Assessing the Tactics of Sinisa Mihajlovic's AC Milan Ahead of 2015-16 Season
With the new season less than two weeks away, Serie A clubs are preparing to enter their final stages of pre-season preparation. As such, making and integrating new signings, clearing out unnecessary personnel, and tactical fine-tuning will be the activities of real precedence at present.
Milan look in reasonable shape in this regard. New coach Sinisa Mihajlovic appears to have settled on a system and multiple new additions have been made to improve his squad. The latest addition looks set to be Alessio Romagnoli, whose imminent arrival from Roma, as reported by Football Italia, will add a crucial piece to the Rossoneri puzzle.
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Romagnoli will join Luiz Adriano, Carlos Bacca, Andrea Bertolacci and Jose Mauri in signing for Milan over the course of pre-season and, with seemingly most of their key transfers sealed, now is the time to assess how the club could line up in the coming campaign.
The System: 4-3-1-2
Mihajlovic used the 4-3-1-2 system a lot throughout his final year as coach of Sampdoria and did so to great effect. The Blucerchiati finished seventh in Serie A and subsequently qualified for Europe whilst predominantly lined up in this structure.
Mihajlovic looks set to continue using this formation with Milan, having used it throughout pre-season with varying levels of success.
The system, or at least his version of it, requires a compact defensive four with full-backs who do not ignore their defensive duties while also retaining the moxy and intelligence to attack when appropriate. In front of the back four is a midfield diamond that presses and moves together behind a strike duet that occasionally pull wide.
Here we will consider the options Mihajlovic has for each role in his preferred 4-3-1-2 system.
Goalkeepers: Christian Abbiati, Michael Agazzi, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Diego Lopez
Pre-season confirmed that Mihajlovic’s Milan will not be short of options between the sticks. Diego Lopez played remarkably well last season in his first year in Milan, while Christian Abbiati is an experienced backup.
Gianluigi Donnarumma was used on occasion during Milan’s tours of both China and Germany. At just 16 years of age, he looks like a strong long-term option, while Michael Agazzi gives extra, arguably even unneeded, competition.
Centre-backs: Alex, Rodrigo Ely, Philippe Mexes, Gabriel Paletta, Alessio Romagnoli, Cristian Zapata
The central-defensive pairing that Mihajlovic opts for is up in the air. What is certain is that one of the pair will be Alessio Romagnoli, who will most likely feature on his favoured left side.
Mihajlovic has a wealth of choices as to who to play alongside Romagnoli though none are standout candidates. Philippe Mexes and Alex are past their best, Gabriel Paletta was poor after arriving from Parma midway through last season, while Cristian Zapata is strong but cumbersome.
Rodrigo Ely has been used during pre-season on the left of central defence but his right-footedness means he could easily play next to Romagnoli. Although inexperienced at Serie A level, he appears strong, good in the air and relatively sound both positionally and with the ball at feet.
Mihajlovic has never been afraid to give youth a shot, so he may well choose to field both Ely and Romagnoli in a central defence with a combined age just eight years older than that of either Mexes or Alex individually.
Full-backs: Ignazio Abate, Luca Antonelli, Davide Calabria, Mattia De Sciglio, Cristian Zaccardo
In the full-back areas, Milan have a choice of three Italian internationals in Ignazio Abate, Mattia De Sciglio and Luca Antonelli. The former is strictly right-sided, while the latter plays strictly on the left. De Sciglio, meanwhile, can play on either side.
While the youngest of the trio, De Sciglio lost form and confidence last season. His stunted development will not be aided by the fact that in Abate and Antonelli, he has quality players to compete with in both right and left-back positions, rendering his versatility mute.
Antonelli made more tackles per game than anyone else in the Milan team after joining midway through last season from Genoa and so is a guaranteed start, though Abate will have to play well to keep out De Sciglio on the right.
Christian Zaccardo is well beyond his best years and, with the emergence of youngster Davide Calabria, should prove to be no more than a fringe squad player to be used at right-back only when no other options are available.
Defensive midfielders: Nigel De Jong
With Sampdoria, Mihajlovic liked to play enforcer Angelo Palombo in the holding-midfield role. This evidenced the Serbian coach’s preference for a no-nonsense, simple-passing approach in this position, unlike other teams who opt for playmakers such as Andrea Pirlo or Mirko Valdifiori.
Nigel De Jong fits the bill pretty neatly. He is the only one of Milan’s central midfielders who can be likened to Palombo, mainly due to his tenacity and willingness to get stuck in.
However, his positioning can be brought into question and he sometimes lapses into volatile territory with his tackling. He is far from a completely stable base from which to build a midfield around, but he’s better than anyone else in the Milan squad at performing this very specific role.
Central midfielders: Andrea Bertolacci, Jose Mauri, Riccardo Montolivo, Antonio Nocerino, Andrea Poli
On either side of the defensive midfielder, Mihajlovic will probably opt for two steady shuttlers to connect defence and attack.
New signing Andrea Bertolacci isn’t ideal for this role as he’s arguably better with more license to create, though he is a fine passer of the ball. It is highly unlikely he will be anything less than a regular and important first-team player given the reported fee Milan paid to sign him this summer.
Given the abundance of attacking-midfield options, he will be utilised in central midfield, where the other berth will go to one of either Andrea Poli or Riccardo Montolivo.
Poli is younger and had excellent passing accuracy last season, with an 89.2 per cent success rate unrivalled by the other Milan midfielders. Montolivo is the team captain and an assured passer himself when fully fit. The latter’s influential position may enable him to edge his way into the starting line-up.
New signing Jose Mauri has great potential though it is unlikely that he will find himself thrown in the deep end with the quality of competition he will be up against for a starting spot.
Attacking midfielders: Giacomo Bonaventura, Keisuke Honda, Suso
The most obvious candidates for the midfield playmaker role at the tip of Mihajlovic’s midfield diamond are Giacomo Bonaventura and Keisuke Honda.
Honda has been used often in this role in pre-season and seems to have impressed Mihajlovic, though Bonaventura accumulated better statistics last season. Not only did he score more goals and set up just as many, his pass success was better, he made more key passes, had less bad touches and less dispossessions.
Bonaventura continues to be underrated but the Italian international is perfect for this particular role in this particular system. His nimble footwork, eye for a pass and diligent movement make him a potentially potent threat when playing behind two strikers.
It’s also worth noting that versatile Spaniard Suso has been used in this position during pre-season, potentially offering further competition.
Strikers: Luiz Adriano, Carlos Bacca, Alessandro Matri, M’Baye Niang
Milan made strengthening their attack a priority on the evidence of their initial pre-season transfer moves. In successfully pursuing Sevilla’s Europa League hero Carlos Bacca and Shakhtar Donetsk’s Brazilian forward Luiz Adriano, they immediately added goals to their strikeforce.
Mihajlovic will want his strikers to move into the channels and offer plenty of running to stretch opposition defences and create space centrally to drive into, something that all of his striking options are comfortable doing.
Furthermore, all four have unique skill sets that should ensure Milan always have options for different matches and situations. Bacca is a clinical finisher, Adriano offers ingenuity, Niang possesses pace and Matri is a hard-working runner. The quartet provide an array of possible combinations for Milan’s strike duet.
A Note on the Fringe Players
As well as unnecessary squad fillers such as Agazzi, Zaccardo and Antonio Nocerino, there are several players who will have a hard time fitting into the 4-3-1-2 system favoured by Mihajlovic. Essentially, they are those best suited to playing on the wing, such as Jeremy Menez, Alessio Cerci and Simone Verdi.
Menez was the club’s top scorer last season with 16 league goals but, though he can play in a striker or attacking midfield role, there are more natural candidates for these areas within Milan’s squad at present. Elsewhere, Cerci just has not fitted in at San Siro, while Verdi is likely to be a squad player at best having not always been a regular with Empoli last season.
There is also a need to address the overmanned position of central defence, where Milan have six players to pick two from, with only one—Romagnoli—an established starter. Indeed, it appears as if Paletta will make way, with Gazzetta dello Sport (H/T Football Italia) reporting that he is headed for Atalanta.
Conclusion
Milan have plenty of quality and quantity in the striking, attacking midfield, full-back and goalkeeping areas, while their central midfield and defence makes up for a lack of individual talent with depth.
They could perhaps do with another defensive midfielder, though all in all Mihajlovic will be rightly pleased with his squad when considering the way it looked prior to his taking charge.
The key to any tactical system is organisation and Mihajlovic has shown himself to be a capable coach in working a bunch of individuals into a cohesive collective. With all the transfer activity it may take time for him to achieve this with Milan, but the talent is undoubtedly there.
If he can organise the team and maximise their potential, the club can expect to move into the top six again and aim to challenge for a Champions League berth.
All statistics were kindly provided by WhoScored.com.
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