Pressing problems: Coincidence or not for Milan against teams who pin them back? – scout report

Milan have turned into one of the most dominant teams in the 2020/21 season, keeping their leadership in Serie A round after round and currently sitting two points clear at the top. Their latest displays weren’t as impressive as they fell victim to Atalanta and saw their second league defeat, just to go out for the Coppa Italia derby with city rivals Inter and make it two consecutive defeats.

The team were clearly struggling in ball progression and in the final third and couldn’t create enough opportunities to threaten the opposition’s goal in both games. Stefano Pioli’s men looked desperate as never before trying to resist their opponents’ attacking ventures but also in trying to bypass the press and create danger when in possession.

Their efforts weren’t successful and saw them crash out of the Coppa Italia battle which was a huge disappointment after their goalless performance against Atalanta.

In this tactical analysis in the form of scout report, we will look into their tactics from the last couple of games and use analysis to determine whether their performance was a coincidence or they are struggling in certain areas.

Atalanta’s pressing limited Milan and tested out their creativity

With a couple of absent regular starters in the face of Hakan Çalhanoğlu and Alessio Romagnoli, Pioli still opted for his usual 4-2-3-1 against Atalanta’s favoured 3-4-1-2 formation. Looking at their strategies, on paper, both teams should’ve been able to find their way forward and create opportunities. That wasn’t the case though. Milan’s usually versatile build-up movement wasn’t very effective and failed to break Atalanta’s pressing structures.

While the team were dominating with their attacking movement in the first half of the season, they now often find it hard to penetrate their opponents’ defensive set-ups. Being aware of Atalanta’s aggressive man-to-man marking, Milan had come up with a strict plan in efforts to reach the final third. Initially, they focused on overloading the right side, providing more space and freedom for the left-back Theo Hernández, who is one of their main figures in attack.

Switch of play is an approach that Milan have relied on multiple times throughout the season but wasn’t quite successful against La Dea. They became predictable and often failed to capitalise on these opportunities both due to Atalanta’s disciplined marking strategy and Milan’s lack of strong actions in the final third. Hernández couldn’t create quality opportunities and lost possession frequently which resulted in multiple unsuccessful attacking movements that were ended early on.

That is not an unusual event against Gian Piero Gasperini’s side though. They usually put a lot of efforts into their press and actions off the ball and always try to block the passing lanes in the central areas. While they allowed Milan some chances at the beginning of the game, they adjusted their pressing even better and troubled Milan’s build-up from the back.

With their tight man-to-man marking the Rossoneri were unable to find channels for ball progression and weren’t able to open the passing lanes with movement off the ball. This forced Milan to use a lot more long balls than usual, which dropped their efficiency in attack immensely. While they do have a great target man in Zlatan Ibrahimović, Atalanta’s constant pressure didn’t allow them to hold on to the ball and create chances. This even got the keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma involved in the ball progression and he ended the game with four long passes to the Swede in efforts to bypass the press and send the ball behind La Dea’s defence.