The Analyst, Opta based data site analysed Milan’s game and gave special importance to Leao & Theo as our primary players to create attacks.
Here is what they say:
We can use Stats Perform’s Edge Analysis to assess the shape and style of Milan’s most dangerous possessions. The attacking patterns, or chains, shown below demonstrate the most dangerous types of attacks for Milan. We can see that the majority of these come down Milan’s left-hand side, and that’s where Hernandez and Le?o wreak havoc.
Le?o has attempted 11 take-ons so far (the fourth most of any winger), while Hernandez has attempted nine, the second most of any defender, including two in the opposition box.
It’s all well and good to beat your man, but it’s what you do after that that is important. To help quantify this, we can look at the expected assists value for both players following a take-on. It’s remarkably similar, with Le?o contributing 0.18 xA after a successful take-on and Hernandez 0.17. These are not only by far the highest figures for Milan, but they also rank sixth and seventh in Serie A. Put simply, not only do each of them have an ability to beat a man, but they’re able to create good chances after that.
Theo overlapping runs can also create chances for his wide teammate, Le?o, even without touching the ball. This was evident for Le?o’s goal against Lazio.
The winger picks the ball up on the halfway line, starting off a Milan counter. Theo, is off, overlapping his winger. Here you can see Lazio midfielder Lucas Leiva, signalling for his full back Adam Marusic to track Hernandez’ run.
Le?o uses Hernandez’ run as a decoy and cuts back inside, going past Leiva like you’d expect a 22-year-old to run past a 34-year-old.