Tactial Analysis: Milan 3-1 Lazio

Lazio lost their first game of the season against Milan at "San Siro". Although they conceded three goals, i think that Lazio played well and organised. The most important thing is that actually they have a clear idea how to break the Milan's defence. Yes, they made some errors that cost them to won at a draw, but Pioli's seems to be one the right track.

Pioli started with 4-3-3 formation. He chose Klose over Djordjevic, Biglia over Ledesma and Cana over Gentiletti. So Cana was a parnter to the new signing De Vrij in the center of the defence. Although De Vrij was criticized for his performance, i would like to point out that he played well and was stable at the back. The team conceded three goals because of a team mistakes, not only because De Vrij. But i will go back to this little later.

fig. 1

At fig. 1 it is easy to see Lazio system in defence. Lazio are playing with a pretty much high defensive line. And are defending with a 4-5-1 formations. Parolo is always close to Muntari, Lulic to Poli and Biglia is between them. It should be noted that Lulic was the player who most often helped Klose upfront in the pressing. In that situation Biglia took his place and the system was 4-4-1-1. Lazio pressing game was a rather restricted one, and not as high & advanced. Klose being the furthest forward did put pressure on the Milan centre-backs, but he was the only one to regularly do so in the opposition half (and Lulic sometimes was helping him). The rest of the team were instructed to keep their pressing limited to their own half, rarely extending beyond the half-way line. The rest of the Spurs side are content sitting back as long as the ball remains in Milan’s half between their two central defenders. But when Milan's midfieldiers took the ball, Lazio immediately closed them down.

And Lazio close down the Milan players when they get possession in their half, but rarely exert any pressure when the ball is in Milan’s half. This of course did make it difficult for Milan to play passes in the opposition half. But the wrong thing in Pioli's tactic was the vulnerable high line. So almost for the whole game Milan played with long passes behind the Lazio's defence.

fig. 2

Here we can see the intention of Lazio to play short pass from goal kick. But Milan didn't let them to do that in the first minutes. It should be noted aslo the position of Radu and Basta.

fig. 3

Here we can see the idea of Pioli how to build our attacks. Candreva always was moving in more central position, so in that way Basta can go forward. The purpose of Candreva's moving is to give free space for Basta. Also we can noted Parolo's position. For the big part of the game he goes deep almost as a third defender (RCB) to get the ball and then play it to a teammate.

fig. 4

On fig. 4 is shown the position of Keita and Candreva. It is easy to see the new instruction - Keita and Candreva has to go to central position and in this way Radu and Basta can go forward in the open space. The downside of this is when the oppopent counter-attacks is very hard for Basta and Radu to cover in time their zones. So in that way the wings become very vulnarable, especially for the fast players as El Shaarawy. But in attack the attacking wings give width to the team and more centrally Canreva/Keita means more variety.

fig. 5

Here once again you can see the high defensive line from Lazio. And the main threat from Milan - long balls over the defence (diagonal passes to El Shaarawy and Honda, who run into the free zone behind Radu and Basta). This was the biggest problem for Lazio in the first half. Radu and Basta has to be quick to go back to their position but that's no an easy task. Maybe it will be better if Biglia is always very close to Cana and De Vrij (somewhere between them or slightly upfront) - so he could help more in such situation and to have always at least three players at back.

fig. 6

On some occasions Lazio pressed high on the pitch. For example here Zapata is with the ball but with face towards his own goal. So the Milan CB doesn't have a good view at the pitch and where are his teammates. Lulic take advantage from this and doesn't let him pass the ball forward. Klose and Biglia immediately starting to press Milan players too. So Zapata must return the ball back to Diego Lopez (in the same time Candreva and Keita close down Abate and Bonera, and Biglia - De Jong). So Diego Lopez doesn't have choice but to clear the ball aimlessly forward.

 

fig. 7

fig. 8

The first big mistake in Lazio defence (fig. 7 and fig. 8). De Vrij went to close down Menez, but he went out from his position a lot, so he told Candreva to close down Menez. Thus Candreva let Bonera completely free on the right wing (Parolo is pressing high the center back Zapata; otherwise it was his job to mark Menez). So Basta is late and Bonera give a through ball with one touch for El Shaarawy. De Vrij is out of position, Cana is too far away to cover his zone. I don't know why Cana didn't go behind De Vrij to cover him (Radu has to be close to Honda). But he stayed still and let this big free space to happen. Fortunately, there was offside (although on the replay it was clear that El Shaarawy is on the same line as Cana).

fig. 9

Once again Lazio playing on the wings - Keita is moving to the center to open space for Radu. This is something that they do for 90 minutes (after the change Anderson-Keita, the brazilian did the same). On the right wing Candreva and Basta did the same, but only for the first half. In the second Basta stayed more on his position - Pioli react to El Shaarawy threat. But for that little later.

fig. 10

The beginning of the Milan's attack in which they opened the score. Once again El Shaarawy got space behind Basta and as soon as Bonera took the ball, he quickly run behind Basta. There is no chance for Basta to catch Milan's winger from that situation and he couldn't stop the pass either. Notice the high position of Cana and De Vrij. So when El Shaarawy started to run with the ball, De Vrij was already behind him and it was hard to stop him. After that Radu couldn't stop Honda, too. Like Basta the romanian left back wasn't quickly enough to cover his zone.

fig. 11

After the goal, Lazio started to press more. Here the ball is lost but Lazio's players are trying to take it back immediately. So three players are pressing Honda, who somehow manage to find De Jong. But Biglia was smart to close him down and De Jong couldn't start a counter-attack for his team - he just clear the ball away. 

fig. 12

Here you can see Lazio press high again (with high defensive line of course). Keita has taken the position of Klose but that doesn't matter. You can notice the high position of Lulic, who has been pressing high on the pitch for whole first part. And Lazio are defending with 4-4-2 (4-4-1-1). So Pioli used the energy of Lulic to press high and the defensive skills of Parolo to stay along Biglia.

fig. 13

Once again Lazio are pressing high after they conceded the score. Here Lulic, Klose and Candreva closed down Alex, De Jong and Zapata and forced them to give the ball back to the keeper.

fig. 14

Parolo has two roles on the field. The first have been already shown - he goes deep to collect the ball. Here you can see his other role - Lulic is going back, Parolo is going forward. And this happened almost for the whole first half. It is interesting because Lulic is the player who press high on the pitch, but in attack he goes deep. Parolo does the opposite - he stay deep in defence and go forward in attack. He is always try to find space somewhere in the zone between Muntari and El Sharaawy. If there is no space he goes more centrally in the zone behind De Jong.

fig. 15

One more misunderstooding between Cana and De Vrij - both of them go to close down Menez. I don't know if this is a Pioli's intructions or a mistake, but i think that one should press him and the other one should cover the zone behind.

fig. 16

Here we can see one of the Lazio ways of attack. I think this is the generally idea of Pioli. Candreva has go back centrally to recieve the ball and thus is giving space for Basta. Parolo is in his position (forward instead of Candreva), so Bonera can't go to close down Basta. Candreva manage to pass to Biglia who finds Basta on the right wing. El Shaarawy is too far away, because he has just closed down Candreva. Parolo immediately starting run to drag Bonera with himself - in that way he creates more free room for Basta and in the same time is searching for a place for through ball. You can notice that Lulic has moved forward too, so Lazio has a lot of players in the zone between the lines.

fig. 17

Once again - high press and Lulic's high position on the pitch.

fig. 18

Here Radu close down Honda even in his own half. This is a thing from the press that Lazio did after they went down in the score. But the bad thing of this is on the further side of the picture - as it can be seen Basta is too far away from El Shaarawy (because he was going forward in Lazio's attack, but Candreva lost the ball). Yes, Milan is attacking down the left now, but they can quickly change the wings. And it is a fact that on some occasions Basta and Radu was too far away from Honda and El Shaarawy.

fig. 19

Keita again has moved in the centre and Radu has moved forward. You can see the movement of Parolo, who is asking the ball in the free zone behind Milan's defence. So Parolo again is playing upfront. And it should be noted that Radu has tried to pass the ball forward with one touch as soon as he recieved the ball at least three or four times. He is trying to find Parolo, twice he made such diagonal pass to Klose and once to Keita.

fig. 20

Once again the movement of Parolo upfront behind De Jong and Muntari.

fig. 21

One of the best attacks from Lazio in the first half. Parolo has dragged Muntari on the wing, Candreva drop deep to recieve the ball and Bonera is following him. Thus Basta goes for the free space and Lulic finds him with a nice pass. After that Basta and Klose exchange quick passes between them and Basta had a wonderful opportunity to shoot but didn't make the right decision. This attack pretty much show the idea of Pioli how to create goalscoring opportunities with attacking down the wings with Basta and Radu.

In the second half Lazio continue to press high in defence. Basta didn't go so often in attack and Candreva didn't go often to more central position. In attack should be noticed that Lazio started to play with long diagonal balls, more often for Candreva who hug the touchline for most of the second half. One the other wing Keita and after that Anderson continue to move to the center. Especially Anderson who have moved a lot without the ball. So Milan's defence has gone very deep and Lazio didn't really had a change to attack through the center. That's why Parolo and Cana started to play long balls to Candreva - thus Lazio reached quickly to Milan's penaly area.

fig. 22

Although Piolo made some changes, Lazio didn't really made something upfront. Meanwhile Milan scored a second goal. On fig. 22 is shown the beginning of the attack for the second goal. Biglia went to press De Jong high but left a lot of space behind him. As it can be seen on the picture - there are no players between the lines. Lulic closed down Poli, but was too late to intercept the pass or to tackle him. So Poli manage to pass the ball quickly to Abate on the right wing, who was free. Keita for whatever reason didn't go after Abate. Lulic is too far away now to stop Abate and Milan's right back is left to play one on one against Radu.

fig. 23

So Abate manage to cross the ball - it isn't really a Radu's mistake. When you are left with no support you can be easily dribbled or let a pass/cross behind you. But the real mistake is in the penalty box - four Lazio players couldn't intercept the cross and couldn't stop Muntari to score the second goal for Milan. So to concede that goal Lazio concede a lot of mistakes - first Biglia press risky high; Lulic couldn't stop Poli; Radu couldn't stop Abate; Parolo, De Vrij, Basta couldn't stop Muntari. I think that there was something wrong with our pressing style - sometimes the press has being done only from one player and the others didn't mark any opponent. In this attack maybe Lulic should close down Poli earlier - as soon as Bilgia went to press De Jong. And that didn't happen only once. I would want to see more organised pressing from the whole team.

fig. 24

In the second half Parolo mostly was going deep to recieve the ball and to start an attack. He rarely went forward as the first half.

fig. 25

The attack of Milan, from which they won the penalty and score the third goal. Again Anderson is pressing alone upfront with no support from his teammates. But he is too far away from Alex and is too late with his pressing. So he didn't even got close to Alex, who could easily pass the ball to the free Abate on the right wing. And Anderson goes to close down Abate, but it was too late again.

fig. 26

After that Abate pass the ball to Honda. I don't know why but Cana goes out of his position and close down Honda. With one touch the Japanese international pass the ball again to Abate. In the same time Anderson has given up from that to follow Abate and again Radu has to cover him. Cana's moving forward let a lot of free space behind him and behind Radu. And most important it let De Vrij to be alone with Menez. Yes, De Vrij is guilty of the penalty, but he was alone against a very fast player who is even already with the ball on speed. In order not to even get to that situation, here what had to be done: first, Anderson shouldn't try to close down Alex. He was too far away and has no sense to do that - it was clear that he won't manage to get to Alex in time. But if he was going to do that, a teammate should quickly stop the pass and close down the closest teammate of Alex - in that case that was Abate. I think that this should have be done from Biglia or better - from Radu. In that way Alex should clear the ball or return it back to GK. After that Cana shouldn't never go to close down Honda - this isn't his job. He should stay in his position, so he could cover Radu and clear the ball when Honda made the one-two pass with Abate. Who should mark Honda? Two options - Biglia or Radu. If Biglia goes to Honda, Radu could stop Abate. If Radu close down Honda, Anderson should follow till the end Abate. So again for the third goal is a team mistake, not only on De Vrij.

 

fig. 27

A good attack from Lazio and a good chance for Basta. After quick change of the wings, Radu find with a good pass Mauri at the edge of the penalty box. He returtn the ball to Parolo. Candreva is searching for a ball in the center so he dragged with himself Armero. In that way Basta is free on the right, but again he didn't make the right decision and was too slow to shoot.

fig. 28

 Here is one more chance for Lazio. Mauri has found Djordjevic with a very good pass behind the Milan's defence. Yes, the ball was very difficult to be scored, but at least we can put that into the statistic for a key pass from Mauri. I think that Mauri was the thing that the team was missing. Unlike Lulic, Mauri is a player that can give super through balls and have the ability to create an opportunities. Lulic is more a winger and he isn't good when Lazio have to break a crowded defence.

fig. 29

Once more a good play from Lazio. Anderson is searching for a through ball in the space and Candreva finds him. But Muntari did well against Anderson.

It should be noted that Lazio create some very good attacks except these. And Lazio has chances to score more goals. The attack for the own goal of Alex was very good and the movement from Djordjevic was very good and i am sure that the serbian striker should scored if Alex didn't do that. Also Parolo has two good opportunities to score (one after pass from Keita and one after corner) but he couldn't shoot quickly enough like Basta. Mauri missed from a good chance around the penalty spot. Candreva himself missed a penalty and after that missed a header from one meter. In the first half Basta again had a good chance but couldn't shoot on time. So that is a lot of chances and in another day we could easily score at least two. Why not even more. Maybe the players still aren't in their best form. Maybe to be down with 0-3 has influenced them and their confidence infront of the goal. But it is a fact that although we were down with three goals, the team did not give up and we were able to put a pressure to the Milan's defence. In the second half we have 66% possesion of the ball means something. We had 20 shots at San Siro. Last year we had only 5. And we have never had more possesion than Milan in the last five years when playing away from home. Pioli reacted well to the mistakes in the first half - Basta didn't attack so often. But we concede new two goals down the left wing. There was a lot of mistakes, not only one, to be conceded these goals, so we can't put the fault only on Radu or De Vrij. Milan scored three goals from four shots - i think that they were little lucky to do that. They took advantage of our mistakes and scored only because of individual classes of some players. It is obvious that we are new team (especially in defence) and needs time for the players to "gel" together.

And maybe we missed Ledesma and Mauri. Ledesma has the ability to play very good infront of the two center backs and to cover that zone and could be very helpful in some situations. Mauri is a player that we need most in midfield. Parolo is a player that use mostly short passes and rarely a long ball to the wing. Biglia is a very good player but he mostly playes short safely passes and very rare will play a long ball behind the opponent's defence. Mauri is exactly that player - and he proved it immediately - he gave some very good long balls. Ledesma is a player that often try to find the attackers with such passes, too. So we need exactly that - a player that can play more direct passes, more various passes. But we create a lot of chances, although Milan's deep defence in the second half. Not only of them were clear cut chances, but in another day we could score easily some of them. 

The bad thing was the defensive high line against fast players as El Shaarawy and some unorganised pressing. But we have to admit that Milan is a tough opponent and at home or against smaller team this tactic should be very successful. Probably we were too slow sometimes with the ball but this could be fixed. And i don't take the criticize against De Vrij - he played well for a debut player in Seria A - he made 3 tackles (only Parolo has the same), he made 4 interceptions (the most in our team) and 5 clearances (only Cana has more - 6). He made 59 passes, only Biglia has more - 70. The problem was that he and Cana still don't understand well eachother and maybe he is still not in best form - he started training with the team very late because of the World Cup.

That's why i am confident with Pioli and this team. I hope that we will continue to play with 4-3-3 and with this tactics, but maybe a little more smartly.