Why the change to a 4-2-3-1 was decisive: Tactical analysis of AC Milan 3-1 Bologna | OneFootball

AC Milan came from behind to win 3-1 at San Siro on Friday night, landing the first punch against Bologna in what is a double challenge over five days.

After a goalless and timid first half, the game burst into life in the second half with Riccardo Orsolini opening the scoring. Santiago Gimenez came off the bench and scored twice, either side of Christian Pulisic putting Milan ahead.

It is a result that puts a huge dent in Bologna’s top four ambitions, but will also provide them with extra motivation to get revenge in the Coppa Italia final next midweek. For the Rossoneri, it is an eighth comeback under Sergio Conceicao.

Speaking of the coach, there had been talk about how Conceicao could rotate heavily for the league game with an eye on next Wednesday, yet he chose to make just one change from the team that faced Genoa. Below is Rohit Rajeev‘s tactical analysis from the game.

In what was a dress rehearsal before the big dance in the Coppa Italia final, it was always going to be interesting to see to what extent both Conceicao and Vincenzo Italiano showed their hand.

Shape in and out of possession

Bologna played a shape of 4-3-3, despite being down as a 4-2-3-1 on paper. The Rossoblu would build with a back four and Tommaso Pobega would drop into midfield, while the wingers would tuck inside to allow overlapping runs.

Italiano allowed positional switches. Here is one example when Lykogiannis moves into midfield while Feruler set back as a left-back.

Bologna off the ball relied on intensity and a high intense pressing. Whenever Milan opted for to build out from the back, the away side would press high with a man-oriented marking system intended put pressure on the Milan defenders to move the ball quickly.

Bologna defenders would squeeze up to shrink the size of the playing area to force Milan to play down the sides.

If and when Milan did use the flanks, Bologna moved from a man-oriented press to a ball-oriented press, like below where they have a 4v1 on Jimenez. With quick one-touch football, involving Pulisic and a third-man run from Jovic, Milan played out of the press.

Beating the press

Bologna would form neat triangles on the flanks with the corresponding full-back, mezzala and winger but Milan’s back three structure helped to provide an extra man, giving the Rossoneri the extra cover at the back to thwart Bologna’s forward adventures.

When Milan pressed high, Bologna played a long ball and this bypassed the two lines. With Gabbia committing to push forward and win the ball back aggressively it took out Milan’s advantage of the three men at the back and effectively made it two centre-backs, like a four-man defence.

Not only that, but once Orsolini beat Pavlovic in a 1v1 the lack of Gabbia meant that there was no defender to block the shot and it opened up a path for Orsolini to shoot.

Decisive in-game changes

This is when Conceicao opened up the game with substitutions choosing to move from a 3-4-2-1 to a 4-2-3-1. We analysed recently how a fundamental change in the formation was taking out a playmaker for a centre-back. With this move Conceicao added the attacking midfielder back in, so Bologna now had to deal with 4+2 men in the front.

Conceicao made a small tweak. Instead of effectively changing the three-man defence, Walker acted as the third centre-back but Milan did not have a similar replacement for Jimenez.

Pulisic, Chukwueze and Felix were given the license to roam. Now here is one more change. Gimenez – unlike Jovic – did not step into midfield to help with the build-up: he stayed up as the tip of the attack waiting for passes to go through and finish.

The first goal came courtesy of this overload. Joao Felix helped Theo Hernandez and Pulisic to play out of Bologna’s sideway thrust. While Chukwueze did not allow Bologna defenders to squeeze up, Gimenez acted as the extra man in attack that Conceicao wanted.

The second goal once again came with the man advantage. Theo pushed up to support Chukwueze while Pulisic was the extra man making the run from midfield to complete the scuffed shot of Joao Felix.

Pulisic and Joao Felix make runs into Chukwueze’s right which dragged Bologna defenders away this opened up the path for the Nigerian’s pass to Gimenez for the third goal.