Ramos’ key role and a 4-2-3-1 seen: Tactical analysis of AC Milan 3-0 Lecce
AC Milan bounced back from their midweek defeat against Benfica in the right way as they beat Lecce 3-0 at San Siro on Sunday night.
Coming off what was perhaps their worst performance under Ruben Amorim so far, there was a need to put things right especially before the first international break of the campaign, which of course are now three weeks long.
Thankfully, the team did exactly that as they coasted past a Lecce side that simple didn’t show up. The first goal of the game came in the first half through Christian Pulisic, who brought down a ball over the top from Strahinja Pavlovic with a gorgeous touch and then finished with his next.
Adrien Rabiot got the second after a lovely one-two with Goncalo Ramos, then Diego Moreira came off the bench and got his third of the season and the third goal. It was a relatively stress-free evening in the end, and Rohit Rajeev has the tactical analysis.
Set-ups and shape
Amorim chose to make six changes from the team that lost to Benfica in midweek. Mario Gila, Luka Modric, Adrien Rabiot, Pervis Estupinan, Christian Pulisic and Alexis Saelemaekers all came back into the side, with the American making his first start of the season.
Lecce settled into a 4-4-2 shape and adopted a mid-block. The main objective was to create a central overload, denying Milan the ability to progress through the middle and forcing them to find alternative routes of progression.
In the build-up, Milan would temporarily resemble a back four, with De Winter and Pavlović splitting wide to allow Estupiñán and Gila to push higher up the pitch. The idea was to bait Lecce into pressing high before suddenly increasing the tempo of circulation.
Ramos would then drop into midfield, dragging a defender with him and creating space behind the pressing line for a runner to attack. It was a deliberate attempt to manipulate Lecce’s press and exploit the space it created.
Milan would also create ball-side overloads, deliberately concentrating numbers on one side of the pitch to draw Lecce’s block towards the ball. Once the opposition shifted across, Milan would look to switch play quickly to the opposite flank, exploiting the space created on the far side.
Lecce’s mid-block naturally left space behind their defensive line, and Milan looked to exploit it by going over the top rather than trying to play through the block.
Milan used a long ball to skip the lines of Lecce, targeting the space behind the defence. Pulisic positioned himself intelligently between the full-back and centre-back, giving himself the perfect angle to attack the space.
He then brought the ball down brilliantly with his first touch, setting himself up immediately for the shot.
Amorim’s smart adjustment
As mentioned earlier, Lecce’s mid-block was designed to create central overloads, keeping their defensive structure narrow and denying Milan progression through the middle.
Milan countered this by changing their in-possession structure from a 3-4-2-1 into a 4-2-3-1. This gave Milan two genuine wide players, stretching Lecce’s narrow press horizontally and creating more space for Milan to progress through the centre.
Ramos’ role in the goals
For the second goal, Milan created perfect vertical corridors in a staggered structure, allowing them to execute a proper iteration of positional play. The spacing between the players was excellent, giving Milan multiple options to progress through the lines.
And Ramos’ role in the goal cannot be overstated. His movement was crucial in creating and exploiting the space that ultimately allowed the attack to develop.
For the third goal, Ramos initially wins his aerial duel against his direct opponent from Lecce. This forces another Lecce defender to step across and create a 2v1, eventually allowing them to dispossess Ramos.
But Milan react immediately. Moreira’s instant counter-press wins the ball back, catching Lecce before they can reorganise. That quick regain completely opens up the defensive structure and gives Milan the space to attack.
The data
As mentioned earlier, Lecce’s narrow defensive structure is also reflected in the official Serie A data. Lecce’s average team width was just 39 metres, highlighting how compact and narrow their shape was and why Milan looked to exploit the wide areas.
Milan recorded more accurate passes and successful dribbles than Lecce, highlighting their dominance in both ball circulation and 1v1 situations. It was a clear reflection of Milan’s control over the game.
