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AC Milan were defeated in the semi-final of the Supercoppa Italiana, conceding twice while failing to pose much of a threat in attack. As always, our writer Rohit has taken a look at the tactical aspects of the game.
Resting a couple of the key players, while Gabbia and Leao were also out injured, Allegri didn’t have the best starting eleven. Nevertheless, the Rossoneri had an okay start to the game, even if it became clear pretty quickly that they weren’t going to offer fireworks.
Sure enough, we saw the same old attacking struggles, all the while the flaws at the back were exposed even more. Our writer Rohit Rajeev has analysed the game from a tactical point of view, highlighting the main takeaways from the defeat.
Main tactical takeaways
With Jashari playing as the deep-sitting midfield, he operated between the central centre-back and the left centre-back, allowing Tomori to push up as a quasi right-back to try and target Spinazzola.
Napoli used a central overload with McTominay sitting back to create a 3+2 build-up structure. This drew Milan’s front two and the midfield three, allowing space between Milan’s front two lines and the last line of defence.
Milan’s first shot on target came from a set piece. Conte’s men used zonal marking and covered the front post and back post area, but left a gap in the centre. With Estupinan’s cross towards the front post, Pavlovic exploited vacant space and got his shot off, which became a pass for Loftus-Cheek.
With Conte using horizontal pressing to squeeze Milan to the side areas, the Rossoneri – like a proper relationist side – used the Escadinha to play out of the press.
Classic wingplay from Hojlund and Spinazzola, where Hojlund would run behind the defender thereby stretching the players vertically, gave space for Napoli’s wingers to make runs. Milan and especially De Winter failed to deal with the attack, and Napoli scored.
The second goal came when Milan pushed for the equaliser. Yes, De Winter defended Hojlund poorly there, but why was so much space given to Spinazzola to pass to Hojlund? And why was Loftus-Cheek not blocking the passing lane with no other player in sight to block?
Lack of touches despite possession
When Milan defeated Napoli by two goals to one in the league, Pulisic had 34 touches in the 59 minutes he played in the game. However, he was able to complete only 40 touches in the entire 90 minutes this time out.
Similarly, Loftus-Cheek only had 40 touches in the entire game. If you told me the Englishman didn’t play in the game, I would have believed you.
Once again, Conte applied the same tactics as other Serie A coaches have applied against Allegri and even Pioli previously. Given Milan the lion’s share of possession and sit back and counter. Milan came up with no answers.
Once again Conte applied the same tactics other Serie A coaches applied against Allegri and even Pioli previously. Given Milan the Lion’s share of possession and sit back and counter. Milan came up with no answers. pic.twitter.com/CKUuK5ZkoF
— Rohit Rajeev (@keralista) December 20, 2025
English (US) ·