The three huge tactical errors that led to Milan’s defeat against Roma

Stefano Pioli made several rather noticeable errors in the tactical approach he deployed during last night’s defeat to Roma, a report has highlighted.

MilanNews write that Milan did not take to the field as a team last night at the Stadil Olimpico in their comeback mission, but rather as 11 individuals who just hoped to create something out of nothing.

There are three situations that in their opinion are most indicative of the shortcomings of the side and they certainly connected to each other. They help to explain what went wrong over the two legs, and what wasn’t fixed.

Musah and Calabria

The big team news of the evening was the use of Yunus Musah from the start, with the American taking the place of Tijjani Reijnders in the midfield double pivot, at least on paper.

De Rossi immediately understood Pioli’s idea, as he revealed just before kick-off: “Today they changed a little something, we expect Musah on the right wing in some circumstances. But we’ll see it now, it’s nice to discover my colleague’s moves.”

No sooner said than done. The American acted mostly on the side area of ​​the pitch and the aim was to pin Spinazzola back and at the same time, also thanks to Davide Calabria’s central position, free Christian Pulisic who at that point would have been without a man following him.

Pioli chose to ‘sacrifice’ the full-back to create superiority in the right half-space, ideally occupied by Pulisic. It was a risky move, but it did have some obvious potential rewards.

What actually happened? Calabria found himself struggling to get involved and to move the ball quickly when he did get in possession, which meant little impact on Spinazzola and thus Pulisic was out of the game.

The left side

Roma’s first goal was closely linked to the situation just explained. The Giallorossi came through the middle of the park, Mancini picked up the ball while being watch by Calabria who was actually in a midfield position, and Musah went wide to track Spinazzola.

The right-back drew Musah and Calabria closer before finding Mancini with a lob, who in turn identified the space left by Calabria and put himself forward. Loftus-Cheek didn’t follow him and here the Rossoneri begin to lose their shape.

Mancini stopped and found Spinazzola, who in the meantime had advanced wide to the left. The full-back, tackled by Musah – who therefore was still positioning himself wide – crossed. The cross was cleared by Calabria, who in the meantime has repositioned himself in the area alongside Tomori.