CorSport: ‘Allegri has armoured Milan’ – key number highlights defensive improvement

AC Milan’s switch to a three-man defence seems to be having the desired effect, a report claims, as it has made the team more solid.

Today’s edition of Corriere dello Sport (via PianetaMilan) speaks about Massimiliano Allegri’s approach and, in particular, how the Livorno-born coach has aimed to strengthen the defence since the day he arrived.

The coach emphasised this during his first press conference : “In the last twenty years, there has been only one season where the best defence didn’t win: Maurizio Sarri’s year at Juventus, when he conceded 43 goals. A great team scores between 60 and 80 goals; if you concede 40 , you can’t finish in the top four.”

Locking down

Milan, who have conceded a lot of goals in recent seasons and have the stated goal of returning to the Champions League next year, must first improve their rearguard. The summer transfer window in this sense did not help Allegri.

The club sold Malick Thiaw to Newcastle for €40m, but the manager had made it clear that the German was his first choice to start in a centre-back pairing or a three-man back line. He was replaced by Matteo Gabbia, who was his alternative.

Difesa a tre, Allegri ha blindato il Milan pic.twitter.com/2Isle0X8Ut

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With the Thiaw money, Milan acquired Koni De Winter from Genoa (€20m) and David Odugu from Wolfsburg (€10m). These aren’t two indisputable starters at present, nor are they two men with great experience.

Allegri had to make a virtue of necessity, abandoning (at least at this stage of the season) the 4-3-3 he had in mind for Milan, opting for a more compact, tough and defensive 3-5-2. Fikayo Tomori and Strahinja Pavlović are flanking Gabbia, the only real option to play down the middle.

While waiting to see De Winter in action and see how Odugu develops, there is some good news: statistically, Milan have conceded the fewest xGA (expected goals conceded) in the first two rounds of the season.

They conceded 0.37 xG against Cremonese (though they scored twice) and 0.40 xG against Lecce. This is already a turnaround compared to the first two matches last year against Torino and Parma  where the Rossoneri were in trouble from all sides.