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AC Milan made a big statement early in the season as they beat Napoli 2-1, playing for over half an hour a man down.
Alexis Saelemaekers scored the opening goal less than three minutes in after great work by Christian Pulisic. The American turned from provider to scorer after half an hour, firing in a lay-off from Youssouf Fofana.
The turning point in the game was the penalty and red card awarded for a foul by Pervis Estupinan. Kevin De Bruyne scored the spot kick to halve the deficit, and the Rossoneri’s net was under siege for the rest of the game.
However, Massimiliano Allegri’s men held firm and saw out the victory to go top of the table on goal difference, with a trip to Juventus next up. Rohit Rajeev has picked out the key tactical points from the win of the season so far. We apologise for some of the blurring on later screenshots.
Instantly exposed
Antonio Conte’s Napoli have shifted from wide overloads to central overloads. However, this tweak leaves huge spaces out wide beside the pivot, exposing the centre-backs to 1v1s.
Pulisic punished it perfectly, roasting Marianucci and driving straight into the gap.
Milan’s counter was poetry in motion. It began with Fofana, but a clever decoy run from Santiago Giménez dragged Lobotka away, opening the lane.
Fofana → Pulisic → Fofana, who never stopped his run. Pure efficiency.
Pavlovic creates the second
One way to break man-marking? Let your centre-back drive forward. Pavlović carried the ball up, dragging three Napoli players with him.
That movement freed the box. Fofana received the square and laid it off for Pulisic to finish.
Conte’s Napoli looked to isolate Estupiñán vs Politano. With Milan clogging the centre to kill the overloads, Napoli baited them to the right flank. Then Lobotka switched play, creating the 1v1 Conte wanted all along.
Conte’s usual shift: wide → central build-ups. Against Milan, he flipped it: Napoli went wide first, then chipped into Højlund, who knocked it down for Anguissa or De Bruyne.
Napoli win it in the centre, but Modrić and Gabbia pull a smart move, dragging De Bruyne out wide.
Allegri’s adjustment
Down to 10 men, Allegri made a clever counter to Conte’s plan: tilt Milan’s defence to the left.
With Napoli lacking a true left winger, overloading that flank neutralised their attacks.
Conte reacted by subbing Neres and Lang, giving Napoli two natural wing outlets. Here, Neres isolates Athekame and tries to whip in a dangerous cross.
Leão’s role was simple: be the leader of the attack, hold the ball and push play as far from Milan’s half as possible.
In desperation, Napoli brought on Lucca alongside Neres and Lang. Conte instructed the wingers to whip in diagonal balls from distance for the 6’7” Lucca to attack in the air.
The data
To anybody who says playing a low block is easy, here is some stats to show otherwise. Gabbia and Pavlovic were third and fourth in the most distance covered among Milan players. It shows how much ground a CB has to cover and how focused defenders have to be.
As per Sofascore, we can see that the stats show Napoli were targeting the left side when they attacked, as highlighted above.
The average position of each player shown on Sofascore show how Allegri had indeed titled Miln’s defence towards the left to clog Napoli’s attack.
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