Juventus 3-2 Milan: Tactical Analysis
Juventus: Roaring when it matters
As Roma have run away at the top of the table in Serie A, some of the traditional giants like Juventus and Milan have had slightly lukewarm starts to their season. So, there was a lot at stake for both managers in the clash between these two teams, as victory in a match against a big rival can kick start the season. Milan were the visitors to Turin on this occasion.
The home side started with a 3-5-2 formation. Buffon and the usual trio of Bonucci, Barzagli and Chiellini started at the back. In midfield too, the familiar trio of Pirlo, Marchisio and and Vidal started. The wings were manned by Asamoah on the left, and Padoin on the right. Up front, Quagliarella played as the one who tried to run in behind, while Tevez dropped deeper to link play.
AC Milan began the game in a 4-1-3-2 formation that their manager Allegri favours. The 4 at the back were Abate, Zapata, Mexes and Constant. De Jong sat in front of them, and Montolivo, Nocerino and Muntari played as the narrow midfielders. Robinho was tasked with playing a little deeper to link play and exploit the space that was created by Matri running in behind.
Milan started with a pretty decent front two of Matri and Robinho. The objective was to have Matri running in behind to create space for the Brazilian forward. Generally, this tactic is useful to force Juve back, because Pirlo isn’t as effective in defence as he is as an attacker. Therefore, Juventus had Leonardo Bonucci kept moving a little bit higher to mark Robinho and cut out the space that may have been created for him in this way.
The other Juventus defenders did well to track the runs that Matri made in behind Bonucci, and this meant that the Milan forwards were rendered quite ineffective.
No Pressing
Going into this game, Milan would have been very happy if they were given a point at the end of it. Therefore, they set up to play through counter attacks. The defence and the midfield sat quite deep and allowed the Juve players space in their own half. Often, Juventus even managed to make it to the edge of the Milan area very easily, especially in the first 20 minutes, when they were searching for the equaliser.
Juventus too, weren’t really pressing the ball in the first half, allowing the Milan players to have in the deeper regions. The only reason they managed to win the ball a few times was the amount of individual errors and passing mistakes the Milan team made when passing out from the back. Mexes was one of the guilty parties. Of course, it was easy for Juventus to stay around the half way line, because Milan had just 3 bodies back when on the ball. The full backs had to move forward to provide width, while only De Jong stayed close to the centre backs while they had the ball. Riccardo Montolivo had to go further forward to find space to operate in, as he couldn’t afford to be too close to De Jong, so he couldn’t help out with balls from deep either.
Another reason for the ineffective pressing from Juventus was Carlos Tevez. The Argentine is a player who always harries defenders, but he was played in a slightly deeper role by Conte today to effect quick counter attacking transitions. This meant that Quagliarella was left to play in the region where Milan had a lot of the ball, and he isn’t as intense off the ball as Tevez.
