Pioli’s midfield tweak that stifled Atalanta’s attack against Milan

AC Milan coach made a change to the midfield of his team for the match against Atalanta on Sunday evening which had a profound effect on Gian Piero Gasperini’s side. 

As this morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes, Milan appeared to line up in a 4-1-4-1 formation against Atalanta in Serie A, rather than the 4-2-3-1 that everybody expected.

Ismael Bennacer appeared to be the furthest forward of the midfielders, and this had the effect of nullifying Atalanta’s Ederson. His job was clearly to mark Bennacer very closely but he was forced to drop very deep to do this, as Bennacer was so advanced for Milan.

Ederson is one of Atalanta’s most energetic midfielders but he was unable to impose himself on the game. It also meant that Yacine Adli, playing in front of Milan’s back four, could face Teun Koopmeiners one-on-one, rather than try to keep tabs on Ederson as well.

With some help from the likes of Christian Pulisic and Theo Hernandez, Milan were able to nullify the two most dangerous Atalanta midfielders.

Atalanta were clearly a lot worse on the ball in this game than they have been for most of the season, which is part of why Milan took an early lead in the match that ended 1-1.