Another week passes, another dreadful display from AC Milan’s diabolical defence on full show. Last week we called for the next ‘Paolo Maldini’ for the Rossoneri but what is exactly at the route of the problem?
This time we’ll be looking directly at the four goals conceded against Napoli on a torrid Sunday night.
Sinisa Mihajlovic simply stated following the thrashing that Napoli were ‘the better team’, yet was it the Partenopei’s brilliance up front or just shocking defending to consider. Yes, Maurizio Sarri’s men fully deserved the three points and indeed the scoreline, yet the Milan back-line were clearly the problem.
Focusing first on Napoli’s opener, the goal came from a mistake. Typical right? Cristian Zapata, the clumsy Colombian always at the heart of Milan’s misery and criticism was at it again, swinging an aimless ball forward that found its way to Marek Hamsik. The Slovakian in turn played it into Lorenzo Insigne who drove directly toward the box.
Notice below how left-back Luca Antonelli is drawn into the run of Gonzalo Higuain. Why must he make such a run when Rodrigo Ely is present? Why can’t he hold his position?
Rather unsurprisingly, it’s Antonelli’s fault, off a Zapata mistake. Already two of the defenders have caused a clear problem here. As can be seen above, Zapata is watching the onrushing Insigne, whilst Ely focuses on Higuain’s darting run. Mattia de Sciglio was already advancing up the pitch, so left himself out of the equation.
Because of Antonelli’s quick and rather rash thinking, Allan was left in his own space, with ample time on the ball. What the Italian should have done, was not be drawn into the ball’s position, but focus on where the ball could go instead. He didn’t hold his position and thus, after a promising start from Milan, they fell a goal behind.
Cue the second-half, a chance for Milan to bounce back and get that equaliser. Along came Zapata again and De Sciglio, and they were 2-0 down. Now, again we come back to the understanding of positioning.
Zapata himself can place the blame on his full-back, who decided to come rushing out of what was a good line of defence from the Rossoneri to meet Insigne. The easy pass off to Higuain left the right back slot completely open for the Argentinian to slip his teammate through. Zapata can’t cover, as he has to watch Higuain. De Sciglio did track back to meet Insigne but the fact of the matter is comes down to poor judgement.
The Italian is running full tilt at the Milan defence, thus having more thrust on his run. For De Sciglio to rush out, he loses any sort of acceleration as he has to quickly alter his direction, affecting his pace. By then Insigne is past him, Zapata has missed a block and Napoli have successfully doubled their lead.
The third goal came thanks to a fantastic free-kick, placing little to no blame on the defence this time around until the fourth came calling. Again Zapata, the man of the moment, is to critique, not the unfortunate Ely.
Zapata’s great ability to miss a block or a tackle was at the head of the mistakes, meaning Ely had little to no choice to try and adjust his body to steer it wide, as it was watching Higuain just behind him.
As the image details above, it is quite odd that Zapata managed to miss the ball, as it goes under his leg. His positioning was okay, but his technique and timing again was bad. It reflects not just the missed block for the second goal, but also his lack of timing and judgement when he made the horrendous pass straight to Hamsik for the game’s first goal.
Ely, as can be seen in the first image on the left, was standing straight up at the time, so he was never going to adjust himself in time to block the ball.
The end result was a thrashing of barbaric proportions, the first Napoli have ever seen over Milan.
Hopefully the AC Milan Club Focus can come to you after the international break with a bit more success to tell, but it remains to be seen, but so we hope.
