formation could also help Milan avoid conceding chances.

It requires one of the two strikers to retreat to