The second-half rain at the San Siro was the perfect symbol of Milan’s crushing defeat against Inter.

The head coach of the team, Stefano Pioli, promised that this match will be different from previous derbies. Milan lost four consecutive matches without scoring a goal, starting poorly, losing early and being outmatched tactically by Inter’s counter-attacking 3-5-2 formation.

In terms of results, little changed on Saturday night. With the 5-1 win, Inter made it five consecutive wins against their neighbors for the first time and their biggest Derby della Madonnina victory since 2001.

As in January and May this year, in the Italian Super Cup and in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, Milan were beaten five minutes from the start of the game and once again failed to cope with Inter’s left-back Federico Dimarco. For Pioli, this is his 12th defeat in his clash with Simone Inzaghi; He suffered more than only Massimiliano Allegri (14).

Former Inter defender Andrea Ranocchia said in 2015 that “derbies are not played, they are won.” Last season Pioli persistently used the back four in the derby and as a result Milan were constantly overloaded with Inter sidemen Dimarco and Denzel Dumfries. Milan is trying to change its style this season – Pioli wants to achieve more “balance” by relying less on Rafael Leao and counter-attacks. However, the offensive plans on Saturday suited the official hosts, Inter.

Milan vs Inter under Pioli management:

“We want to see a squad of Mike (Maignan, Milan goalkeeper – approx.) plus five outfield players,” Pioli said after Milan’s previous game, a 2-1 win over Roma in a twist during the September break. For national team matches. “Then whether it’s four plus one, three plus two, two plus three… by then the boys can read the space and understand how the opponents line up. We paid a little more attention to Davide Calabria as an inverted full-back.”

Pioli explained how Milan’s 4-3-3 formation was transformed into 3-2-5, while right-back Calabria moved into midfield. Calabria line up midfielder Rade Krunic, while No. 8 Ruben Loftus-Cheek and No. 10 Tijani Reynders have moved forward to support Leau (left wing), Olivier Giroud (No. 9) and Christian Pulisic (right wing).

In preparation for the derby, Milan practiced attacking against a five-man defense and defeated Torino (4-1) and then Roma, who played in a 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 formation respectively.

However, Pioli acknowledged Inter’s quality before the match. “The only team that can resist Manchester City is Inter,” he said. “They did not change their playing style much in the first matches and they will try to put us in a difficult situation.”

In reality, Milan found themselves in a difficult situation. 34-year-old centre-back Simon Kjær, who has experience, leadership and height (190 cm), but lacks athleticism and pace, replaced the suspended Fikayo Tomori. Kjær and partner Malik Tschau constantly found themselves on two-on-two against Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram, but this was not enough given Inter’s pace and quality of play.

From the beginning of the match, Milan attacked Calabria in the home area, as in other matches this season.

Here he moves forward to receive the ball from left-back Theo Hernandez on a goal kick:

With so much possession, this meant Loftus-Cheek was free to move down the right wing, with Calabria keeping Inter’s midfield central. The idea is that Pulisic can attack DiMarco one-on-one. Hernandez needed to adapt in the form of “three plus two”, and with such an alignment of the opponent, Inter could play individual pressing in a 5-3-2 formation:

Hernandez carries the ball forward bravely, but it’s risky.

Towards the end of the first half, during Inter’s second attempt, he loses the ball early and tries to make a through pass to Giroud when he has four realistic and safer options:

Inter receives the ball and immediately goes on the attack. Henrikh Mkhitaryan passes the ball towards Martinez, who pulls Kjaer towards him. Then the Argentinian player sends Dumfries behind Hernandez:

The Dutchman’s early pass to Thuram was therefore erroneous, but it was one of many two-on-two situations Inter created throughout the game.

And unlike Inter, Milan were unable to quickly restore the desired composition of their players on the field.

Here Thuram crosses the ball past Tshau towards the centre, and although Milan have numerical superiority in the penalty area (six players out of four), the defense cannot cope and the French striker fires an accurate shot towards the goal:

The shot towards the top corner turned out to be outstanding, but this is not a game situation where Inter will score an own goal.

A similar transition occurs early in the second half, when Hernandez dribbles from midfield but loses the ball to Dumfries:

Calabria are closest to the ball and are forced to press, but Inter pass him and move the ball forward quickly. Martinez throws DiMarco into the back of Pulisic…

…and his cross should have been better. There are only two centre-backs in the Milan penalty area against Inter’s three forwards, but Dimarco cannot cross hard enough and Kjær heads the ball away.

Milan’s attacking formation also had its strengths; It gave Hernandez the opportunity to play penetrating passes, which contributed to the creation of scoring chances in both the first and second halves. It was his penetrating pass to Giroud from the halfway line that set up Milan’s goal on the hour mark and probably should have equalized in the first half shortly before Inter scored their second goal.

Hernandez plays a vertical pass forward and finds Giroud, then moves towards him to receive the return pass from the striker:

Hernandez enters the penalty area but shoots wide of the goalkeeper’s corner:

Even though they started badly, Milan controlled the middle part of the match and Inter’s second goal came despite what was happening on the field.

At the same time, in a period when Inter is leading 1-0, his counter-attacking plan works even better as number two.

Inter brought the score to 3-1 with a counter-attack goal 20 minutes before the end of the match.

Milan continued to come out of defense in the same structure, so Inter continued to use personal pressing. This time, Hernandez (yellow circle) settled in the middle of the field. Goalkeeper Maignan, who has no other passing options, makes a long pass to Leao:

He won the fight on horseback, but Inter won the rebound. This time they open Milan’s counterpress with two passes: substitute Davide Frattesi sends Hakan Çalhanoğlu down the right wing:

Making a long pass to Martinez from the opposite wing, Martinez enters the center and passes it to Mkhitaryan, and the Armenian scores the third goal. Milan once again have sufficient players at the back but lack organization and structure:

Milan had more possession (60% vs 40%), but took fewer shots (9 vs 14; 2 vs 7 on target) and created fewer big chances (2 vs 4). They had the ball, but they were constantly losing control of the game.

In hindsight, playing with a back three would have been not only safer but also more pragmatic, at least in terms of helping Kjaer and mirroring Inter’s formation. Last season, Pioli put Kjaer in the home three with Tschau and Pierre Kalulu and scored a wedge goal against Tottenham, who posed a similar quick counter-attacking threat in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16.

Milan are in their Champions League group with PSG, Borussia Dortmund and Newcastle this season, and Newcastle will play at the San Siro in the opening round today, Tuesday.

“Milan’s development efforts are accompanied by smart recruitment and reinvestment of funds from the sale of Sandro Tonali (ironically to Newcastle): Loftus-Cheek and Pulisic arrived from Chelsea in the summer and Reynders arrived from AZ Alkmaar.” Calabria He described them as players who “already have experience, who raise the level of the team”, providing Milan with “more solutions, more players suitable for our game”.

Pulisic and Loftus-Cheek strengthened Milan’s right wing; the former poses a threat in one-on-one situations (just like Leau on the opposite wing) and the latter provides backup and backing when passing and running forward. Reynders operated as a number 10 and often served as a link between the midfield and the forwards.

But Milan and Pioli need to pick their moments to expand, be smarter about when and where they lose the ball (or are willing to do so) and show the pragmatism that took them to the Champions League semi-finals last season. Playing Calabria at home against most Serie A rivals is one thing, but creating space on the wing against the PSG duo of Kylian Mbappe/Ousmane Dembele and a fast-attacking Newcastle is quite another.

“They were smarter than us today,” Kjaer said after the defeat to Inter.

Milan cannot afford to gain the upper hand in the mental competition and on the European stage.

Liam Tarm, Athletic

Translation and adaptation – Oleg Didukh