Serie A 2018/19: AC Milan vs Juventus

Juventus continued their unbeaten Serie A start by beating AC Milan 2-0 at the San Siro. Goals from Mario Mandzukic and Cristiano Ronaldo proved enough to defeat Gennaro Gattusos men. This tactical analysis looks at the setups of the two teams and the tactical trends of the game.

Teams

Gennaro Gattuso continued with a 4-4-2 formation and paired Samu Castillejo with Gonzalo Higuain up front in the Argentinians first clash with his former club. Their line-up read:

Donnarumma
Abate-Zapata-Romagnoli-Rodriguez
Suso-Kessie-Bakayoko-Calhanoglu
Castillejo-Higuain

Massimiliano Allegri seems to have found his preferred midfield three as Rodrigo Bentancur once again joined Miralem Pjanic and Blaise Matuidi in the centre. The big news, however, was him preferring Medhi Benatia over Leonardo Bonucci on the Italians return to San Siro. Full team:

Szczesny
Cancelo-Benatia-Chiellini-Alex Sandro
Bentancur-Pjanic-Matuidi
Mandzukic-Dybala-Ronaldo

Tactical analysis: What were the tactical trends of the night?

Now lets take a look at how both teams approached the game tactically.

AC Milans defence and attacking structure

Milan approached the game with a quite passive defensive setup. They pressed high on some occasions yet mostly decided to drop deeper and form a 4-4-2 block as seen below.

Their positioning was often quite good with the midfield looking to protect the central areas and leave the flanks to the full-backs. The wingers Suso and Calhanoglu would then press from inside and out to try and force Juve wide. A good example of this can be seen below with Calhanoglu more narrow than the left-back Rodriguez.

Milan ran into some troubl