Serie A Women 2022/23: How Fiorentina dominated Milan by exploiting their defensive weaknesses – tactical analysis

Milan Women hosted Fiorentina Women in the new season’s first Serie A Women game. It was also the first game as professionals for both teams since Serie A Women has just become professional starting from this actual season.

This was a match to forget for AC Milan as they were hoping for a convincing start ahead of their endless competition with teams like Juventus, Roma, Inter, Sassuolo and Fiorentina themselves all vying for the top two spots. The Rossonere lost the match 1-3 and showed that they still lack a lot of things in order to compete seriously for the title. Furthermore, continuing at the same level and repeating the same tactical mistakes can easily exclude Milan from the competition for the second spot, knowing that all the other competing teams for this spot have reinforced their squads and are looking in better shape at the moment.

It is true that Milan made some solid reinforcements as well such as the transfer of Kosovare Asllani, but that is not really enough to form a strong team. Changing the team’s key players every season cannot really help the side progress and be more cohesive in terms of ideas and chemistry. The instability in this regard affects how the team plays and looks on the pitch a lot. For instance, replacing Laia Codina and Laura Agard who were two of the team’s best defenders can only harm the team and make them take a step backwards even if the newcomers are stronger and more skilful.

The integration of these new players and their understanding of the team’s defending system and tactics would surely take time at the expense of the team’s results in Serie A, and that can make the difference in the standings at the end of the season in the favour of the teams competing with Milan.

Moreover, playing two or three friendly games cannot really prepare the new players 100% especially when knowing that some of them have just joined the squad and did not train much with the team.

On the other side, Fiorentina looked very attentive and determined to win in this match and showed more passion than Milans players and that was clear in their way of defending and in the way they exploited the created opportunities and the errors of Milan. They were able to score three goals in a difficult away match and that would surely add a lot of confidence and motivation to the players and help the coaching staff work in a calm and optimistic atmosphere for the coming weeks, which is extremely important on a psychological aspect as it can unexpectedly lead to great results.

In this tactical analysis article, we will be exploring how Fiorentina exploited the chances they created in a perfect way and why Milan conceded numerous goals, before moving to address Milan’s attacking performance and what it lacked to harm Fiorentina.

Lineups

Before moving to the analysis of the match, let’s take a look at both teams’ lineups. Milan Women kept using their usual 3-4-3 formation with Laura Giuliani, Laura Fusetti, Małgorzata Mesjasz and Alia Guagni in defence, Angelica Soffia, Marta Mascarello, Kamila Dubcová and Valentina Bergamaschi in midfield while Kosovare Asllani, Lindsey Thomas, and Martina Piemonte formed the attacking trio.

On the other side, head coach Patrizia Panico preferred to opt for the 4-2-3-1 formation as it suits the players’ abilities better especially the attacking ones. Katja Schroffenegger was the goalkeeper, Kaja Eržen, Alice Tortelli, Laura Agard and Jazmin Nichole Jackmon in defence, Alice Parisi and Sarah Huchet as central midfielders, Milica Mijatović and Michela Catena on the wings, Veró Boquete as an advanced playmaker and Zsanett Kaján as the team’s striker.

Fiorentina’s attacking performance and Milan’s defensive issues

Fiorentina were 100% focused on the game since its first minute while Milan were partly absent during the first-half of the match and when they woke up tactically in the second-half it was too late for them because the damage was already done and it was complicated to score back three goals to an organised Fiorentina. The latter were very attentive to details and made sure to exploit every defensive mistake Milan committed.

In the following first goal action, Milan made an error that happened numerous times during last season and it continues to take place at the start of this season which concerns the defensive trio and their attacking movements. By advancing to help in attack, one of the three centre-backs usually leaves a lot of space behind them and no one can cover for them in this case. That’s why teams with quick attacking players can usually put Milan in trouble as they know exactly how to exploit such occasions.

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