As injuries have been getting the best of Milan, Gattuso was forced to reshuffle his cards and field an unprecedented eleven. Often criticised for his overly defensive approach, the former destroyer had his side 5th in Serie A, 1 point off Lazio, making the game between the two sides an early decisive match for the conquest of the final Champions League spot.
Inzaghi’s side, on the other hand, are having a positive season thus far, although the sense of dominance that often transpired last year seems to have vanished, stemmed from Lazio’s difference makers’ underperformance.
Lazio (3-5-1-1): Strakosha; Wallace, Acerbi, Radu; Marusic, Parolo, Badelj, Sergej, Lulic; Luis Alberto; Immobile.
Milan (3-4-2-1): Donnarumma; Abate, Zapata, Rodriguez; Calabria, Kessié, Bakayoko, Borini; Suso, Calhanoglu; Cutrone.
A difference in pressing efficiency
Lazio started on the front foot, imposing their game by pressing high on Milan’s build-up in man-oriented fashion with particular emphasis on maintaining a correct body shape and pressing angle to cut off players through cover-shadows. Especially when pressing Milan’s first line, Lazio looked to make up for the numerical inferiority (2v3) with the front two’s collaboration: the ball-side forward pressed the carrier to prevent a vertical pass, while the distant striker covered the passing lane to the other two centre-backs through his positioning.
Lazios forwards’ positioning forces Milan wide
Thus, the only passes Milan’s first line was able to make were towards the wing-backs, who had to drop off from an initially higher positioning on the second line; the goal of this strategy was to push the circulation to wide areas where space is limited due to the touchline and Abate and Borini were immediately pressed by Lazio’s wing-backs, who didn’t allow them to turn. Even when they were able to turn, their only options were diagonal passes, a risky solution, which often led to a loss of possession.
Conversely, Milan’s pressing wasn’t efficient at stopping Lazio from building up and it only stretched the visitors lines further due to poor timing in pressing runs and large starting distances from the pressing target which gave time on the ball to the opposition players. Unlike Inzaghi’s team, the Rossoneri weren’t able to cope with the opposition’s build-up despite being outnumbered, and as a consequence, the home side often had a free man ready to receive.
As Badel
