On the occasion of this evening’s important match between Roma and Milan valid for the quarter-finals of the Europa League, the editorial staff of MilanNews.it wanted to interview exclusively Stefano Ferrè, match analyst of the new footballtactical project of House of football.
Milan and Roma have different tactical ideas, why was there such a big difference last week?
“Pioli and De Rossi are two different coaches, at San Siro we noticed these things: Roma put a lot of density in the area of the pitch where El Shaarawy played, also combining the running and the spaces occupied by Celik, Cristante and sometimes Dybala, who among other things he was the player who was taken by Theo. We also talked about it on House of calcio, you can find us every day on social media from 7pm to 8pm, and in fact we understood and noticed that Roma with all these players in that area on the pitch he “stealed” the space to attack from Milan. The Rossoneri have in fact a strong tactical move, to be used again tonight: the spaces that Theo and Leao can create (against Napoli Theo scores precisely because the Portuguese is good at playing wide) Milan are good at looking for and creating space to attack, but De Rossi blocked everything and we will have to understand if this will still be the case tonight or we will move towards another type of match.”
How will Pioli be able to respond to the tactical moves of De Rossi’s Giallorossi?
“In my opinion it will be important to attract Roma to another area of the pitch, trying to bring more ball possession to the right side instead of the left, both in construction and in development, then try to create more on the right chain in way to attract the Giallorossi from there and to create spaces on the left side, this will be a key issue. However, Milan will also have to understand, which they did not do in the first leg, Roma’s tactical idea after having found the advantage with. Mancini started with a 442 but with very narrow lines between midfield and defense. When this happens, what do you have to do to pierce them? You have to have a good player between the lines, a quality player in the backfield.
This is an interesting topic about the attacking midfielder, how can Milan exploit this idea?
“Loftus-Cheek is a great finisher, a strong attacker who is good at insertions, I call him an invader but between the lines he struggles much more and in the first leg Roma harnessed Leao and Loftus, Pioli’s two strong points. can you respond to this? The first is to sacrifice the Englishman and put someone who has more quality like Pulisic or raise Reijnders more. The second possibility would be to change the layout, using Loftus on Pellegrini and Reijnders on Bove, this would prevent Roma from holding on. the lines are so narrow, they would be forced to use Paredes as a pure midfielder and therefore not close the lines.”
Adlì’s arrival on the pitch in the first leg stirred something, right?
“Of course yes, from a tactical point of view Milan has changed. If you noticed in the second half at San Siro, Reijnders was the protagonist of several breakdowns of lines and spaces also thanks to the inclusion of Adli on the pitch, who he is very useful tactically, he guaranteed much more balance by allowing the Dutchman to create space for himself, and he was the player who had kicked on goal the most times against Roma.”
How much does Cristante’s absence weigh on Roma?
“He weighs a lot, because for the Giallorossi he is the extra player, he guarantees you the role of perfect midfielder. Cristante is a player who can hurt, he is good at providing support in construction and he lowers himself a lot, with De Rossi who he makes the full-backs stand up and to do this he has to lower himself. Can Bove do it? I honestly don’t know… Cristante is really the driving force of Roma, he is one of the midfielders who runs the most in Serie A.”
What happened to Giroud?
“He’s a bit dull, before the recent matches he was the mathematically perfect player, he would still be like this if it weren’t for the recent missed goals, he didn’t score a lot on average but he didn’t make that many mistakes in front of goal either. Maybe he’s lost clarity because he’s also a striker who sacrifices a lot, his assists are not random. The response comes from the bench. Noah Okafor is an asset, he should have scored 3.5 goals in the championship and he scored 6, he is very cold also combined with Jovic’s goals/minutes played ratio, another useful element for Pioli during the match in progress.”
Tags: EXCLUSIVE Ferrè match analyst Milan space Loftus excellent invader attacking midfielder Giroud mathematically perfect striker
