In the first two matches, we saw a more compact Milan: tighter lines, more willing to make sacrifices, and more committed to tracking back. Is it all thanks to a three-man formation, albeit a very fluid one that at times shifted back to a four-man defense, or is there more to it? Numbers aren’t everything, but they certainly help.
A backline of three central defenders offers better coverage and tighter spaces, especially when supported by two wing-backs, in this case, Saelemaekers and Bartesaghi, who are committed to helping out defensively. On top of that, there's a three-man midfield that finally acts as a filter, no longer leaving the defenders exposed to opposition bursts.
But the formation alone isn’t enough. Last season, both Fonseca and Conceição tried to implement a similar hybrid setup, but the results remained inconsistent. What truly makes the difference is the attitude of the players on the pitch. Whether it's a 3-4-3, 3-5-2, 4-4-2, or 5-4-1, these are just numbers if they’re not backed by the right mindset, players must rediscover the ability to suffer together, to fight not just to score goals, but to prevent them.
In his introductory press conference, Max Allegri emphasized two closely linked concepts. To bounce back from last season’s dreadful eighth-place finish, the team must find a “cruising speed” that allows them to reach the decisive stage, identified by the Livorno-born coach as March, in a position that enables them to fight for the top. This consistency is tightly tied to defensive solidity: in Serie A, the team that concedes the fewest goals usually wins. Max strongly believes in this principle, and in the first three weeks of training, he has done his best to instill it in the team. In recent seasons, Milan have scored a fair amount, not as much as they could, but have conceded too many goals, to the point that it often seemed like conceding didn’t really bother them.
But the basics of the game must be rediscovered, chief among them, the willingness to suffer together and pour your heart into preventing a goal just as you would to score one. Allegri has already seen encouraging signs: "The best and most important thing I’m happy about from these first 20 days of work is that the team has a proactive attitude. They’ve raised their threshold for suffering a lot, which means that when we have the ball, we try to play, and when we don’t, we defend all together as a real team." Whether it's a 4-3-3, 3-5-2, or 3-4-2-1, the key is that this attitude, which Rossoneri fans have been pleased to notice in these first two games, accompanies the team throughout the entire season.
