This article was first published on footballromance.com (a predecessor to this website) in August 2016.
Line-ups
With Milan’s summer transfer activity somewhat restricted by the takeover of the club, their starting XI unsurprisingly had a familiar feel to it, with Suso, who ended last season on loan at Genoa, the only ‘new’ player in Vincenzo Montella’s first league line-up. The Spaniard and M’Baye Niang flanked striker Carlos Bacca, subject of intense transfer speculation this summer.
Torino also adopted a 4-3-3 system from the off, with Luca Rossettini going straight into the team in central defence following his recent move from Bologna, while there was also a first start for Adem Ljajic, now at his fourth Serie A club.
Space out on the flanks for Milan
In only the second minute, a long free-kick found Rossoneri left-back Luca Antonelli in acres of space out on the flank, even though the visitors had had plenty of time to set their defensive positions. While this particular move led to nothing, it set the tone for the remainder of the opening period.
Montella’s men started the game with two of their midfield three, Riccardo Montolivo and Juraj Kucka, positioned fairly close to their centre-backs, which allowed Toro’s midfield men to push high up the pitch. However, this also cleared space out wide for full-backs Ignazio Abate and Antonelli, who were often found with quick switches of play or lofted balls forward which bypassed the visiting midfielders (at no stage did Josef Martinez or Ljajic show any interest in tracking back).
Antonelli in particular had plenty of joy down the left, which meant Torino right-back Lorenzo De Silvestri, who already had livewire Niang to contend with, had a torrid time defensively (Antonelli’s 11 passes to Niang was the highest combination between any two players on the field). Had Milan’s final ball into the box from wide areas been better, they could well have been more than a goal ahead at the interval.
Torino full-backs given next to no protection
The main issue for the Turin outfit was that Afriyie Acquah and Joel Obi, playing either side of skipper Guiseppe Vives in a midfield three, made an almost completely insignificant defensive contribution (Acquah didn’t make a single tackle or clearance and intercepted just one pass in the defensive third; Obi completed only one tackle), which essentially gave the hosts the freedom of the flanks. Indeed, the first time Acquah effectively helped out De Silvestri against the dual threat of Antonelli and Niang came five minutes before the break.
Abate was on the whole a little less adventurous than his fellow full-back, although he ultimately had more of an impact in the attacking third of the field. In the opening minutes, the Italian international delivered a very dangerous cross after some well-worked link-up play with Carlos Bacca and Suso, the former having dropped short to collect possession, with the latter coming infield – as he occasionally did to good effect – to create space for the pass out wide. A variation of this move, started by Niang sweeping a diagonal ball to Abate, the furthest man forward for Milan, led to the opener seven minutes before half time, with the right-back crossing for Bacca, who took full advantage of a ragged Torino defensive line to nod into the net.
Brief attacking encouragement for the visitors
Acquah’s advanced positioning could have allowed him to catch out Antonelli going the other way, but only once or twice did he manage to break into dangerous positions before losing the ball. The visitors rarely looked like scoring in the first half, although there were a few of moments of attacking encouragement either side of an injury to Ljajic, which forced him off before the 30-minute mark.
The Serb struggled to get into the game in the initial stages, but his influence grew as he began to drift infield from his left-wing starting berth; he dinked a clever ball in behind the home defence (the only time in the half) for De Silvestri, who won a corner, then shot just wide after he and Cristian Molinaro had managed to isolate Abate. Ljajic was replaced by summer signing Lucas Boyé and the young Argentinian passed up what was his team’s best opportunity to find the net, holding onto the ball for far too long after a quick counter-attack had caught the Milan midfield and Abate upfield.
Torino’s familiar failings after a promising start
I Granata wisely started the second half with Josef Martinez and Boyé, who had switched flanks, attempting to remain goal-side of Abate and Antonelli and the change rapidly paid off as they controlled possession in the initial stages and swiftly levelled thanks to Bellotti’s well-directed header from a wonderful Molinaro cross (only his second of the match at that stage).
But Sinisa Mihajlovic’s side immediately reverted to type and paid the price. Alessio Romagnoli drifted a ball in behind De Silvestri for Niang, whose cross from near the corner flag wasn’t cut out by Rossettini and was misjudged by Emiliano Moretti, leaving Bacca free to control and lash past Daniele Padelli.
Familiar failings continued to crop up in Torino’s play; Giacomo Bonvantura, the most adventurous of the hosts’ midfield three, picked up possession deep inside his own half and drove forward completely unchallenged to the opposition penalty area, while the same player played a one-two with Abate, ran off the Toro midfield before charging into the box to win a penalty (ironically Acquah and Obi combined to haul him down in a desperate attempt to make up for their lack of defensive diligence). Bacca clinically completed his treble from the spot.
Toro’s more direct approach almost pays dividends
By that point, holding midfielder Vives had been replaced by striker Maxi Lopez, which ill-advisedly left Acquah and Obi to man the midfield area but also allowed Torino to occupy their opponents’ centre-backs and get the ball forward more quickly. Milan dropped off in an effort to preserve their two-goal advantage, with the contributions of Montolivo and Kucka preventing the visitors from playing their way through the centre of the field.
Toro were, however, given encouragement by the hosts giving them plenty of time and space to deliver crosses into the box, which could – and probably should – have allowed them to snatch a point. One of several high balls into the area, which were fiercely contested by Bellotti and Lopez, broke to sub Danielle Baselli, who cleverly weaved through a sea of bodies to reduce arrears.
And in a pulsating finale, another cross led to Bellotti being bundled over in the box by Gabriel Paletta, who was sent off for his offence. With virtually the last kick of the game, though, Bellotti’s spot-kick was brilliantly kept out by Gianluigi Donnarumma, hjs first serious save of the contest.
What next?
Montella will be delighted to have kicked off his tenure with three points, although Milan should have made more of the attacking positions they got into in the first half. That said, they still found the net on three occasions and it was ultimately their defensive display towards the end of the game which nearly cost them; defending crosses into the box proved especially problematic and may have to be worked on.
Mihajlovic’s charges could quite easily have stolen a point, with a more direct approach almost paying dividends late on. However, the Serb will have been given plenty to think about ahead of next week’s clash with Bologna by the performance of his midfield three, who offered little defensive protection and, at the same time, failed to make much of an impact going forward.