Paris Saint-Germain’s vulnerability: How AC Milan and Ruben Loftus-Cheek found space

Milan and Paris. The Fashion Week derby. A meeting of two sides trying to balance style and substance.

AC Milan, under Stefano Pioli, are persisting with the high line that led the Italian club to the Serie A title in 2021-22. They then reached the Champions League semi-finals last season, where they got knocked out by city rivals Inter, but Pioli has drawn criticism for tactical stubbornness.

While Pioli has been Milan coach for over four years, Paris Saint-Germain are just 15 games into the Luis Enrique era.

They have won nine of them to recover from a slow start to their latest Ligue 1 title defence (two draws, two wins and one loss in their first five matches) and went to San Siro on Tuesday having scored three goals in each of their five previous games, including the reverse fixture two weeks ago. Importantly, PSG proved they are more in attack than just Kylian Mbappe, with eight different scorers for those 15 goals — Mbappe scored only four of them.

PSG’s Achilles’ heel has been counter-attacks and midfield physicality: Francesco Farioli’s Nice won 3-2 in Paris in September by hitting them on the break. Luis Enrique’s switch to a 4-2-4 saw them overrun away to Newcastle United in the Champions League early last month, losing 4-1. In their most recent league game, They beat Montpellier 3-0 last Friday but the visitors caused them problems with a direct attacking style.

Their 2-1 defeat in Milan last night made it 15 consecutive Champions League away games without a clean sheet for PSG, a run that stretches back to a 2-0 win away to Istanbul Basaksehir in October 2020.

After the loss at San Siro, Luis Enrique said: “We helped the game become crazy. It was meant to be a football match, not tennis. It was just end-to-end, attack against attack. I did not like that.”

PSG’s problem against Milan was equal parts structure and execution.

10 – There have been 10 shots on target between Milan and Paris in the first half (5 each), highest tally before half-time in the UEFA Champions League this season. Pace. pic.twitter.com/ImLRf5f0bF

— OptaJean (@OptaJean) November 7, 2023

They attack in a 3-2-5 shape, pushing right-back Achraf Hakimi upfield and pulling their left No 8 Vitinha wide. This lets Mbappe move centrally, and, on their right side, Ousmane Dembele can combine with Hakimi. The problem last night? Milan’s biggest threat, Rafael Leao, plays on the left wing. Moving Hakimi upfield vacated space and isolated Leao against centre-back Marquinhos.

Pioli said pre-match that PSG “are a team that can allow you some space and we need to be more clinical when some of those (counter-attack) situations arise.”

They were more clinical, largely due to Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who had missed the game in Paris with a groin injury. The English midfielder’s size (6ft 3in/191cm) and ball-carrying quality enabled him to consistently bypass PSG’s counter-press and made them more unpredictable, as he or Leao could launch breaks.

However, it was from a Loftus-Cheek break that PSG got the first goal of the night.

Too many of PSG’s first-half shots and crosses went straight at goalkeeper Mike Maignan, who could easily catch them and start transitions.

Here is one example, when Maignan holds Mbappe’s shot…

…and releases Loftus-Cheek immediately, bypassing five PSG players, including Hakimi, in an instant.

Hakimi sprints back and central midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery doubles up on the former England international — PSG’s 3-2 shape can be seen, with Marquinhos up against Leao on the wing.

Zaire-Emery goes in to tackle Loftus-Cheek, knocking him off balance before Hakimi wins the ball back. Zaire-Emery then starts the counter and Fikayo Tomori deflects Dembele’s cross out for a corner, which former Inter centre-back Milan Skriniar heads past Maignan.

Mostly, PSG did not regain the ball. Instead, they conceded fouls or chances.

Here, their rotated shape works, as Dembele drops in to receive from Marquinhos…

…who then passes in-behind to Hakimi.

He returns the ball to Dembele, who cracks a shot against the crossbar from outside the penalty area.

The issue comes when PSG’s No 9, Randal Kolo Muani, tries to recycle possession. He passes back to Manuel Ugarte…

…who gets pressed by Loftus-Cheek and loses the ball.

This leaves Skriniar and Marquinhos in a two-v-two. Loftus-Cheek carries, then slides in Olivier Giroud on the angle…

…but he shoots into the side netting.

The biggest problem for PSG was not necessarily the number of fouls they had to make, but when and where they had to make them. They committed fewer fouls at San Siro than in the 3-0 home win against Milan (13, compared to 17), but their proportion of turnovers ending in a foul dropped by almost half, from 22.7 per cent to 11.4. PSG did not make enough fouls early enough and high enough up the pitch.

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When they did try to engage in duels, they were poor. Since the start of 2018-19, it was PSG’s worst game for defensive duel success (just 39.8 per cent).

By the time Milan made their first foul of the game on 65 minutes, Luis Enrique had subbed four players who were on yellow cards: Vitinha, Kolo Muani, Ugarte and Lucas Hernandez. Ugarte in particular was overrun (as shown above), winning just three of his 15 duels.

PSG’s substitutes — introducing Lee Kang-in, Goncalo Ramos and Fabian Ruiz, then Nordi Mukiele, for the four above — did little to change the flow of the game.

Here is a similar sequence to the first half, after the triple substitution.

Hakimi takes up his typical advanced position, and Marquinhos steps out with the ball, passing to Dembele and continuing his forward run.

Dembele passes inside to Zaire-Emery, who gets tackled by Theo Hernandez, and the France international gives it straight to Loftus-Cheek.

The former Chelsea man uses his body excellently to hold off Dembele and drive to the final third…

…where he smartly cuts across the recovering Zaire-Emery.

Half of Milan’s carries of 10-plus yards in the game were completed by Leao (10) and Loftus-Cheek (seven), who were also their top two players for total yards dribbled forward.

Before Loftus-Cheek can pass across to Christian Pulisic or have a shot himself, Skrinar steps across and fouls him.

Skriniar avoids a booking.

Here, Hakimi overruns the ball after a one-two with Zaire-Emery, and PSG’s midfield is too stretched to counter-press. Giroud pops it into Leao. Counter-attack.

Leao beats Marquinhos with the rarely-seen ‘Knock it one side, run the other’ move…

…but is then met by a charging Skriniar, who flattens him as he gets into the final third.

Luis Enrique was quick to point out afterwards that there were only three points between the sides top and bottom in Group F — it is living up to its reputation as the hardest group in this season’s tournament. Every team in the group has won as well as lost, while Borussia Dortmund are the only side of the four to win an away game (1-0 in Newcastle last month).

To his credit, Luis Enrique has already improved PSG out-of-possession, quickly implementing a high press and improving the counter-press of a previously defensively turgid team. He has won this tournament before, in 2014-15, coaching a Barcelona side who kept six clean sheets and conceded just 10 goals in their 13 games, including beating PSG 5-1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.

Since then, he has coached teams who have twice exited the Champions League in the quarter-finals, and been knocked out of the European Championship at the semi-final stage and, most recently, the World Cup round of 16.

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PSG’s individual quality, now coupled with improved attacking patterns, continues to guarantee goals. They have scored in their last 48 Champions League group games, the longest run in competition history — and one that has lasted eight years.

They can take some inspiration from Milan, who entered last season’s knockouts on the back of terrible form (just two wins in nine), made some tactical and shape adjustments, and got to the semis with 1-0 and 2-1 aggregate wins over Tottenham Hotspur and Napoli.

PSG can be fashionable, but Luis Enrique might have to make some adjustments in away games to ensure things do not fall apart at the seams.

After a home tie against Newcastle, their final group game is away to current group leaders Dortmund, who have only lost at home to Bayern Munich this calendar year.

No pressure.

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